Article II.
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.
Here we learn to know the Second Person of the
Godhead, so that we see what we have from God over and above the temporal goods
aforementioned; namely, how He has completely poured forth Himself and withheld
nothing from us that He has not given us. Now, this article is very rich and
broad; but in order to expound it also briefly and in a childlike way, we shall
take up one word and sum up in that the entire article, namely (as we have
said), that we may here learn how we have been redeemed; and we shall base this
on these words: In Jesus Christ, our Lord.
If now you are asked, What do you believe in the
Second Article of Jesus Christ? answer briefly: I believe that Jesus Christ,
true Son of God, has become my Lord. But what is it to become Lord? It is this,
that He has redeemed me from sin, from the devil, from death, and all evil. For
before I had no Lord nor King, but was captive under the power of the devil,
condemned to death, enmeshed in sin and blindness.
For when we had been created by God the Father,
and had received from Him all manner of good, the devil came and led us into
disobedience, sin, death, and all evil, so that we fell under His wrath and
displeasure and were doomed to eternal damnation, as we had merited and
deserved. There was no counsel, help, or comfort until this only and eternal
Son of God in His unfathomable goodness had compassion upon our misery and
wretchedness, and came from heaven to help us. Those tyrants and jailers, then,
are all expelled now, and in their place has come Jesus Christ, Lord of life,
righteousness, every blessing, and salvation, and has delivered us poor lost
men from the jaws of hell, has won us, made us free, and brought us again into
the favor and grace of the Father, and has taken us as His own property under
His shelter and protection, that He may govern us by His righteousness, wisdom,
power, life, and blessedness.
Let this then, be the sum of this article that
the little word Lord signifies simply as much as Redeemer, i.e., He who has
brought us from Satan to God, from death to life, from sin to righteousness,
and who preserves us in the same. But all the points which follow in order in
this article serve no other end than to explain and express this redemption,
how and whereby it was accomplished, that is, how much it cost Him, and what He
spent and risked that He might win us and bring us under His dominion, namely,
that He became man, conceived and born without [any stain of] sin, of the Holy
Ghost and of the Virgin Mary, that He might overcome sin; moreover, that He
suffered, died and was buried, that He might make satisfaction for me and pay
what I owe, not with silver nor gold, but with His own precious blood. And all
this, in order to become my Lord; for He did none of these for Himself, nor had
He any need of it. And after that He rose again from the dead, swallowed up and
devoured death, and finally ascended into heaven and assumed the government at
the Father's right hand, so that the devil and all powers must be subject to
Him and lie at His feet, until finally, at the last day, He will completely
part and separate us from the wicked world, the devil, death, sin, etc.
But to explain all these single points separately
belongs not to brief sermons for children, but rather to the ampler sermons
that extend throughout the entire year, especially at those times which are
appointed for the purpose of treating at length of each article -- of the
birth, sufferings, resurrection, ascension of Christ, etc.
Ay, the entire Gospel which we preach is based on
this, that we properly understand this article as that upon which our salvation
and all our happiness rest, and which is so rich and comprehensive that we
never can learn it fully.