Nicaea - Renewing the FaithSample

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one being with the Father. Through Him all things were made.

If you’ve been around church circles for any length of time, you probably have heard a phrase like this: “Your budget is a statement of your belief.” What people mean when they say this is that how an organization, such as a church—or even, how an individual believer—allocates their financial resources tells you a lot about what they care about and what they believe in.

We might say something similar about the creed. Where the writers of the creeds allocated their word budget tells you something important about the theological topic that they were concerned about. Whereas their understanding of God the Father was concisely expressed in fifteen Greek words, the person of Jesus Christ receives a whopping one hundred and ten words! Indeed, in the portion of the creed we’re discussing in this devotional, the writers go to great pains, using an abundance of words, to emphatically drive home the truth that they are trying to communicate about the person of Jesus. Let’s dig in a little further with them!

To understand the point that is being made in this section of the creed, a little historical survey about the Nicene Creed will be helpful. The Council of Nicaea was called in response to the theological challenge that was being raised by Arius and his followers. The critical piece of the Arius’s teaching was that Jesus is not an eternal being in the same way that the Father is. For Arius, because scripture describes Jesus as the begotten Son of God, he believed that there was a time where the Father existed alone i.e. before Jesus was begotten.

This is the teaching that was roundly rejected at Nicaea and which we see explained (at length) in this section of the creed.

For the writers of the creed, not only is Jesus “the only Son of God,” they clarify that as the Son of God, he is “eternally begotten of the Father.” Jesus was not begotten at some point before God’s act of creation. Instead, the creed affirms along with scripture that Jesus is eternal in the same way that the Father is eternal. This reflects how the New Testament describes Jesus. Consider Christ’s incredibly bold claim about himself in the Gospel of John, “Before Abraham was born, I am” (John 8:58, NIV). Christ’s statement here is much stronger than a mere claim to be older than Abraham. Instead, by using that phrase, “I am,” not only is Christ explicitly saying that he has always been and will always be, but he is also claiming the divine name—“I AM (Exodus 3:14)—by which God had revealed himself in the Old Testament. (This is why Jesus’s hearers in John’s Gospel were offended to the point of preparing to stone him!)

Having established the co-eternality of Jesus with the Father, the writers of the creed double down by emphasizing in the strongest way possible that Jesus is of the same substance as God the Father in every conceivable way: he is God in the same way that the Father is God, he is Light in the same way that the Father is Light, he is true God in the same way that the Father is true God. He was not only present at creation but he is also the one through whom everything on heaven and earth was created and who presently holds the fabric of creation together (Colossians 1:16-17).

What is the relevance of this affirmation of our faith to us? This section of the creed can feel a little like an ancient discussion which we are eavesdropping on—perhaps it’s helpful to be aware of perhaps it is interesting. How do we connect it to our own life of discipleship as we follow Jesus today?

One of the places I draw encouragement from this portion of the creed is that because Jesus shares fully in the Father’s divine nature, the Jesus we encounter in the Gospels is not an approximation or a mere reflection of God. He is the complete and perfect image of our heavenly Father—the exact representation of the invisible God (Col 1:15). As one theologian has put it, there is no hidden, different God lurking behind the curtain. Instead, what we see in the face of Jesus—as he heals the sick, casts out demons, proclaims the good news of the reign of God drawn close, as he blesses the children, and, ultimately, spreads out his arms of love upon the hard wood of the cross—is the fullest revelation of who God has always been and what God has always desired for his creation.

As we follow Jesus today, we can do so with confidence. The Savior we meet in the Gospels not only embodies God's compassion and mercy but also, because he shares perfectly in the divine nature, carries the very authority and power of the One who sent him.

Prayer

Almighty God, we thank you for the testimony of our brothers and sisters in Christ who helped to express and clarify the truth of the Christian gospel in the words of the Nicene Creed. We ask that you help us—like them—to fully place our trust in your only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ so that, we would have great joy and assurance in following you and so that we would commit ourselves wholly to glorifying your holy Name.

Johnathan Ottaway, Th.D., serves as Assistant Professor of Christian Theology at the Regent University School of Divinity.