The 5th Sunday in Lent – “Our Confession of Christ Jesus in Worship”

On this fifth Sunday in Lent, we return to the Big Picture of Christ Jesus’ redemption – the Incarnation, His life and ministry, His death, burial, and Resurrection. All these we confess in the Nicene Creed.  The Creeds arose out of the early centuries of the Church when communication took a lengthy time to do.  Many new churches cropped up through the early Church Father’s efforts to evangelize into new areas.  By the 4^th century, many heresies had also come into the church that needed to be addressed. 

The early Church Fathers sought to bring an orthodox confession of faith that would be embraced by all of the Church, whatever their ethnic origin or location.  For example, the Apostle Paul wrote – what we believe – is an early confession of faith within the local parishes he established.  In writing his letter (Epistle) to the Philippians he writes this creedal formula:

“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name,
 so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:5-11).

There’s uniformity in the creeds because they are universal communal expressions of faith in Christian belief.  The Creeds brought the church together, to preserve the orthodoxy of the faith, and to remember the foundation of the Church in Christ Jesus’ life, death, burial, and resurrection.  Originally most of the creeds were probably orally shared.  The New Testament often used the phrase – “received and passed on to you” to make clear these were beliefs that were of universal certainty. 

Some of the early ones were very basic.  In the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Corinthian church, written early in the decade of 50’s a.d., Paul writes:  “Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.
 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:1-4).

Why were they needed?  In many Churches, Gnostic heresies had begun to pollute the clear Apostolic teachings of the early Church concerning the person and work of Jesus Christ.  As the Apostles died, the second generation of Apostolic leaders, followed by the 3^rd, 4^th, 5^th, etc… maintained the orthodoxy of the Church across the vast areas of Europe and Asia through the Creeds. When the heresies came – Gnostic, Docetism, Ebionitism, Modalism, and Arianism – the Church brought the orthodoxy of the Creeds to witness the truth and expose the lies.  The early Church, after the persecutions began to die off, tried to address these errors in Church councils where Bishops, Theologians, and Teachers of the Church came together to formulate updated creeds.  The first of these was in Nicaea, in modern-day Turkey, and is considered to be the first of seven worldwide councils of the Church.  The Nicene Creed that came out of this council is a standard for the Christian faith.  The main issue it resolved was that Christ Jesus was of the same Substance (homoousios), which in the Creed meant Jesus was “consubstantial”, or “of the same substance as the Father”.

Unfortunately, it did not permanently stop the growth of Arianism – a group that denied the equality of Christ with God, the Father, saying God created Christ as his firstborn.  In 381 a.d., the second Council of the Church gathered in Constantinople.  It is created the “Nicene-Constantinople Creed”, which is usually referred to as the Nicene Creed, and affirms the co-equality of the Godhead as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. 

There would be five more major Councils of the Church before the major confessions of the Church were resolved…and then, they did not stay resolved!  Still, the next time you say the Creed, remember that our confession of faith, communally, comes from the 4^th century Church Fathers.  If you can, memorize it, and let it be a part of your daily confession of faith:

The Nicene Creed

I believe in one God,
the Father almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all things visible and invisible.

I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ,
the Only Begotten Son of God,
born of the Father before all ages.
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father;
through him all things were made.
For us men and for our salvation
he came down from heaven,
and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary,
and became man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate,
he suffered death and was buried,
and rose again on the third day
in accordance with the Scriptures.
He ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory
to judge the living and the dead
and his kingdom will have no end.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son,
who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified,
who has spoken through the prophets.

I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.
I confess one Baptism for the forgiveness of sins
and I look forward to the resurrection of the dead
and the life of the world to come.

Amen.

Peace