The Third Article of the Creed

I can't explain this article any better than to say directly what it covers: the work of sanctification, and specifically the role of the Holy Spirit as the one who makes us holy. We should hold firmly to the title "Holy Spirit," because it captures his identity so clearly and completely that no other title is needed. Scripture mentions many kinds of spirits: human spirits, heavenly spirits, evil spirits. But only God's Spirit bears the name "Holy Spirit," because He alone is the one who has sanctified us and continues to do so. Just as the Father is called Creator and the Son is called Redeemer, the Holy Spirit must be called, by the nature of his work, the Sanctifier, the one who makes holy. But how does this sanctification actually happen? The answer is this: just as the Son won his lordship by purchasing us through his birth, death, resurrection, and all that followed, the Holy Spirit accomplishes our sanctification through the communion of saints (Gemeinde), that is, through the Christian Church, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and eternal life. In other words, He sanctifies us by drawing us into his holy community, placing us in the care of the Church, which then becomes our teacher and guide to Christ.

Neither you nor I could ever know anything of Christ, believe in Him, or receive Him as our Lord, were it not placed in our hearts by the Holy Spirit through the preaching of the Gospel. The work of redemption itself is finished and complete. Christ, through his suffering, death, and resurrection, has secured the blessing for us. But if that work had never been revealed, if no one had ever heard of it, it would have been entirely wasted. So that this treasure would not lie buried and unused, God caused his Word to be proclaimed and spread abroad, and through that Word the Holy Spirit is given to offer and deliver to us the full riches of this redemption. To sanctify us, then, is simply to bring us to Christ the Lord so that we may receive what we could never have obtained on our own.

Learn to understand this article clearly. If someone asks you, "What do you mean when you say, 'I believe in the Holy Spirit'?" you can answer: I believe that the Holy Spirit makes me holy, just as His name suggests. But how does He do this, and by what means? Through the Christian Church, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. First, He has a community that belongs entirely to Him in this world. That community is the mother who gives birth to and nurtures every Christian through the Word of God. The Holy Spirit reveals and proclaims that Word, and through it He illuminates and ignites hearts so that people understand it, receive it, hold fast to it, and remain in it.

Where He does not bring about the preaching of the Word and make it alive in the heart so that it takes root, the Word is simply lost. This is exactly what happened under the Papacy, where faith was completely extinguished and no one recognized Christ as Lord or the Holy Spirit as the one who makes us holy. In other words, no one believed that Christ is our Lord because He obtained this treasure for us without any merit or worthiness on our part, and made us acceptable to the Father. What was missing? The Holy Spirit was not present to reveal and proclaim this truth. There were plenty of people and evil spirits, and they taught that we must earn God's mercy and secure our own salvation through our works. The result was that there was no Christian Church, because where Christ is not preached, there is no Holy Spirit to organize, call, and gather that Church, and without the Spirit no one can come to Christ the Lord. That is enough to cover the substance of this article. Since the various points it contains may not be entirely clear to those who are newer to the faith, however, we will work through them one by one.

The Creed refers to the holy Christian Church as Communio Sanctorum, a communion of saints, which means essentially the same thing as "holy Christian Church." In earlier usage, that second phrase wasn't common, and the vernacular rendering "communion of saints" is both inadequate and misleading. To explain it clearly, we need a different term in German, because the Greek word ecclesia properly means an assembly. We tend to use the word "church" with a different meaning; to most people, it suggests not the gathered congregation but the consecrated building. Yet the building would never be called a church if not for the congregation that meets there. We who gather create a designated place and give the house its name from the congregation itself.

The word "church" (Kirche), then, simply means a congregation. It comes from Greek, just as the word ecclesia does. In Greek it is kyria, and in Latin curia. In good German, our native tongue, it should be translated Eine Christliche Gemeinde oder Sammlung, meaning a Christian communion or congregation, or most fittingly and plainly, Eine Heilige Christenheit, holy Christendom. Similarly, the word communio attached to it should not be translated Gemeinschaft but Gemeinde. It is simply a clarifying definition of what the Christian Church actually is. Some among us, however, unfamiliar with either Latin or German, have rendered it Gemeinschaft der Heiligen, even though no native German speaker would naturally say or understand that phrase. Proper German would give us Eine Gemeinde der Heiligen, a communion made up entirely of saints, or better still, Eine Heilige Gemeinde, a holy communion. I offer this explanation so that the phrase Gemeinschaft der Heiligen can be properly understood. It has become so entrenched in common usage that it can't realistically be removed, and to change even a single word would border on heresy.

The meaning and substance of this clause is as follows: I believe that there exists on earth a small, holy community, an assembly of pure saints gathered under one head, Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit calls them together in one faith, one mind, and one understanding. They possess many different gifts, yet they are united in love, without division or sectarian strife. I am also a part of this assembly, sharing in its blessings as a member, through the Holy Spirit. He granted me membership by virtue of my having heard, and continuing to hear, God's Word, which is the first step toward entry into that community. Before we reached this point, we belonged to the devil, knowing nothing of God or of Christ. Until the last day, when He will finally deliver us, the Holy Spirit will remain with this holy communion, the Christian Church. Through this communion He proclaims and explains the Word, and by that Word He creates and cultivates holiness, expanding the Church and strengthening it in faith and in the fruits of the Spirit.

We further believe that in Christ's kingdom we receive forgiveness of sins, made available through the holy sacraments, through absolution, and through the many passages of comfort found throughout the Gospel. Everything that is to be taught about the sacraments, and indeed the whole of the Gospel along with all the offices of Christendom that must be exercised without ceasing, has this one blessing in view: the forgiveness of sins. God's grace comes to us through Christ, and the Holy Spirit works sanctification through the Word of God within the fellowship of the Christian Church. Yet because we are still burdened by the flesh, we are never entirely free from sin in this life.

Every arrangement within Christendom has been designed so that we can receive full forgiveness of sins each day, through the Word and the sacraments as sources of comfort and assurance for our consciences throughout our lives. This is what the Holy Spirit does for us: even though we sin, that sin cannot destroy us, because we belong to Christendom, where complete forgiveness of sins is always available. God forgives us, and we in turn forgive, bear with, and support one another. Outside of Christendom, where the Gospel does not hold sway, there is no forgiveness and therefore no holiness. For this reason, everyone who refuses to seek holiness through the Gospel and the forgiveness of sins, and instead tries to earn it through their own efforts, has cut themselves off and excommunicated themselves from the Christian Church.

Sanctification, however, has already begun and grows a little more each day. In this present condition, we expect our flesh to die and be buried along with all its corruption, and we trust that it will rise again in glory, clothed in the complete and perfect holiness of a new, eternal life. For now, we are only partially pure and holy. The Holy Spirit must continually carry on His work within us through God's Word, granting forgiveness daily, until we reach that life where forgiveness is no longer needed. In that life, there will be only perfectly pure and holy beings: entirely godly and righteous, freed completely from sin, death, and all suffering, living in new, immortal, and glorified bodies. This, then, is the office and work of the Holy Spirit. He begins sanctification here on earth and advances it day by day through two means: the Christian Church and the forgiveness of sins. And when we depart this life, He will instantly bring our sanctification to completion and preserve us in it forever through the resurrection of the body and life everlasting.

The German phrase Auferstehung des Fleisches is not the best translation of "resurrection of the flesh." When German speakers hear the word Fleisch, they naturally think of a butcher's shop. A more accurate German rendering would be Auferstehung des Leibes or Leichnams, meaning "resurrection of the body." That said, the precise wording matters little as long as the meaning is properly understood.

This article of faith must remain essential, and its work must continue without interruption. Creation is finished and redemption is complete, but the Holy Spirit carries on His work without ceasing, right up to the last day. For this purpose, He has established a community on earth through which He speaks and through which He accomplishes His purposes. His gathering of Christians has not ended, nor has He stopped administering forgiveness. We therefore believe in the One who, through the Word, draws us daily into faith and then strengthens and deepens that faith through the same Word and through the forgiveness of sins. When His work is finally complete, and we have remained in that faith, died to the world, and turned away from all evil, He will at last make us perfectly and eternally holy. Until that day, we wait for it in faith, through the Word.

Here you find the entire nature of God, His will, and His work beautifully captured in a few but remarkably comprehensive words. All of our wisdom is contained in them, a wisdom that surpasses every form of human understanding, feeling, and intelligence. The world has never truly come to know God and His purposes, despite searching diligently for them. But here we have that knowledge in full; in these three articles He has revealed the depths of His fatherly heart, His perfect and indescribable love. For He created us with the express purpose of redeeming and sanctifying us. And beyond that, having given us everything in heaven and on earth, He gave us even His Son and the Holy Spirit, through whom He draws us to Himself. As noted earlier, we could never recognize the Father's grace and mercy were it not for our Lord Christ, who is a mirror of His Father's heart. Without Him, we would see nothing but an angry and terrifying judge; and we could know nothing of Christ were He not revealed to us by the Holy Spirit.

These articles of the Creed set Christians apart from every other people on earth. Everyone outside of Christendom, whether they are pagans, Muslims, Jews, or false Christians and hypocrites, even if they believe in and worship only one true God, does not know His mind toward them. They cannot be confident of His love and blessing. Because of this, they remain in eternal wrath and ruin. For they do not have the Lord Christ, and they have not been enlightened and blessed by the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Now you can see that the Creed teaches something very different from the Ten Commandments. The Commandments tell us what we must do, while the Creed tells us what God does for us and what He gives us. The Ten Commandments are written on every human heart, but no amount of human wisdom can grasp the Creed on its own. Only the Holy Spirit can teach it. The law of the Commandments doesn't make us Christians, because God's wrath and displeasure remain on us as long as we fail to meet His demands. The Creed, however, brings us complete mercy, makes us holy, and renders us acceptable to God. Through this knowledge, we come to love all of God's commandments, because we see that He freely gives Himself to us, along with everything He has, to help us and guide us in keeping them. The Father gives us all created things; Christ gives us all His works; and the Holy Spirit gives us all His gifts. This is enough for now on the subject of faith, at least to lay a foundation for ordinary people without overwhelming them. Once they've grasped the substance of it, they can go deeper on their own by drawing from Scripture, growing steadily richer in understanding. As long as we live, there is more than enough to study and preach on the subject of faith.