The First Article of the Apostles’ Creed
Genesis 1-2
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
Advent is a time of waiting. Waiting for the arrival of the Coming One. The Christian Church waits in preparation, in penitential joy and prayerful expectation. And she prepares through catechesis, intensified instruction in the Christian faith, receiving the comforting doctrine in and from the Blessed Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Our Eastern Orthodox brethren refer to Advent as Nativity Lent. And from ancient times the Christian Church, East and West, used Advent as a time of preparation for Holy Baptism.
To that end, it is beneficial for us, in daily remembrance of our Baptism into the Name of the Holy Trinity, to be refreshed in the knowledge and confession of the baptismal, that is, the Apostles’ Creed. The three midweek Advent Vespers services lend themselves nicely to the three articles of the Children’s Creed. Tonight we shall prepare our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus by receiving catechesis concerning the First Article. At the risk of being accused of interactive sermons, please open your hymnal to Luther’s Small Catechism, on page 322. The Creed. In catechetical fashion, I will ask the question, you will answer together, aloud.
What is the First Article of the Apostles’ Creed. “I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth.” What does this mean? “I believe that God has made me and all creatures; that He has given me my body and soul, eyes, ears, and all my members, my reason and all my senses, and still takes care of them. He also gives me clothing and shoes, food and drink, house and home, wife and children, land, animals, and all I have. He richly and daily provides me with all that I need to support this body and life. He defends me against all danger and guards and protects me from all evil. All this He does only out of fatherly, divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness in me. For all this it is my duty to thank and praise, serve and obey Him. This is most certainly true.”
It is truly meet, right, and salutary that concerning the First Article, the confession of God the Father, we hear from His holy Word regarding the creation of all things in heaven and on earth. The first two chapters of Genesis contain more than we could possibly exhaust. Dr Luther said that if all we had of Holy Scripture was Genesis, it would still be sufficient to which faith would cling for salvation. Consider what blessed doctrine is upheld and proclaimed here: the heavens and the earth, that is, the entire universe and all that is in it, created our of nothing, in six, literal 24hr days; mankind is fearfully and wonderfully made, fashioned as the pinnacle and crown of God’s good creation, expressly made in His image; man and woman are made to compliment and complete one another biologically, physically, psychologically, socially, even spiritually; marriage is and only the union of one man and one woman; all of creation is made for the purpose of serving mankind.
And in the beginning was the Blessed Holy Trinity - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - in whom and from whom and by whom is Life! Apart from Him there is nothing. He is Life and He is Love. In love He created. The Father spoke. By the Word of the Father - the eternal Logos, the Son - all things came to be and the Holy Spirit was poured forth from the Father and the Son in selfless love upon creation. The Blessed Holy Trinity, the divine mystery which we confess, one God in three Persons, is intimately and intrinsically engaged in all aspects of creation, redemption, and sanctification. Yet we designate the First Article as creation, for “Father” means source. He is, as one post-communion collect says, “the fountain and source of all goodness, who in loving kindness sent forth His Son into the flesh to bear our sin and be our Savior” (LSB 183).
As He is so does He create. Repeatedly you heard from Moses, God said, and it was so, and it was good. The Triune God is the source of all things. He created out of nothing. His creation is dependent upon Him. Therefore when God speaks of the goodness of His creation He is declaring to you that His creation, which lives from and by Him and His Word, is complete and lacks nothing. As you sang in the Psalm, The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein, for He founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers (Ps 24:1-2). He rests on the seventh day not because He is tired, but because His good creation is complete, the fruit and object, the recipient of His love. The Father creates by the Son through the Spirit not to receive something for Him, but to give of Himself to His beloved. Love - the desire to give self-sacrificially of Himself to another - is what motivated Him to create and what motivates Him to sustain creation still today in spite of sin and on account of the very sacrifice of His beloved Son, Love Incarnate.
As He is so does God create. Therefore He who eternally exists in a plurality of Persons so does He create man, male and female does He create them, in His image and after His likeness. Since God is of His very essence and nature Love, He created man, the male and female, to bear His loving image into the world through self-sacrificial procreation of children and the benevolent dominion over creation. In other words, to bear God’s image in the world is to love as He loves, giving one’s self not in egomaniacal, self-centered lust, but in self-sacrificial, selfless love for the other. As it pertains to marriage, this is agape love, that is, self-sacrificial love for the one who is like unto your opposite; love for that which is hetero or other. Such does St Paul declare to the Ephesians, a musterium tremendom, a profound mystery, which, in fact refers to Christ and the Church. Therefore to give up the defense of God-given, natural, male-female marriage is to deny not only the order of creation, but the Triune God who created, and the atonement of the only Son of the Father, the very Bridegroom of the Church.
Such is the depraved nature of sin, however. God is Love. Sadly His love was not requited, but the good, self-sacrificial love of man toward the other was corrupted and deformed by sin into an evil, selfish lust. As St Paul wrote to the Church in Rome, They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever (Rm 1:25)!
Only in Christ Jesus our Lord is the image of God restored to fallen man. Which is to say, only in Christ, who is, in His Person, the Image of God and exact imprint of His nature, does man know God. Apart from the Incarnate, Crucified, Risen, Ascended, and preached Lord, you would not know God. As our Lord replied to Philip’s request to see the Father, Whoever has seen Me has seen the Father. I am in the Father and the Father is in Me. The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own authority, but the Father who dwells in Me does His works (Jn 14:9-10). This is not to say that the Father became incarnate, suffered and died.
Rather, the Father who eternally begets the Son in love is seen and known in the Son’s eternal reception and submission to the Father’s love, and temporally made known by the Son’s obedient submission to the Father’s love and will by His incarnation, perfect life and substitutionary death. The Holy Spirit then, who eternally proceeds from the Father and the Son, spoke by the apostles and prophets to proclaim Him who is eternally begotten of the Father; the One who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven and was made Man.
In Him and by Him and through Him, the eternal Logos, the Word made flesh, the Father created all things in heaven and on earth and for the sake of His holy, innocent bitter suffering and death continues to sustain all things in heaven and on earth. In other words, He who gave of Himself in His Son for your eternal body and life, likewise, as your dear Father in heaven richly and daily provides you with all that you need to support this body and life without any merit or worthiness in you. For all this is our duty to thank and praise, serve and obey Him.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Genesis 1-2
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
Advent is a time of waiting. Waiting for the arrival of the Coming One. The Christian Church waits in preparation, in penitential joy and prayerful expectation. And she prepares through catechesis, intensified instruction in the Christian faith, receiving the comforting doctrine in and from the Blessed Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Our Eastern Orthodox brethren refer to Advent as Nativity Lent. And from ancient times the Christian Church, East and West, used Advent as a time of preparation for Holy Baptism.
To that end, it is beneficial for us, in daily remembrance of our Baptism into the Name of the Holy Trinity, to be refreshed in the knowledge and confession of the baptismal, that is, the Apostles’ Creed. The three midweek Advent Vespers services lend themselves nicely to the three articles of the Children’s Creed. Tonight we shall prepare our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus by receiving catechesis concerning the First Article. At the risk of being accused of interactive sermons, please open your hymnal to Luther’s Small Catechism, on page 322. The Creed. In catechetical fashion, I will ask the question, you will answer together, aloud.
What is the First Article of the Apostles’ Creed. “I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth.” What does this mean? “I believe that God has made me and all creatures; that He has given me my body and soul, eyes, ears, and all my members, my reason and all my senses, and still takes care of them. He also gives me clothing and shoes, food and drink, house and home, wife and children, land, animals, and all I have. He richly and daily provides me with all that I need to support this body and life. He defends me against all danger and guards and protects me from all evil. All this He does only out of fatherly, divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness in me. For all this it is my duty to thank and praise, serve and obey Him. This is most certainly true.”
It is truly meet, right, and salutary that concerning the First Article, the confession of God the Father, we hear from His holy Word regarding the creation of all things in heaven and on earth. The first two chapters of Genesis contain more than we could possibly exhaust. Dr Luther said that if all we had of Holy Scripture was Genesis, it would still be sufficient to which faith would cling for salvation. Consider what blessed doctrine is upheld and proclaimed here: the heavens and the earth, that is, the entire universe and all that is in it, created our of nothing, in six, literal 24hr days; mankind is fearfully and wonderfully made, fashioned as the pinnacle and crown of God’s good creation, expressly made in His image; man and woman are made to compliment and complete one another biologically, physically, psychologically, socially, even spiritually; marriage is and only the union of one man and one woman; all of creation is made for the purpose of serving mankind.
And in the beginning was the Blessed Holy Trinity - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - in whom and from whom and by whom is Life! Apart from Him there is nothing. He is Life and He is Love. In love He created. The Father spoke. By the Word of the Father - the eternal Logos, the Son - all things came to be and the Holy Spirit was poured forth from the Father and the Son in selfless love upon creation. The Blessed Holy Trinity, the divine mystery which we confess, one God in three Persons, is intimately and intrinsically engaged in all aspects of creation, redemption, and sanctification. Yet we designate the First Article as creation, for “Father” means source. He is, as one post-communion collect says, “the fountain and source of all goodness, who in loving kindness sent forth His Son into the flesh to bear our sin and be our Savior” (LSB 183).
As He is so does He create. Repeatedly you heard from Moses, God said, and it was so, and it was good. The Triune God is the source of all things. He created out of nothing. His creation is dependent upon Him. Therefore when God speaks of the goodness of His creation He is declaring to you that His creation, which lives from and by Him and His Word, is complete and lacks nothing. As you sang in the Psalm, The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein, for He founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers (Ps 24:1-2). He rests on the seventh day not because He is tired, but because His good creation is complete, the fruit and object, the recipient of His love. The Father creates by the Son through the Spirit not to receive something for Him, but to give of Himself to His beloved. Love - the desire to give self-sacrificially of Himself to another - is what motivated Him to create and what motivates Him to sustain creation still today in spite of sin and on account of the very sacrifice of His beloved Son, Love Incarnate.
As He is so does God create. Therefore He who eternally exists in a plurality of Persons so does He create man, male and female does He create them, in His image and after His likeness. Since God is of His very essence and nature Love, He created man, the male and female, to bear His loving image into the world through self-sacrificial procreation of children and the benevolent dominion over creation. In other words, to bear God’s image in the world is to love as He loves, giving one’s self not in egomaniacal, self-centered lust, but in self-sacrificial, selfless love for the other. As it pertains to marriage, this is agape love, that is, self-sacrificial love for the one who is like unto your opposite; love for that which is hetero or other. Such does St Paul declare to the Ephesians, a musterium tremendom, a profound mystery, which, in fact refers to Christ and the Church. Therefore to give up the defense of God-given, natural, male-female marriage is to deny not only the order of creation, but the Triune God who created, and the atonement of the only Son of the Father, the very Bridegroom of the Church.
Such is the depraved nature of sin, however. God is Love. Sadly His love was not requited, but the good, self-sacrificial love of man toward the other was corrupted and deformed by sin into an evil, selfish lust. As St Paul wrote to the Church in Rome, They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever (Rm 1:25)!
Only in Christ Jesus our Lord is the image of God restored to fallen man. Which is to say, only in Christ, who is, in His Person, the Image of God and exact imprint of His nature, does man know God. Apart from the Incarnate, Crucified, Risen, Ascended, and preached Lord, you would not know God. As our Lord replied to Philip’s request to see the Father, Whoever has seen Me has seen the Father. I am in the Father and the Father is in Me. The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own authority, but the Father who dwells in Me does His works (Jn 14:9-10). This is not to say that the Father became incarnate, suffered and died.
Rather, the Father who eternally begets the Son in love is seen and known in the Son’s eternal reception and submission to the Father’s love, and temporally made known by the Son’s obedient submission to the Father’s love and will by His incarnation, perfect life and substitutionary death. The Holy Spirit then, who eternally proceeds from the Father and the Son, spoke by the apostles and prophets to proclaim Him who is eternally begotten of the Father; the One who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven and was made Man.
In Him and by Him and through Him, the eternal Logos, the Word made flesh, the Father created all things in heaven and on earth and for the sake of His holy, innocent bitter suffering and death continues to sustain all things in heaven and on earth. In other words, He who gave of Himself in His Son for your eternal body and life, likewise, as your dear Father in heaven richly and daily provides you with all that you need to support this body and life without any merit or worthiness in you. For all this is our duty to thank and praise, serve and obey Him.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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