Deuteronomy 4:39 Acknowledge and take to heart this day that the LORD is God in heaven above and on the earth below. There is no other.

 

 

            Harry Truman is well known for his statement, “The Buck Stops Here.”  Today, as we celebrate the one true God, the Triune God, our thoughts are centered on not an ending spot, but the source of all things.  When we know and acknowledge the source of all things, we rest secure knowing not only where all things come from, but who has all things including our eternal welfare in his hands.

 

            God gives us his word, the Bible, to show us where all things begin, how all things happen, and where all things will eternally be.  In the Creation account, God reveals himself completely at that time.  God, the Father commands all things to be made.  He makes things by his word who is Jesus, his son.  And his Spirit hovers over the earth.  All three persons of the trinity are revealed in these few opening verses.  This is to tell us where everything starts, where everything comes from.   

 

 

 

 

            When God creates man, he speaks to himself in the Trinity as he says, “Let us make man in our image.  In his words in Deuteronomy he makes it clear that there is no other god except God alone.  Paul concludes his letter to the Corinthian church, God’s words to us today, acknowledging the three persons of the Triune God.  In Jesus’ final words to us before his ascension he commands baptism not only in his name, but in the full Trinity.  In faith and in baptism, you have received all of God.  He does not want you to miss any part of him.  He is your creator.  He is your redeemer.  God alone sanctifies you, makes you holy in his image for all eternity.  If you miss any part of him, you have missed all of him.  If you deny any part of him, you have denied all of him.  When you receive him, you receive all of him.  It is a miraculous thing that we do not and cannot understand.  That is what the miracle of faith is, believing and trusting something we cannot see or touch or understand. 

 

            Today we thank and praise God because he starts all things and brings them to completion by his almighty power alone.  Today we thank and praise God for giving us all of him, for holding nothing back from us in his complete and perfect love to us.  As God revealed all three of his persons at Jesus’ baptism, Jesus reiterates that we are to receive the blessings of all three persons both in earthly and eternal life alike.  The greatest miracle is restoring us back into God’s perfect image again at the resurrection to life eternal with him.

 

            Although man was created in God’s perfect image, that was lost in sin and we continue in the inequality of sin in our earthly lives today.  That perfect image is restored in Jesus.  As we are baptized into his suffering, death and resurrection, we receive the recreating work of the Trinity, constant and completed in the Word, that baptism, and in our Lord’s Supper when he actually gives us himself again and again in a way that will be fully consummated at the resurrection.

 

            From the early centuries of the church, we have the Athanasian Creed, a thorough explanation of the Triune God as derived from Scripture.  Today we use this statement to review God’s wondrous love in his saving grace to us as we read and take to heart the words of this creed that is composed from Scripture.  It clearly states the miracle of God’s love, his plan and means to save you and the very specific faith that is saving faith.

 

            Let us join together reading and stating what we believe in the words of the Athanasian Creed.

 

 

The Athanasian Creed

The Church’s Confession of the Holy Trinity

 

Early in the fourth century, a north African pastor named Arius began teaching that

Jesus Christ was not truly God. The Church responded decisively in A.D. 325 with a state -

ment of faith (The Nicene Creed), which confessed that Jesus is, in fact, truly God. Toward

the end of the fifth century, another creed was written that delved further into the mystery of

the Trinity. Though attributed to Athanasius, a fourth-century opponent of Arius, this anony -

mous creed clearly came at a later stage in the debate.

The Athanasian Creed proclaims that its teachings concerning the Holy Trinity and our

Lord’s incarnation are “the catholic faith.” In other words, this is what the true church of all

times and all places has confessed. More than 15 centuries later, the church continues to

confess this truth, confident that the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, has given

Himself for our salvation.

 

Whoever will be saved shall, above all else, hold the catholic* faith.

Which faith, except everyone keeps whole and undefiled, without doubt

he will perish eternally.

And the catholic faith is this:

that we worship one God in three persons and three persons in one

God, neither confusing the persons nor dividing the substance.

For there is one person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the

Holy Spirit.

But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit is all

one: the glory equal, the majesty coeternal.

Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Spirit.

The Father uncreated, the Son uncreated, and the Holy Spirit uncre a t e d .

The Father incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible, and the Holy Spirit

incomprehensible.

The Father eternal, the Son eternal, and the Holy Spirit eternal.

And yet there are not three eternals but one eternal.

As there are not three uncreated nor three incomprehensibles but one

uncreated and one incomprehensible.

So likewise the Father is almighty, the Son almighty, and the Holy Spirit almighty.

And yet they are not three almighties but one almighty.

So the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God.

And yet they are not three Gods but one God.

So likewise the Father is Lord, the Son Lord, and the Holy Spirit Lord.

And yet they are not three Lords but one Lord.

For as we are compelled by the Christian truth to acknowledge every person by

himself to be both God and Lord,

So we cannot by the catholic faith say that there are three Gods or three

Lords.

The Father is made of none, neither created nor begotten. The Son is of the

Father alone, not made nor created but begotten.

The Holy Spirit is of the Father and of the Son, neither made nor

created nor begotten but proceeding.

So there is one Father, not three Fathers; one Son, not three Sons; one Holy

Spirit, not three Holy Spirits.

And in this Trinity none is before or after another; none is greater or

less than another;

But the whole three persons are coeternal together and coequal, so that in all

things, as has been said, the Unity in Trinity and the Trinity in Unity is to be

worshiped.

He, therefore, that will be saved is compelled thus to think of the Trinity.

Furthermore, it is necessary to everlasting salvation that he also believe

faithfully the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ.

For the right faith is that we believe and confess that our Lord Jesus

Christ, the Son of God, is God and man;

God of the substance of the Father, begotten before all worlds; and man of the

substance of his mother, born in the world;

Perfect God and perfect man, of a reasonable soul and human flesh

subsisting.

Equal to the Father as touching his Godhead and inferior to the Father as

touching his manhood;

Who, although he is God and man, yet he is not two but one Christ:

One, not by conversion of the Godhead into flesh but by taking the manhood

into God:

One altogether, not by confusion of substance but by unity of person.

For as the reasonable soul and flesh is one man, so God and man is one Christ;

Who suffered for our salvation, descended into hell, rose again the third

day from the dead.

He ascended into heaven, he sits at the right hand of the Father, God Almighty,

from whence he will come to judge the living and the dead.

At whose coming all men will rise again with their bodies and will give

an account of their own works.

And they that have done good will go into life everlasting; and they that have

done evil, into everlasting fire.

This is the catholic faith which, except a man believe faithfully and

firmly, he cannot be saved.

 

 

*universal, Christian

 

 

Athanasian Creed (Quicunque Vult) from Lutheran Worship. Copyright © 1982 by Concordia Publishing House. Used

by permission. Distributed by the LCMS Commission on Worship for congregational use only. Commercial reproduction,

or reproduction for sale, of any portion of this work or the work as a whole, without the written permission of the

copyright holder, is prohibited. (continued on back)