Introduction
I’ve said before that the Apostles’ Creed is thoroughly trinitarian, because it begins with God the Father almighty who made the heavens and the earth.
The Creed then moves on to Jesus Christ, who is the Father’s Only-Begotten Son and our Lord. And he was conceived by the Spirit and was born of the Virgin Mary; and he suffered under Pontius Pilate; and he was crucified, died, was buried; and he descended to hell in the sense that he really did die and was held under the power of death for a time. And after the Son humbled himself like this, he was raised from the dead on the third day; and he ascended into heaven to sit at the right hand of God the Father almighty; and he will come again to judge the living and the dead.
And the Creed finishes with God the Holy Spirit who enables us to repent and to believe so that we’re united through faith with Christ. And all who are united through faith with Christ become members of the holy, catholic church; and they enjoy fellowship with one another; and they’re assured of the forgiveness of their sins; and they receive the hope of the resurrection and eternal life in God’s presence.
And so, the Creed is thoroughly trinitarian. And while the Son and the Spirit were involved in the creation of the heavens and the earth, nevertheless it’s appropriate to ascribe the work of creation to the Father, from whom all things come. And while the Father and the Spirit were involved in what Christ did to deliver us from our sin and misery by his life and death and resurrection, nevertheless it’s appropriate to ascribe the work of redemption to the Son, because he alone became incarnate and suffered and died and was raised for us and for our salvation. And while the Father and the Son are involved in making sure we receive all the benefits of Christ’s life and death and resurrection, nevertheless it’s appropriate to ascribe the application of our redemption to the Spirit, who is the Lord and Giver of Life.
Last week we spent our time on the church, which consists of all those throughout the world who profess the true religion, together with their children. That is to say, it consists of all those throughout the world who believe in the Lord Jesus and are trusting in him for salvation. It consists of them, together with their children.
I didn’t say much about the children of believers last week. But just as the children of God’s people in Old Testament times were regarded as members of God’s people and received circumcision as a sign of God’s promise to remove the guilt of his believing people, so the children of God’s people today are regarded as members of the church and they receive baptism as a sign of God’s promise to wash away the guilt of his believing people. And therefore, we teach our children to regard God as their Heavenly Father and we instruct them in the faith in the hope that they too will believe and receive the forgiveness of their sins, which God promised to them when they were baptised.
And so, the church consists of all those throughout the world who believe, together with their children. And the church is holy, because we’ve been set apart by God from the rest of humanity to belong to him. And the church is holy, because God is at work in us by his Spirit to make us more and more holy and obedient. And the church is holy, because God regards us as holy for the sake of Christ, whose perfect righteousness covers us.
And the church is catholic or universal in terms of time, because the church has alway existed and it always will exist. Ever since the days of Adam, the Son of God has been gathering his people to himself; and he will continue to do so until he comes again. And the church is catholic or universal in terms of place, because the church exists everywhere. It’s no longer confined to one nation, as it was in Old Testament times, but it exists in every nation and it crosses every boundary and it comprises all kinds of people. And the church exists everywhere, because after we have gathered together for worship and instruction and fellowship, the members of the church go back out into God’s world and we penetrate the whole of life and society; and we live for Christ and his glory; and, with his help, we’re able to renew the world around us so that it becomes more and more what God intended it to be.
Today we come to the communion of saints and to the forgiveness of sins and to the resurrection of the body.
Communion of saints
Most of what we have studied so far as we’ve gone through the Apostles’ Creed has been straightforward and clear. We know who God the Father almighty. We know what creation is. We know who Jesus Christ is and what he had done. We know who the Holy Spirit is and we know what the church is. But the phrase ‘the communion of saints’ is perhaps less familiar to us. The saints, of course, are believers. So, we’re talking about ‘the communion of believers’. But what is this communion which believers have? The Creed does’t tell us, but it takes it for granted that we know what it is.
Our church’s Confession of Faith is helpful here, because it has a whole chapter on this topic. And the Confession explains that all believers are united to Jesus Christ by his Spirit and by faith. And therefore, because we’re united to Jesus Christ, we have fellowship with him. In other words, he shares with us all the benefits of his life and death and resurrection; and we receive from him all we need for everlasting life.
I’ve used the image before of parents who go out to work; and they work hard; and often it’s difficult and frustrating and demanding. But they go out to work and earn their salary or their wage in order to afford all the things they need each day. And their children — who are sitting at home and who don’t have to work — share in the benefits of their parents’ hard work. So, the child is feeling hungry and goes to the cupboard; and there’s food for him to eat. He didn’t buy the food; his parents did. But he gets to share it. And so Christ has done all the hard work for us to get us forgiveness and adoption and sanctification and assurance of God’s love and all the other benefits of redemption including the hope of the resurrection and eternal life in God’s presence. He’s done all the hard work by living for us and by giving up his life to pay for our sins before rising again. He’s done all the hard work. And we — who don’t contribute anything towards it — get to share in the benefits of all that he has done.
That’s part of what we mean when we refer to the communion of saints. It refers to our relationship to the Lord Jesus and to all that he shares with us. Paul says at the end of 1 Corinthians 1 that Christ Jesus has become for us our righteousness and holiness and redemption. He shares these things with his people.
But that’s not all that Christ share with us. He also shares with us his suffering. The Apostle Paul refers to this in Philippians 3 where he writes about sharing in Christ’s suffering and becoming like him in his death. Suffering is part of the Christian life, because it was part of the Saviour’s life. In the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord pronounced a blessing on those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness. In other words, his people will suffer for doing what is right, just as Christ suffered for doing what was right. Or we might suffer for the sake of his name, which means we might suffer because we belong to him.
But we also share in his resurrection, because just as Christ died and was raised, so we will be raised from the dead. And in the life to come we will share with him in his glory. We have no glory of our own and we do not deserve any glory from God, because we’re sinners who deserve to be condemned. But just as Christ was glorified in his humanity when he was raised, so we will share his glory in the life to come.
So, the communion of the saints refers first of all to the way we’re united to Christ and we share in the benefits of his redemption as well as in his suffering and resurrection and glory. These things become ours because they first belonged to him. However, the church’s Confession goes on to explain that the communion of saints also refers to how believers are united to one another in love. We’re united to one another in love, because every believer is adopted into God’s family, so that we become brothers and sisters in the Lord; and we’re made members together of the church; and God has commanded us to love one another.
And since we’re united to one another in love, then we share in each other’s gifts and graces. This is Paul’s point when he used the image of the church as a body. Just as a body is made up of various parts, so the church is made up of different people with different gifts and abilities and talents and strengths. And we’re to use our gifts and abilities for the common good. So, none of us is good at everything. And God has made us this way and he has arranged the world and the the church in this way so that we’re not to think of ourselves as lone rangers and independent. Instead we need to rely on one another.
And, of course, in 1 Corinthians, where Paul writes about the church as a body, he goes on to write chapter 13 which is all about love. He writes:
[1] If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. [2] And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. [3] If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
I’m not to despise you or look down on you because you can’t do what I can do. And you’re not to despise me or look down on me because I can’t do what you can do. We’re to love one another and we’re to use our gifts for the good of all.
The Confession also says we’re to perform such duties — public and private — as promote our mutual good in both spiritual and temporal concerns. Temporal concerns refer to the things that concern our daily, earthly lives. So, when it refers to spiritual and temporal concerns, it means we’re to help one another spiritually and physically or spiritually and practically.
We’re to help one another spiritually. For instance, we’re to pray for one another; and we’re to exhort one another; and we’re to encourage one another; and we’re to use whatever spiritual gifts God has given us for the good of one another. But we’re also to help on another practically. Think of what it says about the early church in Acts 2 and how some believers sold what they had and used the proceeds to help poor believers. In Acts 5 we’re told that they shared everything they had. And so, there were no needy persons among them, not because they were all rich, but because those with plenty helped those who had little. This doesn’t mean they owned everything collectively and there was no such thing as personal property in those days. There were still wealthy believers who owned property. Nevertheless, they were prepared to share with one another.
And, of course, in Acts 6 we read about the daily distribution of food to the needy widows. And in 1 and 2 Corinthians, Paul wrote about a special collection for needy believers in Jerusalem; and he encouraged the believers in Corinth to give generously towards it. And in his first letter to Timothy, he gave instructions on how believers should care for widows who are in need. And John, in his first New Testament, says that if anyone has material possessions and has no pity on his fellow believer who is in need, then how can the love of God be in him? Let’s not love with words and tongue only, but with actions and in truth. In other words, true love leads to action.
God has distributed his gifts throughout the world unequally. He makes some rich and others poor. And he distributes other kinds of gifts as he sees fit. Here’s a person with a brain for mechanical things. Here’s another person with a brain for numbers. Here’s another person who is a great cook. Here’s another person who is good at growing things. Here’s a person who is good at sport and another person who can sit for hours and study. Here’s a person who is good at administration and here’s another person who is a good leader. God distributes his gifts and talents as he sees fit. And he calls on his people to use whatever gifts and abilities they have received for the good of others.
When we talk about gifts in the church, people tend to think of extra-ordinary gifts like speaking in tongues or prophecy and that kind of thing. But everything we possess and everything we are has come to us from God. He has shaped us all in a particular way, so that we might serve him in the world in our own particular way with the gifts and abilities and interests he has given us. And so, we’ll all do different things and we’ll do the same thing in different ways. But we’re to do all things for the good of others and for the glory of God’s name.
Forgiveness
The Creed also mentions the forgiveness of sins. David says in Psalm 32:
Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven,
whose sin is covered.
Blessed is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity….
Blessed — happy — is the one who transgression is forgiven. But will God really forgive us? Will he really pardon us for our sins? That’s the question. And the Creed teaches us to say in response: ‘I believe in the forgiveness of sins.’ Why do we believe in it? It’s because the clear testimony of the Bible is that God is willing to forgive his people.
So, listen to this. David says in Psalm 32:
[W]hen I kept silent, my bones wasted away
through my groaning all day long.
For day and night your hand was heavy upon me;
my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.
I acknowledged my sin to you,
and I did not cover my iniquity;
I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,’
and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.
We’re normally tempted to hide our sins. We try to cover them up. But when we confess them to God, he forgives us.
David tells us in Psalm 103:
[1] Bless the LORD, O my soul
and all that is within me,
bless his holy name!
[2] Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits,
[3] who forgives all your iniquity….
The Lord is the one who forgives all our iniquity. And David goes on to say in the same psalm:
[8] The LORD is merciful and gracious,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
[9] He will not always chide,
nor will he keep his anger forever.
[10] He does not deal with us according to our sins,
nor repay us according to our iniquities.
[11] For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
[12] as far as the east is from the west,
so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
He then says in Psalm 130:
If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities,
O Lord, who could stand?
But with you there is forgiveness,
that you may be feared.
Instead of marking iniquities, instead of keeping note of them, he forgives. In Isaiah we read:
Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord:
though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red like crimson,
they shall become like wool.
The Lord says in Jeremiah 33: ‘I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.’ What a promise! And in Micah 7 it says:
Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity
and passing over transgression
for the remnant of his inheritance?
He does not retain his anger forever,
because he delights in steadfast love.
He will again have compassion on us;
he will tread our iniquities underfoot.
You will cast all our sins
into the depths of the sea.
In Acts 10 we read the good news:
To him [Jesus Christ] all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.
And in Romans 8, Paul announces that ‘There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.’ John tells us: ‘If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.’ And John also says that the blood of Jesus, God’s Son, purifies us from all sin.
I could go on, but that is enough to make clear that God is willing to forgive us our sins. When we think of what the theologians call ‘original sin’, we’re thinking about Adam’s guilt, which we have inherited from him. So, he became guilty when he disobeyed God’s clear command and ate the forbidden fruit. He became guilty before God and he was — from that time on — liable to God’s wrath and curse as a law-breaker. And since he represented us, then what happened to him affects us all. And so, since he became guilty before God, then we became guilty before God. And that means, the moment we were conceived, we were guilty before God. Before we had done anything, we were already guilty in God’s sight because of Adam.
And not only did we inherit Adam’s guilt, we also inherited his fallen human nature which is polluted by sin. Our human nature has been corrupted because of Adam, so that, by ourselves, we’re unable to love God as we should; and we’re unable to love the people around us as we should. And since our whole nature is corrupt, then every day we sin against God in thought and word and deed and we fall short of doing our duty. We’re like bad tree which can only produce bad fruit.
But the good news of the gospel is that the Lord Jesus Christ took the blame for us and he was punished in our place so that all who believe in him are justified. That is to say, we are pardoned by God. And we are pardoned by God for Adam’s guilt and for our corrupt nature and for our own sins. And we are accepted as righteous in God’s sight for the sake of Christ, so that even though we were born guilty and even though we have a corrupt nature and even though everything we are and do is tainted by sin, God treats us as if we’ve done everything right. And so, God removes our sins from us as far as the east is from the west. He casts them into the depths of the ocean. He covers them up and blots them out. He promises to remember them no more. And since he remembers them no more, he’ll not hold them against us and he’ll not punish us for them.
Paul says that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. He tells us that we are justified through faith, which means we are pardoned by God and accepted as righteous in God’s sight forever. It’s wonderful.
And it’s so wonderful that some of us may wonder why do we still need to confess our sins every day? If we are already forgiven, why ask for forgiveness? If I’ve been pardoned, why do I need to confess my sins?
I think I’ve said before that the moment we believe in Christ, we move — as it were — from out of the courtroom and into the living room. The moment we believe, God is no longer the judge who is going to condemn us, but he becomes our loving heavenly Father. And so, we will never be condemned and sent away to be punished forever away from the presence of God in hell. That will never happen to those who believe. But as believers, as God’s children, we still disobey our loving Heavenly Father. And when we do, we should go to our loving Heavenly Father and confess it and ask for his forgiveness just as children should go to their earthly parents and ask for forgiveness whenever they do wrong. And a child’s earthly parents will always love their child, but their relationship can be spoiled when the child does wrong. And our relationship to our Heavenly Father can be spoiled when we do wrong. So, we should confess our sins and ask for his forgiveness. But if we continue in our sin, without confessing it or turning from it, then God our Father may have to discipline us for it. He’s not punishing us, but he’s disciplining us for our good. And so, to avoid his discipline, we should confess our sins and ask our Heavenly Father to forgive us.
And since God has forgiven us, he expects us to forgive one another. That’s the point of the parable of the unmerciful servant. The king forgave the man a huge debt which he could not repay. But then the man went out and refused to forgive his fellow servant a smaller debt which his fellow servant could not repay. And when the king found out he was angry. Look at the way I forgave you! You should have been willing to forgive your fellow servant! And God has forgiven us a debt we could not repay ourselves. And he expects us to forgive one another.
The resurrection of the body
In the Creed, we confess that we believe in the communion of the saints and in the forgiveness of sins. We also confess our belief in the resurrection of the body. I won’t say much about this, because I spoke about the resurrection not so long ago at Easter. But let me summarise briefly what we believe about life after death.
We believe that when believers die, their bodies return to dust, whereas their souls — which do not die or become unconscious — are made perfect in holiness and are received into the highest heavens where they behold God in his glory. Theologians call this the intermediate state. It’s the intermediate state, because it’s not yet the final state.
The final state occurs after the Lord Jesus returns to earth, because when he comes he will raise our bodies from the grave to be reunited with our souls; and we will be transformed so that our bodies will be perfectly suited for everlasting life in the presence of the Lord.
The bodies of unbelievers will also be raised, but they will be raised to suffer eternal punishment away from the presence of the Lord. And so, the final state of unbelievers is eternal punishment away from the presence of the Lord. And the final state of believers is eternal life in body and soul in the presence of the Lord.
I’ll say more about the final state next week, when we think about the last line of the Creed. But we will not enter the final state until Christ comes again and our bodies are raised from the dead.
There’s a verse at the end of Ecclesiastes which testifies to the intermediate state, because there it says about the dead that the dust returns to the ground from where it came; and the spirit [or soul] returns to God who made it. And so, the body is buried, but the soul lives on in the presence of God. And the Lord refers to the distinction between the body and soul and to how the soul outlasts the body in Matthew 10, where he said we’re not to fear those who can kill the body, but not the soul. And we can also think about the thief on the cross who trusted in Christ. And the Lord promised that dying thief that today he will be with the Lord in paradise. The thief died and his body was buried, but his soul went to be with the Lord in heaven. And so, in Revelation 7, we see into heaven and the throne of God is surrounded by believers from every nation who have died and who have gone to be with the Lord in heaven.
But then since Christ was raised bodily from the dead, then all who believe in him will be raised bodily from the grave. And so, in 1 Corinthians 15, Paul defends the truth of the resurrection of the body. He says Christ was first-fruits. That is, he was the first to be raised, but he will not be the last. And when he comes, the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised imperishable and with immortality and with a body that is perfectly suited to eternal life in the new heavens and earth where we will dwell with God forever.
And, of course, this makes sense, doesn’t it? We confess that we believe in God the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth. God is the maker of heaven and earth. He is the one who made the heavens and the earth; and he is the one who made us body and soul. And God will not abandon the heavens and the earth which he has made, but he will renew them when Christ comes again. And he will not abandon us, but he will renew us in body and soul when Christ comes again.
Sermons and Stuff 