god – Higher Things

Article 1: God

The Lutheran faith is not an entirely new faith, but is a continuation of the ancient faith of the Christian Church. The beginning of the first Lutheran confession recalls the creedal faith that was articulated in the first several centuries of the New Testament. Many disagreements and false teachings concerning the nature of God and the person of Christ had arisen almost from the time of Pentecost. In the year 325 A.D., pastors and bishops from across the Christian Church assembled a council in the town of Nicaea to hash out what Christians really believe. The result was the Nicene Creed.

“Our Churches, with common consent, do teach that the decree of the Council of Nicaea concerning the Unity of the Divine Essence and concerning the Three Persons, is true and to be believed without any doubting; that is to say, there is one Divine Essence which is called and which is God: eternal, without body, without parts, of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness, the Maker and Preserver of all things, visible and invisible; and yet there are three Persons, of the same essence and power, who also are coeternal, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. And the term “person” they use as the Fathers have used it, to signify, not a part or quality in another, but that which subsists of itself” (Augsburg Confession I.1-4).

Simply put, the God of the Christian Church is three distinct persons—Father, Son, Spirit—who share the same divine substance. Anything that denies this in whole or in part is contrary to the faith and cannot be called Christian. Some errors include considering Jesus or the Holy Spirit to be creatures or something less than fully God, or considering God to be one person who shows Himself in three different ways.

The Augsburg Confession grounds our confession of God in the Nicene Creed, but that does not mean that it’s a faith that was created by a bunch of men hanging out in Nicaea a few hundred years after Jesus suffered, died, rose, and ascended. The faith of Nicaea is grounded in Scripture, and thus the confession of the Lutheran Church is grounded in Scripture.

God’s nature is revealed very simply in the baptismal formula that Jesus gives in the last chapter of Matthew. “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19 ESV). Three distinct persons; one shared name. The ancient creeds, and the Augsburg Confession that follows, are nothing more than an unfolding of what this divine name means—this name that is baptism’s gift for you.

“Concord” is a weekly study of the Lutheran Confessions, where we will take up a topic from the Book of Concord and reflect on what we believe, teach, and confess in the Lutheran Church. The purpose of this series is to deepen readers’ knowledge and appreciation for the confessions of the Lutheran Church, and to unite them “with one heart” to confess the teachings of Holy Scripture.

Rev. Jacob Ehrhard serves as pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in New Haven, MO.

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By Magdalena Teske

Class began at 9:30, and I rushed into the room at about 9:27, feeling slightly panicked because biology had gone a few minutes late, as usual, and because the effects of my coffee had worn off. The class was Religion and Politics in America, which I was taking mainly to fulfill my requirement to take an honor’s course that semester, although I had been more than a little nervous to take a religion course at my Methodist-affiliated college. Before we began class that day, my professor handed back my first essay, which he had just graded. The topic was civil religion. We were supposed to describe and discuss how politicians and other public figures refer to God and religion in their speeches, and how God is depicted in patriotic contexts.

Glancing at my paper, I was pleased to see that on the first page, the professor had made only three comments, two of which simply said ”good,” and the third said ”yes.” As class started, I shoved the paper in my folder to look at later. After class, when I had a chance to turn to the second page, I saw a slightly longer remark. The professor had underlined one of my sentences in which I had said that while politicians frequently mention God in their speeches, civil religion is necessarily vague and generic, because public figures never say anything theologically significant. The phrase I had used was that politicians don’t talk about “the important subject of salvation and eternal life.”

It was this phrase that my professor didn’t like. He told me in his comments that he felt I exaggerated the insignificance of civil religion’s theology. His note on that particular phrase pointed out that civil religion did include messages of justice, mercy, blessing, and providence. If he had still been there when I read his remarks, I would have had a few things to say to him. Justice, mercy, providence and blessings sound nice and are certainly valid religious topics, but I fail to comprehend what significance they have outside of the concept of forgiveness and salvation. The Bible certainly tells us that God is just and refers to justice as a good thing, and it’s a virtue for rulers. But I can think of one important case where God Himself seems completely unjust and unfair. If God gave us what we deserved, we would all be condemned and Jesus would never have died, but instead, God chose to send Jesus to live a perfect life on Earth, to suffer and die in our place, so that we could be saved and have eternal life. Rather than justice, God chose to give us justification, and for us, this unfairness is certainly better than the fair alternative.

As for mercy, I’m not sure what mercy even means apart from salvation. Referring to my handy copy of Webster’s New World Dictionary, I find that the official definition of mercy is ”a refraining from harming offenders, enemies, etc.” Doesn’t this mean that talking about God’s mercy towards us necessarily requires us to acknowledge that we are sinners and enemies of God, but that He has graciously forgiven us our sins through the death of our Lord Jesus Christ? Incidentally, this sounds to me like the message of grace and salvation (Romans 5:6-11).

Providence and blessings are likewise vague and fairly meaningless when not taken in the context of our salvation. Undeniably, God gives us many blessings—not only spiritual, but sometimes material and worldly blessings as well. But when a politician or public figure talks about providence and blessings, they generally only mean material and worldly wealth. I certainly am glad to live in a country and society where necessities like food and shelter are abundant. I am glad to have access to things like the internet, coffee, and duct tape, which are technically luxuries, although I admittedly take them for granted much of the time. But these are not the only blessings that God gives us. The greatest blessings He gives us are forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. Christ came and lived among us, He led a sinless life, died, and was raised, and besides all this, He gave us even more. He gave us the Bible so that we would have access to His word in our daily lives. He gave us saving faith, and He gave us His sacraments of Baptism and Communion by which He strengthens this faith and assures us of our salvation.

I am not interested in hearing about a generic God who gives us justice, mercy, and blessings. I go to a confessional Lutheran church because I want to hear about the true Triune God who gives us justice, mercy, blessings, forgiveness, salvation, His word and sacraments, and eternal life. And coffee, too.

Magdalena Teske is a senior at Birmingham-Southern College and attends Hope Lutheran Church in Birmingham, Alabama. She can be reached at magdalenateske@yahoo.com