One God, the Father Almighty

Introduction

We began a series on the Nicene Creed last Wednesday when we thought a little about the historical background to the Creed. I also explained that creeds are biblical in two senses. Firstly, the Bible contains creed-like statements and Paul refers in 2 Timothy to a pattern of sound teaching which was entrusted to Timothy and which he was to pass on to reliable men who can teach it to others. So, in the very early church there was a pattern of teaching or a form of words that was to be preserved and passed on. And that’s what a creed is. And then secondly, the Bible tells us that God gives teachers to the church for our good. And the bishops who wrote the Nicene Creed are some of the teachers God has given the church for our benefit. We must listen to them and learn from them, because they’ve been appointed by God for our good.

And then I also said last week that a creed is a public commitment to and proclamation of the gospel. The creed is nothing less than a summary of the gospel. And by saying it together in church, we’re committing ourselves to it: we’re saying that we believe these things about God and our salvation and we’re going to live our life in light of these things. And we’re proclaiming this good news about God and our salvation. We’re saying: This is what God has done for us and it’s wonderful!

That’s what we were thinking about last week. Today we’re beginning to study the words of the Creed. And the whole Creed can be divided into three parts: the first part is about God the Father and his work; the second part is about God the Son and his work; and the third part is about God the Spirit and his work. And today we’re going to take the first line of the first part where we confess our faith in one God, the Father Almighty.

Biblical witness

The whole of the Old Testament testifies that there is only one true and living God and that the gods of the nations are only idols which can do nothing. And in 1 Corinthians 8 Paul writes that for us there is but one God, the Father. And in Ephesians 4 he says that there’s one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father of all. In 1 Timothy 2, he says there is one God and one mediator between God and men. And in a number of places throughout the book of Revelation, God is described as the Lord God Almighty. So, the witness of the New Testament is that there is only one God and it’s the Father and he’s Almighty. And it all comes together in 2 Corinthians 6, where Paul combines two quotations from 2 Samuel 7 so that we have the Lord Almighty declaring himself to be Father.

One God

And so, Christians believe that there’s only one God, and not many gods. This belief made the early Christians in the Roman Empire stand out, because the Romans believed in many gods. Think of what Paul witnessed for himself when he went to Athens, a Greek city within the Roman Empire, and saw that the city was full of idols dedicated to countless gods. And the Romans were generally tolerant of other gods so that if Romans travelled from one place to another, they saw nothing wrong with worshipping the local gods while they were there and worshipping their own gods when they got home. And you were regarded as being a good citizen if you worshipped the gods, because if you worshipped the gods, they might do good to the Empire and its citizens.

So, the Romans believed in many gods and they were tolerant of new gods. But what the Romans could not tolerate is Christianity, because the Christians believed in only one God and refused to worship or acknowledge any other god. Indeed, the first martyrs were believers who refused to bow down to the Roman gods. I’ve mentioned Polycarp before, who was killed in around 150 AD when he was an old man. He had been arrested by the Romans for refusing to offer incense to the Emperor, who was regarded as a god. Polycarp was brought into the arena where many Christians had already been taken to face the lions. When the Roman governor saw this elderly man, he tried to persuade him to comply, saying to Polycarp that the arena was no place for an old man. So, offer a pinch of incense to the Emperor and spare your life. But Polycarp refused. Since he worshipped the God of the Bible, he would not even pretend to worship a false god. And so, he was put to death.

Christians were regarded in those days as atheists and traitors. They were regarded as atheists, because they did not believe in the gods of Rome. And they were regarded as traitors, because their so-called unbelief might anger the gods and turn them against Rome. But despite the pressure put upon them by the Romans, the early Christians confessed their belief in one God and in one God alone.

There were some pagan philosophers who believed in one God. Aristotle believed in an eternal and divine First Principle which he called God. And Plato referred to the Good. Plotinus believed in a First Principle who was the source of everything else. And so, there were some pagans who believed that there was only one God. But the one God they believed in was very different from our God, who revealed himself to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob; and who chose the people of Israel for himself; and who bound himself to them with a promise to be their God and to take care of them; and who came to earth in the person of his Son for us and for our salvation; and who announces through the Spirit-empowered preaching of the gospel forgiveness of sins and eternal life for everyone who believes.

The Father

Christians confess their faith in one God. And we confess our faith in the Father Almighty. God can be regarded as Father in various ways. He’s the Father of the human race, because we all come from him and are made in his image. And so, in Luke 3, Adam is described as being the son of God. God is also the Father of the Israelites, because he regarded the nation of Israel as his son. So, God commanded Moses to speak to Pharaoh about his firstborn son, Israel. God also refers to the kings of Israel as his sons. So, in 2 Samuel 7, God refers to the king who will follow David as his son. But when we say in the Creed that God is the Father Almighty, we’re chiefly thinking of him as the Father of God the Son, the Second Person of the Trinity. The Father is Father because he begets the Son.

We’ll think more about what is means for the Son to be begotten of the Father when we get to that part of the Creed. But for now I’ll say that this means there’s more to God than the Father. There’s more to God than the Father. Someone might read the Creed and think that it’s saying that there’s only one God and that the one God we worship is the Father full-stop. Someone might think that the Father and the Father alone is God. But the word ‘Father’ is relational. It always implies another person. You can’t be a father unless another person has come from you. And God is the Father because God the Son comes from him.

And so, whenever we hear God called Father, we must always think of the Son. The two go together, because you can’t be a father unless another person comes from you and God the Son comes from the Father. And, of course, whenever we hear of the Son, we must think of the Father from whom he comes. And whenever we hear of the Spirit, we must think of the Father and the Son, because the Spirit proceeds from them.

But we must also remember that God the Father is the Eternal Father and God the Son is the Eternal Son. So, I’m a father, but there was a time when I was not a father. Until my daughter was born, I was not a father. And when she was born, I became a father. However, there was never a time when God the Father was not the Father. There was never a time when God the Son was not the Son. God the Father is the Eternal Father. God the Son is the Eternal Son. God the Father begets his Son eternally. God the Son is begotten from the Father eternally. God the Father did not become the Father; he is the Father eternally.

Almighty

And he is almighty. And when we say that the Father is almighty, we mean not only that he is omnipotent and can do all things according to his will, but that he’s the ruler of all. That’s what the Greek word translated ‘almighty’ means. It means he is ruler of all. He is the Most High God who rules over all that he has made. There’s no-one who is above him and he does not answer to anyone. He’s not accountable to anyone. There’s no one who rules over him or who supervises him. He is above all and he rules over all and there’s nothing that is too hard for him and he can do whatever pleases him.

However, when we say that the Father is above all, that does not mean that he is above the Son or the Spirit. Since the Son and the Spirit possess one and the same divine being as the Father, then the Son and the Spirit are almighty too. The three persons of the Trinity are not different from one another, except that the Father is unbegotten; and the Son is begotten of the Father; and the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. Apart from that difference in origin, they are the same. And therefore the Father is almighty, the Son is almighty and the Spirit is almighty.

Conclusion

We confess our faith in one God, the Father Almighty, who is the Eternal Father of the Eternal Son. And the wonder of the gospel is that we too can become children of the Father through faith in his Son. By birth we are sons and daughters of Adam and we once lived under the wrath and curse of God because of Adam’s sin in the beginning and because of our own sin. But how great is the love the Father has lavished on us that we should be called children of God. And that is what we are, because God enabled us to believe in his Son and whoever believes in his Son is adopted into God’s family so that he is no longer the judge who will condemn us, but he has become our Heavenly Father who loves us and who forgives us and who promises us eternal life in his presence. And in his presence, we will behold the Father and the Son and the Spirit and we will worship and adore our God for ever and for ever.