The Humiliation of Christ

by Alexander Balmain Bruce

Publisher:

T&T Clark

, 1900

Overview

A. B. Bruce addressed the doctrine of Christ's humanity in a series of lectures that later became The Humiliation of Christ. This work presents a review of historical theories regarding Christ's humiliation, from the church fathers through Bruce's own time, along with a defense of what he believed to be orthodox views on the subject. A. T. Robertson called it "Bruce's Masterpiece."

The idea that Christ "emptied himself" (as Paul writes in Philippians 2) has always been difficult to grasp and may even be called one of the great mysteries of the faith.

If you own one of the Logos Bible Software base products, you're probably familiar with Bruce's Training of the Twelve. The author's theological and pastoral sensitivity make him a joy to read, and he still has many valuable insights to offer today's reader. You will see Bruce's Humiliation of Christ cited in the bibliography of Bible dictionary articles on "Incarnation" or "kenosis."

Contents

• LECTURE I: Christological Axioms
• LECTURE II: The Patristic Christology
• LECTURE III: The Lutheran and Reformed Christologies
• LECTURE IV: The Modern Kenotic Theories
• LECTURE V: Moden Humanistic Theories of Christ's Person
• LECTURE VI: Christ the Subject of Temptation and Moral Development
• LECTURE VII: The Humiliation of Christ in it's Official Aspect
• Appendix

Top Highlights

“he represents the human soul of Christ as willing freely the things which the divine will wished it to will.^{2” (Page 69)}

“Furthermore, on this theory the two natures are preserved entire and distinct.” (Page 141)

“The grand thought, then, in this remarkable passage is this, that Christ to be a Saviour must be a Brother, and that, as things actually stand, that means that He must be humbled, must pass through a curriculum of temptation and suffering as a man, in order that He may be in all respects like unto His brethren.” (Pages 25–26)

“The human nature was simply the condition under which it was possible to bear the form of a servant, even as the divine nature is the presupposition of existence in the form of God.” (Page 20)

“The holy One incarnate became, of course, in lot like the unholy, in all respects possible to a holy being” (Page 303)

Product Details

• Title: The Humiliation of Christ in its Physical, Ethical, and Official Aspects: The Sixth Series of the Cunningham Lectures
• Author: Alexander Balmain Bruce, D.D.
• Edition: 5th
• Publisher: T & T Clark
• Publication Date: 1900
• Pages: 455

About Alexander Balmain Bruce

Excerpted from the 1911 Encyclopedia

Alexander Balmain Bruce, Scottish divine, was born at Aberargie near Perth on the 31st of January 1831. His father suffered for his adherence to the Free Church at the Disruption in 1843, and removed to Edinburgh, where the son was educated, showing exceptional ability from the first. His early religious doubts, awakened especially by Strausss Life of Jesus, made him throughout life sympathetic with those who underwent a similar stress. After serving as assistant first at Ancrum, then at Lochwinnoch, he was called to Cardross in Dumbartonshire in 1859, and to Broughty Ferry in 1868. There he published his first considerable exegetical work, the Training of the Twelve. In 1874 he delivered his Cunningham Lectures, afterwards published as The Humiliation of Christ, and in the following year was appointed to the chair of Apologetics and New Testament exegesis at the Free Church College, Glasgow. This post he held for twenty-four years. He was one of the first British New Testament students whose work was received with consideration by German scholars of repute. The character and work of Christ were, he held, the ultimate proof and the best defence of Christianity; and his tendency was to concentrate attention somewhat narrowly on the historic Jesus...