Jan 5 - Twelfth Day of Christmas

Legend tells us that The Twelve Days of Christmas

was a secret catechism during times of persecution.

For these twelve days let’s focus on twelve teachings:

The Twelfth Day of Christmas

Twelve Drummers Drumming

 

Yesterday we said that fifes and pipes and drums are an army’s signal callers. What message do the twelve drums beat out for us on the final day of Christmas?

 

The twelve drums in this catechism represent the twelve key doctrinal points of the Apostles Creed.

 

Written three centuries after Jesus’ resurrection, the Creed answered the heresies of that generation by beating out a steady cadence of true and grace.

 

1.    I believe in God, the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth. Our God is King, Father, Mighty, and Creator.

 

2.   I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord. I believe [that Jesus] was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, and born of the Virgin Mary. Jesus – God’s son, our Savior – is fully God (as the Nicene Creed adds: Jesus is “eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father. Through him all things were made. For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven”) and while physically on earth, he was fully man (as the Nicene creed says: he became incarnate from the virgin Mary, and was made man).

 

3.   I believe that … He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was  crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into hell. The purpose of Jesus’ journey was to die to save us from our sins. The suffering was real. The crucifixion was real. And the death was total – that’s what “descended into hell” or “descended into death” means. Jesus submitted to the fullest emptiness and powerlessness of death.

 

4.   I believe that … on the third day he rose again. Oddly, and to reinforce the last petition and point, scripture doesn’t say that Jesus “rose again” – except once. Every other time it say, he “was raised.” It’s a significant difference! “He rose” implies that he had the power to change his own status from death to life. “Was raised” reveals the truth – he was totally, utterly, completely, powerlessly, dead.

 

5.   I believe … [Jesus] ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father. Heaven is Jesus’ eternal destination. Side-by-side with God the Father, King Jesus reigns over all of eternity.

 

6.   I believe … He will come again to judge the living and the dead. And Jesus’ primary “job” in heaven is to judge us. And his verdict is clear: Every one of us is guilty. All of us have sinned and all of us fall far short of God’s glorious standard. “But to all who receive[] him, who believe[] in his name, he g[ives the] power to become children of God” (John 1:12). When we stand before Jesus, he’ll declare each of us guilty. But then he’ll say to “all … who believe” that they are family – children of God – and that his righteousness has covered their sins. As it says in Romans 8:34, “Who … will condemn us? Will Christ Jesus? No, for he is the one who died for us and was raised to life for us and is sitting at the place of highest honor next to God, pleading for us.”

 

7.   I believe in the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is also God. (But I’m not going to explain the Trinity in a paragraph here!!)

 

8.   I believe in … the holy catholic Church. The word “catholic” throws people. It’s the name of a “denomination,” so are we confessing that we’re Roman Catholics? No. In fact, just the opposite. With a little “c”, “catholic” means world-wide or universal. (Once the Roman church was the world-wide church, which is why they used the name.) But if “catholic” means throughout the world, it means that we believe that there is “one church” throughout the world – and it transcends the human divisions that we call denominations. As it says in Ephesians 4:5, the is “one Lord, one faith, one baptism.” We may “like” our denominations and our traditions, but what we should “love” is God’s truth and a unity that cuts across human divisions.

 

9.   I believe in … the communion of saints. We believe that when people die they go to heaven. Therefore, in heaven now are 1) God-the-Father, 2) God-the-Son, 3) God-the-Holy-Spirit, 4) Angels (of all forms and varieties – angels, archangels, cherubim, seraphim, etc.), and 5) the Saints, people of faith who have died and gone to heaven. They’re there now, and as Revelation hints at – they’re aware of our circumstances and praying (at least in a global sense) for events on earth.

 

10. I believe in … the forgiveness of sins. Because of Jesus’ sacrifice, you’re free. Forever.

 

11. I believe in … the resurrection of the body. We don’t become “spirits” when we die. God’s final plan – to go with a “new heaven and a new earth” (see Revelation 21) – is a new body for each of us. God didn’t create the blessings of physical life to be only temporary; physical life is eternal!

 

12. And … I believe in … the life everlasting. (Life eternal is God’s gift to all who believe.) Amen.

 

In Christ’s Love,

a guy who could study

those twelve points for

the rest of his life

and never get bored!