What is the second article?
And [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. He descended into hell. The third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty. From thence he will come to judge the living and the dead.
What does this mean?
I believe that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the Virgin Mary, is my Lord…
In Luther’s Large Catechism explanation, he summarizes the second article with this little confession, “I believe that Jesus Christ is my Lord.” This is the simplest and oldest confession of the Christian church. The confession, Iesous Kyrios (“Jesus is Lord”) stands as the quintessential confession that Jesus is the one who has redeemed me from the kingdom of darkness and has translated me into the kingdom of his blessed light. Jesus has removed the tyrant who lorded over us and has become our gracious Lord. Jesus has freed us from slavery and bondage to sin and death and has made us free in righteousness and life. He is able to do this and has indeed done it because Jesus is the same Lord confessed throughout all the Scriptures. He is the God who with the Father and the Spirit made heaven and earth, the God who walked with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the God who spoke with Moses in the burning bush. Jesus is Yahweh in the flesh. As Paul says in his epistle to the church in Colossae, “He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross” (Col 1:16-20). He is thus the mystery hidden from ages, concealed in the bosom of the Father from eternity, but made manifest in time for us men and for our salvation. He is fully God and fully man, having been begotten of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and thus simultaneously the Son of God and brother of Mankind.
Since this simple confession is the oldest confession, it is also the most contested confession within Christendom. One of the first and greatest heretics to contest this confession was an elder from Alexandria, Egypt named Arius. In desiring to maintain the singularity of God over and against the plurality of God, Arius made the claim that Jesus, though like God (Greek: homoi-ousias) was not the same as God (Greek: homo-ousias). Jesus was not the creator, but a creature and thus not co-eternal, co-equal, nor co-majestic with the Father. Jesus’ divinity subsisted not in his nature or essence, but in his moral activity. By living a perfectly sinless life, Jesus “participated in” divinity, but of himself was not divine. The chief benefit of Jesus for sinners is thus the example of chastity, obedience, and charity, so that through imitation sinners might also become “like God” as Jesus is like God.
This confession was condemned as heresy by the First Council of Nicea (325 CE), but it is a heresy that has persisted to this day in the form of Unitarianism and Unitarian Universalism, of which many liberal denominations are often a variety or subset of. Unitarianism stands in opposition to Trinitarianism and thus teaches that God is one, not three. Some famous examples of modern children of Arius and deniers of the Trinity would be Thomas Jefferson, John Quincy Adams, William Howard Taft, Millard Filmore, Frank Lloyd Wright, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Sir Isaac Newton, and Susan B. Anthony.
While the Council of Nicea negatively condemns Arianism, it also positively confesses the truth that we can identify in our own Nicene Creed that Jesus is begotten of the Father “not made,” “very God of very God,” being of “one substance” with the Father, who was incarnate “by the Holy Spirit” and the Virgin Mary, and was “made man.” All of these sentiments are directly in response to Arianism and all other forms of “Subordinationism” which seeks to subordinate Jesus and/or the Holy Spirit to God the Father by making them less than God himself. Jesus is God, but at the same time, Jesus is also fully human. Jesus has human ancestry (Rom 1:3), he has a human body and soul (Lk 24:39), he has a human sex (Lk 2:21), and he has human feelings and needs (Mt 4:2; Jn 11:35). Thus, as the author of Hebrews states, we do not have a high priest who is “unable to sympathize with us” but who in every way was like us.
The twofold confession of Jesus as simultaneously and totally God and man is absolutely central to the Christian faith. If either Jesus’ humanity or divinity is minimized in the slightest, the Gospel is entirely sacrificed. In regard to Jesus’ humanity, Gregory Naziazen says it best, that whatever is not assumed is not redeemed. If Jesus did not become completely human then we are not completely redeemed. If he assumed only our soul, then our body is not redeemed, or if he only assumed our body, then our soul is not redeemed. This same principle applies to the divinity of Jesus. If Jesus is not totally God, then we also do not have a total or perfect redemption, because only God is able to totally and perfectly bear our sin and conquer them. But as it stands, “When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law so that we might receive adoption as sons” (Gal 4:4-5), “You were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot” (1 Pt 1:18-19), and “As by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous” (Rm 5:19). Jesus demonstrates his divinity throughout his ministry, but especially in his resurrection from the dead and thus, the resurrection is our source of great comfort that Jesus is who is he says he is and he has done what he said he’d do. Through him we have forgiveness, life, and salvation imperishable and God is indeed with us always (Mt 28:19).
Prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the Virgin Mary, I give you thanks that you have become my brother. Give me the confidence and boldness to confess you as my Lord and so live and die within your loving care; for you live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
