Today, the first Sunday after Pentecost, the church has traditionally celebrated as Trinity Sunday.  When God sent the Holy Spirit to be in his people, his revelation was complete, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  The Father is our creator, the Son our Redeemer, and the Holy Spirit our Sanctifier. 

 

            On this, Trinity Sunday, we have traditionally read and recite together our belief in the Triune God in the words of the Athanasian Creed.  This creed, although not written by Athanasius, expresses the interrelation of the persons of the Trinity in one God.  It is one of the three “Ecumenical Creeds” of the Christian faith.  These creeds, the Nicene, Apostles’, and Athanasian were established early in the history of the church and stand today as confessions of saving faith as revealed in God’s word. 

 

Today we will profess our faith as we recite this creed as divided into four sections.  Following each section will be an explanation and Scripture passages that establishes this statement of faith.

 

PROFESSION OF FAITH BASED ON THE ATHANASIAN CREED, Part 1

 

Pastor: 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.

People: 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.

 

In this brief introduction is the statement that salvation is holding to the one true Christian Faith and that faith is in the Triune God.  We find this statement that there is no other saving faith two other times in the Athanasian Creed.  It was important then and important today to know that there is only one true, catholic [or universal] faith for salvation to eternal life. 

 

Today’s world holds the prevalent belief that whatever one believes, he will receive the reward of that belief.  The world is “universalist” in that it accepts all faiths.  The term “catholic” or “universal” here means that there is only one faith that is universal, that is one faith for all people.  We hear the statement, “We all worship the same God, don’t we?”  But we do not.  Too many do not accept the Trinity.  Too many deny Jesus as true God or true man or both.  Too many deny God’s word as he has given it over the millennia of time in Holy Scripture.  Jesus prayed that believers be sanctified, made holy, by that word, “Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.”   [John 17:17]  God’s word is the only truth there is and that we know.

 

So many hold that God would never let someone go to Hell, no matter what.  As we study God’s word and follow his commands, one sees the fallacy of these beliefs.  The first commandment is, “You shall have no other Gods,” – period!  God does not make allowances for faith in anyone or any thing except in him alone and as he has revealed himself to his people through his word alone.  When tempted by Satan, Jesus quoted Deuteronomy 6 saying, "Away from me, Satan! For it is written: 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.'"  [Matthew 4:10]    There is no other way to God the Father except through Jesus Christ who said, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”  [John 14:6]  Jesus is the only way to enter God’s kingdom despite the many ways that man thinks there might be.  "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.  But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.  [Matthew 7:13-14]   Denying the Holy Spirit as one of the persons and as true God brings the same judgment.  Jesus said, “But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; he is guilty of an eternal sin."   [Mark 3:29]  When Peter made the disciples’ confession statement that Jesus is the Christ, Jesus stated that this confession of faith in him is the rock on which the church is built.  [Matthew 16:16-18]  All other ground is sinking sand.  [Matthew 7:6]

 

PROFESSION OF FAITH BASED ON THE ATHANASIAN CREED, Part 2

 

Pastor: For there is one person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Spirit.

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

Pastor: the glory coequal, the majesty coeternal.

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

Pastor: The Father is uncreated, incomprehensible, eternal.

Men: The Son is uncreated, incomprehensible, eternal.

Women: The Spirit is uncreated, incomprehensible, eternal.

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

People: And yet they are not three almighties but one almighty.

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

People: And yet they are not three gods but one God.

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

People: And yet they are not three Lords but one Lord.

Pastor: For we are compelled by the Christian truth to acknowledge every person of the Godhead by Himself to be both God and Lord,

Men: So we cannot by the catholic faith say that there are three Gods or three Lords.

 

 

            By Scripture we know and understand that the teachings and belief of the Triune God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – is a summary and embodiment of the true catholic, i.e. Christian faith.  All three persons are one God.  All three persons are the same essence or spirit.    All three are uncreated, being from before the beginning of time.  All three are incomprehensible, beyond our human understanding.  All three are eternal, not having a beginning or end.  God revealed himself to the Israelites through Moses saying, This is what you are to say to the Israelites:'I AM has sent me to you.'"  God is called Yaweh – meaning “the I AM.”   Jesus revealed himself as that same eternal spirit as he tells us in John 8:58 "I tell you the truth," Jesus answered, "before Abraham was born, I am!"   When God spoke to himself during creation, he spoke in the plural, “Genesis 1:26 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness.”  We are not to confuse the persons.  Yet, each person is the one God.  Jesus said in John 10:30, “I and the Father are one."  He prays that we be made one with him as he is one with the Father.  [John 17:11]

 

            “And yet there are not three gods or Lords, but one God and Lord.  [Ephesians 4:4-6]  There is one body and one Spirit-- just as you were called to one hope when you were called -- one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

 

PROFESSION OF FAITH BASED ON THE ATHANSIAN CREED, Part 3

 

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

People: 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.

Pastor: But the whole three persons are coeternal together and coequal,

People: So that in all things, as has been said, the Unity in Trinity and the Trinity in Unity is to be worshiped.

 

            God wants you to have all of him.  Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.   [Matthew 28:18-19]  In that simple command of baptism is also the command of faith in the Triune God for worship and for eternal salvation.  Without any part of God, you do not have God.  Without the Father you have no creator.  Without the Son there is no forgiveness of sins won for you.  Without the Holy Spirit there is no one to make you holy through the word.

 

 

           

PROFESSION OF FAITH BASED ON THE ATHANASIAN CREED, Part 4

Pastor: Furthermore, it is necessary to everlasting salvation that we 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.

People: God of the substance of the Father, begotten before the 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.

Pastor: 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;

People: 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.

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

Men: 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.

Women: And they that have done good will go into life everlasting; and they that have done evil, into everlasting fire.

Pastor:  This is the catholic faith which, except a person believe faithfully and firmly, he cannot be saved.

 

            In this section we again confess that there is only one faith that leads to everlasting salvation.  That is faith in the triune God.  That faith includes belief in Jesus Christ, who is both God and man in the same person.  From John’s gospel, we know that Jesus was with God before creation.  Jesus is God’s Word.  Through that word all things are created and all sins are forgiven.  That word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.  Saving faith comes through the word of Jesus Christ alone. 

 

            Jesus is revealed to us and comes to us in two natures.  His divine nature is from all eternity.  His human nature he took on himself to complete the work of salvation for us.  Jesus is not two persons, or changes from one person to the other.  Today he is eternally in heaven in both his divine nature and his human nature.  He is present with us in his omnipresence in both his divine nature and his human nature as he miraculously presents his sacrificed body and blood to us in the miracle of his holy supper.  And, as he promised in Matthew and the angels proclaimed at his ascension, he will return at the last day in his bodily form just as he was seen ascending to his heavenly throne.  At that time all men will rise again and give an account of their own works. Jesus proclaims in Matthew 16:27.  “For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father's glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done.”

 

            God has declared since creation that punishment for sin is death.  Since the first sin in Eden, God has declared forgiveness to those who trust in him through the Savior.  That trust was credited to Abraham as righteousness.  [Genesis 15:6]  All believers are children of Abraham by that same faith, trusting God at his word.  We cannot save ourselves in any way and in any part.  God judges believers righteous based on that faith in him as redeemer alone. 

 

God is also a just God and does punish those who deny him.  Judgment is clear from the beginning and throughout Scripture.  “There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; that very word which I spoke will condemn him at the last day.”  [John 12:48]  "Then he will say to those on his left,'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”  [Matthew 25:41]

 

            This is the catholic, or universal faith.  Unless one believes faithfully, he cannot be saved.  But those who remain faithful, eternal life is theirs.  That promise is from the beginning:  “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel."  [Genesis 3:15]  The promise of the resurrection is from all time as Job professed, “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth.  [Job 19:25]  The Savior would be of miraculous birth and be with us, “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.”  [Isaiah 7:14]  There is one and only one Son of God, one Savior, sent in love to save you.  "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  [John 3:16]  It is by God’s grace alone that believers are saved by faith alone.  [Ephesians 2:8]  And that salvation is everlasting life.  “Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life.”  [Revelation 2:10]

 

 

And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.   [Philippians 4:7]