What is the First Article?
“I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.”
What does this mean?
“I believe that God has made me and all creatures; that he has given me my body and soul, eyes, ears, and all my members, my reason and all my senses, and still takes care of them.”
The first article of the Apostles’ Creed presents us with two important questions for reflection: 1) “What does it mean to be human?” and 2) “What does it mean for God to be God and Father?” With these two questions we can begin to sketch out and understand all that is implied in this first section of Luther’s explanation of the First Article.
This first question arises from the repeated use of the first person pronoun, “me” or “my,” that God has created me, he has given me body and soul, all my members and my senses. The Christian individual, though in the context of “all creatures” and thus all creation, is definitively the focus. Some have criticized Luther for this on account of it seeming too individualistic, which, especially in our so-called postmodern world which is increasingly narcissistic, is a source of ever growing criticism in our cultural discourse. For obvious reasons, it would be anachronistic to say that Luther is engaging in postmodern ideology, rather, what he is doing through this emphasis on the individual is emphasizing the fact that this article and all the articles of the creed are the Gospel, good news. A constitutive element of the Gospel is that it is the personal promissory address of God to the believer, from an “I” to a “thou.” An orphan hearing that someone else got adopted is not good news for that orphan. He or she might altruistically rejoice for the other, but the news of adoption is not yet good news until it is proclaimed “for me” (pro me/pro nobis). When this news is transformed from “He was adopted” to “You were adopted,” now it is good news.
With the Gospel as the cornerstone, we can begin defining “man” with a sure and certain foundation. In thinking about Man from the perspective of the Gospel, we begin by asking ourselves not, “What does man do?”, but “What has been done for Man?” Philosophers of all times and places have opted for the former and have tried to define man as, “a rational animal having sensation and a body.” The work of man is to speak (rationale), to live (animal), to feel (sensitivum), and to move bodily (corporeum). This definition is as old as Aristotle and as recent as Darwin. The chief consideration in this definition is the rational capacity of man, which the ancients pinned on man’s ability to speak (Greek: logikos from which we get “logical”). While other beings live, feel, and have bodies, only man is a speaker. This, broadly, is the definition of philosophy and the modern sciences.
Having been versed in Aristotle and the sciences, Luther approaches this same problem of definition with the sacred scriptures in hand. Instead of taking his definition from intellectual inquiry, Luther mines the scriptures and stumbles upon Romans 3:28 for his definition of man: “For we hold that man is justified by faith apart from works of the law.” And with this definition Luther is able to affirm that man is a product of speech, but not his own speech, but God’s speech. It is God’s speech in creation and justification which constitutes man as such. Fundamentally, Man is the one addressed by God and God is a speaker. With Ephesians 2:10 also in mind, Luther confesses that we are God’s “workmanship” (Greek: poema), and thus God as the worker is our “poet” and the poet of all creation. The Christian confession of what it means to be human, then, is that I am God’s creature, his creation, his poem. And God has created us humans as bodies and souls, man and woman, in the image of Christ, in order to speak with God and one another. This bespeaking of creation is given artistic expression by C. S. Lewis in his Magician’s Nephew where Aslan is depicted as creating Narnia by singing it into being. The animals and birds, the trees and bushes, the clouds and stars are all sung into being and spoken together by the Deep Magic of the Emperor beyond the Sea.
If I am God’s creature, then naturally, in answering our second question, God is the creator. He has made “heaven and earth,” “me and all creatures,” which is simply to say, everything. Not only has he begun all things, but he continues to create and uphold all things by his almighty power. All things hold together and exist because God wills it, blesses it, and preserves it by his spoken word. As such the light that we have exists because God, once upon a time, said, “Let there be light.” The flowers, bushes, and trees live, grow, and propagate because God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants, fruit trees, etc…” The stars twinkle and spin around our galaxy because God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens…” Animals roam around and delight us because God said, “Let the waters swarm… let the birds fly… let the earth bring forth living creatures…” And not only do these things exist, but they exist as creatures of God, spoken into existence, and declared good and very good. God’s word about creation both forms and informs our own estimation of creation including our own created selves, that it is from God, in the form of a gift, that it is good, and, to quote Luther, that God “still takes care of it.”
This care for creation is illustrated in that God is a “Maker” and “Almighty,” but especially in that God is “Father.” Of all the names of God included in the First Article, the hard sciences (biology, physics, chemistry) take the most issue with “Maker” and “Almighty,” but the soft sciences (sociology, psychology, anthropology) have taken the greatest issue with “Father.” The fatherhood of God has scandalized modern sensibilities as “gendering God” and promoting misogyny, prejudice, and hate. Against this, however, all orthodox Christian fellowships have rigorously maintained the fatherhood of God, which begs the question, “Why?” For one, God is Father because of the Son. He is the eternally and unbegotten Father of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten before all worlds (John 3:16). His relationship with the Son makes it such that God does not simply act as an earthly father by means of analogy, metaphor, or simile. God is Father. That is his name and who he is. But he is not simply Father from eternity of his Son, Jesus, but he is also the Father of all Christians (Gal 4:4-6). God has adopted Christians by Baptism as sons through the blood of his Son so that we can call on him and know him as our trueborn Father. On account of this adoption, Christians can uniquely pray, “Our Father…” in Spirit and truth. From God’s fatherhood, all fatherhood on earth is derived and recognized, so while we might say that God is like a father by giving good gifts or providing “daily bread” this is to work the problem backwards.
As an aside, on the issue of “gendering God,” we as Christians can indeed “gender God” because God has gendered himself. Although we would not begin to do this from the fatherhood of God, but from the Son, Jesus, who was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and “was made man.” Jesus was born of a woman as a man, with testicles and a penis which was circumcised on the eighth day (Luke 2:21). Gender is a God-given reality and it is also a reality which Jesus assumed in his incarnation. He was and is eternally male.
A final note on the created world and God’s creative activity: while we are familiar with the visible creation, i.e. man, animals, plants, etc., there are also created things/beings that are not seen, invisible. The chief among them that we encounter occasionally in the scriptures are what we call “Angels” from the Greek word, angelos. These creatures are thought to have been made on the first day of creation, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” The “heavens” would include not simply the heavenly realm, but also heavenly beings. This reading is supported by Nehemiah 9 which says, “You [God] made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all that is on it…” Biblically speaking, angels are created as God’s messengers and servants, and as such they guard and protect Christians on earth and they worship and praise God in the heavenly realms (Ps 91; Heb 1; Lk 1). Beyond this we also know that Satan and the demons are fallen angels who rebelled against God and fight against humanity (Jude 6). It is important to recognize, however, especially in view of the Devil and demonic activity, that all angels are creatures of God and not equal to God. As such, the Devil is not omnipresent, omnipotent, nor omniscient. Though angels are powerful beings, we do not fear, love, or trust in them above all things, but reserve that for God alone as the first commandment bids.
Prayer: Almighty Father, maker of heaven and earth: I praise you for having fashioned me in love and set me within this world, which you have also created. For all that you have given me in body and soul and for the wondrous ways in which you take care of me, I give you thanks. Keep me mindful of your bountiful gifts, ever looking to you for all good things in this earthly life, and teach me to receive them as your child and heir; through Jesus Christ, your Son. Amen.
