What is the second article?
And [I believe] in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into hell. The third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty. From thence he will come to judge the living and the dead.
What does this mean?
“[I believe that Jesus Christ… has redeemed me…] that I may be his own and live under him in his kingdom and serve him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness, just as he is risen from the dead, lives, and reigns to all eternity. This is most certainly true.”
French philosopher Albert Camus (1913-1960) famously begins his magnum opus The Myth of Sysiphus with the rather disquieting claim that there is only one serious philosophical question for our age and that is suicide— whether or not life is worth living. Camus as one of the great thinkers of his day represents a branch of philosophy called “Absurdism” which suggests that life is essentially absurd, which is to say, pointless; life is devoid of any meaning, purpose, or unifying motif and in view of the absurdity of life, the chief question is whether or not we ought to live at all. While we might be tempted to think that this rather grim line of questioning is germain only to depressed Frenchmen of the 20th century, this question of meaning and purpose against the apparent absurdity of life has become the essential question of our postmodern world. The tale that the pharmaceutical industry tells is that our youth are increasingly set adrift, alone in this world without compass, chart, or sail on a sea of meaninglessness. Generation Z, for instance, is the most heavily medicated generation in the history of the world, and the thing that ails them more than anything else is depression and anxiety. This overwhelming sadness and listlessness has resulted in a higher suicidality than ever before seen in American young people and demands a response from Christianity.
For our part, we respond to the meaninglessness and death that the world offers with the purpose and life that Christ provides. This is precisely what Luther ends his explanation of the second article with. Jesus has redeemed us from the curse of the law, the sting of sin, the power of death, and the tyranny of the devil so that we might be his own. By faith in Jesus we are united to him and he is united to us. As St. Paul says, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal 2:20) and again elsewhere, “For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s” (Rom 14:8). We are Christ’s. And because we belong to Jesus, we are his and he is ours, we enjoy all the things that are Christ’s. With Christ as our Lord, living in his kingdom, we receive protection, peace, and rest that can be found only in Jesus. We receive help, comfort, and guidance from the Spirit of Jesus who sanctifies and keeps us in Christ. Thus our whole lives as Christians are categorized by the grace and peace that comes from Jesus Christ (Phil 1:2). Christ supplies our every need and thus removes our every care. This is the great gift of faith against worry and anxiety.
But this gift of faith is not merely an idle thing within us that only serves us. By this faith we are freed from the world’s pointless and meaningless project of serving ourselves and living for ourselves; instead we are opened up to live outside ourselves for others. Along these lines, Paul exhorts the church in Rome saying, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Rom 12:1-3). Paul’s exhortation is that the Romans not follow the pattern of this world, living pointless lives in service of the self, but to be transformed into a “living sacrifice.” This paradoxical existence is patterned after Jesus who lived, not seeking his own goods, fulfillment, or joy, but made it his delight to seek our good, fulfillment, and joy. He offered himself, his righteousness, life, peace, and joy, and he did this totally and perfectly on the cross so that we might inherit his every good. Following St. Paul, one theologian has described this Christian life as “dying in the most useful way possible for the neighbor.” The life that is filled with meaning and joy is the life that is spent in sacrificial love, laying down our time, talent, and treasure, for the neighbor in need.
This sacrificial love is perfectly confessed by St. Paul in 1 Corinthians 13, the so-called “chapter of love” often heard at weddings: “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” Significantly, this description of love puts to death the “I” and raises up and exalts the “you” of the neighbor. Love’s language is not “me” and “mine,” but “you” and “yours.” Where faith in the loving work of Christ is, there is love for neighbor. No one has said this better than Luther in his preface to the book of Romans:
“Faith, however, is a divine work in us which changes us and makes us to be born anew of God, John 1[:12–13]. It kills the old Adam and makes us altogether different men, in heart and spirit and mind and powers; and it brings with it the Holy Spirit. O it is a living, busy, active, mighty thing, this faith. It is impossible for it not to be doing good works incessantly. It does not ask whether good works are to be done, but before the question is asked, it has already done them, and is constantly doing them. Whoever does not do such works, however, is an unbeliever. He gropes and looks around for faith and good works, but knows neither what faith is nor what good works are. Yet he talks and talks, with many words, about faith and good works.
Faith is a living, daring confidence in God’s grace, so sure and certain that the believer would stake his life on it a thousand times. This knowledge of and confidence in God’s grace makes men glad and bold and happy in dealing with God and with all creatures. And this is the work which the Holy Spirit performs in faith. Because of it, without compulsion, a person is ready and glad to do good to everyone, to serve everyone, to suffer everything, out of love and praise to God who has shown him this grace…” (AE 35:370-371)
Prayer: King of Glory, by your mercy and compassion, you gave yourself over to death on the cross to obtain everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness for me and all believers. By your Spirit, keep me firm in this faith that I might always live under you in your kingdom and serve you in joy and peace even as you have been raised from the dead and live and reign to all eternity. Amen.
