Resurrectio1
 
Our confessions of faith in the Creeds are thoroughly scriptural.  St. Paul wrote to the Corinthian congregation concerning the bodily resurrection of Jesus and especially Christian believers.  “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures [Psalm 16:8-11; 110:1; Isaiah 53:8-10], that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4).  These words form the heart of the Apostles’ Creed, which summarized the Gospel for the early Christians. 
 
In the Apostles’ Creed we confess our faith in the Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  The work of the Spirit, “the Lord and Giver of Life” [as in the Nicene Creed, dating to 325 A. D. Council of Nicea] we confess our faith in “the Holy Spirit, the holy Christian Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.”   This Christian confession was developed from the second to the ninth centuries A.D. as a baptismal creed or statement of faith in the Triune God.
 
The work of God brings regeneration to spiritually dead hearts by His means of grace in the waters of holy baptism where we are made children of God, regardless of our age.  “We were baptized into Christ’s death and buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:3-4).    We learn of our Lord’s grace poured over us, or if you will, in which we were immersed, according to His command: “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them everything I have commanded you.  And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:19-20). 
 
The Spirit of God does His work through the Word, since “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God” (Romans 10:17), and through His Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.  Faith is created by the Word, the Gospel of Christ’s cross and resurrection.  The hearing is God’s working of faith in the heart, “a gift of God, not of works” (Ephesians 2:8-9).  As in the Creation, God spoke and it was so.  “My word goes forth and will not return to Me empty, but will accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it” (Isaiah 55:11).  The work of God the Holy Spirit imparts life to dead souls by means of the Gospel of Christ’s substitutionary death and resurrection for each of us.  We are baptized in the name of the Triune God and He imparts His grace and forgiveness upon us, enlivening us with His Spirit, “born [again] of water and the Spirit” (John 3:5).   The Gospel is “the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16).  Who does the turning or the believing when we are told, “Repent and believe”?  Is it man’s work or God’s?  Grammatically, the verbs “repent” and “believe” are static verbs, not action verbs.  The subject of this verb experiences God’s working, His grace at work for us.  To “repent and believe” is a psychological state, not an action.  “Trust in God develops and increases as a result of, or in reaction to, His Word and promises, the means of grace, and not as a function of one’s decision, effort, or activity” (Concordia Theological Quarterly, January – April 1981: ”Repentance and Faith: Who Does the Turning?”).  Other Christians consider these verbs active with the subject as the agent, as in “I’m repenting, I’m believing.” 
 
God in His grace and mercy forgives my sins for Jesus’ sake, instilling this faith in my heart to repent and believe.  And He promises, by means of His own death and resurrection, to raise me also from the dead.   We know that we have been buried with Christ in baptism and raised with Him to new life (Romans 6:4).  I can confess with all Christians my faith in “the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come” (Nicene Creed).