I. The Dual Estates of the Mediator's Office
"The office of the mediator consists of two parts: his humiliation or merit; and his glorification or efficacy. Now as it respects his humiliation, Christ is meritorious; as it respects his glorification, he is efficacious." "The fourth article treats of his humiliation: Suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried; he descended into hell. The fifth and sixth treat of his glorification: The third day he arose from the dead; ascended into heaven; sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty."
"The other part of his office, which is his glorification, ascends gradually from the glory which is less to that which is greater until it reaches its highest point, in his exaltation at the right hand of God.""The office of Christ differs from his benefits as cause and effect, or as antecedent and consequent. The benefits are the things themselves which Christ has purchased for us, and which he bestows upon us, such as remission of sins, everlasting righteousness, and salvation. His office is the obtaining and bestowment of these things." [Zacharias Ursinus - Commentary on the Heidelberg]
II. The Estate of Christ's Humiliation: Its Nature, Incarnation, and Obedience
"The estate of Christ's humiliation was, that low condition, wherein he, for our sakes, emptying himself of his glory, took upon him the form of a servant, in his conception and birth, life, death, and, after his death, until his resurrection." [Thomas Ridgley - WLC - A Body of Divinity]
"For, in order to exhort us to submission by his example, he shows, that when as God he might have displayed to the world the brightness of his glory, he gave up his right, and voluntarily emptied himself; that he assumed the form of a servant, and, contented with that humble condition, suffered his divinity to be concealed under a veil of flesh." "The Son of God descended miraculously from heaven, yet without abandoning heaven; was pleased to be conceived miraculously in the Virgin's womb, to live on the earth, and hang upon the cross, and yet always filled the world as from the beginning." [John Calvin - Institutes]
"We are now speaking, not of Christ's humbling himself in a relative sense as God, but of his being in a state of humiliation, as God-man, Mediator." [Thomas Ridgley - WLC - A Body of Divinity]
"Christ humbled himself in his birth, in that he, being the eternal Son of God, in time became man, and was born, not of a great princess, but of a mean virgin; not in a stately palace, but in the stable of an inn; and instead of a cradle, was laid in a manger." [Thomas Vincent - The Shorter Catechism]
"The humiliation of Christ included also his being made under the law. The law to which Christ subjected Himself was, (1.) The law given to Adam as a covenant of works; that is, as prescribing perfect obedience as the condition of life. (2.) The Mosaic law which bound the chosen people. (3.) The moral law as a rule of duty." "That Christ, therefore, should assume the obligation to fulfil the conditions of the covenant made with Adam, to observe all the injunctions of the Mosaic law, and submit to the moral law with its promises and penalty was an act of voluntary humiliation." [Charles Hodge - Systematic Theology]
"Christ did humble himself in his life, in that-- 1. He subjected himself to the law. ... 2. He conflicted with the temptation of the devil. ... 3. He endured the contradictions, reproaches, and indignities of wicked men." "He underwent the sinless infirmities of the flesh, such as weariness, hunger, thirst, and the like, in regard to his body; and grief and sorrow in regard to his soul." [Thomas Vincent - The Shorter Catechism]
III. The Sufferings, Death, and Deepest Abasement
"By the term passion we are to understand the whole humiliation of Christ, or the obedience of his whole humiliation, all the miseries, infirmities, griefs, torments and ignominy to which he was subject, for our sakes, from the moment of his birth even to the hour of his death, as well in soul as in body." [Zacharias Ursinus - Commentary on the Heidelberg]
"The sufferings of Christ, and especially his ignominious death on the cross, are an important element in his humiliation." [Charles Hodge - Systematic Theology]
"Christ humbled himself in his death, in that-- 1. The kind of his death was an accursed and disgraceful death, as also a lingering and painful death, being the death of the cross." "He, together with the pain of his body on the cross, endured the wrath of God due for man's sin in his soul." [Thomas Vincent - The Shorter Catechism]
"The cross was cursed not only in the opinion of men, but by the enactment of the Divine Law. Hence Christ, while suspended on it, subjects himself to the curse. And thus it behoved to be done, in order that the whole curse, which on account of our iniquities awaited us, or rather lay upon us, might be taken from us by being transferred to him." [John Calvin - Institutes]
"The humiliation which is the first part of his office, has these grades: he suffered, was crucified, dead, buried, and descended into hell. We descend gradually from one degree to another until we reach the lowest point of his humiliation, which is found in the article of his descent into hell." [Zacharias Ursinus - Commentary on the Heidelberg]
"Christ's humiliation after his death, consisted in his being buried, and continuing in the state of the dead, and under the power of death, till the third day, which hath been otherwise expressed in these words, 'He descended into hell.'" [Thomas Vincent - The Shorter Catechism]
"It signifies those extreme torments, pains, and anguish, which Christ suffered in his soul, such as the damned experience, partly in this, and partly in the life to come." [Zacharias Ursinus - Commentary on the Heidelberg]
"For though his soul enjoyed the bliss and happiness of heaven immediately after his death, as he tells the penitent thief that 'that day he should be with him in paradise;' yet, as it was, when separate, in a state of imperfection, and had a natural desire and hope of reunion with the body, there were some degrees of perfect blessedness of which it was not then possessed." [Thomas Ridgley - WLC - A Body of Divinity]
IV. The Estate of Christ's Exaltation: Its Beginning in the Resurrection
"The state of exaltation became manifest first of all to the lower world in the descent into hades, and further to this world in the resurrection and ascension, reaching its completion in the session at the right hand of God." "The state of exaltation must be regarded as the judicial result of the state of humiliation. In His capacity as Mediator Christ met the demands of the law in its federal and penal aspects, paying the penalty of sin and meriting everlasting life. Therefore His justification had to follow and He had to be put in possession of the reward." [Louis Berkhof - Systematic Theology]
"The humiliation of the mediator was not to continue for ever. It was sufficient that he should once suffer, and die. But the efficacy and power of Christ, in preserving the blessings which flow from his humiliation, will endure for ever." "...his glorification, which began with his resurrection from the dead on the third day." "...by his resurrection he hath overcome death, that he might make us partakers of that righteousness which he had purchased for us by his death. Secondly, we are also by his power raised up to a new life. And lastly, the resurrection of Christ is a sure pledge of our blessed resurrection." [Zacharias Ursinus - Commentary on the Heidelberg]
"The Father raised the Son through the Son himself, not as through an instrument, but as through another person of the same essence with himself, and of infinite power, through whom the Father ordinarily works. The Son was raised by the Father through himself; he himself raised himself by his Spirit."
V. The Ascension and Session at the Right Hand of God
"The resurrection is naturally followed by the ascension into heaven. For although Christ, by rising again, began fully to display his glory and virtue, having laid aside the abject and ignoble condition of a mortal life, and the ignominy of the cross, yet it was only by his ascension to heaven that his reign truly commenced." [John Calvin - Institutes]
"The ascension of Christ into heaven is a visible, local and real translation of his body and soul from earth into that heaven, which is above all visible heavens at the right hand of God, in that light which is inaccessible, where he now is, and remains, and from which he will come to judgment." "Christ ascended, therefore, in that heaven which is the abode of the blessed. This is established by many and express testimonies from the word of God, such as the devil himself will never, to all eternity, be able to pervert."
"To ascend into heaven, and to sit at the right hand of God, are not the same; because the one may be without the other. This Article, which refers to Christ's sitting at the right hand of God, differs from his ascension into heaven in the three following particulars: 1. The end of the former article is expressed in this; because it was for this reason that Christ ascended into heaven, that he might sit at the right hand of God. 2. Christ sits forever at the right hand of the Father; but he ascended only once into heaven. 3. The angels ascend, and we shall also ascend into heaven; but neither they nor we shall sit at the right hand of the Father."
"In respect to his human nature it is a real communication of heavenly gifts, or perfect glory, which the humanity of Christ had not before his ascension. But, in relation to his divine nature, this sitting at the right hand of God does not include any change of his Divinity; but is merely the laying aside his humiliation, and the manifestation of that glory which he had with the Father before the foundation of the world, but which he had concealed during the time of his humiliation..." [Zacharias Ursinus - Commentary on the Heidelberg]
"Hence it is immediately added, that he 'sitteth at the right hand of God the Father;' a similitude borrowed from princes, who have their assessors to whom they commit the office of ruling and issuing commands. ... All that the Apostles intends when they so often mention his seat at the Father's hand, is to teach, that every thing is placed at his disposal." [John Calvin - Institutes]
"In Psalm 8:6, it is declared to be the purpose of God that all things should be put under the feet of man. This purpose, we are taught by the Apostle, God fulfilled in the exaltation of Christ, 'when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places...'" [Charles Hodge - Systematic Theology]
VI. The Consummation of Exaltation: The Judgment of the World
"The highest point is not reached until He who suffered at the hands of man, returns in the capacity of Judge." [Louis Berkhof - Systematic Theology]
"He was ordained of God, to be the Judge of quick and dead." [Zacharias Ursinus - Commentary on the Heidelberg]
"...Paul distinctly affirms that he sits in the heavens, and will come as a judge on the last day for the express purpose of changing our vile body, 'that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body'" [John Calvin - Institutes]