Worship and Believe

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And it was good. God saw all that He had made, and He called it very good. And so it was. Nothing that God creates is bad. God created all things, and without Him was nothing made that has ever existed.

All things were perfectly arranged. The sea had its course and the dry land its bounds. The night and the day, the heaven and the earth, all had their times and motions and seasons. Every tree and plant and herb brought forth fruit and seed, each according to its own kind. All the animals of the earth grew and thrived. And God created man to be the pinnacle of creation, the bearer of the image of God in the flesh. Everything was perfect, precisely according to the plan and purpose of God.

But, then, this begs the question: who is this God?

Today we confess, according to the Athanasian Creed:

And the catholic faith is this,

that we worship one God in Trinity and

Trinity in Unity, neither confusing the

persons nor dividing the substance.

The one holy catholic and apostolic Church worships one God – the Holy Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is the God who created the heavens and the earth. The Lord God of the universe is Three-in-One. There are not three gods, nor is there only one with three faces or actions or images. There is simply Trinity in Unity, of majesty co-equal and co-eternal.

These persons act always together, but through each other outwardly toward creation. The Father is neither created nor begotten, but eternal. The Son is not created, but begotten of the Father from all eternity. The Spirit is neither created nor begotten, but proceeding from the Father and the Son in eternal union.

Therefore, Solomon records the Son, speaking in the voice of Wisdom, saying, “The Lord possessed Me at the beginning . . . before the beginning of the world.” Before the foundation of the world, before the beginning of time, the Father had a Son, and the Son had a Father, and from them both flowed the Holy Spirit. The three persons of the Trinity are together the one God of creation. As the Father speaks, He speaks forth the Word, which is the Son. And the Son is carried forth on the Holy Spirit, who brings the Word into creation. This is the working of God, which has worked the wonders of creation.

And it is good. The Lord rejoices in creation. He delights to see all the wonders that His Word has wrought and all the joys that His hands have made. He delights to see the springs well up water. He rejoices to see the mountains stand tall. He marvels at the wonder of the heavens above and the earth below. He loves the beauty of the flowers of the field and the trees of the forest. And He loves the greatest of His creation – mankind.

The Lord rejoices over mankind. Even in spite of the fall, God loves those who bear His image. You may reject Him, you may stand out in the cold and the darkness while He leads the banquet for His Son, you may thumb your nose at His Word and His Gifts. You may choose to ignore Him, live as though He were not there, or even deny that He exists. But that does not change the fact that the Lord who created heaven and earth loves you because you are His creation, and you bear His image. Nothing you can do can change that. In fact, the testimony of this has been engraved on you with the waters of the Holy Font.

God loves you, His creation. But mankind has forsaken the Wisdom of God. Christ, the power of God and the Wisdom of God, has been revealed in His creation throughout history, but His people would not see Him. Solomon spoke of wisdom in the Proverbs. It has been the pattern of human history to reject God and His wisdom. Adam and Eve chose to reject Him, and ever since the children of man have fled from wisdom.

And so God has sent His Wisdom into the world. In His infinite wisdom, He sent His Son into the flesh to be born of the Virgin Mary, having been conceived by the Holy Spirit through the working of the Word. Jesus Christ took on human flesh and blood, suffered, died, and was buried, together with all sins and evil desires of all mankind. And He rose again from the dead to proclaim the end of death and the freedom of all who would believe. Then He ascended into heaven, where He sits forever at the right hand of God.

At this, God rejoices with exceeding joy. He rejoices not over death or wrath or suffering, but over the mercy and grace which were purchased and won with the innocent suffering and death of His beloved Son. The Father rejoices that because He has poured out His wrath upon His Son, He can now call you His beloved children and put the garments of salvation upon you. This is His wisdom and His glory. This wisdom, beyond all ken of the world, is the greatest joy of God for your sake. He rejoices to show mercy, to bestow His grace.

But this is not “Plan B”. God did not fabricate this idea after the fact, as though He did not expect Adam and Eve to sin. He knew what would need to happen, and so He created man in His image, so that He could be the one to save you. He sent His Son to become a man – not an angel or an animal or anything else in creation – in order to save mankind. In the eternal wisdom and foreknowledge of God, He determined before creation to save you from your sins and to give you eternal life through His Son Jesus Christ.

In this way, Jesus has accomplished the Father's plan of salvation. He has done all things needful. He has fulfilled the Father's will by bringing to all mankind the promise of salvation for all who believe, as the words and promises of God declare. Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again. He has died the death due for sin once for all. He has risen to give healing and life to the nations.

And it is because of this that the Holy Spirit comes to you. It is the Spirit's joy and pleasure to bring to you the fruits of Christ's death and resurrection. The Holy Spirit comes to you from the Father, bringing you the Son, that you might be clothed in His righteousness. He does not declare to you a different word or work from that of the Father or the Son, but He takes what the Son has received from the Father and bestows it upon you.

The Holy Spirit creates true, saving, genuine faith in you. He stirs you up to worship the Holy Trinity in Unity. He implants within you faith and knowledge of the truth, so that you may worship in Spirit and in truth. Notice, however – the Spirit does not cause you to understand or ponder or philosophize about the Holy Trinity. He simply teaches you to believe and to worship that glorious mystery of which you take hold by faith. Bow the head, bend the knee, and receive by faith what your mind cannot accept by reason.

The Holy Spirit calls you to “faithfully believe the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ.” He calls you to believe that the only-begotten Son of God – Very God of Very God – became man, died for you, and rose again to accomplish your salvation. You must faithfully worship the Trinity in Unity, and you must faithfully believe the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ, because this is the Wisdom of God, by which you shall be saved. Rejoice, worship, confess, and believe. This is the catholic faith, by which you shall be saved.

In the Name of Jesus. Amen.