This We Believe—The Apostle’s Creed
Genesis 1:1
“I believe in God, the Father Almighty,…”
We are in the midst of vacation season, and many of you, if you haven’t already, will soon be packing up for summer vacation. My family and I plan a little get-away in a couple of weeks, and we will go through the routine of packing the suitcases and travel bags in an effort to take as much of home with us as we can. We like the convenience of having our stuff wherever we go, and we go and buy more stuff, and have to have bigger bags to get the stuff home.
My daughters have been to camp several times this summer. I don’t know whether to be amazed or confused by my daughters, though. I took Brittney, our oldest daughter, to camp on Monday. Due to other commitments she was only going to stay for three days, but she took three bags of stuff. I guess she needed one bag of stuff for each day. Everything she might conceivably need was stashed in those three bags, and they were heavy. I’m thinking to myself, “Three days!”
But on some trips, unnecessary baggage can be a burden, not a blessing. Airlines these days are limiting the amount of luggage passengers can take on board. Just one more result of 9/11. Show up at the ticket counter with too many bags, and you will see what a burden excess baggage can be. A church member from the church I served in Kentucky had a brother who hiked the Appalachian Trail. His brother said the key to a successful trek through the Trail was to have no unnecessary baggage. Take only what you will need for survival—only the essential provisions. Unnecessary baggage is cumbersome. It weights you down, and slows you down. The unnecessary baggage is a burden.
The Apostle’s Creed is the expression of our Christian faith with no excess baggage. The Creed contains only the essential, Biblical elements necessary for a strong Christian faith. Its brevity is its beauty. The Creed is not weighted down with confusing verbage. The Creed is historically rooted, and it is widely accepted across many denominations as the most concise expression of our historic faith. I want to spend the next six weeks un-packing the deep, yet simple truths contained in The Apostle’s Creed.
But where did the Apostle’s Creed come from? Did one or more of the apostles write it? The Creed dates from about 150 A. D. The author is unknown, but it is one of, if not the earliest confessions of the Christian Church. The creed was composed by acknowledged church leaders to counter false teaching that had invaded the second Century church. The leaders of the church felt they needed a statement that summarized the essential beliefs of the faith that were handed down by the apostles. Their creed, their declaration of faith, became the Apostle’s Creed. The Apostle’s Creed has withstood the test of time. It has weathered the storm’s of controversy and doubt, and it stands in simple beauty as a testimony of the faith once received. So we join our voices with the countless millions who have spoken its historic words, and we proclaim—“This we believe!”
From its very first word, the Creed is intensely personal. “I believe.” The Creed is my confession of faith. Though it be joined with a thousand other voices, it is still my faith that I claim. As a matter of fact, it is my faith joined with thousands of others that makes the Creed so powerful. But what it is I believe? And what does it mean to believe? Perhaps that is the best place to start because faith itself is such an abstract concept. The writer to the Hebrews says, “What is faith? It is the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen. It is the evidence of things we cannot yet see” (Hebrews 11:1). When we speak of faith, of believing, we acknowledge that faith is a both/and proposition. It is both an intellectual assent and an active trust in God. Faith is more than blind following of something unknown. Faith is living our lives in such a manner to reflect the beliefs we hold in our hearts and minds. If I may use an illustration: We have faith in a dollar. We believe we can take one dollar to the store and exchange this dollar for goods or services equal in value to the dollar we possess. Because we believe that fact, we get up and go to the store and pick up an item, take it to the cash register, and exchange our dollar for the goods or services. We gave intellectual assent to the knowledge, but faith did not become faith until we acted on that knowledge and saw that it proved to be correct. In the same way, faith in God is both knowing and doing. To say, as the Creed does, “I believe,” means we have given consideration to the doctrines within, and have ordered our lives to reflect that fact. But we must remember that faith itself is the work of God. God is the source of our faith, and our faith rises in response to God’s self-revelation. We might say that faith is the echo of God’s own call in those who believe. But what exactly is it I believe?
The most elementary aspect of our faith is in God, who has revealed himself to us as Father and Creator. The Bible begins with the words we read only a few moments ago, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” The Bible reveals God as Creator, but it also goes on to reveal God as Father. He is God the Father Almighty. How do we unpack that phrase? How do we unpack the infinite with the finite? The truth is that God is unknowable unless God chooses to make himself known. Isn’t that true of any person, though? People remain a mystery to his/her companions as long as they are silent. As soon as one speaks, though, others catch a glimpse of that person’s character, intentions, and personality. God is knowable to us because God spoke to us. He has spoken in His creation, and He has spoken to us as Father through His son, Jesus Christ. The revelation of God in the Bible, through His Son Jesus reveals God who is righteous and merciful. In Jesus, we see the heart of a loving God reaching out to his creation that is longing to be reconciled to its creator.
With the Apostle’s Creed, we confess that we believe in this God, and no other. For all that God is, He is supremely Father and Creator. If God is Father, then we are his children. When we embrace God as Father, suddenly all of creation becomes our family home. Oh we could seek to explore the depths to which God is Almighty, and all that that word means, but in so doing, we might miss the fact that this God who is beyond our description and comprehension is supremely interested in a personal relationship with each one of us.
But we did not invent the idea of God as Father. God did. It was the relationship with Jesus that shows us the way to the Father’s heart. In Luke’s Gospel, we encounter Jesus as just a lad, left in Jerusalem by an unsuspecting family. Their search finds Jesus at the Temple speaking with the teachers gathered there, and Jesus’ reply to Mary and Joseph is, “Didn’t you know I must be about my Father’s business?” While Jesus hung dying on the cross, it was to his Father that he committed his spirit, and when Jesus taught his disciples to pray, he taught them to say, “Our Father.”
To embrace God as Father, as the Creed does, takes the abstract notion of philosophers of an impersonal, first cause or prime mover, and reveals to us that God is a personal God, who seeks a relationship with us. God as Father becomes more than some exalted being who thunders from a mountaintop, and whose face could not be looked upon, and reveals God to be one who is filled with love and grace. God as Father makes God as one who is approachable, and who longs to embrace us as much as we long to embrace God. As God’s children, we are welcomed into a family that is more extensive than even the purest bloodlines. From God, who is Father, our being and blessings descend, and to God, we can turn our minds and hearts in love and gratitude. When we become God’s children, we enter a relationship that showers us with love, intimacy and care. And we respond with faith.
That type of relationship is exemplified best in our children. Their trust is such that they can ask God anything. Perhaps you’ve heard some of these letters to God children have written. Perhaps your own child has written a letter like these, and you were touched by the intimacy contained in their child-like faith. Listen:
Dear God, If You watch me in church on Sunday, I’ll show you my new shoes.—Mickey
Dear God, I read the Bible. What does “begat” mean? No one will tell me. Love, Alison
Dear God, I went to this wedding and they kissed right in church. Is that okay?—Neil
Dear God, Thank you for the baby brother, but what I prayed for was a puppy.—Joyce
Dear God, My brother told me about being born but it doesn’t sound right. They’re just kidding aren’t they?—Marsha
Dear God, We read Thomas Edison made light. But in Sunday school they said You did it. So I bet he stole your idea.—Sincerely, Donna
Dear God, I didn’t think orange went with purple until I saw the sunset You made on Tuesday. That was cool.—Eugene
The trust and intimacy these children, and almost all children, place in God is the kind of relationship God desires with us. It can be ours when we respond to God’s call to us in Jesus Christ.
Let me ask you something. Are you looking for love and intimacy in your life? Are you carrying a lot of excess baggage in this journey called life, and finding that you’re burdened by all the expectations, both real and imagined, that culture, and family, and even religion has given you to carry around? Reclaim the faith expressed in the Creed—God is your Father, God is our Father. Re-embrace God today as Father—your Father. Unpack all those burdens. They’re unnecessary. Take just the necessities, and proclaim—“I believe in God the Father Almighty.”
