Small and Large Catechism - Third Article of the Creed

Small Catechism

Third Article

{SANCTIFICATION}

            I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Christian church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.  Amen.

What does this mean?

            I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith.

                        In the same way He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith.

                        In this Christian church He daily and richly forgives all my sins and the sins of all believers.

                        On the Last Day He will raise me and all the dead, and give eternal life to me and all believers in Christ.

                        This is most certainly true.

Large Catechism

34] I believe in the Holy Ghost; the holy Christian Church, the communion of saints; the

forgiveness of sins; theresurrection of the body; and the life everlasting. Amen.

35] This article (as I have said) I cannot relate better than to Sanctification, that through the

same the Holy Ghost, with His office, is declared and depicted, namely, that He makes holy.

Therefore we must take our stand upon the word Holy Ghost, because it is so precise and

comprehensive that we cannot find another. 36] For there are, besides, many kinds of spirits

mentioned in the Holy Scriptures, as, the spirit of man, heavenly spirits, and evil spirits. But

the Spirit of God alone is called Holy Ghost, that is, He who has sanctified and still sanctifies

us. For as the Father is called Creator, the Son Redeemer, so the Holy Ghost, from His work,

must be called Sanctifier, or One that makes holy. 37] But how is such sanctifying done?

Answer: Just as the Son obtains dominion, whereby He wins us, through His birth, death,

resurrection, etc., so also the Holy Ghost effects our sanctification by the following parts,

namely, by the communion of saints or the Christian Church, the forgiveness of sins, the

resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting; that is, He first leads us into His holy

congregation, and places us in the bosom of the Church, whereby He preaches to us and

brings us to Christ.

38] For neither you nor I could ever know anything of Christ, or believe on Him, and obtain

Him for our Lord, unless it were offered to us and granted to our hearts by the Holy Ghost

through the preaching of the Gospel. The work is done and accomplished; for Christ has

acquired and gained the treasure for us by His suffering, death, resurrection, etc. But if the

work remained concealed so that no one knew of it, then it would be in vain and lost. That

this treasure, therefore, might not lie buried, but be appropriated and enjoyed, God has

caused the Word to go forth and be proclaimed, in which He gives the Holy Ghost to bring

this treasure home and appropriate it to us. 39] Therefore sanctifying is nothing else than

bringing us to Christ to receive this good, to which we could not attain of ourselves.

40] Learn, then, to understand this article most clearly. If you are asked: What do you mean

by the words: I believe in the Holy Ghost? you can answer: I believe that the Holy Ghost

makes me holy, as His name implies. 41] But whereby does He accomplish this, or what are

His method and means to this end? Answer: By the Christian Church, the forgiveness of sins,

the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. 42] For, in the first place, He has a

peculiar congregation in the world, which is the mother that begets and bears every Christian

through the Word of God, which He reveals and preaches, [and through which] He illumines

and enkindles hearts, that they understand, accept it, cling to it, and persevere in it.

43] For where He does not cause it to be preached and made alive in the heart, so that it is

understood, it is lost, as was the case under the Papacy, where faith was entirely put under

the bench, and no one recognized Christ as his Lord or the Holy Ghost as his Sanctifier, that

is, no one believed that Christ is our Lord in the sense that He has acquired this treasure for

us, without our works and merit, and made us acceptable to the Father. What, then, was

lacking? 44] This, that the Holy Ghost was not there to reveal it and cause it to be preached;

but men and evil spirits were there, who taught us to obtain grace and be saved by our

works. 45] Therefore it is not a Christian Church either; for where Christ is not preached,

there is no Holy Ghost who creates, calls, and gathers the Christian Church, without which no

one can come to Christ the Lord. 46] Let this suffice concerning the sum of this article. But

because the parts which are here enumerated are not quite clear to the simple, we shall run

over them also.

47] The Creed denominates the holy Christian Church, communionem sanctorum, a

communion of saints; for both expressions, taken together, are identical. But formerly the

one [the second] expression was not there, and it has been poorly and unintelligibly

translated into German eine Gemeinschaft der Heiligen, a communion of saints. If it is to be

rendered plainly, it must be expressed quite differently in the German idiom; for the word

ecclesia properly means in German eine Versammlung, an assembly. 48] But we are

accustomed to the word church, by which the simple do not understand an assembled

multitude, but the consecrated house or building, although the house ought not to be called

a church, except only for the reason that the multitude assembles there. For we who

assemble there make and choose for ourselves a particular place, and give a name to the

house according to the assembly.

Thus the word Kirche (church) means really nothing else than a common assembly, and is not

German by idiom, but Greek (as is also the word ecclesia); for in their own language they call

it kyria, as in Latin it is called curia. Therefore in genuine German, in our mother‐tongue, it

ought to be called a Christian congregation or assembly (eine christliche Gemeinde oder

Sammlung), or, best of all and most clearly, holy Christendom (eine heilige Christenheit).

49] So also the word communio, which is added, ought not to be rendered communion

(Gemeinschaft), but congregation (Gemeinde). And it is nothing else than an interpretation or

explanation by which some one meant to explain what the Christian Church is. This our

people, who understood neither Latin nor German, have rendered Gemeinschaft der Heiligen

(communion of saints), although no German language speaks thus, nor understands it thus.

But to speak correct German, it ought to be eine Gemeinde der Heiligen (a congregation of

saints), that is, a congregation made up purely of saints, or, to speak yet more plainly, eine

heilige Gemeinde, a holy congregation. 50] I say this in order that the words Gemeinschaft

der Heiligen (communion of saints) may be understood, because the expression has become

so established by custom that it cannot well be eradicated, and it is treated almost as heresy

if one should attempt to change a word.

51] But this is the meaning and substance of this addition: I believe that there is upon earth a

little holy group and congregation of pure saints, under one head, even Christ, called

together by the Holy Ghost in one faith, one mind, and understanding, with manifold gifts,

yet agreeing in love, without sects or schisms. 52] I am also a part and member of the same,

a sharer and joint owner of all the goods it possesses, brought to it and incorporated into it

by the Holy Ghost by having heard and continuing to hear the Word of God, which is the

beginning of entering it. For formerly, before we had attained to this, we were altogether of

the devil, knowing nothing of God and of Christ. 53] Thus, until the last day, the Holy Ghost

abides with the holy congregation or Christendom, by means of which He fetches us to Christ

and which He employs to teach and preach to us the Word, whereby He works and promotes

sanctification, causing it [this community] daily to grow and become strong in the faith and

its fruits which He produces.

54] We further believe that in this Christian Church we have forgiveness of sin, which is

wrought through the holy Sacraments and Absolution, moreover, through all manner of

consolatory promises of the entire Gospel. Therefore, whatever is to be preached concerning

the Sacraments belongs here, and, in short, the whole Gospel and all the offices of

Christianity, which also must be preached and taught without ceasing. For although the grace

of God is secured through Christ, and sanctification is wrought by the Holy Ghost through the

Word of God in the unity of the Christian Church, yet on account of our flesh which we bear

about with us we are never without sin.

55] Everything, therefore, in the Christian Church is ordered to the end that we shall daily

obtain there nothing but the forgiveness of sin through the Word and signs, to comfort and

encourage our consciences as long as we live here. Thus, although we have sins, the [grace of

the] Holy Ghost does not allow them to injure us, because we are in the Christian Church,

where there is nothing but [continuous, uninterrupted] forgiveness of sin, both in that God

forgives us, and in that we forgive, bear with, and help each other.

56] But outside of this Christian Church, where the Gospel is not, there is no forgiveness, as

also there can be no holiness [sanctification]. Therefore all who seek and wish to merit

holiness [sanctification], not through the Gospel and forgiveness of sin, but by their works,

have expelled and severed themselves [from this Church].

57] Meanwhile, however, while sanctification has begun and is growing daily, we expect that

our flesh will be destroyed and buried with all its uncleanness, and will come forth gloriously,

and arise to entire and perfect holiness in a new eternal life. 58] For now we are only half

pure and holy, so that the Holy Ghost has ever [some reason why] to continue His work in us

through the Word, and daily to dispense forgiveness, until we attain to that life where there

will be no more forgiveness, but only perfectly pure and holy people, full of godliness and

righteousness, removed and free from sin, death, and all evil, in a new, immortal, and

glorified body.

59] Behold, all this is to be the office and work of the Holy Ghost, that He begin and daily

increase holiness upon earth by means of these two things, the Christian Church and the

forgiveness of sin. But in our dissolution He will accomplish it altogether in an instant, and

will forever preserve us therein by the last two parts.

60] But the term Auferstehung des Fleisches (resurrection of the flesh) here employed is not

according to good German idiom. For when we Germans hear the word Fleisch (flesh), we

think no farther than of the shambles. But in good German idiom we would say Auferstehung

des Leibes, or Leichnams (resurrection of the body). However, it is not a matter of much

moment, if we only understand the words aright.

61] This, now, is the article which must ever be and remain in operation. For creation we

have received; redemption, too, is finished But the Holy Ghost carries on His work without

ceasing to the last day. And for that purpose He has appointed a congregation upon earth by

which He speaks and does everything. 62] For He has not yet brought together all His

Christian Church nor dispensed forgiveness. Therefore we believe in Him who through the

Word daily brings us into the fellowship of this Christian Church, and through the same Word

and the forgiveness of sins bestows, increases, and strengthens faith, in order that when He

has accomplished it all, and we abide therein, and die to the world and to all evil, He may

finally make us perfectly and forever holy; which now we expect in faith through the Word.

63] Behold, here you have the entire divine essence, will, and work depicted most exquisitely

in quite short and yet rich words, wherein consists all our wisdom, which surpasses and

exceeds the wisdom, mind, and reason of all men. For although the whole world with all

diligence has endeavored to ascertain what God is, what He has in mind and does, yet has

she never been able to attain to [the knowledge and understanding of] any of these things.

64] But here we have everything in richest measure; for here in all three articles He has

Himself revealed and opened the deepest abyss of his paternal heart and of His pure

unutterable love. For He has created us for this very object, that He might redeem and

sanctify us; and in addition to giving and imparting to us everything in heaven and upon

earth, He has given to us even His Son and the Holy Ghost, by whom to bring us to Himself.

65] For (as explained above) we could never attain to the knowledge of the grace and favor

of the Father except through the Lord Christ, who is a mirror of the paternal heart, outside of

whom we see nothing but an angry and terrible Judge. But of Christ we could know nothing

either, unless it had been revealed by the Holy Ghost.