Introduction
We’re in that part of the Nicene Creed which is about the Lord Jesus Christ who is the Son of God. And we’re thinking in particular about his relationship to God the Father and who he is eternally. So, we’re not yet thinking about God’s work of redemption and how he came to earth as one of us and suffered and died for us before rising again. We’ll get to that, but we’re not there yet. We’re thinking about the Son of God as he is eternally.
And last week we were thinking about how he’s the only begotten Son of God, who is begotten of, or from, the Father before all ages.
So, he’s God the Son, the second person of the Trinity. And he’s different from the Father, because the Father is unbegotten, whereas the Son is begotten. The Father has no origin, whereas the Son originates from the Father.
However, they are the same, because just as a human father begets a child of the same nature, so God’s only begotten Son is of the same nature as the Father. A father begets a child in his own image and God the Son is the image of God the Father.
Furthermore, the Son was begotten from the Father before all ages. That is to say, he is begotten timelessly in eternity. There never was a time when the Father was not the Father. There never was a time when the Son was not the Son. He is the Eternal Son of God.
Today we come to the lines in the Creed where we confess and proclaim that the Lord Jesus is God from God and Light from Light and true God from true God. These three lines are once again making two points about him: firstly, that the Lord Jesus is God; and secondly, he’s distinct from the Father. And the Creed makes these same two points in different ways because the Creed was written as a response to the teaching of Arius who denied Christ’s true divinity. Since he denied it, the bishops at Nicaea wanted to affirm it again and again.
Arius wrote about what he believed, saying: ‘We recognise one God, alone unbegotten, alone eternal, alone without beginning, alone true, alone possessing immortality, alone wise, alone good, alone Master; he alone judges, administers, and manages all things….’ In that one statement he emphasises that, for him, there is one God and that one God is alone. All Christians believe that there is one God, but we don’t believe he is alone, because we believe that the one God exists as the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Arius then went on to say that God begot an only begotten Son before the ages; and through him God made the ages and everything else. Now, that sounds orthodox enough. We too believe God begot his only begotten Son before the ages and that God the Father made all things through the Son. However, Arius then went on to say that the Son is a perfect creature of God, but not as one of the creatures. So, Arius seems to be saying that the Son is a created being. He’s part of God’s creation. However, he’s different from all other created beings, because he alone is perfect and alone he was created in eternity and not in time. Nevertheless, according to Arius, the Son is still only a creature and he’s not God.
And Arius also says that the Son ‘was not’ before he was begotten. So, before he was begotten he did not exist.
So, according to Arius, there is one God and he is alone. And the one God who is alone created the Son who is perfect and who was created in eternity. However, the Son is still part of God’s creation and he did not exist before God created him. In that case, the Son is neither truly divine nor truly human. He’s not truly divine, because he’s created. And he’s not truly human, because he’s not like any other human being. Yet what Christians have always believed and what we confess and proclaim when we say the Nicene Creed is that the Lord Jesus is true God and true man. And the wonder of the gospel is that God the Son came down to earth as one of us in order to save us from our sins and to bring us to God.
And so, the bishops met at Nicaea to respond to Arius’s false teaching. And in the Creed, they make the same two points in various ways that the Lord Jesus Christ is true God and he’s also distinct from the Father. He is God from God and he’s Light from Light and he’s true God from true God.
Biblical witness
The Creed is echoing what we read in the New Testament. So, in John 1:2, we read that the Word, which is John’s title for the Son of God, is not only with God but was God. So, he is God. Then, in John 14, the Lord says to his disciples that whoever has seen him has seen the Father. This is true, because they are the same. In Romans 10, Paul quotes from the Old Testament prophet Joel who said that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. And Paul applies what Joel said about the Lord to Jesus Christ. That is to say, he is the Lord on whom we’re to call. He is therefore God. In 1 John 5:20, John describes Jesus Christ as the true God. And then in Revelation 5, the angels worship the Lamb, Jesus Christ. And that’s significant because worship cannot be given to anyone except to God.
So, the Bible makes clear that the Lord Jesus is God. But it also makes it clear that he’s distinct from the Father. So, the Word is not only God, but he is with God in the beginning. And throughout John’s gospel, the Lord Jesus makes the point that he is sent from the Father. So, he is God, but he’s a distinct person. He’s God, but he’s not the Father.
Those are only a sample of the places in the New Testament which make clear that the Lord Jesus is God and that he’s a distinct person within the Godhead.
The image of light is used in several places in John’s gospel and his first letter. For instance, in John 1, John links the Word, who was with God and who is God, with the light that has always been shining in the world to give us the knowledge of God. And in 1 John 1:5, John tells us that God is light.
Furthermore, in Hebrews 1:3, the writer describes the Son as the radiance of God’s glory. Just as light radiates from light, so the Son radiates from God.
God from God
Let’s think about each of the three phrases in turn.
The phrase ‘God from God’ was not in the original Greek version of the Nicene Creed, but it’s in the Latin version. Most English translations include it, but it’s possible that you may come across a version of the Creed that doesn’t include it.
The first word in the phrase makes the point that the Lord Jesus is God. And so, when we say the Creed, we are confessing and proclaiming that the Lord Jesus Christ is God. But the second two words in the phrase make the point that he is a distinct person within the Godhead. So, he is God, but he is also from God. He is God the Son who is from God the Father. He is God, but he originates from the Father. Therefore they are distinct.
Light from Light
The second phrase makes the same point, but using the image of light. When the Creed says that the Lord Jesus Christ is Light, it means he is God. That’s because the image of light was used by John in his first letter to describe God. What is God according to John? God is light. And so, when we say in the Creed that the Lord Jesus is Light, we’re confessing and proclaiming that he is God.
So, the first word in the phrase means that he is God. The second two words tell us that he is a distinct person within the Godhead. So, he is Light, but he also comes from Light. Just as rays of light come from the sun, so the Son of God comes from God the Father. He originates from the Father. Therefore they are distinct.
However, although the Son originates from the Father, there are the same. Light which comes from light is still light; and God the Son who comes from God the Father is still God. They are both God, but they are distinct, because one comes from the other.
True God from True God
The third phrase removes all ambiguity. You see, in the ancient world the word ‘god’ was sometimes used to refer to angels and the Roman Emperor was sometimes regarded as divine. And the pagans believed in many gods and some of them believed that there was one god who was above lots of lesser gods. In other words, the word ‘god’ was a bit vague and someone could say that the Lord Jesus is God without actually believing that he is the true God.
And so, to remove all ambiguity, the Creed states that he is indeed true God. That’s what we’re confessing and proclaiming when we say the Creed. However, we’re also confessing and proclaiming that he is a distinct person within the Godhead, because he is true God from true God. He is indeed true God, but he comes from God the Father, who is also true God. He is true God, but he originates from God the Father. They are both true God, as is the Holy Spirit. But the Son comes from the Father. And so, he’s a distinct person within the Godhead.
Conclusion
The Creed is painstakingly making clear to us that the Lord Jesus is God and that he comes from God and he is therefore distinct. And so, it’s making clear to us that it is God himself — and no other — who saves us. God did not delegate our salvation to another being. He did not ask an angel to save us. He did not ask another human to save us. He himself saved us when he came down from heaven in the person of his Son to save us from our sin and misery and to give us eternal life in his presence. And so, since it was God himself who saved us, then he deserves all glory and honour and praise both now and for evermore.
And as I mentioned last week, there have been people in recent times who have said that the Son is subordinate to the Father. They say that the Father alone is supreme and the Son and Spirit are under his authority. And in this way they dishonour the Son and the Spirit. But when we say the Creed we are confessing and proclaiming that the Father and the Son and the Spirit are God and they are equal in power and authority and in glory and honour. And so, we should give them the honour they deserve and worship them.
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