The Third Article – Calls, Gathers, Enlightens, and Sanctifies

Calls, Gathers, Enlightens, and Sanctifies

Third Article of the Creed

INI

“I believe that I cannot believe.” That’s what we confess about ourselves in the third article of the creed. I cannot make myself believe. I cannot make myself holy. My actions aren’t pleasing to God apart from faith. We need help if we’re to believe. This complete ineptness to believe is biblical. The father of a boy who was demon possessed made this confession to Jesus – “I believe. Help my unbelief.” Belief isn’t something we do. It’s something God gives freely out of grace.

That surely slaps up against the face of how folks talk today. Not many folks will confess a false Holy Spirit by talking about a different spirit. Maybe you’ll hear naturalistic religions talking about the “Great Spirit” or “Mother Earth.” But many will falsely confess the work of the Holy Spirit by falsely understanding the depravity of man. Parents and grandparents will exalt their families by saying things like, “Oh they were raised up right. They’re such GOOD people. GOOD hearted, and so willing to serve other people.” That might be true by all outward measurements. But the greater reality is this: even though their actions win grandma’s favor, their actions won’t win God’s favor. Not without faith. Because as Jesus Himself said, “No one is good but God alone.” (Matthew 19:17) Thus, if our works are to be made holy, they must be injected with the holiness and righteousness of Christ.

Or if you look to how American Evangelicals will talk about belief – they try and coax people into making a ‘decision’ for Christ. Some think that if you just talk to people long enough, you can convince them to intellectually believe in Christ, and that constitutes faith. Now when witnessing, some folks may need strongholds torn down that they’ve built around their hearts. But it’s not their own will and decision that leads to their belief. The Holy Spirit’s call leads to faith.

That’s the first thing we confess in the third article of the Creed. Luther teaches us, “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him.” Why is there an impossibility to come to Jesus by our own intellect, works, and brute strength? Because apart from the Holy Spirit, man is spiritually dead. Ephesians 2:1 confesses this – “you were dead in your trespasses and sins”. Dead people can’t do anything. They can’t choose anything. They can’t raise themselves from the dead to follow Jesus. They’re just dead. They need Jesus to come and raise them from the dead.

Even though we’re “dead” in our sins, we aren’t completely inactive spiritually. Actually, by nature, we actively resist the Gospel! Stephen preached this to those who rejected the Gospel just before He was stoned to death. The Jews, who rejected Jesus as the Messiah, were resistant to faith and actively worked against the spreading of the Gospel by killing Stephen. Stephen said, “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you.” Apart from the Holy Spirit, not only are we spiritually blind, but we also work against God.

This is why the activity of the Holy Spirit is so important. Without Him, we’d remain enemies of God. We wouldn’t be able to have faith or live by it. We’d remain dead. But He must come to us, to call us to believe in Him through hearing the love of Christ and His sacrifice on the cross. That’s the first function of the Holy Spirit in a Christian’s life. He ‘calls’ Christians to faith. By calling us, He invites and enables sinners to believe by promising a new life. This new life is given on the basis of Christ’s death and resurrection.

Another function of the Holy Spirit is that He ‘gathers’ the church together. Someone who says they believe in Christ and have the Holy Spirit, and practices what I call “rogue Christianity” is a liar. A rogue Christian is a Christian in name only, but doesn’t seek the forgiveness of sins won by Christ crucified in Word and Sacrament. That is, they don’t go to meet, have fellowship with, and be strengthened by other believers in church! However, this is a false confession of God and His holy will. The Holy Spirit always gathers and unifies the church, never fragments it. Thus, the Holy Spirit is active in the gathering of saints each and every Sunday. To come to church is to respond rightly to the Holy Spirit, and enjoy the gifts which He freely pours out for us!

Having gathered us together, the Holy Spirit sanctifies us. That is, He makes us holy. Though, the holiness is not our own. Christian holiness emanates from Christ Himself. It’s a gift that He freely gives, which allows us to approach the Father and the Son with a heart cleansed from our sins and iniquities. The Holy Spirit doesn’t give this grace of God out in a disordered or unorganized fashion. He locates it in tangible gifts to be received – water, bread, wine. Calling us by the Gospel, enlightening us with the good news of salvation which establishes faith, gathering His church together on Sunday mornings, the Holy Spirit does His final act on us: sanctifies us. How? Through the Word and Sacraments, that preach Christ the crucified.

These things confess all that the Holy Spirit does for us. He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies Christians. For such an important role in the lives of Christians, you’d expect us to talk more about the Holy Spirit. Many Church bodies seek out the Holy Spirit, and solely preach about how receiving the Holy Spirit is the only way to be saved. But this isn’t the preaching, or the kerygma, of the church. Because they teach the Holy Spirit apart from the person and work of Christ. As Lutherans, we believe that the Holy Spirit is active in the preaching of Christ. That’s why we talk about Jesus so much. Because like John the Baptist, the Holy Spirit never points to Himself. He always points to Jesus. Just as the Holy Spirit descended from heaven at Jesus’ baptism like a dove, the dove did not fly around in some marvelous spectacle to be  “oo’ed and aw’ed”. Rather, the Holy Spirit came directly to sit on Christ. Because the Spirit doesn’t wish to exalt Himself, but exalt Christ, the crucified one. Christ is the means by which the Spirit works.

That’s what Jesus teaches us about the Holy Spirit from the reading – “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness about me.” The function of the Holy Spirit is to bear witness to Christ. That’s how you can tell which Spirit is from the Holy Spirit or not. That’s what John warns churches of in his first epistle, chapter 4:3. If a spirit doesn’t confess that Christ has come in the flesh, and as the Greek alludes, still comes in flesh, that is, through the Sacrament, that Spirit is not from God. But the true Spirit of God will “guide you into all truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak.” (John 16:13)

By calling you to the Gospel, gathering you to church, enlightening you with the gifts of Christ in Word and Sacrament, and sanctifying you with Christ’s own holiness, the Holy Spirit has prepared your Christian life for His final duty: to one day, raise you up from the dead. The Spirit of God shall animate our lifeless bodies, and those made holy by the work of the Holy Spirit in this life, will enjoy the bliss of heaven with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit for all eternity.

This is God’s work for you. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit never work independently from one another. But they work altogether, with different roles and functions, in beautiful harmony, to accomplish this one task: saving you.

INI

Pastor Joshua Ralston