Between Two Worlds

From Jonathan Edwards's sermon, "The Excellency of Christ" (which can also here in audio), where he argues that Christ's "admirable conjunction of excellencies remarkably appears, in his offering up himself a sacrifice for sinners in his last sufferings."

Then was Christ in the greatest degree of his humiliation, and yet by that, above all other things, his divine glory appears.

Christ's humiliation was great, in being born in such a low condition, of a poor virgin, and in a stable:

his humiliation was great, in being subject to Joseph the carpenter, and Mary his mother, and afterwards living in poverty, so as not to have where to lay his head, and in suffering such manifold and bitter reproaches as he suffered, while he went about preaching and working miracles:

but his humiliation was never so great, as it was in his last sufferings, beginning with his agony in the Garden, till he expired on the cross.

Never was he subject to such ignominy as then;

never did he suffer so much pain in his body, or so much sorrow in his soul;

never was he in so great an exercise of his condescension, humility, meekness, and patience, as he was in these last sufferings;

never was his divine glory and majesty covered with so thick and dark a veil;

never did he so empty himself, and make himself of no reputation, as at this time:

and yet never was his divine glory so manifested, by any act of his, as in that act, of yielding himself up to these sufferings.

When the fruit of it came to appear, and the mystery and ends of it to be unfolded, in the issue of it, then did the glory of it appear; then did it appear, as the most glorious act of Christ that ever he exercised towards the creature.