The Third Article of the Apostles’ Creed
St John 15:26-16:15
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
The Third Article of the Apostles’ Creed confesses the office and work of the Holy Spirit, which, admittedly, are troublesome for us to conceptualize. God the Holy Spirit takes on personal characteristics and His own personhood only with great difficulty. You confess as much when you confess your inability to believe and confess in Jesus Christ our Lord. Let’s take a look. Once more open your hymnals to page 323. The Third Article of the Apostles’ Creed. What is the Third Article of the Apostles’ Creed: 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. Amen. What does this mean? “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 sanctified 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.”
Luther said that we understand the Third Article only from its relation to the Second Article. Consider the Nicene Creed with which we confess the Holy Spirit to be the Lord and Giver of Life. Such a statement is much broader and deeper than it first may appear. For the Holy Spirit gives life in the beginning: The Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters (Gn 1:2). The Spirit was brooding, so to speak, over the natal waters of creation. For the Spirit of God is His creative breath whose activity is continually a genesis, a life-giving breath, present and active at creation, but also in the preaching of the prophets and apostles, and in and through the Word and Sacraments which bestow Life, the very Life of the Son, who is Life, eternally begotten of the Father, who is the source of all Life.
Which is to say the Father who sent the Son and in whom He is known, receives the Son’s perfect obedience, substitutionary death and atonement, and vindicates Him by raising Him from the dead for our justification. Yet you nor I could ever now anything about Christ or believe in Him unless His person and work were offered to us through the preaching of the Gospel by the Holy Spirit. And there is no other passage in Holy Scripture that speaks more clearly about the person and work of the Holy Spirit than this text from Jesus’ catechesis to the Twelve, to His Church, and, by inspiration, recording, and proclamation of the Holy Spirit, to you.
Here our Lord Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit as the Helper, the Comforter, or the Counselor, and also the Spirit of Truth. The Son, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, eternally begotten from His Father and source of Truth and Life, shall send the Spirit of Truth, who proceeds from the Father and the Son. God the Holy Spirit bears witness, that is, He testifies, concerning He who is the Truth, Jesus Christ, the Son. He does this, as Jesus says, by convicting the world of three things: concerning sin, concerning righteousness, and concerning judgement. Now the word “convict” is a judicial term most often found in the setting of the courtroom. To “convict” someone in a court of law requires the presentation of evidence, or testimony, from which the proof of a man’s guilt or innocence is established. The work the Holy Spirit does to “convict” the world carries both the connotation of convince and announce the verdict. He convinces the world, and you, individually, by announcing the verdict of the Father concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment.
All this He does through His Word. As Jesus says in John chapter 17, praying to His Father on behalf of those who belong to Him yet are to remain in the world which hates them on His account; He petitions, Sanctify them in the Truth; Your Word is Truth (Jn 17:17). The Father who created all things in the beginning through the Word by His Spirit, sent His Son, the Word made flesh, to draw all men to the Father. The Spirit of Truth, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, works in and through the Word of Christ. So it is that the blessed Holy Trinity always works in and through and by the Word. Or in other words, He makes Himself known in preaching. And that is precisely what Luther says concerning God the Holy Spirit in his commentary on the Gospel of John. Here, concerning John 16, Luther writes,
"Here Christ makes the Holy Spirit a Preacher. He does so to prevent one from gaping toward heaven in search of Him, as the fluttering spirits and enthusiasts do, and from divorcing Him from the oral Word or the ministry. One should know that learn that He will be in and with the Word, that it will guide us into all truth, in order that we may believe it, use it as a weapon [against temptation], be preserved by it against all the lies and deception of the devil, and prevail in all trials and temptations. The Holy Spirit wants this truth which He is to impress into our hearts to be so firmly fixed that reason and all one’s own thoughts and feelings are relegated to the background. He wants us to adhere solely to the Word and to regard it as the only truth. And through this Word alone He governs the Christian Church to the end." (AE 24:362)
One cannot gape heavenward and find the Holy Spirit, neither can one look internally to find Him. There are only ghosts within. The Holy Spirit is found outside of us, in the Word alone, through which and by which He creates and sustains faith within you. Corpses cannot choose to be made alive. And that’s what you were: dead in your trespasses and sins. But the Holy Spirit, through the Word, made you alive together with God the Father in Christ Jesus His Son. In other words, the turn of phrase from the First Article of the Apostles’ Creed, “all without any merit or worthiness in me” is taken up in the Third Article with the words, “not by my own reason or strength.” Both phrases serve as a bridge and are held together by the broad arch that stretches from the creation to the new creation.
That arch, if you will, if the Second Article, that is, the Arch is Jesus Christ, His only Son our Lord, the Word made flesh, whom the Holy Spirit makes known, or preaches to you. This is precisely what Jesus says in the Gospel reading, He, that is, the Holy Spirit, will glorify Me, for He will take was is mine and proclaim it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that He will take what I mine and declare it to you. It has been said that the Holy Spirit is the shy member of the Holy Trinity. He does not talk about Himself or draw attention to Himself. He is entirely Christocentric; precisely because He proceeds from the Father and the Son, and therefore is concerned about you, His blessed creation, the object and recipient of the Father’s love for you in Jesus Christ. To you, the Holy Spirit is given and bestowed, such that He comes and makes His home with you.
So to the whole Christian Church on earth. He gathers the children of the Father, made brothers of Jesus Christ His Son, together around the Word of Christ, preached for the forgiveness of your sins. He dwells in and with the Church by the Word and Sacraments of our Lord Christ; and precisely by and in the selfsame Word and Sacraments of Christ Jesus does He create and enliven His Holy Church and keep it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith.
The final outcome of the work of the Holy Spirit is the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. This He also does by and through the Word, both here in time, and brought to full consummation in your own resurrection from the dead, even as Jesus Christ is raised from the dead by the glory of the Father. So too by your washing of regeneration and rebirth in Holy Baptism, does the Holy Spirit join you in fellowship to the person and work of Jesus Christ the only begotten Son of the Father, who together dwell in unity in Trinity and Trinity in unity, one God, and in whom you live and move and have your being, both now and forever. Amen.
St John 15:26-16:15
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
The Third Article of the Apostles’ Creed confesses the office and work of the Holy Spirit, which, admittedly, are troublesome for us to conceptualize. God the Holy Spirit takes on personal characteristics and His own personhood only with great difficulty. You confess as much when you confess your inability to believe and confess in Jesus Christ our Lord. Let’s take a look. Once more open your hymnals to page 323. The Third Article of the Apostles’ Creed. What is the Third Article of the Apostles’ Creed: 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. Amen. What does this mean? “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 sanctified 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.”
Luther said that we understand the Third Article only from its relation to the Second Article. Consider the Nicene Creed with which we confess the Holy Spirit to be the Lord and Giver of Life. Such a statement is much broader and deeper than it first may appear. For the Holy Spirit gives life in the beginning: The Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters (Gn 1:2). The Spirit was brooding, so to speak, over the natal waters of creation. For the Spirit of God is His creative breath whose activity is continually a genesis, a life-giving breath, present and active at creation, but also in the preaching of the prophets and apostles, and in and through the Word and Sacraments which bestow Life, the very Life of the Son, who is Life, eternally begotten of the Father, who is the source of all Life.
Which is to say the Father who sent the Son and in whom He is known, receives the Son’s perfect obedience, substitutionary death and atonement, and vindicates Him by raising Him from the dead for our justification. Yet you nor I could ever now anything about Christ or believe in Him unless His person and work were offered to us through the preaching of the Gospel by the Holy Spirit. And there is no other passage in Holy Scripture that speaks more clearly about the person and work of the Holy Spirit than this text from Jesus’ catechesis to the Twelve, to His Church, and, by inspiration, recording, and proclamation of the Holy Spirit, to you.
Here our Lord Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit as the Helper, the Comforter, or the Counselor, and also the Spirit of Truth. The Son, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, eternally begotten from His Father and source of Truth and Life, shall send the Spirit of Truth, who proceeds from the Father and the Son. God the Holy Spirit bears witness, that is, He testifies, concerning He who is the Truth, Jesus Christ, the Son. He does this, as Jesus says, by convicting the world of three things: concerning sin, concerning righteousness, and concerning judgement. Now the word “convict” is a judicial term most often found in the setting of the courtroom. To “convict” someone in a court of law requires the presentation of evidence, or testimony, from which the proof of a man’s guilt or innocence is established. The work the Holy Spirit does to “convict” the world carries both the connotation of convince and announce the verdict. He convinces the world, and you, individually, by announcing the verdict of the Father concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment.
All this He does through His Word. As Jesus says in John chapter 17, praying to His Father on behalf of those who belong to Him yet are to remain in the world which hates them on His account; He petitions, Sanctify them in the Truth; Your Word is Truth (Jn 17:17). The Father who created all things in the beginning through the Word by His Spirit, sent His Son, the Word made flesh, to draw all men to the Father. The Spirit of Truth, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, works in and through the Word of Christ. So it is that the blessed Holy Trinity always works in and through and by the Word. Or in other words, He makes Himself known in preaching. And that is precisely what Luther says concerning God the Holy Spirit in his commentary on the Gospel of John. Here, concerning John 16, Luther writes,
"Here Christ makes the Holy Spirit a Preacher. He does so to prevent one from gaping toward heaven in search of Him, as the fluttering spirits and enthusiasts do, and from divorcing Him from the oral Word or the ministry. One should know that learn that He will be in and with the Word, that it will guide us into all truth, in order that we may believe it, use it as a weapon [against temptation], be preserved by it against all the lies and deception of the devil, and prevail in all trials and temptations. The Holy Spirit wants this truth which He is to impress into our hearts to be so firmly fixed that reason and all one’s own thoughts and feelings are relegated to the background. He wants us to adhere solely to the Word and to regard it as the only truth. And through this Word alone He governs the Christian Church to the end." (AE 24:362)
One cannot gape heavenward and find the Holy Spirit, neither can one look internally to find Him. There are only ghosts within. The Holy Spirit is found outside of us, in the Word alone, through which and by which He creates and sustains faith within you. Corpses cannot choose to be made alive. And that’s what you were: dead in your trespasses and sins. But the Holy Spirit, through the Word, made you alive together with God the Father in Christ Jesus His Son. In other words, the turn of phrase from the First Article of the Apostles’ Creed, “all without any merit or worthiness in me” is taken up in the Third Article with the words, “not by my own reason or strength.” Both phrases serve as a bridge and are held together by the broad arch that stretches from the creation to the new creation.
That arch, if you will, if the Second Article, that is, the Arch is Jesus Christ, His only Son our Lord, the Word made flesh, whom the Holy Spirit makes known, or preaches to you. This is precisely what Jesus says in the Gospel reading, He, that is, the Holy Spirit, will glorify Me, for He will take was is mine and proclaim it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that He will take what I mine and declare it to you. It has been said that the Holy Spirit is the shy member of the Holy Trinity. He does not talk about Himself or draw attention to Himself. He is entirely Christocentric; precisely because He proceeds from the Father and the Son, and therefore is concerned about you, His blessed creation, the object and recipient of the Father’s love for you in Jesus Christ. To you, the Holy Spirit is given and bestowed, such that He comes and makes His home with you.
So to the whole Christian Church on earth. He gathers the children of the Father, made brothers of Jesus Christ His Son, together around the Word of Christ, preached for the forgiveness of your sins. He dwells in and with the Church by the Word and Sacraments of our Lord Christ; and precisely by and in the selfsame Word and Sacraments of Christ Jesus does He create and enliven His Holy Church and keep it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith.
The final outcome of the work of the Holy Spirit is the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. This He also does by and through the Word, both here in time, and brought to full consummation in your own resurrection from the dead, even as Jesus Christ is raised from the dead by the glory of the Father. So too by your washing of regeneration and rebirth in Holy Baptism, does the Holy Spirit join you in fellowship to the person and work of Jesus Christ the only begotten Son of the Father, who together dwell in unity in Trinity and Trinity in unity, one God, and in whom you live and move and have your being, both now and forever. Amen.
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