A sermon on the Athanasian Creed for Trinity Sunday. Delivered by Pastor Caleb Strutz.

The Athanasian Creed is kinda odd for a lot of different reasons. It wasn’t written by St. Athanasius. Although it bears his name, he didn’t have anything to do with it, it was written later by people imitating his confession of faith. Technically, it’s not even a creed, the first words aren’t “Credo,” “I believe,” but “Whoever will.” It’s more of a song or canticle, often set to music, rather than a statement of faith. We probably think it’s odd just because it’s so long. There’s a reason we only say it one Sunday out of the year. And it’s not just long, it’s also repetitive and confusing and really detailed.

The word translated for us  as “infinite” in verse 9 is, in the older translation, “incomprehensible,” which led one author to quip, “The Father incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible, and the Holy Spirit incomprehensible—the whole thing incomprehensible.” Is that how you feel about the Athanasian Creed? Can’t make sense of it? Long and rambling at best, confusing or jarring at worst? What does it mean or does it entail to confess the Athanasian Creed, not just one Sunday out of the year, but everyday as Christians? Today we’ll take a brief look at the Athanasian Creed. It has a lot of value for us as it teaches us about the catholic faith, the Triune God, the work of Christ, and the role of works.

I. The Catholic Faith

Perhaps one of the reasons the Athanasian Creed is so jarring is because of the opening line, “Whoever will be saved shall, above all else, hold the catholic faith.” What does that mean? How can we say that as Lutherans? Right, when most people hear the word “catholic” they think of the pope and purgatory and praying to Mary. That’s not what this is talking about here. This creed is older than the development of the papacy, this doesn’t mean Roman Catholic.

Perhaps the best way to define “catholic” in this case is a statement by Vincent of Lérins, one of the church fathers connected with the Athanasian Creed since its beginning: “That we hold that faith which has been believed everywhere, always, by all.” “Catholic,” in the proper sense, means “universal.” We believe what the Church has always believe, we teach what the Bible has always taught, we are catholic Christians.

And the creed itself defines what it means by “the catholic faith.” Verse 3, “And the true Christian faith is this, that we worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity.” The catholic faith is to worship the true God, to be placed in this relationship with Him. The only faith that saves is faith in the Triune God. Any other god that’s not the Trinity is a false god. That’s why the Trinity is so important. That’s the creed goes on to define who the Triune God is.

II. The Triune God Here’s where things get confusing and repetitive. We don’t have time to dive into every passage this is bringing to the table, so suffice it to say that all this is is using the language of the Bible to describe the Triune God. There’s that introductory phrase, “we worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity, Neither confusing the Persons nor dividing the substance.”

This Creed was written at a time when there was a lot of theological disagreement over who God is, as it relates to the Trinity of persons and the unity of substance. Some said that Jesus wasn’t really God, at least not in the same way the Father is. Some said that the Spirit wasn’t really God. Others said there weren’t really three persons, just one God who puts on these different masks.

We could easily get lost in the history as well, but these aren’t just past debates. How many people think that Jesus was just a good teacher, a moral example, but not God? How many believe that it doesn’t really matter which God you worship, as long as you’re true to what you believe? We live in an age of religious toleration which so easily seeps into us so that we soften our convictions and lose our zeal. If everyone is basically worshipping the same God, why does it matter to tell other people about Jesus? If all this jargon is just too confusing and complicated, why can’t we just forget our differences and band together? We’re shocked by the second verse just as much as the first, with all this “perish eternally” stuff. What does it really matter? Isn’t religion supposed to be easy?

We don’t take God seriously. We don’t want Him to make intellectual demands of us, even though it’s just what He has revealed to us in His Word. We don’t want Him to be so exclusive because that might make someone feel bad. But the only true God is the Triune God. Only the Triune God saves.

III. The Work of Christ

That’s why all this Trinity stuff is so important. Because you need Jesus. You need the Son. You can’t just have the Father—the Father, by definition, has a Son. And only Jesus saves. So the Creed transitions from talking about the three persons of the Trinity to the person and work of Christ. Here’s where it all makes sense, here’s where it gets real. Verse 27, “Furthermore it is necessary for everlasting salvation that one also believe faithfully the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Only God the Son, the second person of the Trinity, became incarnate. God took on human flesh to save you. And yeah, there are some more complicated dynamics between Jesus’ human and divine natures, but Jesus has to be true God and true man because otherwise salvation doesn’t work. If Jesus wasn’t true man, He couldn’t die. If Jesus wasn’t true God, His death wouldn’t count. But because Jesus is a true man, He is your brother. He took on your flesh to redeem it. He suffered the death that you was waiting for you. And because Jesus is true God, His death has infinite value. Because God died, His death has the power to forgive all of your sins. It has the power to defeat death and overcome it.

All of this heady Trinity stuff is made real in the plan of salvation. The loving relationships between the persons of the Trinity are older than time. Love is realer than time and space, love existed in the Godhead before time and space were created. And that perfect, divine love, led God the Son to take on flesh. God’s blood was shed for you, this perfect display of perfect love. That’s why the Trinity matters. You need the Triune God to have salvation.

IV. The Role of Works

And the work of Christ naturally leads to Christ’s return, to the end of the world. And at the close of our Creed, we have another potentially shocking statement: “And they that have done good will enter into life everlasting; and they that have done evil into everlasting fire.” What’s the deal with that? We’re not saved by works, are we?

Again, this is just a restating of Scripture, we see this perhaps most memorably at the end of the parable of the sheep and goats (Mt 25:31-46). And it’s not saying how you’re saved, just making a simple observation. Those who have done good will enter into everlasting life because good works only proceed from true faith which does save. Those who have done evil will enter into everlasting fire because they have not received forgiveness, again, by faith. Faith does not save because it does works, but faith that saves does do works.

“This is the catholic faith; whoever does not faithfully and firmly believe this cannot be saved.” How do you feel about that? Are you on board? Maybe sounds a bit harsh, but let’s state that positively: those who believe are saved. That’s good news. And if you’re thinking, “I don’t know, I didn’t quite understand everything that was going on here, maybe I don’t believe it ‘whole and undefiled,’” let’s refer again to how this Creed defines the true faith, “that we worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity.” Worship. Faith doesn’t depend on a perfect, philosophical understanding of the Triune God, but that we worship the true God. If you have any doubt about that in your mind, just look at our liturgy. The Trinity is all over the place. Anytime there’s a group of three, whether it’s “Amen” or “Alleluia,” think, “the Trinity.” Anytime we say or sing “Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,” think, “This is the catholic faith, to worship the true God.” The full doctrinal unfolding of that comes later, we have a lifetime to unpack it all, but it starts with worship, this natural result of the faith God has given you and this natural response to all He has done for you.

Is the whole thing still “incomprehensible?” Well, in the best sense of the word, it is. We can only accept this by faith. There is no way that our limited human reasoning can fully grasp the three Persons and one substance of the Triune God, no way we can understand how Jesus is both true God and true man in one person. But that’s a good thing. God is bigger than us, if we could understand Him, He’d be on our playing field and that wouldn’t be good. And He has done the unthinkable, the impossible to save you. Amen.