For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind,
the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all people.  1 Timothy 2:5-6 (NIV)
God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ.  2 Corinthians 5:19 (NIV)

The Nice What?
This year is the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicea in 325AD, from which the Nicene Creed arose (although the expanded text we now have actually derives from the Council of Constantinople in 381AD – but let’s keep things simple!).

There is an argument for saying that the Nicene Creed is the most important of the church’s creeds as it’s the only one that was adopted at an ecumenical council and then declared to be binding on the whole church, which is not true of the Apostles’ Creed.  The Nicene Creed is also more theologically precise than the Apostles’ Creed.

The Nicene Creed was especially designed to deal with the heresy being propounded by Arius who was a presbyter in Alexandria, Egypt.  To put it simply, he taught that Christ was not truly God, that the Son was not God in the same way that the Father was, that there was a time when the Son did not exist.  In Arius’ famous phrase, speaking of Christ, “There was a time when he was not.”

We can see that clearly when we look at the section in the Nicene Creed on the person of Christ: 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.  Notice the following:

• Christ is “eternally begotten.”  That is, he is begotten of the Father without having a beginning in time.  Of course, this is unlike any human begetting, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t true.  The Father can only be the Father because he has a Son.  If the Son is not eternal, then neither is the Father.

• He is “God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God.”  In other words, the Son is just as much God as the Father is.  He does ‘God things’ and is ‘true God.’  He’s the real deal.

• He is “begotten, not made.”  Again, his begetting is unlike ours.  He is not created.

• He is “of one being with the Father.”  He is not another kind of being, some kind of less-than-fully-God being, but the same kind of being: God.

• Finally, “through him, all things were made.”  Christ is firmly on the ‘created’ side of the Creator/Created line; he is on the ‘God’ side rather than the ‘creation’ side.

In case this all sounds overly technical and unnecessarily historical, it’s worth remembering that Arius’ heresy is alive and well among Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, Unitarians and Christadelphians today.  It hasn’t gone away.  This still matters.

Also, there is beauty in theological precision.  Why would we not want to be as careful and accurate as we can in defining what God is like, as long as we get that from what God himself has revealed and not what we make up?  Isn’t this one way in which we honour the God we love?

The final, crucial, point is that if Christ is not truly God, then how can he fully reconcile us to God?  He cannot.  Which is where the Nicene Creed turns next: For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven…  But he is truly and fully God, and so he can truly and fully save us.  Praise his name!

Yours warmly, in Christ,
Chris Hobbs (Senior Minister)