Article III.
I believe in the Holy Ghost; the holy Christian Church, the
communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and
the life everlasting. Amen.
This article (as I have said) I cannot relate
better than to Sanctification, that through the same the Holy Ghost, with His
office, is declared and depicted, namely, that He makes holy. Therefore we must
take our stand upon the word Holy Ghost, because it is so precise and
comprehensive that we cannot find another. For there are, besides, many kinds
of spirits mentioned in the Holy Scriptures, as, the spirit of man, heavenly
spirits, and evil spirits. But the Spirit of God alone is called Holy Ghost,
that is, He who has sanctified and still sanctifies us. For as the Father is
called Creator, the Son Redeemer, so the Holy Ghost, from His work, must be
called Sanctifier, or One that makes holy. But how is such sanctifying done?
Answer: Just as the Son obtains dominion, whereby He wins us, through His
birth, death, resurrection, etc., so also the Holy Ghost effects our
sanctification by the following parts, namely, by the communion of saints or
the Christian Church, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting; that is, He first leads us into His holy
congregation, and places us in the bosom of the Church, whereby He preaches to
us and brings us to Christ.
For neither you nor I could ever know anything of
Christ, or believe on Him, and obtain Him for our Lord, unless it were offered
to us and granted to our hearts by the Holy Ghost through the preaching of the
Gospel. The work is done and accomplished; for Christ has acquired and gained
the treasure for us by His suffering, death, resurrection, etc. But if the work
remained concealed so that no one knew of it, then it would be in vain and
lost. That this treasure, therefore, might not lie buried, but be appropriated
and enjoyed, God has caused the Word to go forth and be proclaimed, in which He
gives the Holy Ghost to bring this treasure home and appropriate it to us.
Therefore sanctifying is nothing else than bringing us to Christ to receive
this good, to which we could not attain of ourselves.
Learn, then, to understand this article most
clearly. If you are asked: What do you mean by the words: I believe in the Holy
Ghost? you can answer: I believe that the Holy Ghost makes me holy, as His name
implies. But whereby does He accomplish this, or what are His method and means
to this end? Answer: By the Christian Church, the forgiveness of sins, the
resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. For, in the first place, He
has a peculiar congregation in the world, which is the mother that begets and
bears every Christian through the Word of God, which He reveals and preaches,
[and through which] He illumines and enkindles hearts, that they understand,
accept it, cling to it, and persevere in it.
For where He does not cause it to be preached and
made alive in the heart, so that it is understood, it is lost, as was the case
under the Papacy, where faith was entirely put under the bench, and no one
recognized Christ as his Lord or the Holy Ghost as his Sanctifier, that is, no
one believed that Christ is our Lord in the sense that He has acquired this
treasure for us, without our works and merit, and made us acceptable to the
Father. What, then, was lacking? This, that the Holy Ghost was not there to
reveal it and cause it to be preached; but men and evil spirits were there, who
taught us to obtain grace and be saved by our works. Therefore it is not a
Christian Church either; for where Christ is not preached, there is no Holy
Ghost who creates, calls, and gathers the Christian Church, without which no
one can come to Christ the Lord. Let this suffice concerning the sum of this
article. But because the parts which are here enumerated are not quite clear to
the simple, we shall run over them also.
The Creed denominates the holy Christian Church,
communionem sanctorum, a communion of saints; for both expressions, taken
together, are identical. But formerly the one [the second] expression was not
there, and it has been poorly and unintelligibly translated into German eine
Gemeinschaft der Heiligen, a communion of saints. If it is to be rendered
plainly, it must be expressed quite differently in the German idiom; for the
word ecclesia properly means in German eine Versammlung, an assembly. But we
are accustomed to the word church, by which the simple do not understand an
assembled multitude, but the consecrated house or building, although the house
ought not to be called a church, except only for the reason that the multitude
assembles there. For we who assemble there make and choose for ourselves a
particular place, and give a name to the house according to the assembly.
Thus the word Kirche (church) means really
nothing else than a common assembly and is not German by idiom, but Greek (as
is also the word ecclesia); for in their own language they call it kyria, as in
Latin it is called curia. Therefore in genuine German, in our mother-tongue, it
ought to be called a Christian congregation or assembly (eine christliche
Gemeinde oder Sammlung), or, best of all and most clearly, holy Christendom
(eine heilige Christenheit).
So also the word communio, which is added, ought
not to be rendered communion (Gemeinschaft), but congregation (Gemeinde). And
it is nothing else than an interpretation or explanation by which some one
meant to explain what the Christian Church is. This our people, who understood
neither Latin nor German, have rendered Gemeinschaft der Heiligen (communion of
saints), although no German language speaks thus, nor understands it thus. But
to speak correct German, it ought to be eine Gemeinde der Heiligen (a
congregation of saints), that is, a congregation made up purely of saints, or,
to speak yet more plainly, eine heilige Gemeinde, a holy congregation. I say
this in order that the words Gemeinschaft der Heiligen (communion of saints)
may be understood, because the expression has become so established by custom
that it cannot well be eradicated, and it is treated almost as heresy if one
should attempt to change a word.
But this is the meaning and substance of this
addition: I believe that there is upon earth a little holy group and
congregation of pure saints, under one head, even Christ, called together by
the Holy Ghost in one faith, one mind, and understanding, with manifold gifts,
yet agreeing in love, without sects or schisms. I am also a part and member of
the same a sharer and joint owner of all the goods it possesses, brought to it
and incorporated into it by the Holy Ghost by having heard and continuing to
hear the Word of God, which is the beginning of entering it. For formerly,
before we had attained to this, we were altogether of the devil, knowing
nothing of God and of Christ. Thus, until the last day, the Holy Ghost abides
with the holy congregation or Christendom, by means of which He fetches us to
Christ and which He employs to teach and preach to us the Word, whereby He
works and promotes sanctification, causing it [this community] daily to grow
and become strong in the faith and its fruits which He produces.
We further believe that in this Christian Church
we have forgiveness of sin, which is wrought through the holy Sacraments and
Absolution, moreover, through all manner of consolatory promises of the entire
Gospel. Therefore, whatever is to be preached concerning the Sacraments belongs
here, and, in short, the whole Gospel and all the offices of Christianity,
which also must be preached and taught without ceasing. For although the grace
of God is secured through Christ, and sanctification is wrought by the Holy
Ghost through the Word of God in the unity of the Christian Church, yet on
account of our flesh which we bear about with us we are never without sin.
Everything, therefore, in the Christian Church is
ordered to the end that we shall daily obtain there nothing but the forgiveness
of sin through the Word and signs, to comfort and encourage our consciences as
long as we live here. Thus, although we have sins, the [grace of the] Holy
Ghost does not allow them to injure us, because we are in the Christian Church,
where there is nothing but [continuous, uninterrupted] forgiveness of sin, both
in that God forgives us, and in that we forgive, bear with, and help each
other.
But outside of this Christian Church, where the
Gospel is not, there is no forgiveness, as also there can be no holiness
[sanctification]. Therefore all who seek and wish to merit holiness
[sanctification], not through the Gospel and forgiveness of sin, but by their
works, have expelled and severed themselves [from this Church].
Meanwhile, however, while sanctification has
begun and is growing daily, we expect that our flesh will be destroyed and
buried with all its uncleanness, and will come forth gloriously, and arise to
entire and perfect holiness in a new eternal life. For now we are only half
pure and holy, so that the Holy Ghost has ever [some reason why] to continue
His work in us through the Word, and daily to dispense forgiveness, until we
attain to that life where there will be no more forgiveness, but only perfectly
pure and holy people, full of godliness and righteousness, removed and free
from sin, death, and all evil, in a new, immortal, and glorified body.
Behold, all this is to be the office and work of
the Holy Ghost, that He begin and daily increase holiness upon earth by means
of these two things, the Christian Church and the forgiveness of sin. But in
our dissolution He will accomplish it altogether in an instant, and will
forever preserve us therein by the last two parts.
But the term Auferstehung des Fleisches
(resurrection of the flesh) here employed is not according to good German
idiom. For when we Germans hear the word Fleisch (flesh), we think no farther
than of the shambles. But in good German idiom we would say Auferstehung des
Leibes, or Leichnams (resurrection of the body). However, it is not a matter of
much moment, if we only understand the words aright.
This, now, is the article which must ever be and
remain in operation. For creation we have received; redemption, too, is
finished. But the Holy Ghost carries on His work without ceasing to the last
day. And for that purpose He has appointed a congregation upon earth by which
He speaks and does everything. For He has not yet brought together all His
Christian Church nor dispensed forgiveness. Therefore we believe in Him who
through the Word daily brings us into the fellowship of this Christian Church,
and through the same Word and the forgiveness of sins bestows, increases, and
strengthens faith in order that when He has accomplished it all, and we abide
therein, and die to the world and to all evil, He may finally make us perfectly
and forever holy; which now we expect in faith through the Word.
Behold, here you have the entire divine essence,
will, and work depicted most exquisitely in quite short and yet rich words
wherein consists all our wisdom, which surpasses and exceeds the wisdom, mind,
and reason of all men. For although the whole world with all diligence has
endeavored to ascertain what God is, what He has in mind and does, yet has she
never been able to attain to [the knowledge and understanding of] any of these
things. But here we have everything in richest measure; for here in all three
articles He has Himself revealed and opened the deepest abyss of his paternal
heart and of His pure unutterable love. For He has created us for this very
object, that He might redeem and sanctify us; and in addition to giving and
imparting to us everything in heaven and upon earth, He has given to us even
His Son and the Holy Ghost, by whom to bring us to Himself. For (as explained
above) we could never attain to the knowledge of the grace and favor of the
Father except through the Lord Christ, who is a mirror of the paternal heart,
outside of whom we see nothing but an angry and terrible Judge. But of Christ
we could know nothing either, unless it had been revealed by the Holy Ghost.
These articles of the Creed, therefore, divide
and separate us Christians from all other people upon earth. For all outside of
Christianity, whether heathen, Turks, Jews, or false Christians and hypocrites,
although they believe in, and worship, only one true God, yet know not what His
mind towards them is, and cannot expect any love or blessing from Him;
therefore they abide in eternal wrath and damnation. For they have not the Lord
Christ, and, besides, are not illumined and favored by any gifts of the Holy
Ghost.
From this you perceive that the Creed is a
doctrine quite different from the Ten Commandments; for the latter teaches
indeed what we ought to do, but the former tells what God does for us and gives
to us. Moreover, apart from this, the Ten Commandments are written in the
hearts of all men; the Creed, however, no human wisdom can comprehend, but it
must be taught by the Holy Ghost alone. The latter doctrine [of the Law],
therefore makes no Christian, for the wrath and displeasure of God abide upon
us still, because we cannot keep what God demands of us; but this [namely, the
doctrine of faith] brings pure grace, and makes us godly and acceptable to God.
For by this knowledge we obtain love and delight in all the commandments of
God, because here we see that God gives Himself entire to us, with all that He
has and is able to do, to aid and direct us in keeping the Ten Commandments --
the Father, all creatures; the Son, His entire work; and the Holy Ghost, all
His gifts.
Let this suffice concerning the Creed to lay a
foundation for the simple, that they may not be burdened, so that, if they
understand the substance of it, they themselves may afterwards strive to
acquire more, and to refer to these parts whatever they learn in the
Scriptures, and may ever grow and increase in richer understanding. For as long
as we live here, we shall daily have enough to do to preach and to learn
this.
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