The Nicene Creed

The Nicene Creed is one of the great confessional declarations made by Christians for several hundred years. Creeds like this remind us that our faith is a shared faith. In our day and age, we want to view everything as personal… it’s my personal faith… I personally believe… personally Jesus is… Although what we believe as Christians is personally impacting it is corporately proclaimed. We are part of a heritage. This heritage reaches back to a group of men given a Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20) in Jerusalem. Ever since that day, disciples of Jesus have followed him holding to the same truths expressed in the Nicene Creed.* We are part of this heritage. We love God who is Triune, but even greater than this… He loves us.

The Nicene Creed

I believe in one God the Father Almighty; Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father; by whom all things were made; who, for us men and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, and was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; he suffered and was buried; and the third day he rose again, according to the Scriptures; and ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of the Father; and he shall come again, with glory, to judge both the quick and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end.

And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life; who proceedeth from the Father and the Son; who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified; who spake by the Prophets. And one Holy Catholic** and Apostolic Church. I acknowledge one Baptism for the remission of sins; and I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.

*The Nicene Creed was formulated in the 4th Century (a.d. 325; revised at Constantinople a.d. 381) but its content was always embraced by the early Church.

**In this context, “catholic” does not mean either Roman Catholicism or Universalism. It means that Christ’s people are in every “nation, tribe, language, and people” (Rev. 14:6) and that there is “one Lord, one faith, one baptism”. (Eph 4:5)