The Nicene Creed: What Christians Believe and Why it Matters

1. St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church
February 1, 2015

2. We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, of all that is, seen and unseen.
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.
For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven :by the power of the
Holy Spirit he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary, and was made man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered death and was
buried. On the third day he rose again 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.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the
Father and the Son. With the Father and the Son he is worshipped and
glorified.
He has spoken through the Prophets. We believe in one holy catholic and
apostolic Church. We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.
Amen.

3.  February 1: God the Son
 February 15: God the Holy Spirit

4. February 1 : God the Son

5.  The longest part of the Creed is devoted to the
Son of God, and is broken into two sections:
 1. The first portion details the relationship with
God the Father:
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.

6. The second portion of the Creed details Christ’s involvement with
humanity beginning with the Incarnation through the return of
Christ:
For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven: by the
power of the Holy Spirit he became incarnate from the Virgin
Mary, and was made man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered
death and was buried. On the third day he rose again 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.

7. 1. What is the incarnation?
2. Do you believe Jesus was
“created” by God, or do you
believe that Jesus has always
existed in creation?
3. What do you believe was
accomplished with the
crucifixion?
4. Was the crucifixion
necessary?

8. In the first sentence, Jesus is called Lord. The
Greek word for this title is Christos: Χριστός,
meaning "anointed.“
Χριστός is a translation of the Hebrew ִׁ‫ש‬ ָ‫מ‬ִׁ‫יח‬
(Māšîaḥ or commonly “Messiah” )
In proclaiming Jesus as Lord in the Creed, we
are saying that we owe Jesus the same
worship we offer God, and that Jesus has the
same authority over our hearts.

9.  When we say that Christ is the only son of
God, we are acknowledging that Jesus came
from and returned to
God in a way no other
person has before
because when he
came from God,
he remained who he
was (fully divine)
while also fully human.

10.  Begetting, which means to cause, produce, or
bring about, is not to be understood here in
the physical sense.
Nor are we to think
that Jesus was
made by God either.
(Recall this was
Arius’ position, later
dubbed a heresy).

11.  These three statements proclaim the same
theology: that Christ and
God are the same, that
Christ was never at some
point created by God, but
has always existed.

12.  The line “begotten not made” reminds us that
Christ was not made by God , but has always
existed.
 The Greek word for substance is ousia. The
Creed proclaims that Christ and God are of
the same essence, the same “stuff,” the same
ousia.

13.  Jesus came to live with us “for us and for our
salvation.
 This occurs through the incarnation, where
divinity dwells with humanity resulting in
humanity’s knowledge of what it means to be
divine.

14.  Largely symbolic language here when we
speak of Christ “coming down” from heaven.
This is reflective of a more ancient
cosmology.

16.  That Christ was crucified is one historical
aspect of the Creed most people agree on.
 There are several early Roman sources
outside scripture that state that a Jesus of
Nazareth was crucified.
 Christ is crucified under Pontius Pilate, the
prefect of the Roman province of Judea from
26–36 CE. Pilate represents the world that
rejects the claim of God and kills God’s
messenger.

17.  Christ dies upon the cross, and this suffering
demonstrates God’s full embrace of our
human condition. Christ is buried.

18.  One of the scriptural referents (in addition to
the New Testament, of course) comes from
the Hebrew Prophet Hosea, who writes:
 Hosea 6: 1-2 “Come, let us return to the
Lord; for it is he who has torn, and he will
heal us; he has struck down, and he will bind
us up. After two days he will revive us; on
the third day he will raise us up, that we may
live before him.

19.  This imagery is straight out of Psalm 110:1,
which reads: “The LORD says to my lord, ‘Sit
at my right hand until I make your enemies
your footstool.’”
 This phrase suggests a sharing of power and
authority between the Father and the Son who
rule creation together.

20.  The authors of the Creed understood this
sentence to be one of faith, as none of them
witnessed the return of Christ.
 The importance of this statement is that we
reaffirm that God and Christ are at work
reconciling creation to God.
 When speaking of God’s kingdom, we are not
speaking of a geographic location, rather the
relationship of power in which God and creation
are perfectly aligned, and this alignment is
eternal.

22.  God the Holy Spirit