II. Of the Gospel and Faith

Master. Now, my dear child, you have covered the matter of the law and obedience as fully as a brief summary allows. Good order requires that we turn next to the gospel, which contains the promises of God and offers His mercy through Christ to those who have broken His law. It is the gospel that faith is especially concerned with. This was the second point in our outline, and the natural progression of everything we have discussed so far has brought us right to it. So what is the core message of the gospel and of our faith?

Scholar. It is precisely what the chief articles of the Christian faith have long been gathered into, briefly and completely, in what is commonly called the Apostles' Creed or Symbol.

Master. Why is the summary of our faith called a symbol?

Scholar. A symbol is, by definition, a badge, mark, watchword, or token by which soldiers on one side are distinguished from the enemy. For that reason, the brief summary of our faith, by which Christians are clearly set apart from those who are not Christians, is rightly called a symbol.

Master. But why is it called the symbol of the apostles?

Scholar. Because it was either received directly from the apostles themselves or faithfully drawn from their writings. It was recognized from the very beginning of the church and has remained constant among all believers ever since, firm, steady, and unchanged, as a reliable and settled rule of Christian faith.

Master. Very well. I would like you now to recite the symbol itself.

Scholar. "I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Spirit; born of the Virgin Mary; suffered under Pontius Pilate; was crucified, dead, and buried; he descended into hell; the third day he rose again from the dead; he ascended into heaven; he sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from there he will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit; the holy catholic church; the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting. Amen."

Master. You have laid out these things briefly and in summary, my child. It would be good, then, for you to explain more clearly and in greater detail what you understand by each particular point. To begin: how many parts do you divide this whole confession of faith into?

Scholar. Into four principal parts. The first concerns God the Father and the creation of all things. The second concerns his Son Jesus Christ, and this part also contains the entire substance of humanity's redemption. The third concerns the Holy Spirit. The fourth concerns the church and the benefits God has given to the church.

Master. Go on, then, and explain those four parts in order. But first, right at the opening of the Creed, what do you mean by the word "believe"?

Scholar. I mean that I hold a true and living faith, that is, a genuinely Christian faith in God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and that through this form of confession I am declaring and affirming that faith.

Master. Is there any kind of faith that is not true and living?

Scholar. There is indeed a kind of faith we might call general faith, and there is also what can be called a dead faith.

Master. Since what you mean by "believing" and by "Christian faith" (that is, a true and living faith) is no small matter, go ahead and tell me what that faith actually is, and how it differs from general faith and from dead faith.

Scholar. General faith is the kind that accepts the word of God; in other words, it believes that everything contained in the scriptures is true, including what they say about God, His incomprehensibility, His power, His righteousness, His wisdom, His mercy toward the faithful and godly, and His strict severity toward the unbelieving and ungodly, along with everything else the scriptures teach.

Master. Doesn't the true faith you're describing also believe all those same things?

Scholar. Yes, indeed. But true faith goes further, as I will show shortly. Up to this point, not only ungodly people but even the devils themselves believe as much; and for that reason, neither group can truly be called faithful. True faith, while it has no doubt that everything taught in God's word is absolutely certain, also embraces the promises concerning the mercy of God the Father and the forgiveness of sins to believers through Jesus Christ. These promises are properly called the gospel. Those who hold this faith do not merely fear God as the most powerful Lord of all and the most righteous Judge (which, as we said, most ungodly people and even the devils do), but they also love Him as their most generous and merciful Father. They strive in everything to please Him, as obedient children should, through godly efforts and works that are called the fruits of faith. And they hold a firm and confident hope of receiving pardon through Christ whenever, as fallible human beings, they stray from His will. For they know that Christ, in whom they trust, has appeased the wrath of His Father, so that their sins will never be counted against them, as though those sins had never been committed at all. And though they themselves have not fully kept the law or fulfilled their duty toward God and other people, they believe that Christ, through His perfect obedience to the law, has satisfied God completely on their behalf. They are persuaded that through His righteousness and His keeping of God's law, they are counted among the righteous and are loved by God just as if they themselves had fulfilled the law. This is the justification that the holy scriptures declare we receive by faith.

Master. Can these things also be found in the devils, or in wicked people?

Scholar. Not at all. Though the wicked fear God, or rather dread Him with horror, knowing He will punish their ungodliness, they can have no trust in His goodness and mercy toward them, no access to His grace, and no desire to obey His will. Their faith, even if they don't doubt the truth of God's word, is called a dead faith, because like a dry and lifeless stump it never produces any fruit of godly living, meaning love for God and charity toward others.

Master. Based on everything you've said so far, give me a definition of this living, true, and Christian faith.

Scholar. Faith is a confident knowledge of God's fatherly goodwill toward us through Christ, and a trust in that same goodness as it is declared in the gospel. This faith carries with it a genuine effort to live a godly life, that is, to obey the will of God the Father.

Master. You've explained well enough what you mean by "faith" and "believing." Now move on and tell me, as clearly as you can, what you understand by the name of God, which comes next in the Creed.

Scholar. I'll do my best, good master, as far as my understanding allows. I take God to be one nature, or substance, or mind, or rather divine Spirit (for wise men, both pagan and Christian, have used many different terms for God, since no words can truly capture Him) who is eternal, without beginning or end, immeasurable, without a physical body, invisible to human eyes, and of supreme majesty. This is the one we call God, whom all peoples of the world must honor and worship above all else, and in whom, as the greatest and most good, they must place all their hope and trust.

Master. Since there is only one God, explain why the Christian confession of faith names three: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Scholar. These are not the names of separate gods, but of three distinct persons within one Godhead. Within the single substance of God, we must consider the Father, who from eternity begat the Son and is the origin and first author of all things; the Son, begotten of the Father from eternity, who is the eternal wisdom of God the Father; and the Holy Ghost, proceeding from them both as the power of God spread throughout all things, yet also continually dwelling within Himself. And yet God is not therefore divided. None of these three persons precedes the others in time, greatness, or dignity. Rather, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are three distinct persons, equal in eternal duration, equal in power, equal in dignity, and one in Godhead. There is therefore one eternal, immortal, almighty, and glorious God, the greatest of all: God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This is what the universal body of Christians, known as the catholic church, has taught us from the holy scriptures concerning God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Beyond this, the infinite depth of this mystery is so vast that it cannot be grasped by the mind, much less expressed in words. What is required here is not sharpness of intellect to probe it, nor the skill of the tongue to articulate it, but the simplicity of Christian faith, ready to believe what is so secret and hidden a mystery.

Master. Well said. Let us continue, then. Why do you call God Father?

Scholar. Beyond the main reason I already described, which is that God is the natural Father of His only Son, begotten of Himself before all time, there are two other reasons why He both is and is called our Father. The first is that He created us and gave life to all of us. The second reason carries even greater weight: He has begotten us anew from heaven through the Holy Spirit, and through faith in His true and natural Son Jesus Christ He has adopted us as His children. Through that same Christ, He has given us His kingdom and the inheritance of eternal life.

Master. In what sense do you give Him the name "Almighty"?

Scholar. Because just as He created the world and everything in it, He holds all things within His power, governs them by His providence, orders them according to His own will, and commands all things as He sees fit. Nothing happens except by His appointment or permission, and there is nothing He is not able to do. I don't picture God as having some kind of idle, unused power sitting dormant within Him.

Master. Do you then place ungodly people and wicked spirits under God's power as well?

Scholar. Why wouldn't I? Without that, we would be in the most miserable condition imaginable, living in constant fear if evil forces could exercise any power over us apart from God's will. But God restrains them, as if by a bridle, so that they cannot so much as stir without His permission. For our part, we are sustained by this comfort: we are so completely in the hands of our Almighty Father that not even a single hair of ours can perish without the will of the One who holds us in such deep goodwill.

Master. Continue.

Scholar. Since the human mind cannot grasp on its own the goodness and incomprehensibility of God, who is supremely good and supremely great, we add that He is the Creator of heaven and earth and everything they contain. By this we mean that God can be seen, as if in a mirror, and known (as far as we need to know Him) through His works and through the ordered course of the world. When we observe the immeasurable vastness of the world and all its parts, so perfectly arranged that nothing could be more beautiful or more useful, we immediately recognize the infinite power, wisdom, and goodness of the One who built it. Who is so dense that, looking up at the sky, he fails to perceive that God exists? Indeed, it seems that God formed human beings upright and tall, raising them up from the earth precisely so they would look toward the heavens and, in gazing at them, come to know their Maker.

Master. What do you mean when you say that God created all things?

Scholar. That God, the supremely good and mighty Father, in the beginning made this entire visible world out of nothing, by the power of His Word, that is, of Jesus Christ His Son, forming and fashioning everything it contains, as well as the incorporeal spirits we call angels.

Master. But do you think it is right to say that God created all spirits, including those wicked spirits we call devils?

Scholar. God did not create them as they now are. Rather, through their own wickedness, they fell from their original state with no hope of recovery. They became evil not by creation or by nature, but through the corruption of their nature.

Master. Did God consider it sufficient to create all things once and then abandon any further care for them?

Scholar. I've already touched briefly on this point. It is far more remarkable to sustain and preserve what has been created than to have created it in the first place, and so we must believe that after God formed the world and all its creatures, He has continued to preserve them from that moment to this. Without His power holding everything together, as if by His own hand, all things would collapse into ruin and dissolve into nothing. We also firmly believe that the entire order of nature, and all the changes we observe in the world (which people wrongly attribute to chance or fortune), depend entirely on God. He guides the movement of the heavens, sustains the earth, governs the seas, and rules over this whole world. Everything submits to His divine power, and by that power everything is directed. He is the source of fair weather and storms, of rain and drought, of abundance and famine, of health and sickness. For everything that sustains and preserves our lives, whether we need it out of necessity or simply enjoy it as a wholesome pleasure, He has always given generously and continues to give with an open hand. His purpose in this is clear: that we should use these gifts as grateful and mindful children ought to.

Master. Why do you think Almighty God created all these things?

Scholar. The world itself was made for humanity, and everything in it was provided for human use and benefit. And just as God made all other things for humanity's sake, He made humanity itself for His own glory.

Master. What can you tell me about the origin and creation of humanity?

Scholar. What Moses wrote tells us that God formed the first man from clay and breathed into him soul and life. Afterward, while the man lay in a deep sleep, God took a rib from his side and fashioned woman from it, bringing her into the world as a companion and partner for man's life. This is why the man was called Adam, since he was taken from the earth, and the woman was called Eve, since she was appointed to be the mother of all the living.

Master. Yet today we see in both men and women such profound corruption, wickedness, and moral failure. Did God create them this way from the beginning?

Scholar. Not at all. Since God is perfectly good, everything He makes is good. At the very beginning, therefore, God made man in His own image and likeness.

Master. What exactly is this image you say man was fashioned after?

Scholar. It is complete righteousness and perfect holiness, qualities that belong most essentially to God's own nature. This image was most clearly displayed in Christ, our new Adam, though in us today barely a trace of it remains.

Master. Barely a trace, you say?

Scholar. Yes, truly. It no longer shines as it did before the fall, because humanity has smothered the brightness of that image under the darkness of sin and the fog of error.

Master. Then tell me how this came about.

Scholar. Let me explain. When God created the world, He prepared a garden of extraordinary beauty, filled with every pleasure and delight a person could wish for. There, out of a particular and generous goodwill, God placed man and gave him free use of everything in it, with one exception: the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was forbidden, and God warned that death would follow if man ever tasted it. This was entirely reasonable. Having received so many gifts, man was expected to demonstrate his willing obedience by honoring this single command, and to remain content with his own condition rather than reaching beyond it, as a creature straining against the will of his Creator.

Master. What happened next?

Scholar. The woman was deceived by the devil and persuaded the man to eat the forbidden fruit, and this act immediately made them both subject to death. The divine image in which man had first been created was shattered, and in place of the wisdom, strength, holiness, truth, and righteousness with which God had adorned him, there came the most terrible afflictions: blindness, weakness, falsehood, and unrighteousness. In these evils and miseries, he also dragged down and overwhelmed his children and all his descendants.

Master. But couldn't one argue that God was too harsh in punishing the eating of a single piece of fruit?

Scholar. Let no one minimize Adam's offense as a minor slip, or judge the act simply by the fruit itself and nothing more than a moment of gluttony. He and his wife, caught and ensnared by Satan's deceptive allurements, turned from the truth of God to a lie through their unbelief. They trusted the serpent's false accusations, which charged God with dishonesty, envy, and the malicious withholding of good things. After receiving so many gifts, Adam became utterly ungrateful toward the One who gave them. He, a creature formed from the earth, was not satisfied with being made in the image of God; instead, with unbearable ambition and pride, he sought to make himself equal to the majesty of God. In the end, he withdrew his allegiance from his Creator and brazenly threw off His authority. It is therefore pointless to downplay the sin of Adam.

Master. But how can it seem anything other than unjust that all of Adam's descendants should be stripped of their highest blessing and burdened with extreme suffering and misery because of their parents' fault?

Scholar. Adam was the first parent of the entire human race, and so God entrusted him with those gifts to hold or forfeit on behalf of himself and all who would come from him, meaning all of humanity. The moment he was stripped of those gifts, his whole nature was left bare, impoverished, and emptied of every good thing. The moment he was stained by sin, a corrupted root produced corrupted branches, which passed that same corruption on to every shoot that grew from them. From this came the brief, fragile, and uncertain span of life we are given. From this came the weakness of our flesh, the frailty of our bodies, and the general feebleness of human nature. From this came the terrible blindness of our minds and the deep perverseness of our hearts. From that corruption came the twisting and poisoning of all our desires and affections. From it came what we might call the breeding ground, or rather the cesspool, of every sin that infects and torments the human race. Learned Christians who have searched for the right name for this evil have called it original sin.

Master. Does mankind suffer the punishment for this sin in this life only?

Scholar. No. Human nature has been so thoroughly corrupted and ruined by this inherited evil that, if the goodness and mercy of Almighty God had not stepped in with a remedy to help and relieve us, we would have faced not only every calamity of fortune and every misery of disease and death in our bodies, but also an inevitable plunge into darkness and eternal night, into unquenchable fire, where we would be tormented with every kind of punishment forever. Nor is it surprising that other creatures also suffered the consequences that man deserved, since they were created for his benefit. With the entire order of nature thrown into disorder, both in heaven and on earth, destructive storms, famine, disease, and countless other evils broke into the world. Into these miseries and sorrows we have fallen, not only because of that inherited corruption, but also, and quite deservedly, because of our own many and grievous sins.

Master. What a deadly and terrible plague sin is! But what is this remedy you say God has provided for us, the remedy in which our ancestors and all their descendants after them have placed their hope?

Scholar. They were mercifully lifted up to a hope of salvation, a hope they received through faith in Jesus Christ, the deliverer and Savior whom God had promised them. This is what comes next in the Creed: "I believe in Jesus Christ," etc.

Master. Did God also give our first parents an immediate hope of deliverance through Jesus Christ?

Scholar. Yes; for just as God drove Adam and Eve out of the garden after first rebuking them sharply, He also cursed the serpent and warned him that a day would come when the seed of the woman would crush his head.

Master. What seed is God referring to?

Scholar. That seed is, as St. Paul clearly teaches us, Jesus Christ the Son of God: fully God, and born of the Virgin, fully man. In the second part of the Creed, we declare that He is the one in whom we place our hope and trust. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born from the nature of the holy, pure, and spotless Virgin Mary. From that same mother He was born and raised as any other child, except that He was entirely free from every trace of sin.

Master. Did God consider it enough to have made this promise only once in the Old Testament?

Scholar. Not at all. This most joyful promise to humanity, first given to our original parents, was repeatedly confirmed by God to their descendants, so that people would hold an ever-growing expectation of its fulfillment. After entering into a covenant through circumcision with Abraham and his descendants, God confirmed His promise first to Abraham himself, then to his son Isaac, and then to his grandson Jacob. Finally, through the clearest oracles delivered by Moses and the other prophets, He continued to uphold and strengthen the certainty of those promises.

Master. What does it mean to "crush the serpent's head"?

Scholar. The serpent's head is where its poison is stored, and where its life and strength reside. So the serpent's head represents the full power, dominion, and tyranny of the devil, that ancient serpent. Jesus Christ, the seed of the woman in whom God fulfilled the complete sum of His promise, has overthrown all of that through the power of His death. In crushing the serpent's head, He has rescued and freed from that tyranny all who trust in Him. This is what we confess in the Creed when we say we "believe in Jesus Christ the Son of God": that Jesus Christ is the deliverer and Savior of those of us who were bound fast in impiety and wickedness, tangled in the snares of eternal death, and held captive in the foul bondage of the devil.

Master. It seems to me that you've explained the name of Jesus with admirable clarity.

Scholar. That's true. The name "Jesus" in Hebrew means the same as Soter in Greek, Servator in Latin, and "Savior" in English, since no better word exists in those languages to capture its full meaning. And from what we've already said, it should now be clear why He bears this name. He alone has delivered and saved His people from the eternal damnation to which they were otherwise condemned. Others have taken this name on themselves, because they were thought to have saved men's bodies; but Jesus Christ alone is able to save both the souls and bodies of all who trust in Him.

Master. Who gave Him this name?

Scholar. The angel did, by the command of God Himself. And it was necessary that He should truly live up to and fulfill the name God had given Him.

Master. Now tell me what the name "Christ" means.

Scholar. It means "Anointed," by which we understand that He is the supreme King, Priest, and Prophet.

Master. How do we know that?

Scholar. From the holy scriptures, which both apply anointing to these three offices and frequently attribute all three offices to Christ.

Master. Was Christ then anointed with oil, as kings, priests, and prophets were in ancient times?

Scholar. No: but with something far more excellent; namely, the abundant grace of the Holy Spirit, with whom He was filled and richly endowed with divine gifts. That outward anointing of old was merely a shadow of this heavenly anointing.

Master. Did He receive these things for Himself alone, or do we also benefit from them?

Scholar. Yes, Christ received these things from His Father precisely so that He could share them with us, in whatever measure and manner He knew to be most fitting for each of us. For from His fullness, as from the one holy and ever-flowing fountain, we all draw every heavenly good thing we possess.

Master. Are you saying, then, that Christ's kingdom is a worldly kingdom?

Scholar. No: it is a spiritual and eternal kingdom, governed and ordered by the word and Spirit of God, which bring with them righteousness and life.

Master. What benefit do we receive from this kingdom?

Scholar. It equips us with strength and spiritual armor to overcome the flesh, the world, sin, and the devil, those fierce and deadly enemies of our souls. It gives us a blessed freedom of conscience, and ultimately endows us with heavenly riches, comforting and strengthening us to live godly and holy lives.

Master. What kind of priest is Christ?

Scholar. The greatest and an everlasting priest, who alone is able to stand before God, who alone can offer the sacrifice God will accept, and who alone can satisfy the wrath of God.

Master. For whose benefit does He do this?

Scholar. On our behalf, He intercedes with God, seeking peace and forgiveness for us. He appeases the wrath of God and reconciles us to His Father. Christ alone is our mediator, through whom we are brought into unity with God. More than that, He makes us, in a sense, fellow priests with Him in His priesthood, granting us access to His Father so that we may come into His presence with confidence and, through Him, boldly offer ourselves and everything we have to God the Father as a living sacrifice.

Master. In what sense is Christ a prophet?

Scholar. When humanity had despised and rejected the prophets, the servants of Almighty God sent ahead to teach mortal men His will, and had buried and obscured His holy word beneath their own dreams and inventions, He himself, the Son of God and Lord of all prophets, came down into this world. His purpose was to declare His Father's will completely and bring all prophecy and foretelling to its fulfillment. He came as His Father's ambassador and messenger to humanity, so that through His declaration people might be led into a true knowledge of God and into all truth. In the name of Christ, then, are contained those three offices that the Son of God received from His Father and fulfilled, so that we might share with Him in all the benefits they produce.

Master. It seems, then, that your summary is this: the Son of God is not only called, and truly is, Jesus Christ, meaning the Savior, King, Priest, and Prophet, but that He holds all of these roles specifically for us and for our benefit and salvation.

Scholar. That is correct.

Master. But since all the godly are honored with the title of children of God, in what sense do you call Christ the only Son of God?

Scholar. God is the natural Father of Christ alone, and Christ alone is naturally the Son of God, begotten from the substance of the Father and sharing one substance with Him. But us God has freely made and adopted as His children through Christ. We are therefore right to acknowledge Christ as the only Son of God, since this honor belongs to Him by His own most rightful claim. Yet the name of children by adoption is also freely given to us through Christ.

Master. Now what do you mean when you say He is our Lord?

Scholar. Because the Father has given Him authority over humanity, angels, and all things, and because He governs the kingdom of God in both heaven and earth by His own will and power. This reminds all the godly that they are not free to live as they please, but that in body and soul, in life and death, they are entirely subject to their Lord, to whom they should be obedient and devoted in all things, as the most faithful of servants.

Master. What comes next?

Scholar. Next we learn how He took on human nature and accomplished everything necessary for our salvation.

Master. Was it then necessary that the Son of God become a man?

Scholar. Yes, because it was necessary that the one who had offended God on humanity's behalf should also be the one to make atonement; and that crushing burden was something no one but the man Jesus Christ could take up and carry. There could be no other mediator to reconcile humanity with God and make peace between them, except Jesus Christ, who is both God and man. So by becoming human, He took on our condition, so that within it He could bear, perform, and fulfill everything required for our salvation.

Master. But why was He conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, rather than being born in the ordinary, natural way?

Scholar. For someone to truly make amends for sin and fully restore those who are wicked and condemned, that person could not be tainted or marked by any sin whatsoever; he had to possess a singular, perfect righteousness and innocence. Since the entire human race was corrupt and defiled, it was necessary that the conception of the Son of God involve the miraculous, hidden work of the Holy Spirit, by which He was formed in the womb of the most chaste and pure Virgin, taking on her substance without being infected by the common corruption of humanity. Christ, that most pure Lamb, was therefore conceived and born through the Holy Spirit and the Virgin's conception, entirely without sin, so that He might cleanse, wash away, and remove our stains. We, by contrast, were first conceived and born in sin and uncleanness, and have continued in that unclean life ever since.

Master. But why does this Christian confession mention the Virgin Mary by name?

Scholar. So that He may be recognized as the true seed of Abraham and David, the one whom God foretold and pointed to through the prophecies of the prophets.

Master. From what you've said, I understand that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, took on human nature for the salvation of humanity. Now let's continue. What happened next?

Scholar. That same joyful and entirely heavenly teaching about the restoration of salvation through Christ (called in Greek Evangelion, meaning the Gospel or glad tidings), which the holy prophets, God's servants, had disclosed in earlier times, was at last taught with perfect clarity to all people by Jesus Christ Himself, the Son of God and of the Virgin, the Lord of the prophets and the very seed that had been promised. He then commanded the apostles He had chosen for this purpose to carry that same teaching throughout the entire world.

Master. Did He consider it enough simply to teach this doctrine in words?

Scholar. Not exactly; but in order to help people embrace it more willingly, He confirmed and validated His teaching through the healing of diseases, the casting out of demons, and countless other good works, miracles, and signs. Both His own life and the lives of His apostles, lived with remarkable innocence and holiness, were filled with such evidence.

Master. But why does the Creed skip over the story of His life, moving directly from His birth to His death?

Scholar. Because the Creed sets out only the central points of our redemption: those things that belong so essentially to it that they contain, in a sense, its very substance.

Master. Now tell me about the manner and circumstances of His death.

Scholar. He was wickedly betrayed and abandoned by His own disciples, falsely and maliciously accused by the Jews, condemned by Pontius Pilate the judge, brutally flogged, treated with contempt and mockery, nailed to the cross and fixed upon it; and so, tormented with every extreme pain, He suffered a shameful and agonizing death.

Master. Is this the thanks and repayment they gave Him for that heavenly teaching, and for benefits so great and so beyond counting?

Scholar. They certainly treated him with cruelty, malice, and wickedness. But he willingly and freely endured all of it, intending through this most precious sacrifice to reconcile his Father to mankind, to bear the punishment that was rightfully ours, and by this means to deliver us from it. It is not unheard of, even among human beings, for one person to stand as guarantor for another, or even to suffer on another's behalf. But with Christ as our guarantor suffering in our place, God dealt with him according to the full severity of justice, while toward us, whose sins, guilt, and deserved punishments he laid on Christ, He showed extraordinary gentleness, compassion, and mercy. Christ therefore suffered, and in suffering conquered death, the penalty appointed by the eternal God for human sin. More than that: through his death he overcame, crushed, and defeated the one who held the power of death, namely the devil, from whose tyranny and bondage he rescued us and set us free.

Master. But since we are still subject to death, which hangs over us every day, and still bear the consequences of our sin, what benefit do we actually receive from this victory?

Scholar. The benefit is immense. Through Christ's death, death itself has been transformed for the faithful: it is no longer destruction, but a transition and change of life, a brief and certain passage into heaven. We should follow our guide there without fear, for just as death could not destroy him, so he will not allow us to perish. The godly therefore have no reason to shrink back or tremble at death, which for them is a refuge from all the labors, anxieties, and sorrows of this life, and the doorway that leads them to heaven.

Master. Does Christ's death bring us any other benefit?

Scholar. In those who are united with Christ through faith, the twisted desires and corrupt cravings we call the lusts of the flesh are, in a sense, crucified with Him and put to death, so that they no longer hold dominion over our souls.

Master. Why is the Roman governor under whom He suffered specifically named?

Scholar. First, naming the specific people and times involved lends credibility to the account. Second, the event itself shows that Christ took on our human nature at precisely the right moment, the time God had set and appointed, namely when the scepter had passed from the line of Judah to the Romans and to foreign kings who held their kingdoms under Roman authority. Beyond this, God had long before foretold that Christ would be handed over to the Gentiles for execution and would die by a judge's formal sentence.

Master. Why was that significant?

Scholar. Though He was innocent, He was condemned by a judge's formal sentence so that He might, before the heavenly judgment seat, fully acquit and restore us who were guilty, whose case had been convicted and condemned by God's own judgment. Had He been murdered by thieves or cut down by private individuals in some riot or uprising, such a death could have carried no weight as a true satisfaction and recompense for sin.

Master. But Pilate did testify to His innocence.

Scholar. Pilate was right to testify to Christ's innocence, since he clearly knew him to be guilty of nothing. If Christ had been guilty, he would have been unfit to bear the punishment for others' sins and to reconcile God toward sinners. Yet Pilate, worn down by the relentless and unified cries of the Jews and overwhelmed by their persistent demands, eventually gave in to the crowd and condemned an innocent man. This makes it clear that Christ was not punished for any sins of his own, for he had none, nor did he suffer any penalty he deserved. Instead, he bore and paid the penalty owed for human wickedness, a penalty that was never his to bear, but which he took on himself freely, suffering through his willing death and washing away the stains of our sins with his own blameless blood.

Master. But why did the people hate a man of such extraordinary integrity and innocence so deeply and so completely?

Scholar. The priests, Pharisees, and scribes were consumed with envy. Unable to endure the presence and light of the truth, they stirred up the hatred of an unthinking crowd against the very one who defended and upheld that truth.

Master. Since he was condemned by the sentence of a judge, why do you say he died of his own will?

Scholar. If the Pharisees, scribes, or other Jews, whether acting alone or together, had held the power of life and death over Christ, they would have hastened His execution long before. They had conspired against Him repeatedly, and yet even when they had resolved to delay the execution until after the Feast of Unleavened Bread (a feast the Jews observed each year with great reverence and solemnity), they could not carry out that plan. He suffered just before the feast day, at a moment that suited them not at all, but that God had appointed for precisely this purpose. This makes it abundantly clear that the timing and management of these events were never in their hands. Of His own will, compelled by no outside force, He gave Himself to death for our salvation.

Master. Why did God specifically appoint that day for His death?

Scholar. So that the very timing itself would reveal that Christ is the Passover Lamb: that is, the truly pure and spotless Lamb who was to be slain, offering Himself as the most acceptable sacrifice to His Father on our behalf.

Master. Since He had the power to choose the manner of His death, why would He be crucified rather than die in some other way?

Scholar. First, consider His Father's will, to which He fully conformed Himself. This will had long been declared by God through countless prophecies and oracles, signs and wonders. Beyond that, Christ willingly chose to endure the most extreme suffering on behalf of those who had deserved exactly that. The particular death He died was, by any measure, the most cursed and degrading form of execution imaginable, and yet He chose it deliberately, so that He might take upon Himself the terrible curse that our sins had placed on us, and so free us from it. Every cruel treatment, every insult, every torment endured for our salvation He regarded as trivial, as nothing at all. He was content to be despised, cast aside, and counted the lowest of all people, so that He might restore to us, who were utterly ruined, the hope of salvation we had forfeited.

Master. Is there more to say about the death of Christ?

Scholar. Yes. Christ did not suffer merely the ordinary death that all people face. He was also confronted with the full horror of eternal death. He fought and wrestled, as it were hand to hand, against the entire army of hell. Before the judgment seat of God, He placed Himself under the crushing weight of divine judgment and the full severity of God's punishment. He was pressed into the most agonizing distress imaginable. For our sake, He endured terrible fears and the most bitter anguish of soul, so that He might satisfy God's just judgment in every respect and turn away His wrath. For sinners, whose place Christ took here, are owed not only the pain of present death but also the suffering of the death to come, the everlasting one. So when He took upon Himself both the guilt and the just condemnation of a humanity that was ruined and already sentenced, He was overwhelmed with such profound grief and anguish that He cried out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Matt 27:46).

Master. Does this not dishonor the Son of God, or suggest something like despair on His part?

Scholar. He endured all these things without any sin, and despair never took hold of his soul. Throughout his suffering, he never stopped trusting in his Father or holding firm to the hope of his deliverance. Though surrounded by fear, he was never overwhelmed or crushed by grief. Wrestling against the full power of hell, he conquered every force arrayed against him and overcame every fierce and violent assault. He took all of this upon himself and destroyed it utterly, yet remained most blessed throughout, and shared that blessedness with all who trust in him. For if his blessed death had not secured our salvation and life, we would all have perished forever in eternal death.

Master. But how could Christ, being God, experience such profound anguish and fear?

Scholar. This came about through the condition of his human nature, while his divine nature held back the full exercise of its power.

Master. Now give me a brief summary of the great benefits that believers receive from Christ's death and his most grievous suffering.

Scholar. In short, through his one and only sacrifice on the cross, he paid the full price for our sins before God, and by calming God's wrath, he reconciled us to Him. With his blood, like the purest cleansing water, he washed away every stain and blemish from our souls. He erased the memory of our sins with everlasting forgetfulness, so they would never again come before God's sight. He cancelled, nullified, and destroyed the written record by which we stood bound and convicted, along with the decree by which we were condemned. All of this he accomplished through his death, both for those who were living and for those who had already died trusting in him. Finally, through the power of his death, he restrains and subdues in those who cling to him wholly by faith the desires that would otherwise run wild and unchecked, and he quenches the burning intensity of those desires, so that they more readily obey and yield to the Spirit.

Master. Why do you also add that he was buried?

Scholar. His dead and lifeless body was laid in the tomb so that his death would be made all the more certain, and so that everyone could know it beyond doubt. For if he had revived immediately, many would have called his death into question, and it might well have seemed uncertain.

Master. What does the next part mean, about his descent into hell?

Scholar. Just as Christ's body descended into the depths of the earth, so His soul, separated from the body, descended into hell. Through this, the power and effect of His death reached even to the dead and to hell itself. The souls of unbelievers felt the full weight of their just condemnation for their rejection of God, while Satan himself, the prince of hell, found that all his tyrannical power and dominion of darkness had been broken, defeated, and brought to ruin. On the other side, those who had died believing in Christ came to understand that their redemption was now complete, and they received that knowledge with the deepest and most certain comfort.

Master. Now let us move on to what comes next.

Scholar. On the third day He rose again. Over the following forty days, He repeatedly appeared alive to His own people, spending time among His disciples, eating and drinking with them.

Master. Was it not enough that through His death we receive freedom from sin and forgiveness?

Scholar. It was not enough, whether you consider what it meant for Him or for us. If He had not risen, there would be no reason to believe He was the Son of God. In fact, those who watched Him hang on the cross threw exactly this in His face: "He saved others," they said, "but he cannot save himself. Let him come down from the cross now, and we will believe him." But by rising from the dead into eternal life, He demonstrated a far greater expression of His divine power than He would have by simply stepping down from the cross to escape death. Dying, after all, is something every person does. And while some have managed to avoid death for a time, to break the bonds of death once it has been suffered, and to rise again by His own power, that belongs uniquely to the only Son of God, Jesus Christ, the Author of life. Through this He proved Himself the conqueror of sin, death, and the devil himself.

Master. For what other reason did He rise again?

Scholar. So that the prophecies of David and the other holy prophets would be fulfilled, those who foretold that His body would not see corruption, nor His soul be abandoned in hell.

Master. But what benefit does Christ's resurrection bring to us?

Scholar. Many and varied benefits. From it comes the righteousness we previously lacked; from it comes the drive toward a blameless life, which we call newness of life; from it comes the power, virtue, and strength to live well and holily; and from it comes our hope that our mortal bodies will one day be raised from death and restored whole. For if Christ had been destroyed by death, He could not have been our deliverer. What hope of rescue could we have placed in one who had not rescued Himself? It was therefore fitting for the role the Lord took on, and a necessary condition of our salvation, that Christ should first free Himself from death, and then break apart the bonds of death on our behalf, so that we might anchor our hope of salvation in His resurrection. It simply cannot be that Christ our head, having risen, would allow us, the members of His body, to be consumed and destroyed by death.

Master. You have touched on the main reasons for Christ's resurrection, my child. Now I would like to hear what you think about His ascension into heaven.

Scholar. Surrounded by a cloud, and in full view of His apostles, He ascended into heaven, or rather above all the heavens, where He sits at the right hand of God the Father.

Master. Tell me how we should understand this.

Scholar. Simply put, Christ ascended bodily into heaven, where He had never been in bodily form before, and He left the earth, where He had previously dwelt in the body. In His divine nature, which fills all things, He has always been in heaven; and through that same divine nature and His Spirit, He is continually present with His church on earth and will remain so until the end of the world.

Master. So you're saying that His divine nature and His human nature are present in different ways?

Scholar. Yes, indeed, master. We neither treat His divinity as something physical, nor do we treat His body as divine; His humanity is a created thing, while His divinity is not. The holy scriptures testify that His humanity was taken up into heaven and remains there; but His divinity is so boundless that it fills both heaven and earth.

Master. But do you say that Christ is present with us in body in any sense?

Scholar. If we may compare great things to small, Christ's body is present to our faith in the same way that the sun, when we see it, is present to our eyes. Nothing within the reach of our senses comes closer to resembling Christ than the sun, which, though it remains fixed in the heavens and therefore does not literally touch the eye, is nonetheless present to our sight across an immense distance of space. In the same way, the body of Christ, which was taken from us at His ascension, has left the world and gone to the Father, and is truly absent from our senses; yet our faith moves freely in heaven, beholding that Sun of Righteousness and standing genuinely in His presence there, just as our sight is present with the body of the sun in the sky, or as the sun is present to our sight here on earth. Furthermore, just as the sun is present to all things through its light, so Christ is present to all and fills all things through His divinity, His Spirit, and His power.

Master. Now, turning to Christ's ascension and His sitting at the right hand of the Father: what do you consider most significant about these events?

Scholar. It was fitting that Christ, who had descended from the highest degree of honor and dignity to the lowest condition of a servant, enduring the shame of condemnation and a disgraceful death, should in turn receive the most glorious honor and exalted standing. This was the same glory He had possessed before, so that His majesty might correspond in equal measure to the humiliation He had endured. Paul teaches this plainly in his letter to the Philippians: "He became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross; and therefore God made him the head of the Church, advanced him above all principalities, endowed him with dominion over heaven and earth, to govern all things; exalted him to the highest height, and gave him a name that is above all names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, both of things in heaven, earth, and hell" (Phil 2:8-10).

Master. When you speak of the right hand of God and of sitting, do you imagine that God has a physical form or human shape?

Scholar. Not at all, master. Because we speak of God among human beings, we naturally express these things in human terms, using them to convey how Christ received the kingdom given to Him by His Father. Kings customarily seat at their right hand those on whom they wish to bestow the highest honor, making them deputies over their realm. So what these words actually mean is that God the Father made Christ His Son the head of the Church, and that through Him it is His will to protect those who belong to Him and to govern all things universally.

Master. Well said. Now, what benefit do we receive from His ascending into heaven and sitting at the right hand of His Father?

Scholar. First, Christ had descended to earth as though into exile for our sake; so when He ascended into heaven, His Father's inheritance, He entered in our name, making a way and an entrance for us, and opening the gate of heaven that had previously been shut against us because of sin. Since Christ, our head, has carried our flesh with Him into heaven, so mighty and loving a head will never abandon us on earth, we who are members of His body. Beyond this, He stands in the presence of God, pleading our case and interceding for us as the champion of our cause; with such an advocate on our side, our case cannot fail.

Master. But why did He not simply remain here with us on earth?

Scholar. Once Christ had fully accomplished everything the Father had appointed Him to do for our salvation, there was no reason for Him to remain on earth any longer. And yet, even though He is no longer physically present, He continues to do everything He would do if He were here in the flesh: He preserves, comforts, and strengthens us; He corrects, restrains, and disciplines us. Beyond this, as He promised, He sends His Holy Spirit down from heaven into our hearts as the surest possible guarantee of His goodwill. Through that Spirit, He brings us out of darkness and confusion into clear light; He gives sight to our blind minds; He drives sorrow from our hearts and heals their wounds. By the divine movement of His Spirit, He lifts our eyes toward heaven and draws our minds and hearts up from the ground, away from corrupt desires and earthly preoccupations, toward the place where Christ sits at the right hand of the Father. In this way, with our attention fixed on heavenly things and our spirits raised and made upright, we learn to hold our lesser concerns in their proper place: life, death, wealth, poverty. We face all worldly things with courage and a kind of holy indifference. To put it plainly, Christ, seated at the right hand of God, rules and orders the world through His power, wisdom, and providence. He moves, governs, and directs all things, and will continue to do so until the present order of creation comes to its end.

Master. Since Christ, though taken up bodily into heaven, has not abandoned those who remain here on earth, don't those people reason very crudely who measure His presence or absence purely by where His physical body is?

Scholar. Yes, absolutely. Things that have no physical form cannot be perceived by the physical senses. Has anyone ever seen their own soul? No one has. Yet what is more present, more near, more intimately bound to a person than their own soul? Spiritual things can only be seen with the eye of the Spirit. So anyone who wants to see Christ on earth should open not the eyes of the body, but the eyes of the soul and of faith, and they will see Him present, even where physical sight cannot reach.

Master. But with whom does faith recognize that He is especially and most powerfully present?

Scholar. The sight of faith will perceive Him present, yes, and right in the midst, wherever two or three are gathered together in His name. It will see Him present with those who are His, that is, with all the truly faithful, right to the end of all ages. What am I saying? It will see Christ present; more than that, every godly person will both see and feel Him dwelling within themselves, as intimately as their own soul. For He dwells and remains in the soul of the person who places all their trust and hope in Him.

Master. Do you have anything more to say on this?

Scholar. By ascending and sitting at the right hand of His Father, Christ has removed and thoroughly uprooted from people's hearts the false belief that even His own apostles once held: that Christ would reign visibly here on earth, as other kings and worldly rulers do. The Lord wanted to pull this error out of our minds and lead us to think far more highly of His kingdom. So it was His will to withdraw from our sight and from all physical perception, so that by this means our faith might be both stirred up and trained to behold His governance and providence, which no bodily sense can grasp.

Master. Is there any other reason why He withdrew Himself from the earth into heaven?

Scholar. Since Christ is prince not merely of one nation but of every nation on earth, and of heaven itself, and Lord over both the living and the dead, it was fitting that He should govern His kingdom in a manner beyond what our senses can perceive. If He were visible to human eyes, He would need to move from place to place, traveling here and there, relocating to various countries to conduct His affairs. Yet if He were present everywhere at once, He would seem not to be a man at all, but some kind of spirit, without a real body, only an imagined one. Or, as Eutyches, the ancient heretic, believed, people might conclude that His body had been absorbed into His divine nature so that it could be everywhere simultaneously. From that kind of thinking, endless false beliefs would follow. Christ has swept all of those errors aside by ascending bodily and completely into heaven, freeing human minds from the most serious theological confusion. Even so, though He is not visible to us, He governs and rules the world with extraordinary power and wisdom. It belongs to human rulers to govern their societies through human institutions and human order; it belongs to Christ, the Son of God, to govern after the manner of God Himself.

Master. You have touched on some of the most significant among the countless and immeasurable benefits we receive through the death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ. The full scope of those benefits cannot be grasped by the human mind and heart, let alone expressed in words. But let me test your understanding a little further: give me a brief summary of the chief points to which all the rest can be referred.

Scholar. So then, I say that we receive two kinds of benefit from all that Christ has done, including both the things we have discussed and everything else. The first is this: whatever He did, He did entirely for our sake, and in such a complete sense that these acts belong to us as much as to Him. When we hold to them with firm and living faith, it is as though we ourselves had done them. He was crucified, and we too are crucified with Him, our sins punished in Him. He died and was buried, and we also, together with our sins, are dead and buried, in such a way that all memory of our sins is forgotten forever. He rose from death, and we too are raised with Him, made partakers of His resurrection and life, so that from that point on death no longer has any power over us. For the same Spirit that raised Jesus Christ from the dead now lives in us. Beyond all this, since His ascension we have received the gifts of the Holy Spirit in great abundance; He has also lifted us up and carried us into heaven with Him, so that we might, as it were alongside our Head, take possession of it. These things are not yet visible to us, but they will be brought fully into the light when Christ, who is the light of the world and in whom all our hope and treasure is grounded, appears openly to all people, shining in immortal glory.

Master. What is the second kind of benefit we receive from the works of Christ?

Scholar. Christ has set Himself before us as the pattern by which we are to shape our lives. When Christ died for sin and was buried, He suffered that death only once. When He rose again and ascended into heaven, He rose and ascended only once; He dies no more, but now enjoys eternal life and reigns in the highest and everlasting glory. So if we have died and been buried to sin, how can we go on living in it? If we have risen with Christ, if through firm faith and steadfast hope we dwell with Him in heaven, then from now on we should direct all our thoughts and concerns toward heavenly, divine, and eternal things, not earthly, worldly, and passing ones. Just as we have until now borne the image of the earthly man, we should from now on put on the image of the heavenly man, bearing all sorrows and wrongs quietly and patiently after His example, and following and expressing His other divine virtues as far as any mortal person is able. And since Christ our Lord never stops doing us good, continually interceding with His Father on our behalf, giving us His Holy Spirit, and generously adorning His church with abundant gifts, it is fitting that we in the same way should devote our full effort to helping our neighbors, binding ourselves to all people in the closest bonds of love, harmony, and deep friendship, to the fullest extent we can, and so be shaped entirely after the character of Christ as our one true pattern.

Master. Does this not also remind us of our duty toward Christ?

Scholar. We are called to obey and follow the will of Christ, to whom we belong entirely and whom we confess as our Lord. We are called to love, honor, and embrace Christ our Savior with our whole heart, the One who showed us such profound love while we were still His enemies, a love so complete that it could not possibly be surpassed. We are to hold Christ more precious to us than we hold ourselves, and to give ourselves back to Him fully, along with everything we have, just as He gave Himself fully to us. We are to regard wealth, honor, glory, our homeland, our parents, our children, our spouses, and every other cherished and delightful thing as worthless in comparison to Christ, and to treat every danger we face for His sake as a small thing. Finally, we are to surrender even our lives and our very souls rather than abandon Christ and the love and loyalty we owe Him. For there is a blessed kind of death: the death that nature will one day require of us, but that is offered above all for Christ. For Christ, I say, who freely gave Himself to death on our behalf, and who, being the very author of life, both desires and has the power to raise us from death and restore us to life.

Master. Go on.

Scholar. We are also taught to worship Christ the Lord, who now reigns in heaven, in a way that is pure and sincere. Not through earthly rituals, corrupt traditions, or the hollow inventions of men, but through a heavenly and truly spiritual worship, the kind that is fitting both for us who offer it and for Him who receives it. This is the same worship with which He honored and continues to honor His Father, since in honoring Christ we give that same honor to His Father as well. For whoever honors Christ honors His Father also, and Christ Himself is the surest and most reliable witness to this truth.

Master. Now I would like to hear you give me a brief account of what you believe about the last judgment and the end of the world.

Scholar. Christ will come in the clouds of heaven with supreme glory and majestic honor, surrounded and attended by the vast company of holy angels. At the terrible sound of the trumpet's blast, all the dead who have lived from the creation of the world to that day will rise again, body and soul whole and complete, and will appear before His throne to be judged individually, each giving account of their life, which will be examined by an incorruptible and exacting Judge according to the truth.

Master. But since the day of judgment will come at the end of the world, and death is fixed and appointed for all people, why does the Creed say that some will still be living at that time?

Scholar. St. Paul teaches that those who are still alive at that moment will be instantly transformed and made new, so that the corruption of their bodies will be stripped away and mortality replaced with immortality. This transformation will serve them in place of death, because the end of their corrupted nature will be the beginning of a nature that can never decay.

Master. Should the godly be struck with fear and dread when they think about this judgment, shrinking back from it in terror?

Scholar. No. For He will pronounce the sentence, He who was once condemned by the Judge's sentence in our place, so that we, though we stand under God's severe judgment, will not be condemned but acquitted. He will render that verdict, I say, the One in whose faith and protection we rest, and who has taken up the defense of our cause. More than that, our consciences are held steady by a singular and profound comfort: even in the midst of life's miseries and sorrows, we can rejoice that Christ will one day be the Judge of the world. Our hope rests chiefly on this, that at last we will possess, in unchangeable eternity, that kingdom of immortality and everlasting life, complete and abundant in every way, which until now has only been begun in us, and which was ordained for the children of God before the foundations of the world were laid. But the ungodly, who neither feared God's justice and wrath nor trusted in His mercy and clemency through Christ, who persecuted the righteous by every means and in every place, wronged them in every conceivable way, and put them to death with all manner of torments and cruel executions, will be cast together with Satan and all the devils into the prison of hell prepared for them, the fitting recompense for their wickedness, into everlasting darkness. There, tormented by the weight of their own sins, by eternal fire, and by every extreme punishment, they will endure eternal suffering. For the offense that mortal men have committed against the immeasurable and infinite majesty of the immortal God is itself worthy of punishment that is infinite and without end.

Master. The last judgment brings with it the end of the world, and I would have you speak to that more plainly.

Scholar. The apostle describes the end of the world in these terms: the heavens will pass away like a violent storm, the elements will melt in intense heat, and the earth along with everything in it will be consumed by fire. What he means is this: the time will come when this world is purged by fire, and all its corruption will be burned away, just as fire refines gold. Everything will be completely renewed and brought to its highest and most perfect state, clothed in a beauty that will never fade across the endless ages of eternity. This is what St. Peter means when he says we look forward, according to God's promise, to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness will make its home (2 Pet 3:13). It is entirely believable that sin, along with the corruption, instability, and other evils that sin has produced, will one day finally come to an end. This is the essence of the second part of the Christian faith, which contains the whole story of our redemption through Jesus Christ.

Master. Now that you have spoken about God the Father as Creator, and about His Son Jesus Christ as Savior, and have finished the first two parts of the Christian confession, I would like to hear you speak about the third part: what do you believe about the Holy Spirit?

Scholar. I confess that He is the third Person of the most Holy Trinity, proceeding from the Father and the Son before all time began, equal with them both, of the very same substance, and to be honored and called upon together with them both.

Master. Why is He called holy?

Scholar. Not only because of His own holiness, which is itself the highest holiness there is, but also because it is through Him that God's elect and the members of Christ are made holy. For this reason, the holy scriptures call Him "the Spirit of sanctification."

Master. In what does this sanctification consist, in your view?

Scholar. First, through His breath and impulse, we are born anew, which is why Christ said we must be born again of water and of the Spirit. Through His heavenly breath upon us, God the Father adopts us as His children, which is why the Spirit is rightly called the Spirit of Adoption. Through His teaching, the divine mysteries are opened to us; through His light, the eyes of our souls are made clear to understand them; through His judgment, sins are either pardoned or retained; through His strength, sinful flesh is subdued and tamed, and corrupt desires are bridled and restrained. At His will, countless gifts are distributed among the faithful. In the many troubles, hardships, and miseries of this life, the Holy Spirit, through His quiet consolation and the gift of hope, soothes and comforts the grief and mourning of the godly, who are so often the most afflicted in this world, and whose sorrows lie beyond any human comfort. It is from this ministry that He takes His true and fitting name: Paraclete, or Comforter. Finally, through His power our mortal bodies will rise again to life. In short, whatever benefits are given to us in Christ, we understand, experience, and receive them all through the work of the Holy Spirit. It is no wonder, then, that we place our confidence and trust in the Author of such great gifts, and that we worship and call upon Him.

Master. Now we come to the fourth part, concerning the Holy Catholic Church. What are your thoughts on this?

Scholar. Let me summarize what the holy Scriptures declare so fully and richly on this subject. Before the Lord God made heaven and earth, He determined to establish for Himself a most beautiful kingdom and a most holy commonwealth. The Apostles who wrote in Greek called this the Ecclesia, which can fittingly be translated as a Congregation. Into this, as into His own city, God incorporated an infinite multitude of people, all of whom must be subject, serviceable, and obedient to Christ their only king, all of whom have committed themselves to His protection, and all of whom He has taken it upon Himself to defend, continually maintaining and preserving them. All who truly fear, honor, and call upon God belong properly to this commonwealth; those who devote themselves entirely to living holy and godly lives, who place all their trust and hope in God, and who look with complete confidence toward the blessedness of eternal life. Those who remain steadfast, stable, and constant in this faith were chosen, appointed, and (as we call it) predestined to this great happiness before the foundations of the world were laid. They carry a witness to this within their own souls, with the Spirit of Christ as its author and the surest possible pledge of that confidence. It is by the prompting of that same divine Spirit that I am fully persuaded that I too have been freely made, by God's gracious gift through Christ, a member of this blessed city.

Master. That is certainly a godly and very necessary conviction. Now, then, give me the definition of the Church you are speaking of.

Scholar. I can say most briefly and truly that the Church is the body of Christ (1 Cor 12:27; Eph 1:23; 5:23; Col 1:18, 24).

Master. Yes, but I would like that explained more plainly and at greater length.

Scholar. The Church is the body of the Christian commonwealth: that is, the universal community and fellowship of all the faithful, whom God through Christ appointed to eternal life before the beginning of time (Rom 12:5; 1 Cor 12:12, 20, 26; 2 Cor 1:22; Eph 3:9; Matt 25:34; Eph 1:4-5; 1 Thess 3:18).

Master. Why is this point included in the Creed?

Scholar. Because without the Church, Christ's death would have been pointless, and everything we have discussed so far would be empty and meaningless.

Master. How so?

Scholar. Up to this point, we have been talking about the causes of salvation and laying out its foundations: how God loves and values us through Christ's merit, and how through the work of the Holy Spirit we receive the grace of God by which we are restored. But all of this has one essential result: that there exists a Church, a community of the godly on whom God's benefits can be bestowed; a blessed city and commonwealth to which we should devote everything we have, consecrating ourselves entirely to it, and for which we should be willing to give our lives (Matt 16:18; Acts 20:28; 1 Cor 12:12; 14:12; 2 Cor 11:28; Eph 3:10-11, 21; 5:25; 1 Tim 3:15).

Master. Why do you call this church holy?

Scholar. So that by this quality it can be distinguished from the corrupt company of the ungodly. For all those whom God has chosen, He has restored to holiness of life and innocence (Rom 8:29; 1 Cor 14:33; Eph 1:4-5, 11).

Master. Is this holiness you attribute to the church already complete and perfect in every respect?

Scholar. Not yet. As long as we live this mortal life, human weakness and frailty mean we are never strong enough to avoid every kind of sin entirely. The holiness of the church is therefore not yet complete and perfect, though it has made a genuine and meaningful beginning. But when the church is finally and fully united with Christ, from whom all her purity and cleanness flows, she will be clothed in innocence and holiness in every respect, perfectly finished, like a garment of the purest, most brilliant white (Rom 8:26; 1 Cor 13:9, 11-12; 2 Cor 12:5, 9; 1 Cor 13:10, 12; 15:53; Eph 5:26; Rev 19:8; 21:2, 10, 27).

Master. Why do you call this church "catholic"?

Scholar. It simply means universal. This community of the faithful is not confined to any particular place or period of history. It encompasses the entire number of believers who have lived, and who will yet live, in every place and every age since the world began, so that there may be one body of the church, just as there is one Christ who is its only head. The Jews once claimed the church of God as their own exclusive inheritance, insisting it belonged to their nation by birthright. But the Christian faith declares something far broader: that a vast and countless multitude of godly people, drawn from every country on earth, from every corner of every nation, and from every generation across all of history, has been incorporated by God into this church as into His own city. This incorporation comes through the power of His holy word and the divine movement of His heavenly Spirit. United in one true faith, with one mind and one voice, all these people are called to be obedient in everything to Christ their only King, as members are to their head.

Master. Do you think those people are right who add to this article of the Christian faith the belief in the holy catholic church of Rome?

Scholar. I think they're wrong on two counts here. First, they distort the meaning of this passage by insisting that no one can be considered part of the church of Christ unless he treats every decree and ordinance of the bishop of Rome as sacred. Second, they contradict themselves in the most glaring way: they first acknowledge that the church is spread far and wide across all lands and peoples, and then immediately turn around and confine it to a single nation. In doing this, they fall into a deeper absurdity than even the Jews, managing to assert two flatly contradictory things in the same breath. This madness is driven by nothing more than a blind, grasping desire to smuggle in the bishop of Rome as the head of the church on earth, displacing Christ Himself.

Master. Now I'd like to hear you explain why, immediately after "the holy church," we add the phrase "the communion of saints."

Scholar. These two belong together and complement each other perfectly. This part of the creed expresses more clearly than anything else the bond and fellowship that exists among the members of the church. God has always had those who worship Him purely and sincerely, in every country and in every age, and all of them, though separated by vast distances of time and place, whatever nation or land they belong to, are still members most intimately joined and bound together in one and the same body, of which Christ is the head. This is the nature of the communion that the godly share with God and with one another. They are bound together most closely in a shared community of spirit, of faith, of sacraments, of prayer, of the forgiveness of sins, of eternal happiness, and ultimately of all the benefits that God gives His church through Christ. They are so tightly united by bonds of harmony and love, so completely of one mind, that the good of any one member is the good of all; and their greatest effort is directed toward this: how they may, through mutual acts of kindness, through counsel and practical help, support one another in all things, and especially in attaining that blessed and eternal life. But because this communion of saints cannot be perceived by our senses, nor grasped through any natural form of knowledge or power of understanding as other civil communities and human societies can be, it is rightly placed here among those things that belong to faith.

Master. I am very pleased with this brief account of the church and of the benefits God has bestowed on her through Christ, for it is taught most plainly in the holy scriptures. But can the church be known in any other way than through believing, through faith?

Scholar. The Creed deals properly with the congregation of those whom God, through His secret election, has adopted to Himself through Christ. This church cannot be seen with the eyes, nor can it always be identified by outward signs. Yet there is also a visible church of God, and He does reveal its marks and characteristics to us.

Master. Then, so that this whole matter of the church can be made clearer, describe this visible church for me, along with its marks and signs, so that it can be distinguished from any other gathering of people.

Scholar. I will do my best. The visible church is nothing other than a body of people who, wherever they may be found, profess the doctrine of Christ in its pure and uncorrupted form: the very doctrine that the evangelists and apostles faithfully preserved in the enduring record of Holy Scripture. These are people who truly call on God the Father in the name of Christ, and who also observe His mysteries, commonly called sacraments, with the same purity and simplicity (in terms of their substance) that the apostles of Christ practiced and committed to writing.

Master. You are saying, then, that the marks of the visible church are the sincere preaching of the gospel (that is, the proclamation of the benefits of Christ), the calling on God in prayer, and the proper administration of the sacraments.

Scholar. These are indeed the essential and defining marks of the visible church, without which it cannot truly be, or rightly be called, the church of Christ. Yet in a well-ordered church, one should also see a clear structure of governance and a form of ecclesiastical discipline strong enough that no one living within that community is free to speak or act wickedly or outrageously without consequence, and through which all offenses are avoided as far as possible. This discipline has, however, been gradually eroding for a long time now, as human behavior has grown corrupt and disordered, especially among the wealthy and powerful, who insist on immunity and complete freedom to sin without restraint. Because of this, such a serious system of oversight and correction is difficult to maintain in churches. Even so, wherever the word of God, prayer, and the sacraments are preserved purely and sincerely, there is no question that the church of Christ is present.

Master. Does it follow, then, that everyone within this visible church is among those chosen for eternal life?

Scholar. Many people attach themselves to this community through hypocrisy and a performance of godliness, while being anything but true members of the church. Nevertheless, because wherever God's word is sincerely taught and His sacraments rightly administered there are always some whom Christ has appointed to salvation, we regard the whole company as the church of God. Christ Himself, after all, promises to be present wherever two or three are gathered in His name.

Master. Why do you mention the forgiveness of sins immediately after the church?

Scholar. First, because the keys that open and shut heaven, meaning the power to bind and loose, to retain and forgive sins, which operates through the ministry of God's word, have been given by Christ to the church and properly belong to it. Second, because no one receives forgiveness of sins unless they are a true member of the body of Christ, meaning someone who earnestly, devoutly, and holily embraces and maintains the common fellowship of the church, continuously and to the very end.

Master. Is there then no hope of salvation outside the Church?

Scholar. Outside it there can be nothing but damnation, death, and destruction. What hope of life can remain for members who have been torn away and cut off from the head and body? Those who stir up discord in the Church of God, who create division and strife within it, and who trouble it with factions, have all hope of salvation through the forgiveness of sins cut off from them, until they are reconciled and return to harmony and fellowship with the Church.

Master. What do you mean by the word "forgiveness"?

Scholar. That the faithful receive from God a full discharge of their guilt and pardon for their offenses. God, for Christ's sake, freely forgives them their sins and rescues them from judgment and damnation, delivering them from the punishments that their wrongdoing rightly deserves.

Master. Can we not, then, satisfy God through devout and dutiful works, and earn pardon for our sins on our own merit?

Scholar. Mercy isn't something we earn through our own merits. Rather, God yields to Christ and remits the punishment and correction He would otherwise have imposed on us. Christ alone, through His suffering and death, paid the full penalty for our sins and thereby satisfied God. It is through Christ alone, therefore, that we have access to God's grace. We receive this gift from His free generosity and goodness, and we have nothing whatsoever to offer or give back to Him in return.

Master. Is there nothing at all required on our part to obtain forgiveness of sins?

Scholar. Among people, once a fault has been admitted, it's often difficult to win forgiveness from the one who has the right to punish the offender. Yet even those outside our faith have recognized that confession is a genuine remedy for the person who has done wrong. I have already explained how sinners seeking pardon need repentance (which some prefer to call resipiscence, meaning a return to right thinking, or amendment of life) along with a genuine change of heart. The Lord promises to pardon sinners if they repent, if they reform, and if they turn their hearts away from their sinful lives and back to Him.

Master. How many parts does repentance have?

Scholar. Two essential parts: the putting to death of the old self, or the flesh; and the bringing to life of the new self, or the spirit.

Master. I'd like you to explain those more fully and clearly.

Scholar. Mortifying the old man means genuinely and sincerely acknowledging and confessing sin, along with a deep sense of shame and sorrow. The person who truly repents is profoundly grieved that he has strayed from righteousness and failed to obey God's will. Every person, when reflecting on the sins of his past life, should thoroughly despise himself, be angry with himself, and act as a strict judge of his own faults, pronouncing sentence on himself, so that he does not have to endure the terrible judgment of God in His wrath. Some have called this sorrow contrition, and closely bound up with it are an earnest hatred of sin and a longing to recover the righteousness that has been lost.

Master. But the awareness of serious offenses, and the full weight of repentance, can become so overwhelming that the human mind, hemmed in by fear on every side, may fall into despair of salvation.

Scholar. That is true, unless God brings comfort to meet the depth of that sorrow. But for the godly, there remains yet another dimension of repentance, which is called the renewing of the Spirit, or the quickening of the new man. This is when faith arrives and refreshes and lifts up the troubled mind, eases the sorrow, comforts the person, and draws him back from the edge of despair to a living hope of receiving pardon through the mercy of God in Jesus Christ. From this renewal, the fruits worthy of repentance afterward spring up, and I will speak about these more fully later. This is the pardon of God through Christ, which rescues us from the gate of death, yes, from hell itself, and brings us into life. And this is what we mean when we confess that we believe in the forgiveness of sins.

Master. Is a person able, in the midst of this fear and these severe distresses, to rescue himself by his own strength?

Scholar. Not in the least. It is God alone who strengthens the person who has despaired of his own condition, raises him up in affliction, restores him in utter misery, and by whose guidance the sinner comes to hold the hope, the disposition, and the will that I have just described.

Master. Now recite the rest of the Creed.

Scholar. I believe "the resurrection of the flesh, and life everlasting."

Master. Since you've already touched on this when we discussed the last judgment, I'll only ask you a few questions. Why do we believe these things, and what purpose does that belief serve?

Scholar. Although we believe that human souls are immortal and eternal, if we were to think that our bodies would be utterly and permanently destroyed by death, we would inevitably lose all hope. Without one part of ourselves, we could never fully possess perfect joy and immortality. We therefore firmly believe not only that our souls, when we depart this life and are freed from the company of our bodies, immediately fly up pure and whole into heaven to be with Christ, but also that our bodies will eventually be restored to a better state of life, reunited with their souls, and that we will thus be made perfectly and completely blessed in our entirety. In other words, we have no doubt that in both body and soul we will enjoy eternity, immortality, and a most blessed life that will never change across the endless span of time. This hope sustains us in our suffering. Grounded in this hope, we not only patiently endure the hardships and burdens that fall on us in this life, but also the very act of leaving life and the anguish of death itself. We are thoroughly convinced that death is not a destruction that ends and consumes everything, but rather a guide leading us to heaven, setting us on the path to a quiet, peaceful, blessed, and everlasting life. And so we gladly and joyfully run, indeed we fly, out of the bonds of our bodies as if escaping a prison, toward heaven as the common home and city of God and humanity alike.

Master. Does believing these things serve any other purpose?

Scholar. We are reminded not to burden or entangle ourselves with uncertain, fleeting, and fragile things; not to fix our eyes on earthly glory and prosperity, but to live in this world as strangers, always mindful that we are passing through; to look upward with longing toward heaven and heavenly things, where we will enjoy eternal life in perfect bliss.

Master. You said earlier that the wicked will rise again in a condition utterly unlike that of the godly, that is, to eternal misery and everlasting death. Why, then, does the Creed mention only everlasting life and say nothing at all about hell?

Scholar. The Creed is a confession of the Christian faith, and it belongs only to the godly. For that reason, it speaks only of what brings comfort, namely the great gifts that God will give to those who are His. It does not catalog the punishments prepared for those who remain outside the kingdom of God.

Master. Now that you have explained the Creed, which is the summary of the Christian faith, tell me: what benefit do we actually receive from this faith?

Scholar. Righteousness before God, through which we become heirs of eternal life.

Master. Does our own devotion toward God, then, and our living honestly and holily among other people, not justify us before Him?

Scholar. We have already touched on this after explaining the law, and in other places as well. If any person were truly able to live uprightly according to the precise standard of God's law, that person would rightly be counted as justified by good works. But since we all fall far short of that perfection, and are so weighed down by the awareness of our sins, we must take a different path and find another way for God to receive us into His favor, one that does not depend on anything we deserve.

Master. What way?

Scholar. We must turn to the mercy of God, by which He freely embraces us with love and goodwill in Christ, without any merit on our part and without regard for our works. He both forgives our sins and grants us the righteousness of Christ through faith in Him, so that He accepts us on the basis of Christ's righteousness as though it were our own. All our justification, therefore, must be credited to God's mercy through Christ.

Master. How do we know this to be true?

Scholar. Through the gospel, which contains God's promises in Christ. When we join faith to those promises, that is, a firm conviction of the mind and a steady confidence in God's goodwill of the kind described throughout the Creed, we take hold of and enter into the justification I am describing.

Master. Are you saying, then, that faith is the principal cause of this justification, so that we are counted righteous before God by the merit of faith itself?

Scholar. No, because that would be to put faith in the place of Christ. The source of our justification is the mercy of God, which comes to us through Christ, is offered to us in the gospel, and is received by us through faith as if by an outstretched hand.

Master. You are saying, then, that faith is not the cause but the instrument of justification, in that it lays hold of Christ, who is our justification, binding us to Him so closely that it makes us partakers of all His blessings?

Scholar. Yes, exactly.

Master. But can this justification be so separated from good works that a person who has it can lack them entirely?

Scholar. No. Through faith we receive Christ as He gives Himself to us. And He does not merely free us from sin and death and reconcile us to God; He also regenerates us and reshapes us by the divine power and inspiration of the Holy Spirit, directing us toward innocence and holiness, which we call newness of life.

Master. You're saying, then, that justice, faith, and good works naturally belong together, and therefore should no more be separated than Christ, who is their author in us, can be separated from Himself.

Scholar. That is correct.

Master. Then this teaching about faith doesn't pull people's minds away from godly works and duties?

Scholar. Not at all. Good works stand on faith as on their root. Faith, far from drawing our hearts away from upright living, actually drives us most powerfully toward a life well lived. Indeed, anyone who does not also strive, to the best of their ability, to avoid vice and pursue virtue, living always as one who expects to give an account, is not truly faithful.

Master. Then tell me plainly: how are our works acceptable to God, and what rewards are given for them?

Scholar. Two things are primarily required in good works. First, that we do those works prescribed by God's law; second, that they be done with the mind and faith that God requires. No actions or intentions undertaken without faith can please God.

Master. Go on.

Scholar. It is clear, then, that all works we do before we are born again and renewed by the Spirit of God, those works that can properly be called our own, are flawed. Whatever appearance of beauty and worth they may present to human eyes, since they spring from a flawed and corrupted heart, which God considers above all else, they cannot help but be defiled and corrupt, and so they deeply offend Him. Such works, therefore, like bad fruit growing from a bad tree, God despises and rejects.

Master. Can we not, then, come before God with any works or merits that might first move Him to love us and be good to us?

Scholar. Surely, with none. For God loved and chose us in Christ not only when we were His enemies, that is, sinners, but before the foundations of the world were even laid. And this is the same source and origin of our justification that I spoke of earlier.

Master. What do you think of the works that we perform, after being reconciled to God's favor, through the prompting of the Holy Spirit?

Scholar. The faithful works of godliness that flow from faith, working through love, are indeed acceptable to God, yet not because they deserve it on their own merits. Rather, it is because He, in His generosity, graciously extends His favor to them. For though these works derive from the Spirit of God, like small streams flowing from a spring, our flesh mingles with them in the doing and corrupts them along the way, as if by infection. It is like a river that is otherwise pure and clear, but becomes troubled and muddied by the mire and slime through which it passes.

Master. How, then, can you say that they please God?

Scholar. It is faith that secures God's favor for our works, because faith is assured that He will not deal with us according to the strict demands of the law, nor call our deeds to a precise accounting, nor measure them as if by a perfect standard. That is, He will not weigh them with severity, but will instead pardon all their corruption for Christ's sake and His merits, and will count them as fully perfect.

Master. So you still maintain that we cannot earn justification before God through the merit of works, since you hold that all human deeds, even the most perfect, stand in need of pardon?

Scholar. God has decreed this in His word, and His Holy Spirit teaches us to pray that He would not bring us into judgment. The righteousness that God requires as Judge must be thoroughly complete, perfect in every part and detail, measured against the most exacting standard, the plumb-line of God's own law and judgment. Since our works, even the very best of them, fall far short of that standard and deviate widely from the rule of God's law and justice, they are in many ways blameworthy and condemned. We cannot, therefore, be justified before God by works.

Master. Doesn't this teaching pull people's minds away from the duties of godliness, making them slower and less eager to do good, or at least less cheerful and willing in their godly efforts?

Scholar. No, it does not. We cannot conclude that good works are useless or done in vain simply because we don't obtain justification through them. They serve both the benefit of our neighbor and the glory of God. They also function as clear testimonies, assuring us of God's goodwill toward us, of our love toward God in return, of our faith, and therefore of our salvation. It is entirely fitting that we, having been redeemed by the blood of Christ the Son of God and having received countless and immeasurable benefits from God, should live our lives wholly shaped by the will and purpose of our Redeemer. In doing so, we show ourselves mindful and grateful to the Author of our salvation, and by our example we draw others toward Him. Anyone who keeps these truths in mind will find genuine joy in their good efforts and works.

Master. But God draws us toward good living with certain rewards, both in this life and in the life to come, and He makes a kind of covenant with us, as though offering wages for our labor.

Scholar. That reward, as I have said, is not given to works because they deserve it, or rendered to them as payment for merit. Rather, it is freely given to us by the generosity of God, without any deserving on our part. Justification is something God gives us as a gift, flowing from His deep love for us and His liberality through Christ. When I speak of God's gift and liberality, I mean something entirely free and generous, with no contribution of merit or desert from us. It is God's pure and sincere generosity, which He applies to the salvation of those He loves and who trust in Him. It is not hired or purchased like a commercial transaction, as if He were trading His blessings for some benefit to Himself, requiring payment or compensation in return. To think of it that way would diminish both the generosity and the majesty of God.

Master. Since God gives us justification through faith, and by that same faith accepts and approves our works, tell me: do you think this faith is a natural quality we possess, or is it a gift from God?

Scholar. Faith is a gift from God, and a remarkable and precious one at that. Our minds are simply too dull and limited to grasp the wisdom of God, whose depths are opened to us through faith. Our hearts are far more inclined toward distrust, or toward a misplaced and corrupt confidence in ourselves or in other created things, than toward genuine trust in God. But God, teaching us through His Word and illuminating our minds by His Holy Spirit, makes us capable of learning things that would otherwise be far beyond the reach of our limited understanding. By sealing the promises of salvation in our souls, He shapes us so that we become fully and firmly persuaded of their truth. Understanding all of this, the apostles prayed to the Lord to increase their faith.