4th Teaching - For us and for our salvation
joseph
the power of the Holy Spirit he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary,
and was made man."
In this week's study, I'd like to focus on two words of the above
phrase that are very easily overlooked but are of great comfort. They
are, "For us."
It's easy, sometimes, when discussing the creed, to get lost in the
technicalities of the "fully God, fully man" debate and forget the
most comforting of all aspects of the Christian faith and that is that
God loves his creation and deals with it on a personal level.
We're all familiar with the famous verse (although we don't always
believe it) from John, that says, "For God 'so loved' the world, that
he sent his Son.... Similarly, Peter says, "Cast all your cares on him
because 'He cares for you.'"
Sometimes, because of the way we were taught, or because of the
experience we had growing up, either with earthly fathers, priests,
the church, etc., it's hard to actually believe that God is "For" us.
We think he is, at best, a strict school master who, if we watch our
p's and q's, might give us a passing grade, or at worst, the grumpy,
all powerful OZ that could never like us. In either case, the idea
that God would know "us" or, better yet, "me" personally, and then
actually act on my behalf, is unfathomable.
Martin Luther, in commenting on Galatians 2:20 - "The Son of God loved
me and gave himself for me," says, "Read these words 'me' and 'for me'
with great emphasis. Accustom yourself to accepting this 'me' with a
sure faith and applying it to yourself."
In this section of the creed we are reminded that the Creator of the
universe, who has revealed himself in the person of Jesus Christ, has
acted for us by becoming one of us in order that he might save us.
What a tremendous act of love.
Of course, as Nick commented, the God who saves us is strangely enough
the one we need to be saved from, and in this line of the creed we are
reminded that that is exactly what he has done, as John's less famous
3:17 verse conveys, "God did not send his Son into the world to
condemn the world, but to save the world through him."
May we all find great comfort in this brilliantly articulated
declaration of the Christian faith, that the Creator of the universe
has acted "For us."
joseph
kathy....@pnc.com
Nick mentioned a couple of weeks ago (in response to the 2nd teaching) that
the world is a "hurting (and hurtful) place." The Creed does not go into
how the creation went from "very good" as God made it to its present state
of corruption from God's good purposes. What is it that we need saved
from? In essence, sin has alienated us from God (and the life He created
us for), from ourselves, from each other, and from the rest of creation.
God's mercy and love are indeed beyond our comprehension and we have a hard
time grasping that God loves us, even me, so much that He sent Jesus to
restore us, each of us, to Himself, and to life and health and peace - to
begin the healing and restoration that will be fully made manifest in us at
the end of the age. "He is good and His mercy endures forever!"
Kathy
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spsarahe...@gmail.com
I'm interested in reading about this Lee Strobel, I never
have read his books and they are here at the library.
The Case for a Creator is one of them, published in 2004.
Sarah Perry