The Apostles' Creed

     The Creed sets forth to us everything that we must expect and receive from God, and, to state it quite briefly, teaches us to know Him fully.
     The entire Creed can be summed up in three chief articles, according to the three persons in the Godhead, to whom everything that we believe is related, so that the First Article, of God the Father, explains Creation, the Second Article, of the Son, Redemption, and the Third, of the Holy Ghost, Sanctification.
     The Creed is briefly comprehended in so many words: I believe in God the Father, who has created me; I believe in God the Son, who has redeemed me; I believe in the Holy Ghost, who sanctifies me. One God and one faith, but three persons, therefore also three articles or confessions.

Martin Luther, The Large Catechism, Part 2 The Apostles' Creed