The Nicene Creed has been lauded as one of the most important statements of Christian belief in the history of the Church. Recited by believers since the Second Ecumenical Council of 381, it is cherished for its precision and beauty. This term we explore the doctrines of scripture summarised in the creed to further our understanding of ‘the faith once for all delivered to the saints,’ to become more confident in articulating what we believe, and to grow in our devotion to the one God who is the Father of the Son in the joy of the Holy Spirit, the God who acts for us and for our salvation, the God who is good news.
Sunday 14th September
We begin by considering the background to the creed, the realities of the nature of God it articulates – that He is three persons sharing one nature – and why a Trinitarian God is so significant for time and eternity, for our everyday lives and our future inheritance.
Sunday 21st September
Having asserted the unity of God, the Nicene Creed turns to the glory of the eternal Trinity, God is revealed as three persons sharing one nature. The Father is the Father because he has a Son, whom he is delighted to love in the joy of the Holy Spirit. This is good news, God is not simply ‘Almighty,’ all power and no personality, the eternal Trinity is a relational unity delighting in one another, love flowing out from one to another. Creation is entirely characteristic of this God; the Father extends his love to creatures made in his image, that we might share in the enjoyment of Him. Such a God, a fountain of goodness, is moved to redeem, to give, that by adoption through faith in Christ, we might be made brothers and sisters of the Son. Jesus teaches his followers to relate to his Father as their Father, to ask, seek and knock because it is the Father’s joy to give in outrageous generosity.
Sunday 28th September
B.B. Warfield described the unfolding revelation of God as like a dimly lit chamber; the New Testament turns the lights on, not to reveal something new, but to make plain what was seen in shadow. With the incarnation, the God known truly in the Old Testament is revealed in the Son, as the Apostle John writes: ‘the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known’ (Jn. 1:18). So the Creed affirms the Son is begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light. And yet, ‘for us and our salvation’ the Son is sent, uniting a human nature to the divine in the person of Jesus, fully God and fully man, able to mediate, of sufficient worth to satisfy the infinite debt of sin and one of us to be our representative and substitute. This is the wonder of all wonders, the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, that we might forever dwell with him.