"I cannot by my own reason or strength believe"

Few words in the meaning of the Third Article stand out more than these.  (And none stick in our craw more than these!)  And the "reason" they bother us is this:  We have the experience of believing!  For many of us, the experience of believing is (in large part) a reasoned experience, too.  Although the faith is full of paradoxes and mysteries, we often have the experience of reasoning our belief.  So how can Luther and the Reformers write something that seems so obviously false?

Let's start by admitting what the meaning says and not over-interpret it.  It does NOT say your reason and your strength are not involved.  It simply says that they are inadequate on their own.

Start with the Gospel:  On your own, based solely on "the way the world works," would you dream up a scenario where a holy and just God decides that He will sacrifice His own Son's life to pay the price of humanity's sins so He would not have to eternally condemn them?  (If you say "yes," I don't think you are being honest with yourself.)

If your answer is "no," then you have admitted that you needed to hear the Gospel before you could come to believe it.  But you did hear it, didn't you?

And then there's the next step of continuing in that faith.  Given how "unreasonable" the Gospel is, how easy is it to hold onto the Gospel and to follow God's Law when much of our society is heading in the opposite direction.  With everything from a scientific community that pushes a theory of evolutionary development that opposes the creation account of God's Word to a societally-dictated morality that insists on changing the definition of marriage to suit its own whims, the world around us doesn't "naturally" support the Christian in his or her faith.

But we do have the experience of being supported in our faith, too!  You are sitting at a terminal reading words written by a Christian pastor who is eager to encourage you in your faith.  You've probably sat in our pews and experienced a similar form of encouragement when we share the peace together on Sunday.  And beyond that, you may have found answers and support from the Words of the Bible that don't seem to convince the world around us, but that you find convincing.

Who put that Bible in your hands?  Who are these people that share peace with you on Sunday?  Who placed this pastor in your life to minister to you and your faith?

This is the work of the Holy Spirit.  You cannot do it "by your own reason or strength," but He can work through your reason and strength to do it.  (And sometimes He even works around your reason and strength, too!)

The Third Article of the Apostles' Creed

The Third Article of the Apostles' Creed is: "I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Christian church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting."

What does this mean?

When I confess these words (that is, say them because I believe them), I am saying that "I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith.

"In the same way He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith.

"In this Christian church He daily and richly forgives all my sins and the sins of all believers.

"On the Last Day He will raise me and all the dead, and give eternal life to me and all believers in Christ.

"This is most certainly true."

"that I may be His own and live under Him in His kingdom"

This part of the meaning usually gets too little air time, but this part is where the rubber really meets the road as far as your day-to-day life is concerned. "that I may be His own and live under Him in His kingdom" is a brief description of what your new life in Christ looks like.

Notice I said LOOKS like; not WILL look like.

Even though you are still living in the same body you were born into and even though you still struggle with sin, your new, eternal life has already begun. It begins the hour you first believe what God has done for us and our salvation in Jesus Christ.

So you are "His own" RIGHT NOW, and you "live under Him in His kingdom" RIGHT NOW. And living in His kingdom means serving Him "in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness."

This is the life that Jesus saved you for. It has already begun and it will continue forever.

Even so, some might be tempted to say, "Wait! Even though I still suffer the effects of sin in this life and my body dies like it would have anyway, I'm expected to live 'in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness.'?  What's He done for me lately?"

Now trading off "what I've got to do" in exchange for "what I get for it" like that is the world's way of thinking.  But if we need to discuss it under those terms, let's do it. Before you were called into Christ, you were dying and suffering along the way and it would all end in eternal torment. Now (in Christ) you have eternal life and freedom from all pain and suffering in the end. So even though you don't see the full benefit of your calling until the Last Day, you DO gain something from following Christ! And it's not just a little something... it's something that lasts forever!

When Paul was exhorting the Romans to avoid sexual immorality, he wrote: "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have [now] from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body." (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)

In other words, God has bought your 'everlasting righteousness, innocence and blessedness' with the blood of Christ. He gives it to you, and He deserves it from you. Both are true!

"from the power of the devil"

This is the first time we've mentioned "the devil," isn't it? Well then, we need to stop here and talk about him.

The main thing you need to know about the devil is that he is a fallen angel, oft called Satan. (This story is told in part in Revelation 12:7-17.) He led a rebellion against God in heaven and was thrown down because of it.

This story from Revelation also identifies Satan as the "accuser." Satan is the one who wants to dredge up all of our sin-sickness and show it to God for His judgment. (See Job chapter 1 for a picture of Satan in action in this way.) Until Christ came, he did this in the very throne room of heaven; since Christ has come, however, he can only use his accusations against us in an effort to dismay us and drive us to despair. 

Satan is well-known as "the tempter." (Well known temptation stories include Satan tempting Adam and Eve in the Garden (Genesis 3) and Satan tempting Jesus in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1-11).) In fact, many Christians like to use him as their excuse when they sin (e.g., "the devil made me do it"). But as you can see from the rest of the meaning of the Second Article and the other stories in Scripture: We don't need Satan's help to sin; we'll sin without him. He's just happy to help us along!

It is clear that Satan's objective is to hinder the work of Christ and to hinder those who work for Him. When Peter objected that Jesus had to be crucified to be the Christ, Jesus called him "Satan." (Matthew 16:21-23) 

Later in Paul's second letter to the Corinthians, he makes reference to being frustrated with a "thorn" in his side, "a messenger of Satan." While it's possible that Paul is speaking in hyperbole, Paul reports that God's response to Paul's plea that God remove the "thorn" was to say, "My grace is sufficient for you." Clearly the harassment of this thorn was tempting Paul to doubt the sufficiency of God's good grace to sustain his life and work.

In summary: Satan is a supernatural opponent of God and His work in Jesus Christ! And we should not take him lightly. As a fallen angel, Satan is powerful! But One more powerful than Satan is with us and for us and will never let us be tempted beyond what we can bear, but will always provide a way out of the temptation so that we can stand. (1 Corinthians 10:13)

"born of the virgin Mary"

You might wonder if we're serious about this: Do we believe that Jesus was BORN of a virgin? The answer is "yes." We believe that Mary became pregnant by a miracle of the Holy Spirit. 

So a baby that would be named Jesus grew in Mary's belly for nine months and was delivered in a stable on "Christmas Day" in the city of Bethlehem. There was the usual "breathe, Mary, breathe" and "push, Mary, push" and I imagine there was the usual crying when Jesus was delivered, despite what the famous hymn "Away in a Manger" says.

But Mary was not impregnated in the usual way with a man. Instead, as Luke's Gospel says: "the Holy Spirit will come upon you [i.e., Mary], and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy - the Son of God."

Along with the story of God's creation, Jesus' real presence (i.e., the physical presence of Christ's body and blood in the Lord's Supper), and the full range of Jesus' other miracles of healing and supernatural control of nature, the Virgin Birth gets a lot of skeptical attention. But all of these things hang together! Either God is able to do anything, or there's a limit to His ability to save and deliver you. And if there's a limit to His salvation, you're sunk!

So: Do you have a God who works miracles? If you do, then the "virgin birth" won't cause you any problems. If you don't, you have MUCH bigger problems to deal with (like sin, death and the power of the devil).

"true God... true man"

In one short post, we cannot hope to share with you all of the discussion and debate that have gone on in the church since the time of Christ about Who He is.  But in the end, the answer is this:  Jesus Christ is 100% God.  And to make matters more confusing, He is also 100% human.  He is NOT a 50-50 mixture of God and man.

The Second Article of the Apostles' Creed

The Second Article of the Apostles' Creed is: "And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried.  He descended into hell.  The third day He rose again from the dead.  He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty.  From thence He will come to judge the living and the dead."

What does this mean?  

When I confess these words (that is, say them because I believe them), I am saying that "I believe that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the Virgin Mary, is my Lord,

"who has redeemed me, a lost and condemned person, purchased and won me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil;  not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death,

"that I may be His own and live under Him in His kingdom and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness,

"just as He is risen from the dead, lives and reigns to all eternity.

"This is most certainly true."

Notice that the words of the Second Article describe what Jesus did or will do, but the meaning also sorts out some of what that "doing" says about who He is and what it means for us!

We're going to look how the words in the meaning are directly related to the words in the Creed itself. In particular, in next four posts, we're going to look at "true God... true Man," "born of the Virgin Mary," "from the power of the devil," and "that I may be His own and live under Him in His kingdom." If you want to ask any questions or make any comments about other parts of the Second Article and its meaning, now's the time to do it!