104. (viii) HIS PROGRESS TOWARDS UNION WAS HIS STATE OF EXINANITION, AND THE UNION ITSELF IS HIS STATE OF GLORIFICATION.

It is well known in the church that when the Lord was in the world He underwent two states, which are known as exinanition and glorification. The earlier state, that of exinanition, is described in many passages of the Word, especially in the Psalms of David, and also in the Prophets, in detail in Isaiah chapter 53, where we read that He emptied His soul to the point of death (Isaiah 53:12). This same state is that of His humility before the Father, for in that state He prayed to the Father, and says that He is doing the Father's will, and He ascribes all that He did and said to the Father. His praying to the Father is evident from these passages: Matthew 26:39, 42 ¹ ; Mark 1:35; 6:46; 14:32-39; Luke 5:16; 6:12; 22:41-44; John 17:9, 15, 20. His doing the Father's will: John 4:34; 5:30. His ascribing to the Father all that He did and said: John 8:26-28; 12:49-50; 14:10. Indeed, He cried out on the cross: 'My God, my God, why are you abandoning me?' (Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34). Moreover, if He had not been in this state, He could not have been crucified.

The state of glorification is the state of being united. He was in this state when He was transfigured before His three disciples, and when He performed the miracles, and each time He said that the Father and He were one, that the Father was in Him and He in the Father, and that all things of the Father's were His. After their complete union He said that He had power over all flesh (John 17:2); and all power in heaven and upon earth (Matthew 28:18), and much besides.

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