Romans 10:5-13 - The Need for A Creed - June 3, 2018

If someone were to ask you “what do you believe?” What would you say? Obviously, context matters. If you’re talking about the weather or the Brewers or politics – you might give your opinion or a bit of information you gleaned from a news report. But if the context is regarding religion and salvation and God – what would you say? What do you believe? Why do you believe it? This isn’t just a question that some theoretical person may someday ask us, it’s about saving faith: it’s what God is looking for now and will be the basis for his judgment on the Last Day, when we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. (2 Corinthians 5:10) Are you ready to stand judgment before your Holy Judge? Throughout this summer our aim will be to give you the confidence to stand before God and men and to give an answer to the question: what do you believe? We will do that by taking an in-depth look at what Luther called the “shortest and clearest statement of Christian faith”: the Apostles’ Creed. Today, the Apostle Paul will lead us to see why we need a creed; a creed and not (our) deeds, a creed in our hearts, a creed on our lips.

In many Christian circles today, “creed” has become a dirty word. In fact, they have composed their own anti-creed motto: “Deeds, not creeds.” Convinced that creeds only divide Christians and scare away prospective believers – these churches have abandoned the three ecumenical creeds that have been in use in Christendom for the better part of 2000 years, in favor of more “relevant” and “practical” teaching and preaching. And this has had a clear impact. If one is hesitant to confess the truth about God and what he has done, there’s really only one thing left to talk about: us. The inevitable result is that people are led to believe that they are saved by what they do. Is that true? Paul summarizes the argument: Moses describes in this way the righteousness that is by the law: “The man who does these things will live by them.” Are good deeds important? Yes, because God commands them. Can your good deeds save you? If you fear, love, and trust in God above all things and love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:36-40), if you can keep the 10 commandments perfectly, then yes, you can save yourself – and you don’t need a creed, you don’t need faith, you don’t need Jesus. There’s only one problem. Doing it. Every second of every minute of every day of your life.

Paul vividly illustrates the futility of trying to achieve the righteousness God demands through the Law: “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down) “or ‘Who will descend into the deep?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). In other words, placing your trust for your salvation in your own good deeds is an attempt to create your own savior – or more precisely – it means turning yourself into your own god. This is precisely what Satan tempted Adam and Eve to do in the Garden of Eden. And, not coincidentally, this is what the “deeds, not creeds” crowd ends up encouraging people to be and do. Without explicitly denying the Gospel, the clear emphasis in far too many churches is on you; your effort, your contribution, your will-power, your decision, your dreams and destinies. But Paul didn’t mince words when he wrote the Galatians that all who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.” (Galatians 3:10) The door to heaven through the righteousness of the law has been slammed shut by our own inability to do it. The awful flip side of “the man who does these things will live by them” is “whoever does not do these things will die by them.”

We need a righteousness that doesn’t depend on us or our good deeds. Fortunately for us, this better righteousness also has a voice: What does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming. You don’t have to somehow go to heaven or descend into the abyss to find a savior because God did it for you: he sent Jesus from heaven to be born in human flesh, to live the perfect life you couldn’t, to suffer and die for your sins and then, after three days, God raised him from the dead to prove the he is the only Savior anyone will ever need. And what’s more, God made sure that this message could reach all people in every nation by inspiring men to write it all down in the Bible. The good news of Jesus, the record of the truly perfect deeds he did for you, the righteousness God demands from you, is as close to you as the Bible. And so, theoretically, we could say that the Bible is the only creed we need.

But, as good as that sounds, it is impractical for two reasons. First, ever since the Garden of Eden Satan has worked overtime to twist and distort and manipulate what God’s Word says; and second, most people don’t have the time, desire, or ability to read the entire Bible and properly interpret it. And that’s true in other areas of life too. For example, would you be able to recognize the symptoms of someone having a stroke? If you can remember F.A.S.T. you can: Facial drooping, Arm weakness, Speech difficulties = Time to call 911. Like the F.A.S.T. acronym, a creed is a simple summary of Biblical teaching which facilitates comprehension, enhances learning, and aids in memory. The Apostles’ Creed can be traced all the way back to the 3rd century, but creeds were a part of the Christian Church almost from the beginning. In fact, Paul records an early Christian creed right here in Romans 10: if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Notice that Paul doesn’t recite the 10 commandments and then say “if you do these things you will be saved.” No, he recites the identity and work of Jesus – and says, “if you confess and believe these things, you will be saved.” What things? That Jesus is Lord – that is, that Jesus is true God, the same God who created the universe, who rules and governs all things. This Jesus, this one true God, lived, suffered, and died – and then three days later, he rose again from the dead. We need this creed because we need to hear again and again and again that it is not our deeds but Jesus’ that offer the only sure path to salvation.  

This good news that God has single-handedly accomplished our salvation is accessible to anyone with a pulse in the Bible. But this good news doesn’t do anyone any good if it remains locked away in a book we’ve never taken the time to read, study and digest it personally. Paul goes on: For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified. Martin Luther once told a story about a theologian who met a coal miner and asked him the most basic of questions: “My good man, what do you believe?” “I believe what the Church believes.” “But what does the church believe?” “The church believes what I believe.” (What Luther Says, Ewald M. Plass, p. 469, par. 1384) Sadly, too many Christians still today possess nothing more than a coal miner’s faith. They were baptized and confirmed, they might even attend worship regularly, but they are biblically illiterate, they can hardly list the books of the Bible much less summarize what they contain and mean. They are sadly mistaken that just belonging to a Christian church is what saves you. That’s a big part of the reason for an extended sermon series on the Apostles’ Creed – so that you know what you believe and why. So that you are confident and convinced – in your own heart – this is what I believe – not just because the Church teaches it, but because this is what God himself has said in his Word. The goal of this series, then, is very simple: that you know who God is and what he has done to save you from your sins – because that very personal, very private, very intimate faith is the only way that anyone can stand before God on Judgment Day, justified, that is, declared “not guilty.”

But this very personal, very private, very intimate faith never, ever stops at the heart. Paul concludes: It is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. As the Scripture says, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame. For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile – the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” One of the more frequent criticisms of the Apostles’ Creed is that it is not inspired, because it’s not found in the Bible. And that’s true. The precise words of the Creed are not inspired and no one claims that they are. But, the truths expressed by the Creed have been tested over the course of almost 17 centuries and have proven to be a true and clear summary of Biblical truth. Which is exactly the point. The Greek word translated “confess” is homologeo. Its basic meaning is “to say the same thing, to agree.” So, to confess the Christian faith is nothing more and nothing less than to say the same thing the Bible says, to agree with it. God has revealed everything he has done to save us in his Word and – as our other two lessons demonstrated – he expects and demands that we echo those truths back to him with our lips.  

And so, we need the Creed, and we need to regularly use the Creed for four primary reasons: 1) As we said earlier, it provides a simple summary of Biblical doctrine – so simple that a child can learn it and the Alzheimer’s patient can confess it. The creed gathers the many different doctrines that are contained in 66 books of the Bible and condenses them into one simple, brief confession. So that we can say in all seriousness, if you know the Creed, you know everything you need to know to be saved. 2) Having been in constant use by the Christian church for over 1600 years, the Creed is an important link to the past. It confirms that Christianity is not a man-made invention; it roots Christianity in actual history and links us to Peter and James and John and Paul – the very men who touched and talked to and witnessed the death and resurrection of Jesus. 3) It serves as a litmus test of truth. As a clear and bold confession, it does what Jesus said it would: it both unites and divides. It unites those who believe and confess the one, true, historic Christian faith and exposes those who deny it as heretics (which, incidentally, is what led to the formation of the creeds). And 4) Paul says everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. But in the very next verse he asks an important question: how can they call on the one they have not believed in? (Romans 10:14) The world needs us to confess the creed so that they might know the one, true God, believe in him and be saved.

So what do you believe? The question is not “do you believe?” Everyone, from the suicide bomber to the avowed atheist, believe something. The key is what you believe. It marks the dividing line between heaven and hell. (Mark 16:16) The Bible is a Creed. It’s the written revelation of all that God has done to save us through Jesus Christ. The Apostles’ Creed is nothing more and nothing less than a summary of that good news. It’s a creed that we and all people need. A creed that is not about our woefully inadequate deeds but Jesus’ deeds for us. A creed that forms the basis for the faith that pulses in every believer’s heart. A creed that every last one of us – from the 2 year old to the 92 year old can confess with our lips to the glory and praise of our gracious God. May our study of the Apostles’ Creed deepen and enrich our faith in the one, true God so that we are not only confident to stand before his throne on the Last Day but that we are confident to give a clear, coherent confession of faith to anyone who asks us to give the reason for the hope that we have. God grant it for Jesus’ sake. Amen.