Trinity Week – Wednesday

Building up yourselves upon your most holy faith. – Jude 20.

The First Article of the holy Christian Creed reads thus: “I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.”  But woe is me!  What a gulf yawns between me and my God in the light of His holy Law!  “By the Law is the knowledge of sin” (Romans 3:20).

The Second Article reads thus: “And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; He descended into hell; the third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty, from thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead.” Jesus Christ, the only Son of the Father, has bridged the chasm. Blessed be His name!  He has reconciled me and all the world with God, has conquered hell, and opened heaven.  Whoever believes in Him will have eternal life.  He that believeth in Him shall be saved.  Praise God!

The Third Article reads thus: “I believe in the Holy Ghost; the holy Christian Church, the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting.  Amen.”  The Holy Ghost, eternal God with the Father and the Son, has through the Gospel, brought me, naturally dead in sin, to faith in Christ and to the blessed communion, the blessed multitude of those who are sanctified through the blood of Christ.  I have been given the Spirit of adoption.  Now, I am a child of God and the Father is also my dear Father.  As a member of His Family, His Body, and His Temple, I daily have forgiveness of sins, and, with the entire multitude of believers, I shall rise from the dead and live forever.  This is most certainly true.

This is the holy, Christian faith.  Upon this faith we are to build ourselves up.  Then, with renewed lips, we, every one of us, will be able to say: “I believe in God the Father Almighty. Maker of heaven and earth.”  In Jesus’ name, through the gracious working of the Holy Ghost in His Word, we believe, with Godly confidence, that the almighty God, Creator of heaven and earth, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, is also our dear Father, a loving Father in Christ Jesus, in His perfect obedience and His sinless suffering and death in behalf of us and all other sinners. Thus Christ said after He had finished the work of redemption: “I ascend unto My Father and your Father” (John 20:17).

PRAYER – Praise, glory, blessing, and thanks be to Thee, almighty God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, that Thou so mercifully did take compassion on us, and did not spare Thine own Son, but did deliver Him up for us all.  Praise, glory, blessing, and thanks be also to Thee, Lord Jesus Christ, eternal Son of the Father, that with Thy holy, precious blood, Thou did fully redeem us and reconcile us unto God.  And praise, glory, blessing, and thanks be to Thee, God the Holy Ghost, that Thou, through Thy priceless Gospel, did adorn Thy Christendom with faith, and did make them a family of God’s beloved children.  Triune God, continue to bestow upon us the greatness of Thy mercy in time and in eternity.  Amen.

“God loved the world so that He gave, His only Son the lost to save;

that all who would in Him believe, should everlasting life receive.

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God would not have the sinner die, His Son with saving grace is nigh,

His Spirit in the Word doth teach, how man the blessed goal may reach.

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Be of good cheer, for God’s own Son, forgives all sins which thou hast done;

and justified by Jesus’ blood, thy baptism grants the highest good.

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Glory to God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Three in One!

To Thee, O blessed Trinity, be praise now and eternally!”

(TLH) – Hymn 245, 1, 3, 4, 6