Introduction
The Nicene Creed is divided into three parts. The first part is about God the Father Almighty: his divine being and his work. The second part is about the Lord Jesus Christ: his divine being and his work. The third part is about the Holy Spirit: his divine being and his work.
So far we’ve looked at this first part. So, we’ve thought about God the Father Almighty and his work of making heaven and earth and of all things visible and invisible. And now we’re half way through the second part of the Creed which is about the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, we’ve thought about how he’s the only begotten Son of God, who is begotten of the Father before all ages; and he’s God from God and Light from Light and true God from true God; and he’s begotten, not made; and he has the same being as the Father. That’s all to do with his divine being and who he is eternally.
With the line, ‘through whom all things came to be’, we began to think about his work. And so, all things came to be through him. That is to say, he’s the Father’s co-creator, because God the Father made all things through the Son. That’s what we were thinking about the last time.
Today we’re moving on to his incarnation and to the work he did for us and for our salvation when he came into the world as one of us. And so, the Creed says he came down from heaven and was incarnate from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and was made man. And he was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate; and he suffered and was buried; and rose again on the third day; and ascended into heaven where he sits at the right hand of the Father. And he shall come again in glory to judge the living and the dead. And his kingdom shall never end.
So, the Creed traces his descent from heaven to the grave; and then his ascent from the grave to heaven. Or in the words of our Shorter Catechism, it deals with his state of humiliation and his state of exaltation. And it refers to what he did in the past: what did he when he came into the world as one of us. It refers to the present: he’s sitting at the Father’s right hand side. And it looks forward to the future when he comes again to judge the living and the dead.
I said at the beginning of this series on the Nicene Creed that the Creed is nothing less than a summary of the gospel. When Christians say the Creed together in church, they’re proclaiming to one another the good news of what the Lord Jesus has done for us and for our salvation. And it’s always a wonderful thing when Christians stand up and proclaim the gospel to one another and when we therefore reassure one another of God’s love for us.
Today we’ll focus on this one line: ‘Who, for us and for our salvation, came down from heaven’ The who at the beginning of the line refers back to the Lord Jesus Christ. So, when we say this line, we’re confessing and proclaiming that the Lord Jesus Christ came down from heaven for us and for our salvation.
Biblical witness
And there are a number of verses in the New Testament which say that the Lord Jesus came down to earth from heaven. For instance, in John 3:13 the Lord Jesus said to Nicodemus that no one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven. And when he refers to ‘the one who came from heaven’, he means himself: he has come from heaven. And in John 3:31 he refers to himself as the one who comes from above. So, he’s come from heaven above to earth below. In John 6:38 he says that he has come down from heaven not to do his own will, but to do the will of him who sent him. And in verse 62 of the same chapter he refers to ascending to where he was before. Where he was before was in heaven. But now he has came down from heaven to earth. And in various other places in John’s gospel, the Lord Jesus says that he was sent by the Father. His heavenly Father sent him from heaven to earth. And so, John’s gospel makes clear that the Lord Jesus came down from heaven to earth. And he was sent from heaven to earth to do his Father’s will, which was to save us from our sin and misery.
In 1 Corinthians 15:47, Paul contrasts the Lord Jesus and Adam. Adam is of the dust of the earth, whereas the Lord Jesus is from heaven. And so, Paul too makes the point that the Lord Jesus came from heaven to earth.
And then there are various verses which make clear that he came for us and for our salvation. So, think of the angel who said to Joseph that Mary’s child should be called Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. In Luke 2, Simeon took the infant Lord Jesus in his arms and declared that he had now seen God’s salvation. He meant that the child in his arms was the promised Saviour. Then in Luke 19:10, the Lord Jesus says that he came to seek and to save the lost. In John 12:47 the Lord says that he did not come to judge the world, but to save it. And in Acts 4:12 the Apostle Peter said about the Lord Jesus that salvation is found in no one else, because there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved. Paul says in 1 Timothy 1:15 that the Lord came into the world to save sinners. And in Hebrews 2, the writer tells us that the Lord Jesus had to be made like us in every way in order to make atonement for the sins of the people.
So, throughout the New Testament the point is made that the Lord Jesus came from heaven to earth to save us from our sins. Or, in the words of the Creed, he came down from heaven for us and for our salvation.
Not a solo mission
When we say the Creed, we’re confessing and proclaiming that it was the Lord Jesus who came.
Now, I’ve made the point before that the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, being one God, are inseparable and they therefore work inseparably. So, for instance, it’s not the Father alone who made heaven and earth, because he made heaven and earth through the Son and by the Spirit. They worked inseparably when creating all things. But this line of the Creed says that it was the Son who came down from heaven. That is to say, it was the Son alone who became incarnate and became one of us. The Father did not become incarnate. Nor did the Holy Spirit.
However, we can still say that they worked inseparably, because his incarnation was an act of the Father who sent his Son into the world as one of us; and it was an act of the Son who came into the world as one of us; and it was an act of the Spirit who caused the Son to be conceived in Mary’s womb. And throughout his time on earth, the Son carried out the Father’s will and did so by the Holy Spirit. And his death on the cross was an act of the Father who gave up his Son to death (Rom. 8:32); and it was an act of the Son who laid down his life for us (John 10:18); and it was an act of the Spirit, because the Son offered himself to the Father through the Holy Spirit (Heb. 9:14).
And so, although it was the Son and the Son alone who came down from heaven and became incarnate, this was not a solo mission. It was a mission which the Son fulfilled with the Father and the Spirit. All three persons worked inseparably for us and for our salvation.
Came down from heaven
So, when we say the Creed, we’re confessing and proclaiming that it was the Son who came. And when we say the Creed, we’re confessing and proclaiming that he came down from heaven.
However, we need to recognise that this is metaphorical or picture language. He did not really leave heaven. Since he is God, then he is omnipresent. That means he is present everywhere all at once. And when he came to earth as one of us, he did not cease to be God. He did not cease to be what he eternally is. Therefore he did not cease to be omnipresent.
So, while he was on the earth as one of us, he was still present everywhere all at once as the Son of God. As a man, he could only be in one place at a time. But as God, he is everywhere. As a baby, he was placed in the manger in Bethlehem. But as God, he was present in heaven, where the angels adore him continually.
But the Bible uses the language of coming down from heaven to convey to us that he humbled himself by becoming one of us. In the words of the Apostle Paul, he who was in very nature God did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped or held on to, but he made himself nothing when he came to earth as one of us. And so, he came down from heaven in the sense that he humbled himself when he became one of us.
And the language of coming down also conveys the idea that he has come to us in a new way. As God, he is always with us. But he came to us in a new way when he came to us as a man. One of the early theologians, Augustine, explains it this way: ‘He is said to have come to us, not from place to place through space, but by appearing to mortals in mortal flesh. He came to a place where he was already.’ So, he was already present with us, but he now appeared to us in mortal flesh.
God came down for us and for our salvation
So, when we say the Creed, we’re confessing and proclaiming that it was the Son who came. And when we say the Creed, we’re confessing and proclaiming that he came down from heaven. And when we say the Creed, we’re confessing and proclaiming that God came down from heaven for us and for our salvation.
I’ve already made the point that it was the Son who came down from heaven and was incarnate. And who is the Son? He is God from God and Light from Light and true God from true God. In other words, he is God. God himself came down from heaven. And God himself came down to save us. He didn’t delegate this work to another being. God did it himself — in the person of his Son.
Throughout the Old Testament, God declared himself to be the only Saviour of his people. For instance, in 2 Samuel 22 and in Psalm 18, David declared:
“The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer,
my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge,
my shield, and the horn of my salvation,
my stronghold and my refuge,
my saviour; you save me from violence.
I call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised,
and I am saved from my enemies
And in Psalm 17 it says:
I call upon you, for you will answer me, O God;
incline your ear to me; hear my words.
Wondrously show your steadfast love,
O Saviour of those who seek refuge
from their adversaries at your right hand.
In Isaiah 43 God says:
For ‘I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Saviour.
And in Hosea 13:
But I am the LORD your God
from the land of Egypt;
you know no God but me,
and besides me there is no saviour.
Those are only a sample of the verses where God declared himself to be the Saviour of his people. And so, since God declared himself to be our Saviour, then it could not be someone else who saved us. It had to be God himself.
And God himself has saved us in the person of his Son, who came down from heaven to earth to suffer and die and to rise again to save us from our sins. God came down in the person of his Son to reconcile sinners to himself. And so we sing the Christmas carol:
Christ, by highest heaven adored,
Christ, the everlasting Lord,
Late in time behold him come,
Offspring of a virgin’s womb.
Veiled in flesh, the Godhead see;
Hail, the incarnate deity!
Pleased as man with man to dwell
Jesus, our Emmanuel!
He is the everlasting Lord. He is God veiled in flesh. He is the incarnate deity. He is Jesus, our Emmanuel, because he is indeed God with us. God himself came in the person of his Son for us and for our salvation. He came to save us from our sin and misery in this life and to give us eternal life in his presence in the new heavens and earth.
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