Christ provides the grounds for our exaltation. He is the one in whom our nature, which was debased as low as hell by apostasy from God, is exalted above the whole creation. The original constitution of our nature, in the persons of our first parents, was crowned with honor and dignity. We were made in the image of God and entrusted with dominion over the lower world, making our nature the seat of excellence, beauty, and glory. But our nature was divested in an instant and made naked by sin to lie groveling in the dust from which it was taken.