Sermon texts: Proverbs 8; Acts 2; John 8
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen. Please be seated.
A creed, as you know, is a statement of belief. You also know that there are three universal Christian creeds that Christians use around the planet. That first creed is the Apostles’ Creed, the shortest, the most likable one really in many ways. The next is the Nicene Creed, but it’s also called the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed after the origin of the two ecumenical councils that produced it. The first one was in 325, and then they finished the Holy Spirit section in 381. On Trinity Sunday, there are usually three statements in the Athanasian Creed that need additional explanation. So, I thought I’d head off the problem right before we begin.
The first has to do with this sentence about Christian good works and being judged according to those works. After all, we confess that the Lord will, when all are raised in their bodies, have to give an account of their own deeds, so that those who have done good will enter eternal life, and those who have done evil to eternal fire. This is a simple confession of the holy scriptures in what they teach, especially in verses like 2 Corinthians 5:10: “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.” Each one can receive the things done in the body, whether good or bad. But then there are the words of our Lord in John 5:29. There he says those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment. So how do we reconcile these verses that say that we’re judged based upon our deeds with that axiom, that fundamental axiom especially of the Lutheran’s life, that salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, for Christ’s sake alone?
I have two suggestions for resolving the conflict. First, and you’re going to hear this rarely from me: you’re going to set logic aside. Second, you’re going to adopt a theological axiom. Instead, I suggest that we hear the words in Paul in the book of Hebrews chapter 11. There he says, “Without faith it is impossible to please God.” This means that if we do not have faith in Christ, then everything that you do is an evil work. All of it is rubbish in the sight of God. It doesn’t make a difference what the world thinks of what you did. It doesn’t make a difference what your neighbor thinks. No matter how good or bad it is in contemporary evaluation, it’s evil in the eyes of the Lord because it’s done apart from faith. It’s impossible to do good without faith. That’s the theological corollary. Ready? Listen to this: With faith, it is impossible not to please God. Those who are repentant — that means they recognize the depths of their sin and trust in Christ alone — from that repentant heart will flow the gift of good works. And that even though those good works are stained and corrupted by our own sinful flesh, by faith the Lord comes along and purifies those works and forgives everything bad that we added to them. The works of the Christian — and this is the amazing part — the works of the Christian actually appear before God as perfect and holy, as true righteous sacrifices in his sight. Not in order that we be saved, but that the works of the Lord Jesus himself are done to overcome the kingdom of the devil, the world, and even our own sinful nature. Jesus baptizes our works, washes them clean, and presents them before his Father in heaven.
I want everyone who believes in me to imagine: suppose Jesus says — that’s the picture that people have of the entrance into heaven on the last day — “Everyone who believes in me: go to the left. And everyone who doesn’t believe in me: hold on, wait a minute, and then go to the right.” And the people on the right will say that while they did not believe, they were trying to do all sorts of good and trying to be good people so that they would be welcomed into heaven. The Lord says, “Okay, let’s do it your way. Everyone who’s good, who’s done good deeds, go to my right, and everyone who’s bad, stay on the left.” The result’s the same, because you cannot do a good work apart from faith. By faith, you cannot do evil, though. On the other side — so while the judgment on the last day is a judgment on works, it is only possible because works follow faith. Where there is no faith, there is no good work. Where there is faith, there are only good works. There’s no other way to understand the teaching of the biblical text other than that.
The second area of confusion has to do with the words that come at the beginning and the end of the Athanasian Creed. It says, “Whoever desires to be saved must above all hold to the catholic faith.” But that strikes us Lutherans as a bit odd. What’s the deal with the Catholics? Well, the word “catholic” is just the Greek word that means universal, or according to the whole, to the entire thing. It means everywhere, at all times, and in all places. This is the Christian faith. That’s what we mean when we say “catholic” in the confession. It’s not a unique sectarian thing. It’s the catholic faith at all times and in all places. It’s the lowercase c. But the Roman Catholics have claimed to be the Catholic Church. They made the lowercase c the uppercase C. And we as Lutherans have a little bit of a disagreement with them about that. But we still confess the catholic faith: the faith that is confessed by all Christians at all times and in all places and throughout all generations.
Now as to a third matter of confusion over the Athanasian Creed: it is in the first line of the creed. It shows up in a couple of other verses, where it basically says if you don’t have this faith, you do not have salvation. Verse two: “Whoever does not keep the catholic faith whole and undefiled will without doubt perish eternally.” It comes up again in verse 26: “Therefore, whoever desires to be saved must think thus about the Trinity.” And then in verse 27: “It is also necessary for everlasting salvation that one faithfully believe the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ.” No, it does not say that you have to understand and be able to explain the doctrine of the Trinity. It only states that you are to believe it and confess it confidently.
The reason it’s so important is that — the reason why it’s so important to reject the heresies and to clarify the doctrines of the creeds, especially the Athanasian — is that God, who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is the God who saves, and he is the only God who saves and brings about salvation. There is no other name under heaven by which one is saved except God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Thus, when you look at the Athanasian Creed specifically, it can be divided into two parts. The first part is the doctrine of the Trinity, and the second part is the doctrine of the incarnation. Both texts today are about the incarnation.
Texts from Proverbs, from Acts chapter 2, and from John chapter 8 are presenting us a biblical doctrine that Jesus is Lord and Jesus is God. If you read Proverbs chapter 8, Wisdom is said to have been there before the foundation of the world. And when Proverbs talks about Wisdom, it’s not talking about some abstract concept of wisdom. It talks about Wisdom as a person — personified — because Wisdom is Christ. Christ is Jesus, and we’re confessing that he is co-eternal with the Father, and that he, the second person of the Holy Trinity, is co-creator with the Father. In Acts chapter 2, Peter’s preaching on Pentecost. Further into his sermon, Peter quotes Psalm 16: “You will not let your holy one see corruption.” He also quoted from Psalm 110: “The LORD said to my Lord, sit at my right hand.” Peter also makes the point. He says, “David is still in the tomb. Jesus is not.” And that God has made Jesus both Christ and Lord. Jesus is the only one who has ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father. So Jesus is in fact himself God as well. In the gospel of John, the Sanhedrin accuses Jesus of being a Samaritan. Ultimately they accuse him of being demon-possessed. Jesus denies all the charges, and he says that he’s not the one that’s demon-possessed, but they are of their father, and their father is the devil. Jesus says to them, “You say you’re sons of Abraham. If you were sons of Abraham, you’d believe in me. Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it and was glad.” And they replied, “We now know you have a demon, because you’re not even 50 years old, yet you say you met Abraham.” And Jesus said to them, “Before Abraham was, I am.” That’s what Jesus said to Moses from the burning bush. “Who should I say sent me?” Moses asked. And the second person of the Holy Trinity told Moses, “Tell them, I AM WHO I AM sent you.” And that’s where we get the divine name, the derivative of this: the I AM. So that when Jesus says, “Before Abraham was, I am,” Jesus is saying, “The God you worship — that’s me.”
Think about the first part of the Athanasian Creed. There are two things that are going on in the creed. So imagine I have a piece of paper here, and I have a line down the middle of it. It’s got two columns by default. One column is for created things, and the other column is for the things that have not been created but exist. In fact, in this not-made and not-created column is Almighty, eternal, infinite, everlasting God and Lord. On the other side of the paper is everything else that exists. In which side of the ledger does Jesus belong? On one side of the column, where does Jesus go? Now, that’s what every heresy in the early church, and continuing to the modern day, comes from. Every heresy puts Jesus in the wrong column, that he’s created. The Mormons: Jesus is a created son, a demiurge, a sub-god, not God eternal. Yet the Mormons are called one of the fastest growing and more doctrinally centered churches, so-called, on the planet. Yet they deny the divinity of Christ himself. This is where all the christological arguments come from in the early church. Where do we put Jesus? And the church said Jesus belongs on the creator’s side, not on the created side. He is on the not-made side of the ledger. Not on the made side of the ledger. In Athanasius’s day, there was a heretic. His name was Arius. He argued that Jesus belonged in the created column. He said there was a time when the Son of God was not, meaning Jesus was created and not eternal God. This is where every heresy goes wrong. They say Jesus should be on the created side. Arius said Jesus was the first creation of God, and through him God made everything else. Jesus, the Christ of God, has to be on the non-made side of the page if you’re going to get it right. And that’s what the first part of the Athanasian Creed is all about. The Father is uncreated. The Son is uncreated. The Spirit is uncreated. And the Father is infinite. The Son is infinite. The Holy Spirit is infinite. The Father is eternal. The Son is eternal. The Holy Spirit is eternal. So Jesus is on the side of the ledger: the not-made, not-created, but infinite with the Father and the Holy Spirit.
Then we have this question: How many beings are there on the not-created side of the ledger? If you’re confused now, wait a couple of minutes. You’ll be tempted to say that there’s three: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But the right answer is one. There is only one being on this side of this uncreated, unmade list: just God. There are not three infinites. There’s one infinite. Not three eternals, but one eternal. Not three almighties: there’s one almighty, which means Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are three persons, not three beings. There is only one God. In fact, this is our confession of God: that there is only one God, that God is Father, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God. The Father is not the Son. The Son is not the Spirit. The Spirit is not the Father. And in this fundamental confession, we are expressing the fundamental doctrine of the Christian faith. And that’s why we have a festival called the Festival of the Trinity, where we celebrate who God is in himself and what he does for us and for our salvation. Even though we only comprehend it by faith, not reason or logic. But there can be no question about this. God is Father, God is Son, God is Holy Spirit: three persons, one God, taught clearly in the biblical text. Though he manifests himself in preaching and teaching the pastoral office, he comes to us through the water and the word, the bread and the wine, and serves us daily, meeting all of our needs through our neighbors. Though he hides himself in these masks as he goes about his work in the world, he has left no doubt that God is Father, Christ is our brother, the Holy Spirit our advocate and comforter.
In a sermon Luther preached on the Festival of the Trinity, he said: this Trinity festival discloses him to us as he is in himself. Here we see him apart from whatever mask he assumes, from whatever work done solely in his divine essence. Therefore, we must repeat, even though a mere stammering should be the result, scripture says to us, namely, that Jesus Christ is true God, that the Holy Spirit is likewise true God, that the Father is true God. But there are not three gods. There are not three divine natures, as many speak of three brothers or three angels or three sons or three windows. There is one individual divine essence. While we recognize a distinction as to the persons, for holy scripture testifies that the Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God, yet there remains only one God.
On this day, we not only remember Christian doctrine and the most fundamental of all teachings of the Christian faith as to who God is and what he’s done for our salvation. We celebrate by extension our baptismal name, the true identity that we have, for we have been baptized into his name. Though he manifests himself in preaching and teaching of the pastoral office, he comes to us as the water and the word and the bread and the wine, and serves us daily through our neighbors, and hides himself in these masks as he goes about his work in the world. As Christians, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit is the name in which you live and move and have your being. Acts 17:28. This name connects you to the forgiveness of your sins. In this name, you have the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the very Son of God. So today, we celebrate our baptismal name and identity. God is Father, our Father. God is Son, our brother. God is Holy Spirit, our helper, advocate, and comforter. And this one God in three persons all work together that you would have forgiveness of sins, life eternal. And so you do. Thus, it’s a festival today for your baptism. Amen.
May the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.