A Reflection on the Nicene Creed

The Nicene Creed is a confession of the early Christian church, rooted in the Council of Nicaea in AD 325 and expanded in its 381 form at Constantinople. The Creed is still relevant today to answer theological questions about the Christian faith. After the crucifixion and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, there were different interpretations of different aspects of the Christian faith, many pertaining to be a heresy. The Creed was a response to many of these interpretations that didn’t align with the scriptures.

Who is the God of the Bible?

The Nicene Creed begins with the answer to the question how many gods there are. The answer is one and it perfectly aligns with the scripture. In Deuteronomy 6:4 we read “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one". This has always been the view, the view of a monotheistic God but after the incarnation of the person of Jesus and looking at certain events from his life where he prayed and worshipped the Father; one might be tempted to reconcile the deity of Jesus and his adoration of the father as a negation of the monotheistic view. But the trinity perfectly explains the deity of Jesus Christ and his adoration of the Father. The early authors of the Nicene Creed understood this. The Creed attributes the Father as the creator, but this should not be understood that only first person of the trinity was involved in the creation because the involvement of the other persons is also communicated in the further reading of the Creed. The first few lines of the Creed help me to understand the enormity of the creation; our God is not a god of the Gaps but the sole creator of all things­— ­visible and invisible.

The Creed sheds light into the relation of both the persons of the trinity. If Jesus is God, one with the father and of one essence it essentially means that Jesus was not a created being. He has existed all along in the God head. The relationship between Father and Son does help us understand the distinction of persons. The Creed tells us that the father and the son of the same essence but how can they be two distinctive persons. This is how I see it; consider human beings— one person has one essence, but Christianity is claiming that The Father, The Son, The Holy Spirit are three distinctive persons with one divine essence. This way they love each other, serve each other, and glorify each other. Thus, The Father, Son, and Spirit can have different relational roles without those roles implying that one is more divine than another. It helps me arrive at this conclusion that equality of essence does not eliminate distinction between persons and conversely Distinction of persons does not require inequality of essence.

The Creed first establishes the identity of Jesus Christ before describing his work of salvation. Jesus is not a lesser divine being or a creature through whom God accomplishes salvation. He is “true God of true God,” “begotten, not made,” and “of one substance with the Father.” Having established who Christ is, the Creed then turns to what he did: “For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven.” The incarnation therefore cannot be separated from the identity of Christ. The one who entered human history for our salvation is the eternal Son who shares the divine nature of the Father. The phrase “Was made man” was something that made me think, did Jesus stop being God and started being a man? but a holistic understanding of the scripture and the correct interpretation of the Creed tells us that he remained truly God, and he became truly human meaning, he did not appear to be mere human or temporarily stopped being divine. The divine Son became incarnate as Jesus Christ.

As a Christian, it matters for me that Jesus was genuinely human and nor merely God appearing human because this way he becomes more relatable, his suffering which the Scripture talks about becomes personal. The love that God has which scripture talks about becomes an action that we can see in the person of Jesus Christ. A God who condescends to become a human being and willingly lays down his life is worthy of all praise and worship. The Holy Spirit in the Creed is attributed as the giver of life, the way I understand this is that The Father creates the creation through The Son and The Holy Spirit becomes the sustainer of the entire creation. The Creed's confession of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit also shapes my understanding of Christian worship. Christians do not worship three separate gods, but the one God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The fact that the Spirit is worshiped and glorified together with the Father and the Son shows that the Spirit is not merely an impersonal force or a lesser being. It also reminds me that the God whom the Christians worship is a God of eternal relationship: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Conclusion

Reflecting on the Nicene Creed has helped me see that it is more than an ancient statement formulated to respond to theological controversies. It gives me a framework for understanding who God is and how God has revealed himself through the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Creed preserves the truth that there is one God while also affirming the distinct persons of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In particular, its description of Jesus as “true God of true God,” “begotten, not made,” and “of one substance with the Father” helps me understand that the Jesus who came into the world for our salvation is not a lesser being but the eternal Son of God.