I Believe in the Holy Spirit (The Creed, Part 16)

[This devotion is part of our series on The Apostles’ Creed, you can find all the videos in there series on our Apostles’ Creed Page. The devotions will be added as they are posted.]

Ephesians 2:1,8-9

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I believe in the Holy Spirit. With these words, we enter into the third and final part of the Apostle’s Creed, where we confess our faith in the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, who is co-equal and co-eternal with God the Father and God the Son. These three, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit work together in everything that they do, especially in the work of creation. The Holy Spirit’s special job, his specialty, is to create saving faith in our hearts, making us alive through faith in Christ Jesus.

As we talk about the Holy Spirit’s work today, it’s important for us to discuss this idea called free will. In our life, especially according to our physical life, we experience free will. We have the ability to make our own decisions. When I wake up in the morning, I can decide whether or not I want eggs and bacon or toast for breakfast. And for the record, I always choose bacon. People oftentimes ask the question, well, does that mean I have free will to make my own decisions in our spiritual life as well? And this question was a question that really was at the heart of what we call the Reformation.

There are three different views in regard to free will. I’m going to explain those to you through using a story of someone drowning at sea.

The first view of free will sees God’s grace as a help that he offers to give us. So imagine this person in the ocean, struggling to stay above the water, and a rescue helicopter sweeps in to come and rescue them from the ocean and the rescue divers there. And the guy cries out from the sea. Help me, help me! And so the rescue diver hands him a personal flotation device and says, here’s your help. Here’s your grace. The shore is that way. Start swimming.

This view of salvation is that man has the free will to take and use God’s help, his grace, to swim to shore, so that ultimately one day, when and if they get to the safety of the shore of eternal life, if they were asked by a journalist, how did you get here? They would say, I used God’s grace to help myself.

The second view sees God’s grace as an offer, something that I have to either accept or reject by my own free will. So let’s go back to the ocean. There’s another man in the ocean, and the rescue helicopter comes to pick him up and save him and rescue him. The rescue diver drops down from the helicopter, but right before he reaches the water where the person is at, he stops just above the surface and says, do you want me to rescue you? At that point, the man has to either accept, he has to reach up and grab the diver for himself or he has to reject the offer of grace and drown. When that person is brought to the shore and interviewed by the journalist, how were you saved? That person would say, well, I was saved because I chose to be rescued. As if he had another choice to make.

The third view. The Lutheran view. We have to go back to the ocean, and instead we find that person in the water, floating face down in the water. They’ve already drown. The rescue diver drops down from the helicopter, grabs him, picks him up, takes him into the helicopter, resuscitate them, and brings them safely to the shore. When they’re on the shore, the interviewer comes up and asks him how were you saved? The person that was rescued simply points to the rescue diver and says, that’s the person who saved me.

You see, when it comes to our free will, at least spiritual free will, the Bible is very clear we’re already dead in the water. Paul says in Ephesians chapter two,

You were dead in your trespasses and sins, … Indeed, it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. (Ephesians 2:1,8-9)

And when you look at that statement, grace isn’t a help. It isn’t an offer we have to accept or decline. Grace is God’s saving power to reach down and save us completely. This grace is yours through faith in Christ Jesus. The Holy Spirit brings you to life, resuscitating us so that we can joyfully respond to God’s gracious activity of rescuing us through Jesus.

When it comes to free will. The question isn’t what makes the most sense or what’s true to my experience, but rather what does the Scripture clearly teach? Start there, as we confess, I believe in the Holy Spirit. Amen.