My Lord Has Redeemed Me, A Lost And Condemned Creature.
Which is the Second Article?
I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord.
What does this mean?
I believe that Jesus Christ is my Lord, who has redeemed me, a lost and condemned creature, purchased and won me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil.
1. We have learned that our Lord is true God and true man. We have heard that the Son of God became man and humbled Himself even unto death for our sake to become our Lord and Savior. Our Catechism furthermore tells us by what means Jesus Christ, true God and true man, became my Lord and Savior. That is the great work of our Lord: He came into this world to save, to redeem us. His work is our redemption. Let us diligently and prayerfully consider this great work of our Lord—our redemption.
2. Christ has redeemed me, so I confess. We were in great need of such a Lord and of the redemption which He was to bring. For without such a Lord we are lost and condemned creatures. We are lost creatures. What does this mean? Remember the beautiful story of the Prodigal Son. The father in this story said of his son after his return that he had been lost. Wilfully and sinfully the son had left his home and his father and gone into a far country, where he spent all his goods with riotous living. He was now far away from his father, separated from him and his home. He was lost in that far-away country, where great misery and distress soon overtook him. Without his father he would have perished with hunger. Thus we are lost without Christ. We have sinned against our heavenly Father, we have transgressed His commandments. By committing sins we have left our Father and are separated from Him. We are in a far-away country, in this sinful world, where misery and distress surround us. We are without God and without hope in the world. Without our Lord we must perish, suffer eternal death. Without Christ we are indeed lost. Every one of us must confess: I am a lost creature. "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way." Is. 53,6.
3. I confess also that I am a condemned creature. God, as you have learned, is a righteous and jealous God. He threatens to punish all that transgress His commandments. When Adam and Eye transgressed God's command, the threatened punishment came over them. "In the day that thou eatest thereof," God had told Adam, "thou shalt surely die." Gen. 2,17. Death is the punishment of all sinners, not only death here on earth, but eternal death, that is, eternal damnation. That is the sentence which God passed upon all that have sinned, that they should be separated from Him in eternity, from Him in whom alone we find life and true happiness.—It was the devil that tempted Adam and Eve to sin. They heard and obeyed his voice instead of the voice of their Father. He became their Lord and master. "He that committeth sin is of the devil." 1 John 3,8. Because we have sinned, we are under the power of the devil, we belong to his kingdom. Without Christ we are all lost and condemned creatures, that is, we are separated from God, our Father; we are under God's judgment of damnation; we are under the powers of sin, death, and the devil. They are our masters. "We were by nature the children of wrath." Eph. 2,3.
4. I am a lost and condemned creature; I am in the power of sin, death, and the devil. Who can help me in this misery and redeem and save me? Surely not I myself. How could I deliver myself from these mighty enemies? I have nothing with which I might atone for my sins or remove God's wrath and curse. Neither can any other man help me, powerful and wise though he may be. All men are lost and condemned creatures, just as helpless as I am. There is only One who is able to help and redeem us, Jesus Christ, our Lord. He is the God-man. He could conquer these fearful enemies, sin, death, and the devil. He is the almighty God. He alone among men is without sin, and therefore not in the power of the devil. He can redeem me, and He has redeemed me. In order to redeem the world, the Son of God became man, humbled Himself, and suffered and died. Thankfully I confess that Christ has redeemed me, that He is my Lord.
5. I confess that Christ, my Lord, has redeemed me. But not only me did He redeem, but all men, from Adam up to the last man that will be born before the Day of Judgment. God loved the world, all mankind, and He so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son to redeem and save the world. All men are lost and condemned creatures, all are under God's wrath and in the power of sin, and our Savior Himself said: "The Son of Man is come to save that which was lost." Matt. 18,11. John the Baptist pointed to Him and said: "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." John 1,29. "He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." 1 John 2,2. Christ, my Lord, has redeemed all mankind, and therefore I know that it is most certainly true: He has redeemed also me.