Do you find Christian creeds strange? A congregation intoning ‘I/We believe…’ may appear cultish, or overly American (‘I pledge allegiance…’); or simply dry and outdated.
A creed is generally speaking a confession or summary of the Christian faith. Examples include the Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed and the Athanasian Creed (although do remember the great biblical faith-summaries in passages like Philippians 2:5-11, Colossians 1:15-20 and 1 Corinthians 15:3-8). Importantly, these Creeds only have authority so far as they faithfully summarise the message of Scripture.
You may find the creeds strange but here are five reasons why it would be good to confess them.
1. The Creeds Remind us that the Christian Faith is Historical
The Nicene Creed states:
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate
Pilate, the Roman ruler who allowed Jesus’ execution, receives airtime in our gatherings – why? Simply because the Christian faith is historical: God’s Son entered human history at a specific place and time, and was killed under a specific Roman ruler.
It is healthy to remember that our faith has roots in the real history of people and places and time. Jesus of Nazareth is the Jesus of history, the climactically historic movement of God overcoming our rebellion against him.
2. The Creeds Show the Continuity of the Christian Faith Over the Ages
We’re not a fly-by-night belief. Instead we have a long and established presence of faith – held fast only because God is building his church and the forces of Hades will not overpower it (Matt 16:18).
Jesus’ church has continued to express faith in the same articles of faith age after age, and we’re the next generation to do so.
For the last nearly 2000 years numerous Jesus followers have confessed belief in the same basic tenets – flowing from 1st century Israel through to 21st century Zimbabwe, or Peru, or Nepal. Reflect for a moment on the thought that perhaps 1500 years ago a young lady in another hemisphere stood and confessed the historical Christian beliefs of the Apostle’s Creed. Imagine that today you stand and declare the same belief – what marvellous continuity, and unity!
Jesus’ church has continued to express faith in the same articles of faith age after age, and we’re the next generation to do so.
3. The Creeds Invite us to Grow and Mature in the Christian Faith
Creeds don’t only state what constitutes true Christian belief; they also invite us to grow in knowing it. In a sense they’re saying:
‘Come learn to know better or more this God and how he has revealed himself to us’.
‘Come grapple with what it means that God became man for our sake, or that the Holy Spirit is at work in our lives.’
Importantly they are invitations to grow and mature at both an individual and communal level:
- ‘I believe…’ begins the Apostles’ Creed. What do you (singular) believe? What I believe is to be individually appropriated and owned, kicking against nominal faceless cultural Christianity, demanding a personal response of belief – a confession I should then be held accountable to.
- ‘We believe…’ begins the Nicene Creed. What do you (plural) believe? What we believe is to be communally confessed, pushing against the overly individualistic (we might say Western) Christianity that makes the faith only for me. In response comes a loud communal battle cry: this is what we believe, and this is what we want to increasingly be marked by.
Creeds don’t only state what constitutes true Christian belief; they also invite us to grow in knowing it
Linked to our growth and maturity:
4. The Creeds Remind – and Teach us – That the Christian Faith is Trinitarian.
Here is the uniqueness of Christian belief: not in three gods but one; and our one God is three persons. It is this powerfully intimate Triune God who works our salvation, and he is the one we draw closer to knowing and loving.
Our creeds also teach us to speak Christianly about God, by which I mean Trinitarianly. We need to be trained here, to grow and explore upwards. At the very least so we stop thanking God the Father for dying on the cross!
We need to be trained in the trinity. At the very least so we stop thanking God the Father for dying on the cross!
Furthermore, in the horde of cults worming their way through Africa, here stands aid. Many of these cults claim biblical foundations and can, to a certain extent, wield Scripture to fool some. But the Creeds with their Trinitarian summaries can at times swiftly cut through that deceit like a hot knife through butter – showing them to be un-Christian and outside the historical and triune faith.
5. The Creeds Stand as Documents of Protest Against the World
Shop window advertising, the songs on the radio, the latest TV series, our friends and family around the dinner table – they all express a certain set of beliefs about our world and God, about reality and crucially about what to love. These beliefs seek to capture our hearts with their false narratives.
However, as we stand gathered together saying these creeds, we are in effect protestors (albeit peaceful ones!) For we confess with these documents of protest:
‘This is what we believe. We don’t believe what you’re saying.
We love and desire the Triune God, seeking to have our hearts tied more to this good God, than to the goods things of his world.
For we are followers of Jesus:
God’s only Son, our Lord who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again; he ascended into heaven, he is seated at the right hand of the Father, and he will come to judge the living and the dead.
