Advent Midweek III: The Nicene
Creed
“The Spirit, the Lord and Giver
of Life”[1]
December 17, 2025
Text: Third
Article of the Nicene Creed
The Lord and Giver of Life. The Holy Spirit is the Lord. That is to say, He is God, with the
Father and the Son. Hear again an echo
of the previous article. Just as we
heard the word “One” echoed from First to Second Article, “one God, the
Father Almighty,” “one Lord Jesus Christ,” so now we hear the word
“Lord” echoed, “one Lord Jesus Christ,” “the Holy Spirit, the Lord
and giver of life.” See the golden
thread the fathers have woven into the tapestry of our Creed. Why did they do this? That we may know and believe (to borrow a
line from the Athanasian Creed) “one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity,
neither confusing the persons nor dividing the substance.” In other words, these echoes were no
accident. “Lord.” That is, YHWH. Just like Jesus, the Son. Who is one God with the Father.
There have been some in history who
have denied that the Spirit is God, much as the Arians denied this of the
Son. There have even been some who have
denied the Spirit as a distinct Person of the Trinity, a distinct Personality. They have described the Spirit as an impersonal
energy between Father and Son… I suppose like when we say of a person, “he
is rather spirited,” or, as we may say of some group of people this time
of year, “they really have the Christmas spirit.” The name of this heresy (that the Spirit is a
force, or energy, and not, therefore, God, or at
least not fully) is “Pneumatomachianism,” in case you are keeping
track. But the Scriptures, over
against this, describe the Spirit in divine and personal terms. For example, St. Paul says to the Ephesians,
“do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day
of redemption” (Eph. 4:30; ESV). He
is the Spirit of God, which is to say, He is God, just as your
spirit is you. And He can be grieved,
so He is a Person, because only persons can be grieved (what kind
of energy can be grieved?
Have you ever grieved electricity? Have you ever seen sad ionization, or depressed
gravitational pull?). And He does
what only God can do, which is to seal you for the Day of
Redemption. We could go on with other
passages, but you get the point. So we
worship and confess the Holy Spirit as God, and we even confess this
explicitly: “who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and
glorified.” We dare never worship and
glorify an impersonal force as though it were God. That would be idolatry. But we do worship the Spirit,
because He is the Lord.
And Giver of Life. Behold the Spirit as He broods over the
waters of Creation (Gen. 1:2). You know
that in the languages of the Bible, Hebrew and Greek, the same word may be
rendered spirit, wind, or breath.
When God breathes into Adam the breath of life, it is the Spirit
who is enlivening Adam, and bestowing upon Adam a spirit of his own
(Gen. 2:7). Behold, the Prophet Ezekiel
in the Valley of Dry Bones. “Son of
man, can these bones live?” (Ez. 37:3).
Yes, when the prophet prophesies to the wind, the Spirit,
the breath of God, to breathe on these slain. Behold, the Lord Jesus, raised from the dead
by the Spirit of God (Rom. 8:11), standing in the midst of His disciples, breathing
on them and saying, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20:22). It is the Spirit enlivening them with the
life of Christ. And what He does for
them, He then does for the whole Church on the Day of Pentecost… the sound of a
mighty, rushing wind filling the house where they were, and the Spirit
filling each one, giving them utterance, that they may breathe with His breath,
and speak Him forth (Acts 2:1-4).
So, He is not an impersonal force. But He is a Force. And He is not created (just as the Son
is not created), nor is He begotten (as the Son is begotten), but
He proceeds from the Father and the Son.
Now, you may know that the “and the Son” part of that phrase is a matter
of some controversy between the Churches of East and West. The filioque, as it is called, Latin
for “and the Son.” We will not solve
that theological gordian knot for the Church universal tonight. But for our purposes, suffice it to
say, we are a Church of the West, and we have no problem confessing the filioque,
because the Scriptures are clear that the Father does nothing apart from the
Son, and the Spirit comes from the Father, through the
Son. In our Holy Gospel this evening,
Jesus says, “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” (John 15:26; emphasis added). It is clear that the Spirit proceeds from
the Father, and yet it is the Son who gives Him, so… proceeds
from the Father and the Son. That is
a profound and wonderful confession.
Okay… Proceeds from them to do
what? To give life. How?
He spoke (and still speaks!) by the Prophets. The Holy Spirit of God speaks to us in
Holy Scripture, doing precisely what Jesus said He would do:
Testifying of Jesus (John 15:26); convicting the world concerning sin and
righteousness and judgment (16:8); guiding believers in Christ into all the
truth (v. 13); taking what Jesus has received from the Father and declaring it
to us (vv. 14-15). Spoke by the
prophets. That is a confession of the
inspiration of the Scriptures (do you hear the word Spirit in inspiration?). This is why we believe the Scriptures are infallible
and inerrant. Because they are the
Spirit’s own words, His own speaking. We can trust them. Wholly and completely. And they give us Christ, who
reconciles us to the Father.
By the way, don’t miss the direction
in all of this. The Father sends
the Son through whom the Spirit is bestowed. The Spirit delivers the saving work of
the Son that reconciles us to the Father. From Father to Son to Spirit
to Son to Father. Thus our
salvation and life in Christ is a Trinitarian work.
And the Spirit makes all of this a
reality for us in the one holy Christian and apostolic Church. The Church is the Spirit’s creation. Now, the Church itself is an article of
faith, not sight. Oh, we can see the
trappings, can’t we? A gathering of
people in a building called a Church, doing churchy things. But the Church is not a building. Nor is it a denomination, by the way. We call those things “churches” only by
derivation. The Church is holy
believers in Christ. It is the
gathering of those to whom the Spirit has given faith. And we can’t see who believes and who
doesn’t, so the Church is invisible.
But we believe it exists. We know
her by her marks, the Word and Sacraments, prayer, the bearing of the holy
cross, and the mutual conversation and consolation of the brethren. She is one, this Church. That is definitely an article of
faith. Just look at the number of
Christian denominations. In fact, never
mind that. Just see the disunity that
often manifests in our own denomination, and even in our own congregation. Lord, have mercy on us. (He does.).
Still, one Church. United
around the One Lord Jesus Christ (there are the echoes again). Holy.
Can’t always see that, can we? In
fact, most often not. The Church is full
of sinners, and sinners only. But here
is the Holy Spirit, doing His sanctifying work, His making
holy work. Christian, or catholic. Same difference, by the way. We are not speaking of Rome. We are speaking of the Church beyond
denominational boundaries, the Church that confesses this faith of the Nicene
Creed. And apostolic. The Church founded by the Apostles. And we’re back to the Scriptures. The Church gathered around the Scriptures
written by the Apostles as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter
1:21). The Church is a mouth house,
Luther said, where these Scriptures are proclaimed. And in them, the Spirit still breathes life
into dead men’s bones, raising us from the dead.
One Baptism… you never need
repeat it. You just live in it. It is your new birth from above (John
3:5). For the remission of sins. Yes, Baptism cleanses and saves. “Baptism,” Peter says, “now saves
you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good
conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 3:21).
And what is the result of it
all? The resurrection of the dead and
the life of the world to come. Even
as the Spirit raised Christ, so He will raise you.
So we come to the end of another
series of Advent meditations in this 1700th Anniversary of Year of
the Nicene Creed. As I’ve said over and
again, the Creed is our story as we live our life in God, Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit. Beloved, tell this
story… to yourself, and to one another, and to the world. Immerse yourself in it. Pray it, meditate upon it, and live in
it. You are living in it as you say
it. These are the things to never
forget. This is the speaking of what is true
and real in a world full of lies and deception. This is what grounds you. This is what protects you and keeps
you in the holy faith. It is a
little sermon every time. And what
happens as you speak the words? Life
flows into you. And through you,
into others. From the Spirit, for He is
the Lord and Life-Giver. The Life of Jesus,
crucified and risen. The Life of a baptized
Child of God the Father Almighty. It
is good be Nicene Christians. God keep
us ever in this confession and faith. In
the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy
Spirit. Amen.
[1] Advent Series loosely
based on Timothy J. Winterstein, Worshiped and Glorified: A Study of the
Nicene Creed (St. Louis: Concordia, 2025).
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