What Does This Mean? - The Athansian Creed

It is Trinity Sunday. It is a day for the church to focus on the mystery of the Trinity, the nature of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We acknowledged our faith in the Triune God in the opening hymn, in the invocation, in the Psalm, in the hymn of praise, and in the Baptism service, among other places in our worship. A casual observer of our worship should come away with a sense that this church firmly believes in the Triune God. It has long been the custom in the church on Trinity Sunday to make use of the Athanasian Creed as our confession of faith. For those of you who are familiar with the Athansian Creed, you know that it is long, it seems to repeat a lot and can be very confusing. When we read it, either all together, or responsively, we are usually glad when it is over. Since we have already confessed our faith in the words of the Apostles’ Creed, we will not be saying the complete Athanasian Creed today. But I would like to spend some time talking about it and pointing out why it is important that we include this as one of the three creeds of our church. We are certainly more familiar with the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed. These two statements of what we believe have been a part of the life of the church since the fourth century when there was essentially only one Christian Church.

While we will not be reading the whole creed today, I would like you to turn to page 319 in your hymnal so that you can follow along I a make reference to various parts of the creed. Page 319. As you can seen in the introductory remarks, this creed was written as a response to a false teaching that had emerged in the church. That false teaching attacked the idea that Jesus was truly God. As is so often the case, something that is beyond the realm of human reason is often questioned and doubted. The human mind wonders, “How could Jesus be a true human being and be true God at the same time?” It doesn’t make sense to me so it must not be true. Unfortunately there was some support for this false position and the church felt that it must take a stand. At the Council of Nicea in 325 AD, under the leadership of Athanasius, the Nicene Creed was written and adopted as a clear statement of the church about the divine nature of Jesus. Some time later, the larger statement regarding the Trinity and the two natures of Jesus was produced and became known as the Athansian Creed in honor of the contribution of Athansius against false teaching.

While the main false teaching had to do with the divine nature of Jesus, the creed has two main parts that are definitely related. The first part speaks about the nature of the Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Verse four describes the one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity. Trinity means three, referring to the three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Unity brings out the idea that there is one God. Based on the clear passages of Scripture that tell us that the Lord our God is one and at the same time Jesus refers to the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit in the Baptismal formula the only correct conclusion that we can come to is that our God is One God in Three Persons. That is brought out in the first part of the Creed as the attributes or describing words of God are applied to each of the three persons. Yet we also reminded that there is one God.

The second part then begins with verse 27. The incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ means that He was true God from all eternity and also became a human being, took on human flesh. At that point He is both God and man. This was, once again, the root of the problem with the false teaching by Arius. Human reason could not comprehend God taking on human form. Therefore Arius and his follows denied that Jesus could be true God. Beginning at verse 36, the Creed follows the thoughts expressed in the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed about the suffering, death, resurrection and ascension into heaven as well as His promised return to judge the living and the dead.

All of the statements in this Creed, just like the others, have come down to us through a careful study of the Scriptures. In fact any of the Creeds or other documents that form the Lutheran Confessions have their authority only because they are a clear explanation of the Bible. If they weren’t they would be of no use to us.

There are a couple of things about the Athansian Creed that often cause people to stop and wonder just what was being said. One of those problems comes in the first verse and the last verse where it refers to the “catholic faith.” The word catholic here means universal. The introduction to the Creed in the hymnal addresses the use of this word. You have to remember that when this was put together, there was basically only one Christian Church. As it is used here, the word catholic was referring to the true Church of all time and all places that believes and trusts in Jesus Christ, true God and true Man, alone for salvation by grace through faith. In the way it is used in this Creed, it is not talking about a specific church body but rather the Holy Christian Church that is mentioned in the Apostles’ Creed.

Another point of concern is the statement at the beginning in verse 2 and at the end in verse 40 which very directly says whoever does not believe these things faithfully and firmly cannot be saved. To our ears today that have heard so much about religious tolerance and that it doesn’t matter what you believe as long as your sincere, these words seem rather harsh. They are however completely in line with what the Scriptures tell us about the way to salvation. Jesus himself said in John 14, “I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me.” Our Gospel lesson for today from John 3 also reminds us with those familiar words, “For God so love the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” That passage alone affirms that Jesus is true God and that faith in Him is the way to eternal life. In Ephesians 2 we can find once again the exclusive nature of God’s plan of salvation in the words, “For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, it is a gift from God, not by works so that no one can boast.”

That passage then brings us to another statement in the Creed that causes some alarm until it is looked at carefully. That is found in verse 39 where it talks about the final judgment. It says “And those who have done good will enter into eternal life, and those that have done evil into eternal fire.” The question that is asked often is, “Does this mean that I can get to heaven because of my good works?” The answer to that question is no. The passage from Ephesians tells us that plainly. Since Scripture can not contradict itself because it is inspired by God we must take a close look with that in mind to discover the meaning of this statement in question. This statement is almost a direct quote from Jesus in John 5:29 where He says, “For an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.” Remember now that Jesus had already said whoever believes in the Son shall have everlasting life. He would not contradict himself later and talk about being saved by works. It becomes a matter of grammar. The word good is an adjective, a word that describes a person, place or thing. The thing that is being described here as good is faith. Evil is also a word that describes a person, place or thing. The evil thing is rejecting Jesus as Lord and Savior. The good things that we do come as a result of our faith. When we see it that way and realize that Jesus would not contradict himself, we can understand the statement that the creed makes.

Yes, the Athanasian Creed is long. It uses a lot of big words that many people don’t understand. But it is a very important part of our Christian heritage. It defends the church against false teaching and it presents the good news of salvation. Because of that, it is good for us to review it at least once a year. Jesus had to be true God so that His sacrifice could be the sufficient sacrifice for the sins of the whole world. We give thanks and praise to God that He did and we pray that the Holy Spirit will continue to work in our hearts through the Word and the Sacraments to keep our faith strong until the day that the Son of God returns to lead us to our heavenly home. Amen.

And the peace which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.