Faith in Parts

Contents

1. 1The confession opens by condemning those who make the Son and Spirit creatures, adopted, or temporal, and those who reduce the Trinity to one person.
2. 2The church's faith is that the unchanged Word took flesh from Mary and united it to the Godhead, which made it free from suffering and immortal after death.
3. 3Those who ascribe human growth and suffering to the Godhead, or who separate the suffering body from the Godhead, are outside the church's confession.
4. 4God is known only through the Son, his eternal Wisdom, and the Son is approached only in the Spirit, through whom God makes creation like himself.
5. 5There is one Father, one Son, and one Spirit; saints who are called gods, sons, or spirits are not thereby what the Son and Spirit are.
6. 6To call the Son God only because he was filled with Godhead denies the Word and returns to creature-worship.
7. 7If the Son created only on command, he would be a servant and a creature, and no creature can create.
8. 8To call the Holy Spirit a sanctified creature denies the source of holiness, sets aside baptism, and abandons the Trinity.
9. 9Baptism and worship are in the name of the one Trinity, so none of the three can be a creature with a beginning.
10. 10A temporal beginning for the Son or Spirit would separate them from the Father, but the Trinity has one glory, substance, and eternity.
11. 11The Word became flesh without change to his Godhead, remaining present everywhere and free from suffering while the flesh suffered.
12. 12The suffering belongs not to the divine power; the Lord of glory fulfilled the law, destroyed death, rose, and will come to judge.
13. 13Those who deny three persons fall into the error of Sabellius, who made Father and Son the same.
14. 14Three persons share one Godhead, which belongs to the Father, to the Son as the Father's, and to the Spirit as God's Spirit.
15. 15One Godhead in three persons keeps both the Trinity and the unity; one person would abolish the distinction.
16. 16Paul's distinction of one God the Father “from whom” and one Lord “through whom” cannot stand if there is only one person.
17. 17“God” marks the Father and “Lord” the Son, yet each title belongs to the other through the Father's begetting of the Son.
18. 18The Trinity is one God because the Father is the one origin, and one Lord because the Father is Father of the Lord.
19. 19Three persons are not three gods, because the Son is the Father's offspring, not his brother, and the Spirit is God's Spirit.
20. 20David, Genesis, and Paul all speak of the Spirit of God.
21. 21Further texts of Romans on the Spirit of God.
22. 22More texts of Romans in which the Holy Spirit works with God and Christ.
23. 23Texts of 1 Corinthians on the Spirit of God, who alone knows the depths of God.
24. 24The baptismal command shows the three persons united without three Godheads, and their sending shows they are distinct.
25. 25There are three persons but one Godhead, since the Son is the Father's image and the Spirit is God's by nature, not by participation.
26. 26Creatures do not share God's substance; the Trinity has one Godhead, lordship, and holiness because the Father begets the Son eternally.
27. 27The confession of one God, the Son of one substance with the Father, and the Holy Spirit from God's substance; those who call Son or Spirit a creature are anathematized.
28. 28The Son of God truly became Son of Man from Mary, one person receiving one worship with the flesh he took.
29. 29Christ suffered in the flesh, rose by his divine power, ascended, and will come to judge.
30. 30Against those who call Christ a man joined to God, the author confesses God made flesh, whose divine mind ruled the flesh without sin.
31. 31Christ is one, not two persons or natures, so that no man is added to the worship of the Trinity; he became man so that we might be made divine.
32. 32A creed: one God of law and gospel, one Lord Jesus Christ the eternal Word made flesh, one Holy Spirit, the church, forgiveness, resurrection, and eternal life.
33. 33Son and Spirit are of one substance with the Father: the Son truly begotten, the Spirit eternally sent forth from the Father through the Son.
34. 34The Word himself was born in the flesh; those in communion with opponents of “of one substance” are refused communion.
35. 35One God the Father, one Lord the Son, one Spirit; the Son took flesh, died, rose, ascended, and will come again to give eternal life.
36. 36The pre-existing Son and the man Jesus are not two persons; the same Son united himself to flesh from Mary.
37. 37The Word is the Father's true Son, not a spoken word, and the Spirit is a living person, not a breath; so the Trinity is worshiped.
38. 38Texts of 2 Corinthians show the Father, Son, and Spirit together.
39. 39More texts of 2 Corinthians naming God, the Word, and the Spirit together.
40. 40Texts of 1 Corinthians on the Spirit of God dwelling in believers.
41. 41Texts of 1 and 2 Corinthians show the Spirit working with the Lord and God, inseparable from the Godhead.
42. 42Hebrews shows the Holy Spirit speaking as God, inseparable from the Godhead of Father and Son.
43. 43The Trinity is believed in and worshiped as one God, as countless texts of Scripture attest.