Justification in the Apostles’ Creed - December 13, 2017 - Second Advent Midweek - Text: The Apostles’ Creed

This year, in keeping with the celebration of the 500 anniversary of the Reformation, for the Advent through New Year’s Eve services we will look at the main emphasis of the Reformation, which is the authority of the Word of God and the article of the confessions on which the church stands or falls, the article on justification by grace through faith in Jesus alone. We will look at justification in the way of the six chief parts of Luther’s Small Catechism and prayerfully we will connect this justification to our Christmas, birth of Jesus celebration and our New Year’s celebration as well.

Last week we took up the first of the six chief parts of Luther’s Small Catechism, the Ten Commandments. Today we take up the second chief part of Luther’s Small Catechism, the Apostles’ Creed. As there are some in our world who say they do not believe in creeds I would suggest that is because they do not know what a creed is. So we define a creed as nothing more than a statement or confession of faith or as some call it today a statement of faith. We might liken a creed to Jesus warning that if we do not confess faith in Jesus, He will not confess His dying for us.

Although we learn of the persons of the trinity each individually as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we must at all times remember that they are never separate, but are always one, just as the creed is one creed. With that reminder we want to being with the first article of the creed. In the first article we begin in the beginning with a confession of faith that in the beginning God created. God created all things out of nothing. In the beginning all was perfect because all was created by our perfect God.

Unfortunately, what God created as perfect, as good, man quickly made sinful through disobedience. It was the disobedience of Adam and Eve that brought sin and the need for a Savior which brings us to the second article.

In the second article we confess our faith in God’s promise of forgiveness, especially His promise first given in the Garden of Eden and reiterated to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, King David and so on throughout the Old Testament, a Savior for all people.

We confess that we believe that Jesus is and had to be true God in order to be born in perfection. Because we humans have had our DNA, our genes tainted by sin and because only God can be born sinless, therefore Jesus was conceived by God the Holy Spirit in order to be born sinless and truly God incarnate, or in the flesh. We confess that we believe that Jesus is also truly human and He had to be a human in order to be our substitute, that is in order to trade His life for ours. Remember, the price for sins was death, one human death for another human death. All the sacrifices of the Old Testament did nothing to gain or earn forgiveness, they merely pointed to the one ultimate sacrifice of a true man, Jesus and His death for our death as a substitute for us.

We confess that we believe that Jesus lived for us. He lived in perfection, as we were reminded last week, never disobeying any of the commandments but perfectly keeping them all. He perfectly obeyed all God’s Law and perfectly fulfilled all God’s promises concerning His coming as the Messiah, the Savior, the Christ.

We confess that we believe that having lived in perfection Jesus then took our sins, all our sins and the sins of all people, of all places, of all times on Himself. The price for sin which was set in the Garden of Eden was death, physical death and apart from Jesus and faith in Jesus it would be eternal spiritual death. Jesus suffered death, physical death as well as hell, eternal spiritual death for us on the cross and He died.

We confess that we believe the Jesus did not stay dead but on the third day He rose from the dead. He rose bodily from the grave. Death and the grave had no power over Him as He defeated death and the grave. He rose and showed Himself to be alive for forty days so as many as possible might bear witness of His resurrection. He rose and because He rose we know that we too will rise again.

In the third article we confess our faith in the third person of the trinity, God the Holy Spirit who is one with the Father and the Son, undivided in unity. We confess that we believe that God sends the Holy Spirit just as He promised to bring us to faith and keep us in faith.

We confess that we believe the Holy Spirit points to Jesus and points us to Jesus. The Holy Spirit does not point to Himself and does nothing to point us to look at Him. We hear little of the Holy Spirit because He is doing His work of pointing to Jesus. He points us to Jesus because in Jesus is life and salvation.

We confess that we believe the Holy Spirit works through means to point to Jesus. God has given us a way or a means in which He comes to us to give us the good gifts and blessings He has to give and those means are His Holy Word, confession and absolution and His sacred acts or Sacraments of Holy Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Through these very means, even ordinary means God comes to give us faith, to give us forgiveness, to strengthen us in faith, to keep us in faith, to give us life and salvation. As we read and hear God’s Word the Holy Spirit uses and works through that Word to give and strengthen us in faith. As we confess our sins and hear the pastor speak the words of absolution the Holy Spirit works through that proclamation to give us the forgiveness won, earned and paid for by Jesus. As water and God’s name are spoken on us at our Baptism the Holy Spirit gives us faith and forgiveness, writes our names in the Book of Life, and makes us His own. As we eat and drink Jesus’ body and blood in His holy meal the Holy Spirit connects us to Jesus so that we participate in Jesus’ life, suffering, death and resurrection so that they become a part of us and ours.

As we confess our faith in God; Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we confess our faith in our justification by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone. On our own, our standing before God is that we have messed up what God has first given in perfection. Even as Adam and Eve brought sin into the world through their disobedience, we daily sin much and are in need of forgiveness. God created all things in perfection and He demands the same from us that we live in perfection, which we cannot do.

God’s demand is perfection and we cannot regain perfection on our own, no matter what. As we were reminded last week, a drowning person cannot save themself but must completely depend on the life guard to save them. So even us, we cannot save ourselves but we must completely depend on Jesus to save us.

As we confess in this creed, God cleans up what man messes up, and He does so on a daily basis. As we heard last week and the reason for the commandments is to show us our sin so that the Gospel might lead us to repentance. The Apostles’ Creed is a confession of the Gospel, of God; Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who created all things perfect and holy out of nothing; who took on flesh and blood in order to bring us back into a right relationship with Himself, who comes to us through ordinary earthly means, Word, Water, Bread, and Wine, to give us forgiveness, to strengthening and keep us in faith.

As I have reminded you time and again, we get it right when we point to Jesus. We point to Jesus as we confess that God makes us right with Himself because He loves us so.

As we continue to move through this Advent season we continue to prepare ourselves to celebrate the beginning of the end, the birth of the One sent to bring us justification to us and to all, Jesus. We are reminded of the reason for Jesus’ birth, our sinful and fallen nature. But more we are reminded of God’s great love for us so much that He did give His life so that we might have forgiveness and life.

And so we boldly confess, not for someone else, but for ourselves. We confess and profess our faith in God who is one God in three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We confess and profess pointing to Jesus, the author and Perfecter of our faith. We confess and profess as we reflect His love back to Him, as we echo His Word, that is as we say back to Him the very Words that He has given us to say and in so doing worship Him and give praise and glory to His Holy Name, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.