A creed is a statement of belief. The Christian Church has
three creeds—the Apostle’s Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed.
All three of these creeds describe what Christians believe. All three of them
describe the God in whom Christians believe.
The shortest and simplest and oldest creed that we have as
Christians is the Apostles’ Creed. This is the creed that we have been speaking
on non-communion Sundays. It is also the creed that is in our Catechism.
The other creed that we are quite familiar with is the
Nicene Creed. We speak this creed on Communion Sundays. It is quite similar to
the Apostles’ creed, but it goes into more detail about who Jesus Christ, the
Son of God, is. One of the earliest controversies that arose after the death of
the Apostles is how Jesus Christ is to be seen. There were some who thought
that he wasn’t as fully God as God the Father. Some said that he was created
and not eternal. The Nicene Creed is responding to these errors when it says of
Jesus: “God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God, begotten, not made,
being of one substance with the Father by whom all things were made.” Jesus was
born of the Virgin Mary in time, according to his human nature. He is eternally
begotten, and true God, according to his divine nature.
This takes us to the third creed which we will speak later
today. It is the longest and least familiar to us. From the way that the creed
speaks, being so emphatic, you can tell that two mysteries are firmly laid out
for us to believe in. There continues to be the concern that we’ve already
mentioned—that Jesus Christ is true man, born of the Virgin Mary, and also true
God, begotten of the Father from eternity. This is taken up in the second part
of creed. The other mystery is in the first part of the creed. It has to do
with the Triune nature of God.
The words “Triune” and “Trinity” are not in the Bible. They
were words that were made up by Christians to describe two facts that are
clearly taught in the Bible. The first part of the word is “tri” as in
“triangle.” A triangle has three angles or sides. The word “tri” means “three.”
The Bible speaks clearly of there being three: the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit. The second part of “Triune” or “Trinity” is “une,” as in “uno” or
one. The Bible speaks of God as singular and as the only God—not three gods but
one God. God says, “Behold, the Lord your God is one.” Therefore the
words “Triune” or “Trinity” are like shorthand for what the Bible says. The
Bible speaks of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. The Bible
speaks of there being only one God, as it was in the beginning, is now, and
ever shall be.
We naturally have difficulty with these mysteries because one
of the ways that our brain is especially fond of operating is by relating
whatever it is that we are talking about to something else that is already known.
We like to put stuff into categories and compare and contrast them.
Unfortunately this is something that we cannot do either with God or with Jesus
Christ being true God and true man at the same time. The reason why we can’t
categorize and compare and contrast with God or Jesus very well is because God
and Jesus are absolutely unique. The word “unique” has that word “uno” in it,
to which we have already referred. “Unique” means that there is only one of
them. Since there is nothing like the Trinity where God is both three persons,
but only one God, at the same time, and since there is nothing like Jesus
Christ being true God and true man at the same time, our intellect has a hard
time with this. It wants to be able to categorize and understand.
And so it has been the case that there have been a great
many people who have tried to figure out these mysteries over the history of
the Christian Church. The reason why we have the careful, clarifying language
that we do in both the Nicene and Athanasian creeds is so that only what the
Bible has to say is what is believed—not adding to what the Bible has said, nor
taking away from it either. As the Athanasian creed says, the catholic faith
(which is another way of saying Christian faith) is to worship one God in
Trinity and Trinity in Unity, neither confusing the persons nor dividing the
substance. That is to say that we believe that God is one. At the same time we
believe what the Bible reveals about this one God, that he is the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Spirit.
It would be wrong to say, though, that the main thing about
God is that we have to accept this puzzle of him being three in one and one in
three. The reason why we affirm this is not because we like puzzles—either
having puzzles or solving puzzles. We say what we do about God because it is
how he has revealed himself to be. But you won’t find anywhere in the
Scriptures where the concept of the Trinity is dwelt upon in and of itself so
as to make sure that everybody has it straight—as though that were the main
thing. What the Bible reveals about our God with much more emphasis is the way
that he has made himself known to us in time. God making himself known to us
creatures by his words and deeds is the real substance of our faith. It’s what
the Bible talks about.
God made himself known to the Israelites in the Old
Testament. There is a great deal that we could say about that—after all, the
whole Old Testament is about that. However, it was a foreshadowing and a
prophecy of what was to come. God ultimately reveals himself and his intentions
in his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. This is why the creeds spend more time on
the second article than they do on the first and the third. For us and for our
salvation, God sent his Son to be born of the Virgin Mary. He suffered and died
under Pontius Pilate. On the third day he rose again from the dead and ascended
into heaven. On the last day he will come again to judge the living and the
dead.
The fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily in the Lord Jesus
Christ. In Jesus’s words and actions you know God’s will toward this world that
is otherwise damned for death and hell because of their sins. In our Gospel
reading today we have such a clear statement to that effect, that it is known
as the most important verse in the Bible: For God loved the world in this
way, that he sent his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should
not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world
to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.
In Jesus, who suffers and dies, you are shown God’s
heart—his will—his desire for every man, woman, and child. His desire is that
we should be set free from the devil, that we should be born again as his
children through baptism, and live together with him in righteousness,
innocence, and blessedness. God sends the Holy Spirit, together with the
Gospel, so that when and where it pleases the Holy Spirit those who hear the
Gospel may believe in Jesus, and not perish, but have eternal life. Amazingly,
God has bound himself up together with us for our salvation. It is amazing that
God should do this, for who or what are we? We, seemingly, are very insignificant.
But evidently we are not. For God has loved us and saved us. This is the God in
whom we believe. This is the God whom we confess in our three ecumenical
creeds.
I’m going to let this suffice for our teaching on the
Trinity today. I’d like to take a moment now for us to reflect on the Sacrament
of the Altar. For some of you it has been a long time since you have received
the sacrament, and so it is good for us to consider what is taking place.
The Lord’s Supper was instituted by Christ himself. He said
that the bread is his body and the wine is his blood. Therefore, this is indeed
the case. His true body and true blood are under the bread and wine for his
Christians to eat and to drink. Jesus tells us why we do this as well in his
words of institution. He says that his body and blood are given and shed for us
for the forgiveness of our sins. We are poor, helpless, miserable sinners who
can do nothing of ourselves. But Jesus offered his body and his blood as the
great atoning sacrifice for all sinners on the cross. All sins are atoned for.
All sins are forgiven in Jesus’s cross. Jesus gives you this body and blood to
eat and to drink in the Sacrament so that you may know this, and believe this,
and through faith in him be saved.
In summary, I’d like to refer to the Christian Questions and
Answers that are a part of our Catechism. St. Paul says in 1 Corinthians that
as often as we eat the bread and drink the cup we proclaim the Lord’s death
until he comes again. The question is asked: Why should we remember and
proclaim Jesus’s death? Answer: First, so that we may learn to believe that no
creature could make satisfaction for our sins. Only Christ, true God and man,
could do that. Second, we should remember and proclaim Jesus’s death in the
Sacrament so that we may learn to be horrified by our sins and to regard them
as very serious. Third, we remember and proclaim his death so that we may find
joy and comfort in Christ alone, and through faith in Him be saved.
God bless your reception of the Lord’s Supper today.
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