The Surprising God

This post continues our series exploring the Nicene Creed (read other posts in the series by clicking a number:  1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 7 , 8 , 9 ,  10 , 11 ,  12 ,  13 ). We come now to important words defining the Person and work of Jesus Christ: Who for us men and our salvation, came down from heaven, and was made flesh from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and was made man and was crucified 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 sits on the right hand of God the Father. And he shall come again in glory to judge both the living and the dead; his kingdom shall have no end. A key point here is that our salvation is the act of God himself, who through the Incarnation... ...takes the concrete form of the actual historical man Jesus. As St Paul had expressed it: "God our Savior desires all men to be saved and to come to the  knowledge of the truth. For there is one God,

Here's a moving rendition of the Nicene Creed - a worshipful meditation with music. Enjoy! And for commentary on this important creed, click on the corresponding number of each post in a continuing series:  1 ,  2 ,  3 ,  4 , 5 .

We must avoid the tendency to see our faith as what saves us, thus turning faith into a human work. For a related discussion (with a powerful illustration), watch the excerpt below from a You're Included interview with trinitarian theologian Dr. Elmer Colyer.  Click here  for more You're Included interviews.

This post is part 5 in a series on the Nicene Creed . To read others, click on a number: 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 ,  6 ,  7 , 8 , 9 ,  10 , 11 ,  12 ,  13 . In this post, we'll examine the section in the creed concerning Jesus Christ, God's Son: [ We believe ] in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, begotten from his Father before all ages, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten not made, of one being with the Father, through whom all things were made. Note how the creed defines Christ as  from his Father . In this eternal relationship, he is begotten   not made. The Father-Son relationship precedes any Creator-creature relationship. This, of course, was a key issue when the creed was written. All sorts of heretical ideas conceived of Jesus as some sort of creation of God rather than as true God . The creed shows such ideas to be false by asserting the biblical truth that Christ is the One through whom all things were made.  Thus when we are confronted