So I was reading WSC 27 and looking at Fisher's Catechism - it seems that the word "curse" is only used specifically to His death on the cross. I haven't looked into this in any detail before but I notice that the language here relates mankind as being under the curse, but that Christ's cursed death is one of the components of his estate of humiliation.
From this reading, Christ's being born is described as part of his humiliation or the language of misery, but not necessarily being under the curse. Am I reading this correctly?
I would welcome any feedback on this distinction.
See below:
WSC 27: Wherein did Christ's humiliation consist?
A. Christ's humiliation consisted in his being born, and that in a low condition (Lu 2:7) made under the law (Ga 4:4), undergoing the miseries of this life (Isa 53:3), the wrath of God (Mt 27:46), and the cursed death of the cross (Php 2:8); in being buried, and continuing under the power of death for a time (Mt 12:40).
Fisher's Catechism (Selection)
Q. 1. What do you understand by Christ’s humiliation in general?
A. His condescending to have that glory, which he had with the Father, “before the world was,” John 17:5, veiled for a time, by his coming to this lower world, to be “a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief,” Isaiah 53:3.
Q. 2. Was Christ’s humiliation entirely voluntary?
A. It was voluntary in the highest degree; for, from eternity, he rejoiced “in the habitable part of the earth, and his delights were with the sons of men,” Proverbs 8:31.
Q. 3. What was the spring and source of Christ’s humiliation?
A. Nothing but his own and his Father’s undeserved love to lost mankind, Rom.5:6; 1 John 4:10.
Q. 4. What are the several steps of Christ’s humiliation, mentioned in the answer?
A. They are such as respect “his conception and birth, his life, his death,” and what passed upon him, “after his death, until his resurrection.”
Q. 8. Why was Christ born in such a low condition?
A. He stooped so low that he might lift up sinners of mankind out of the horrible pit and miry clay, into which they were plunged, Psalm 40:2.
Q. 10. How did Christ humble himself in his life?
A. In being made under the law, undergoing, the miseries of this life, and the wrath of God.
Q. 12. How does it appear to have been the moral law he was made under?
A. Because this was the law given to Adam in his creation, and afterwards vested with the form of a covenant of works, when he was placed in paradise; by the breach of which law, as a covenant, all mankind are brought under the curse, Gal. 3:10.
Q. 13. Was Christ made under the moral law, as a covenant of works, or only as a rule of life?
A. He was made under it as a covenant of works, demanding perfect obedience, as a condition of life, and full satisfaction because of man’s transgression.
Q. 14. How do you prove this?
A. From Gal. 4:4, 5 — “God sent forth his Son — made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law:” where it is obvious, that Christ behoved to be made under the law, in the very same sense, in which his spiritual seed, whom he came to redeem, were under it; and they being all under it as a covenant, he behoved to be made under it as a covenant likewise, that he might redeem them from its curse, Gal. 3:13.
Q. 16. Why is Christ’s being made under the law, mentioned as a part of his humiliation?
A. Because it was most amazing condescension in the great Lord and Lawgiver of heaven and earth, to become subject to his own law, and that for this very end, - 147 - that he might fulfil it in the room of those who were the transgressors of it, and had incurred its penalty, Matt. 3:15.
Q. 18. What were the miseries of this life, which Christ endured in his state of humiliation?
A. Together with our nature, he took on him its sinless infirmities, such as hunger, thirst, weariness, grief, and the like, Rom. 8:3; he submitted to poverty and want, Matt. 8:20; and endured likewise the assaults and temptations of Satan, Heb. 4:15; together with the contradiction, reproach, and persecution of a wicked world, Heb. 12:3.
Q. 20. Were these the greatest miseries he experienced in this life?
A. No; he underwent the wrath of God also, Ps. 116:3.
Q. 27. How did Christ humble himself in his death?
A. By undergoing the cursed death of the cross, Phil. 2:8.
Q. 28. Why is the death of the cross called a cursed death?
A. Because God, in testimony of his anger against breaking the first covenant, by eating the fruit of the forbidden tree, had said, “Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree,” Gal. 3:13.
Q. 29. What evidences are there that Christ was made a curse for us in his death?
A. In as much as there was no pity, no sparing in his death; God spared him not, Rom. 8:32; and wicked men were let loose upon him like dogs and bulls, Psalm 22:12, 16.
Q. 34. What may we learn from Christ’s dying the cursed death of the cross?
A. That “he hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse forus,” Gal. 3:13.
