Friday in Holy Trinity
“[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.” (Apostles’ Creed, Second Article)
In the Name of Christ. Amen. It’s interesting to note the occurrence of Pilate’s name in the Creed. Here is one who is not of the Faith, yet his name shows up in one of the most important Christian works of all time.
Why? It’s an anchor in time. Here is a person who lived and ruled at a specific place and time, and the Creed is pinned to that place on the world’s timeline.
Here God is showing us the absolute historical nature of His Son and His Son’s work on earth. But more than that, the Creed goes much farther in explaining the Faith to those who hear and learn it.
This same Jesus has two natures – one divine and one human. He is both God and Man. He is all-powerful but born a helpless infant who needed help being fed and having His diaper changed.
Each nature is absolutely necessary for the work of salvation to be accomplished. Each nature had its part to play. The divine nature, the eternal Son of God lived to fulfill God’s Law, to do perfectly what we could never hope to manage on our own.
The human nature was necessary so that He could act in our place under the Law. Jesus also needed to be able to suffer and die for our guilt, which He could not do in His divine nature alone.
Both of these natures came together in one Person at the angel’s declaration to Mary that she would bear a Son. In that sentence, the earthly and heavenly were joined for eternity. The Son of God took on flesh. He took on a body that He bears to this day and will bear for all eternity as a sign of His work for us and our salvation.
Thankfully, the work of Christ doesn’t end with the sentence quoted above. If it did, we’d be in pretty bad shape. Where would our salvation be if Christ’s story ended in the grave?
It doesn’t end there, though. The story ends with our glorified and risen Lord taking His place upon His throne in heaven where He intercedes for us with the Father and waits for the day when He will return in glory to take us all to His side. Come quickly, Lord Jesus! Amen.
Daily Lectionary
Proverbs 8:1-21 2 John 1-13 Matthew 12:1-14