The First Article of the Creed

These words give us a concise description of God the Father: His nature, His will, and His work. Since the Ten Commandments have already established that we are to have no other gods, it's natural to ask: What kind of being is God? What does He do? How can we describe and represent Him in a way that truly makes Him known? That is precisely what this article and the two that follow set out to answer. The Creed, then, is essentially a response and confession of faith for Christians, grounded in the first commandment. Consider this illustration: if we were to ask a child, "What sort of God do you have? What do you know about Him?" the child might answer: "My God is the Father who created heaven and earth. I believe in no one else as God, because no one else could have created heaven and earth."

For those with some theological education and familiarity with Scripture, these three articles could be expanded and broken down word by word. But for young students, it's enough to highlight the most essential points: that this article concerns creation, as we've said, and that we pay close attention to the words "Creator of heaven and earth." So what does it actually mean when you say, "I believe in God the Father Almighty, Creator," and so on? Here is the answer: I understand and believe that I am God's creature, meaning that He has given me, and continually sustains in me, my body, my soul and life, every part of my body large and small, my senses, my reason and understanding, my food and drink, clothing and shelter, my wife and children, my servants, my house and home, and everything else that belongs to me. Beyond that, He causes all of creation to serve the needs and necessities of human life: the sun, moon, and stars in the sky; day and night, air, fire, the earth and everything it produces, birds and fish, animals, grain, and every kind of plant. And still further, He provides all personal and earthly blessings, including good government, peace, and safety. What this article teaches us, then, is that no one possesses his own life by his own power, nor any of the things listed here or that could be listed, nor can anyone hold on to even the smallest or most insignificant of them, because everything is contained in that single word: "Creator."

We also confess that God the Father has not only given us everything we have and everything we can see with our eyes, but that He also guards and protects us every day from evil and misfortune, turning aside countless dangers and disasters. And He does all of this purely out of love and goodness, with no merit on our part, like a caring father who watches over us so that no harm comes to us. To explore this further, however, would take us into what belongs to the other two words of this article: "Father Almighty."

All of this makes one thing clear: since everything we have, whether on earth or in heaven, comes to us daily from God and is sustained by Him, we are obligated to love, praise, and thank Him without ceasing, and in short, to serve Him wholly and completely, as He requires and commands in the Ten Commandments. There would be much to say if we were to examine how few people actually believe this article. We all pass over it carelessly; we hear the words and repeat them, but we never truly grasp what they mean. If we believed them with genuine sincerity, our lives would reflect that belief; we would not walk around so arrogantly, boasting as though we had earned our own life, wealth, power, and honor, as though we ourselves deserved to be feared and served. This is what the wicked and corrupt world does: blinded by its own self-absorption, it takes all of God's blessings and gifts and turns them toward feeding its own pride and greed, its own lust and pleasure, never once looking up to God to thank Him or to acknowledge Him as Lord and Creator.

If we truly believed this article, it would humble us and shake us to our core. Every day we sin with our eyes and ears, with our hands, with body and soul, with our money and possessions, with everything we have. Those who actively oppose the Word of God sin most flagrantly of all. But Christians have this advantage: they recognize that serving God obediently is not optional but their fundamental duty.

Every day, we should make this article the focus of both our thinking and our moral lives. Everything we observe should point us back to it, and every blessing we receive should help us remember it. When we escape danger or hardship, we should recognize that this is God's work. He gives us all things so that through them we might see His fatherly heart and His extraordinary love for us. In this way, our hearts will be warmed and stirred with gratitude toward God, along with a desire to use all His gifts in His honor and to His praise. This is what the article means, stated as briefly as possible. It is everything a person of simple faith needs to learn about our possessions, God's gifts, and the duty we owe Him in return: excellent as a body of knowledge and priceless as a treasure. Through it, we see how the Father has given Himself to us along with all His creation, how He has provided abundantly for us in this life, and how He has overwhelmed us with unspeakable and eternal blessings through His Son and through the Holy Spirit, as we will hear.