I made use of Reformed Catholicity by Michael Allen and Scott R. Swain and ‘Confession and Confessions’ in Confessing God: Essays in Christian Dogmatics II by John Webster.
Historical background
We’re beginning a series on the Nicene Creed this evening. The Council of Nicaea met 1700 years ago in 325 AD and produced the Creed of Nicaea. That Creed of Nicaea was further developed in 381 and became what we now know as the Nicene Creed.
It seems that, in the early church, each town or city where there was a church had their own creed and they were used as part of public worship. And that’s how the Creed is still used today and in many churches around the world, Christians will stand up during the service and say the Creed together. So, when my wife and I were recently in Oxford, we recited the Nicene Creed in the Presbyterian Church where we worshipped. And it seems too that in the early church, creeds were used when new converts were being baptised. So, the new converts were asked a series of questions based on the local creed. Do you believe in this and do you believe in that. And the new converts would reply: ‘Credo’ which means ‘I believe’. And having made a public profession of their faith, they were baptised.
So, in the early years of the church, creeds were used in worship and at baptisms. And there were lots of them, because each town or city had its own. However, the Council of Nicaea met in 325 so that the whole church could consider and respond to the teaching of Arius, who was a bishop in Alexandria and who denied the fully divinity of the Lord Jesus.
To be charitable to Arius, I should say that he wasn’t trying to be a heretic. He was trying to uphold the simplicity of God. Do you remember what we mean when we say God is simple? We mean that he’s not made of parts. God is not partly this and partly that. He is one. He is undivided. And since that’s the case, then Arius argued that we’re dividing God when we say that there’s more to God than the Father. He would say that we’re introducing complexity to God when we say that the Son is also God. He would say that we’re dividing God’s being when we say that the Father is God and the Son is also God.
We also believe that God is eternal. And therefore he is unbegotten. And Arius would say that since that’s the case, then how can the Son be God when he is begotten?
And we also believe that God is unchangeable. But doesn’t Luke tell us that the Lord Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and in favour with God and men? If he grew, if he changed, how can he be God?
And doesn’t Peter say in Acts 2 that God has made Jesus Lord? And doesn’t Paul say in Colossians that he is the first-born of all creation? And didn’t the Lord Jesus say in John’s gospel that the Father is the only true God?
So, Arius wasn’t trying to be a heretic. He was trying to be orthodox and to teach the Scriptures. But he couldn’t fit the Lord Jesus into what he believed about God. And so, the Council of Nicaea met to consider his views and to respond to them. And in their response, they confessed that Jesus Christ is God’s Only Begotten Son who has the same being as the Father. So, the Father and Son possess the same divine being. The Son is not different from the Father and the Son is fully divine with the Father. And we’ll think about what the Creed says about the Lord Jesus in more detail in the weeks to come.
But that — very briefly — is the historical background to the Nicene Creed.
Creeds are biblical
But creeds have existed from almost the beginning in some shape or form. Earlier I read from Deuteronomy 6 where we have what is known as the shema, which the Israelites would say as part of their worship every morning and evening: ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one.’ And so, every morning and evening God’s people would confess their faith in the one God of Israel.
And then, in the New Testament, Paul refers in 1 Corinthians 15 to what he received and passed on to his readers as of first importance: ‘that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve.’ It’s a creed-like statement of faith. Then there’s Philippians 2:
Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death — even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
And in 1 Timothy 3:16 we have the following creed-like statement:
He appeared in a body,
was vindicated by the Spirit,
was seen by angels,
was preached among the nations,
was believed on in the world,
was taken up in glory.
And then in 2 Timothy 1, Paul says to Timothy: ‘What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching…. Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you.’ So, already there was a pattern or a form of words regarding what we are to believe which Timothy was commanded to keep safe like a deposit in the bank. And in the next chapter, Paul instructed Timothy to pass this body of teaching on to reliable men who can teach it to others.
So, we find these creed-like statements in the New Testament and it’s clear from what Paul says to Timothy that already, in the very early church, there was a pattern of teaching or a form of words, which should be preserved and passed on.
Now, when I was living in Co. Kildare, there was a pastor of an independent church who boasted that his church had no creeds or confessions. ‘All we have is the Bible,’ he said. And, of course, we too have the Bible and it’s our supreme standard and the only infallible rule of faith and practice which we receive and believe and obey because it is the word of God. But as well as having the Bible, we have the creeds and catechisms and the confession of the church which make clear what we believe the Bible teaches about the faith.
That pastor said that his church only had the Bible. But I wanted to know what does his church believe about God and what does his church believe about who the Lord Jesus is and what does his church believe about what Christ has done for us. And one of the good things about a creed is that it makes these things clear (creeds make clear what all Christians believe; catechisms and confessions make clear what a particular denomination believes).
Creeds make clear what we believe and what we should not believe. They are, therefore, a testimony for truth and against error. They say to us: this is what Christians believe and this is what Christians do not believe. And they therefore keep us from misinterpreting Holy Scripture. Arius, after all, had the Bible and he believed it was the word of God and the supreme standard. He used the Bible to make his arguments. But what he needed was a good creed to show him how to interpret what the Bible says about the Lord Jesus being the Son of God.
And creeds are also biblical, because not only do we find creed-like statements in the Bible, but in the Bible, God tells us that he has appointed teachers to serve him in his church. He doesn’t appoint everyone to be a teacher, but he appoints some to be teachers. And so, in Ephesians 4, for instance, Paul says that the Risen Lord Jesus has given the church apostles and prophets and evangelists and pastors and teachers. All of those offices are word-based: whoever holds one of these offices in the church fulfils their calling by teaching the people. And the Lord also gives his teachers the Holy Spirit to help them with their work.
And since the Lord has appointed these teachers to teach his people, then it is his will for his people to listen to them. And the bishops who met in Nicaea are among the teachers the Lord Jesus has given to his church for our benefit. The creed they produced as a result of their deliberations is how they now teach us.
And so, just as we should listen to any minister today who teaches us from God’s word, so we should listen to those bishops from long ago who teach us from God’s word. Christ gave them to his church for our benefit and we should give thanks to him for them and pay careful attention to what they have said about God: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. So long as what we are being taught agrees with Holy Scripture, then it is binding on us.
Confession and proclamation of the gospel
And the really important thing I want to say about the creeds in general is that they are a public commitment to and proclamation of the gospel.
When we stand up and say the words of the creed, we are confessing that we believe these things. So, we are committing ourselves to these things. On lots of occasions we don’t like to commit ourselves. A wife asks her husband when he’s going to do that job that needs doing around the house. When will you do it? I’m not sure. Will you do it on Saturday? Maybe. Perhaps. If he doesn’t do it on Saturday, she can’t complain too much, because he didn’t commit to doing it on Saturday. But on other occasions we have to commit ourselves to something. So, the minister asks: ‘Will you take this man to be your husband?’ It’s yes or no. Make a decision. And what we decide will change our lives.
And when we stand to say a creed, we’re committing ourselves to these things. Do you believe these things about God? Make a decision. What’s it going to be? Yes or no? Commit yourself. And then stand by your commitment and live your life in light of it. Though everyone else around you lives as if these things are not true, you must now live each day in light of these things, because you’ve committed yourself to them publicly.
And what have you committed yourself to? You’ve committed yourself to the truth about God: that he’s the Father and he’s the Son and he’s the Holy Spirit. You’ve committed yourself to the truth that the Father Almighty is the Maker of heaven and earth and of all things visible and invisible. And you’ve committed yourself to the truth that Jesus Christ is the Eternal Son of God who for us and for our salvation came down from heaven and was crucified and died and was buried before rising from the dead. And he’s coming again one day to judge the living and the dead and his kingdom will never end. And you’ve committed yourself to the truth that the Holy Spirit is also God and he’s the Lord and Giver of life who binds us together in the church where there’s forgiveness and where we look forward to the resurrection and eternal life with God.
When we stand up and say the words of the creed, we are confessing that we believe these things. We’ve have committed ourselves to these things.
And then, when we stand up and say the words of the creed, we are also proclaiming the gospel. We are proclaiming the good news of the gospel that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, became one of us and he lived for us and he died for us and he rose again for us and for our salvation.
The creed is nothing less that a summary of the gospel and it’s always a wonderful thing when Christians stand up and proclaim the gospel to one another and when we announce to one other that is is what our God has done for us! This is what he has done for us and it’s wonderful. As one theologian (Webster) has put it: it’s an amazed cry of witness. And it makes us want to praise him.
And the only reason we’re able to believe these things and proclaim these things is because of God’s kindness to us in Christ Jesus. Out of God’s overflowing goodness and love, and not out of any obligation or necessity, God the Father created us and gave us our life. And out of God’s overflowing goodness and love, God the Only Begotten Son came down from heaven as one of us to save us from our sin and misery by his life and death and resurrection. And out of God’s overflowing goodness and love, God the Holy Spirit came into our lives and gave us the hope of everlasting life through faith in Christ.
Out of his overflowing goodness and love, he did these things for us. And out of his overflowing goodness and love, he revealed these things to us in Holy Scripture. And out of his overflowing goodness and love, he enabled us to believe these things. And now we’re able to stand up and confess and proclaim these things to the glory of God: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Those who are still blinded by satan and dead in their trespasses and sins are unable to confess and proclaim these things. And we would be like them, if it were not for God’s overflowing goodness and love towards us in Christ Jesus. And so, to say a creed together in church is a celebration of God’s overwhelming generosity to us. He loved us and did all of these things for us before we loved him and before we even knew anything about him.
Sermons and Stuff 