Sometimes, I forget the value of the creeds. Not that I’m not a creedal guy. The creeds are instrumental in giving us the basics of the faith! But sometimes, I see pastors emphasizing the creeds as the sole definition of orthodoxy because they happen to have an unorthodox theological stance that the creeds don’t address. These pastors use creeds as a sort of legalistic way to sneak un-historic theology into the church, rather than as seeing them as a guiding light toward historic Christianity, I guess that’s made me a little wary of over-relying on the creeds in recent years.
In hindsight, that kind of skepticism was probably unfounded. As with all good things, there are people who abuse them and use them incorrectly, but the creeds possess a powerful capacity to give people the foundational pieces of Christianity. I remember a story about a woman who was talking about faith with her Christian friends when someone asked, “What do you believe?” All of her friends answered the question in weird little bits and pieces, unable to systematically give an account of their beliefs, but she just spouted off the Apostle’s Creed: “I believe in God the Father, creator of Heaven and Earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only son, our Lord, who…” What a powerful way to memorize and express the basics! The Apostle’s Creed gives us that quick, succinct explanation for ourselves and for others!
The Nicene Creed is one that’s a little rarer, but excellent to add to your creedal arsenal. Back when I was working on a sermon series about the Apostle’s Creed, I remember finding out that Eastern Orthodox churches don’t use it! In their words, it was never approved at an ecumenical council, so why bother using a creed that wasn’t approved when there’s one that was? While I don’t think we need to abandon the Apostle’s Creed, which is still a tremendous piece of Western Christian heritage, I think they make a valid point. The Nicene Creed has enough historic relevance that it’s well worth our time, and it adds little details to the core framework of the Apostle’s Creed that make Christianity even clearer. For example, what if someone says, “Well I don’t know that early Christians thought Jesus was God! The Apostle’s Creed only says, ‘Jesus Christ, his Son, our Lord,’ so it seems like even they weren’t sure about it!” Then you can hit ‘em with that good Nicene clarification:
…We believe in one Lord Jesus Christ,
-The Nicene Creed
the only Son of God,
begotten from the Father before all ages,
God from God,
Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made;
of the same essence as the Father…
Sure, you have to take the time to understand what “begotten” means as opposed to “made” (basically, God the Son is from the generative power of God the Father and is actually, genuinely his son, but there was never a time when he didn’t exist and he is just as fully God as God the Father. It’s a way to avoid people saying that Jesus is somehow less than God because he was created by God, so he’s different and secondary), but that’s a level of difficulty that actually explains things out even further. Our ancestors in the faith didn’t clarify these things so that we could tuck the creeds away in the back pages of hymn books! They’re ways they wanted to pass on the core of the faith and help us avoid errors!
Finally, I’ll give some love to the Athanasian Creed. This one, the Nicene Creed, and the Apostle’s Creed make up the Ecumenical Creeds. Basically, if you’re a Christian in the West, your church came from these creeds. These are the basic foundations that your beliefs came from! The Athanasian Creed doesn’t get read much in public worship (mostly because it’s scary) but it’s got some valuable points to it. For example, is it really crucial to a person’s salvation to believe in the Holy Spirit? Well, the Athanasian Creed says yes in its signature, super-intense way:
Whoever desires to be saved should above all hold to the catholic faith.
Anyone who does not keep it whole and unbroken will doubtless perish eternally.
Now this is the catholic faith:
That we worship one God in trinity and the trinity in unity,
-The Athanasian Creed
neither belnding their persons
Nor dividing their essence.
For the person of the Father is a distinct person,
the person of the Son is another,
and that of the Holy Spirit still another.
But the divinity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is one,
their glory equal, their majesty coeternal…
You can see why people don’t read this one as often, but it has something to say: these things matter. The trinitarian nature of God isn’t a side-truth we can add to our beliefs if we’re feeling comfortable; it’s a core piece of the faith that has been passed down through the church for generations. These creeds are what the saints of the past established as the borders of their school of thought. If we don’t fall within the borders, we’re carrying a faith that they would consider fundamentally different from their own.
I want to have the faith of the saints. I want to understand it, explore it, and know it well. I delight in knowing that great Christians of the past spoke the same creeds that I do, and that they left them for me so that we could share faith in the same God in every generation.
Classic Theology 