Firmly Believe These Things of Heaven

Trinity Sunday

May 22, 2016

John 3:1-15

Firmly Believe These Things of Heaven

In the name of the Father and of the ☩ Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen!

In his discussion with Nicodemus, Jesus told him:

We speak what We know and We testify to what We have seen, but you do not accept Our testimony. (John 3:11)

The “We” who speak and testify is the one holy Triune God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This testimony is put into our mouths when we confess the Athanasian Creed.

We confess that “Whoever does not keep this faith pure in all points will certainly perish forever.” Do you worry about that? Or when we confess that “Whoever does not faithfully and firmly believe this cannot be saved,” do it make you nervous?

These true statements of our faith cause our sinful flesh to crawl, because we are still tempted to think that our effort of believing is what saves us. And we also live in a Christian culture that supports the false teaching that you can accept Christ by your own force of will, your own thinking and choosing.

The Athanasian Creed demolishes this lie. It says to keep this faith pure. It says to firmly believe this. And we get nervous. These are hard things to firmly believe. The Trinity? The three-distinct-Person-yet-one-God God? If I can't imagine the Trinity, how am I supposed to firmly believe it?

We believe and confess this blessed Holy Trinity through the work of the Holy Spirit through Baptism that makes us wet with Christ's forgiveness each and every day of our lives. We firmly believe and keep this faith pure because the Holy Spirit creates and strengthens us in this true faith through the Gospel. If you worry that you don't believe enough or precisely enough or that you haven't done enough good works, repent and trust Jesus.

Is Jesus true God? Yes, and so we confess that He is equal to the Father as to His deity, His being God.

Is Jesus true man? Yes, and so we confess that He is less than the Father as to His humanity. Is God greater than man? Yes, and so we confess that Jesus as to His man-ness is less than the Father.

Can only believers do good works? Yes, and so we confess that those who have done good—believers—will enter eternal life.

Can unbelievers do good works? No, and so we confess that those who have done evil—unbelievers—will go into eternal fire.

If we start to imagine that we can create our own faith in a new God that we imagined up out of thin air, then we are like Nicodemus. If we start to tell the true God that His revealed Word isn't true, then we are like Nicodemus to whom Jesus said:

If I have told you about things that happen on earth and you don’t believe, how will you believe if I tell you about things of heaven? (John 3:12)

Don't trust your thin and dry imagination; trust your rich and wet Baptism, when you were born again. Jesus soaked you in His death and resurrection in the name of the Father who always is, and the Son who always is, and the Holy Spirit who always is. Yet not three gods who always are, but One God who always is, and is always for you for the sake of Christ.

God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us,

so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. Alleluia! Amen!

2 Corinthians 5:21