The Nicene Creed and the Liturgy

Every church has a liturgy. Liturgy is simply the public service (leitourgia) of the church, gathered as a kingdom of priests to offer themselves to God. The most important liturgy is the one Christ himself offers through his atoning death and his ongoing priestly work in the heavenly sanctuary. Christ, then, is the true Liturgist (leitourgos, Heb 8:2). The church’s public worship of God is simply offering its own grace-enabled “amen” to that great heavenly liturgy. Thus, it is not simply the “high” or more formal churches that have a liturgy, a pattern for this sacred worship. Even the lowest of the “low” churches cannot avoid the human tendency to rhythm and routine (in the best sense of the word). Even the most doggedly extemporaneous worship services settle into certain predictable patterns. The question when it comes to liturgy is not whether but whither—not, will we have a liturgy? but, where will our liturgies take us? And will they be grounded in Scripture and informed by the best of the Christian tradition?

The New Testament itself has set the agenda for the gathered worship of the church by laying down certain elements, either by precept or example, that are to be observed in every church: the reading and preaching of God’s word (1 Tim 4:13; Col 4:16); prayer (1 Tim 2:8); the singing of psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs (Eph 5:19); the observation of the two sacraments or ordinances of the church, baptism and the Lord’s Supper (e.g., 1 Cor 11:17-34); the collection of offerings (1 Cor 16:2); the sharing of spiritual gifts for the edification of the body (1 Cor 14:26); and, importantly for our present purposes, the public confession of the faith.

Public confession of the faith is a crucial component in the New Testament understanding of conversion. Jesus himself demands that we confess (homologeo) him before others that he might confess us before his Father in heaven (Matt 10:32). The apostle Paul instructs us that salvation comes to those who “confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead” (Rom 10:9). In response to this demand, the early church seems to have crafted short summaries of the faith that take on a kind of hymnic or confessional structure. One such confession is found in 1 Timothy 3:16:

Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness:

He was manifested in the flesh,

vindicated by the Spirit,

seen by angels,

proclaimed among the nations,

believed on in the world,

taken up in glory.

Other confessional summaries can be found in Philippians 2:5-11, Colossians 1:15-20, 1 Corinthians 15:3-5, and Hebrews 6:1-3, among other places. The confessional/hymnic structure of these summaries suggests that they were meant to be memorized and repeated. The New Testament epistles often speak about a body of doctrine (Rom 16:17; 1 Tim 4:6; Tit 2:10), a good deposit (2 Tim 1:14), or a pattern of sound words (1 Tim 1:13) that must be carefully guarded and passed on to others. Every church is duty-bound “to contend earnestly for the faith that was once delivered to the saints,” (Jude 3). Thus, confession of the faith was an integral part of New Testament discipleship and worship.The church’s public worship of God is simply offering its own grace-enabled “amen” to that great heavenly liturgy. Share on X

In the centuries just after the New Testament, early Christians took seriously this component of public worship. Summaries of the main contours of the gospel developed very early in the tradition. Irenaeus and Tertullian had their own versions of this “rule of faith,” which were organized in a threefold structure, built around the distinctive offices of the three divine persons. Soon, these summaries were formalized into distinct creeds, confessions of the church’s common faith. Catechumens, that is, new disciples, were required to learn and confess these creeds before their baptisms. The Old Roman Creed, which stands behind what we know as the Apostles’ Creed, goes all the way back to the second century. The Apostles’ Creed eventually came to be received as an “ecumenical” (that is, worldwide or universal) creed by the churches in the West. The so-called Athanasian Creed was also similarly embraced as an ecumenical creed by the Western churches. But it was the Nicene Creed, finalized at the Council of Constantinople in 381, that became the most predominant summary of the biblical faith received and confessed by the global and historic church. These three ecumenical creeds taken together continue to represent the faith of historic Christian orthodoxy, regardless of geographic locale or denominational affiliation.

The Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century signaled some crucial reforms to the faith and practice of the late medieval/early modern Western church. Reformation theology is often organized under two central principles: the so-called formal principle of Sola Scriptura (Scripture alone is the supreme source and standard of Christian belief) and so-called material principle of Sola Fide (sinners are justified by faith alone apart from works). Under these principles stood a number of other reforms concerning the nature of the church and its ministry. But importantly, the Reformers did not seek an overthrow of the creedal foundations of the church. They continued to affirm the early creeds and councils of the church as important guides to interpreting Scripture. They continued to oppose the various trinitarian and Christological heresies that the creeds were meant to foreclose. The Reformers and their heirs often organized the doctrinal portions of their own catechisms precisely in terms of the ecumenical creeds (see, for example, Luther’s Large and Small Catechisms, the Westminster Larger and Shorter Catechisms, the Heidelberg Catechism, the Baptist Catechism, and the Baptist version of the Heidelberg Catechism, Hercules Collins’ Orthodox Catechism). The seventeenth-century Baptist confession of faith, the Orthodox Creed, echoing the Articles of Religion, summarizes the usefulness of the creeds as follows:

The Three Creeds, (viz.) Nicene Creed, Athanasius’s Creed, and the Apostles Creed, (as they are commonly called) ought throughly [i.e., thoroughly] to be received, and believed. For we believe they may be proved by most undoubted Authority of holy Scripture, and are necessary to be understood of all Christians; and to be instructed in the knowledg of them, by the Ministers of Christ, according to the Analogie of Faith, recorded in sacred Scriptures (upon which these Creeds are grounded), and Catechistically opened, and expounded in all Christian Families, for the edification of Young and Old; which might be a means to prevent Heresie in Doctrine, and Practice, these Creeds containing all things in a brief manner, that are necessary to be known, fundamentally, in order to our Salvation; to which end they may be considered, and better understood of all Men, we have here Printed them under their several Titles . . .

This confession stands out as one of two historic Baptist symbols (the other being the Orthodox Catechism) that affirm and include the full text of the three ecumenical creeds. Note the uses and benefits of the creeds mentioned here: instruction, catechesis, edification, prevention of heresy, and ultimately a summary of the biblical message that must be believed for salvation. All of this affirmed by a Baptist confession of faith!The Nicene Creed, finalized at the Council of Constantinople in 381, that became the most predominant summary of the biblical faith received and confessed by the global and historic church. Share on X

Even today, many Protestant churches continue to confess the ecumenical creeds in the gathered worship of the church. The Creed is a part of the Anglican, Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian, and, increasingly, even many Baptist liturgies. It is my conviction that all churches would benefit from incorporating the Creed into our Lord’s Day services. Building on the uses mentioned in the Orthodox Creed above, we could list at least three main benefits of reciting the creeds in our liturgies. For the sake of focus, I will focus particularly on the benefits of the Nicene Creed.

First, confessing the Creed teaches the Christian faith. The Nicene Creed does not major on minors. Any well-tuned theological system acknowledges that some doctrines are more central to the Christian faith than others. Every revealed truth is important, but some doctrines are more integral, from which other doctrines are derived. The Creed limits itself to these primary or integral doctrines. The Creed is trinitarian both in its content and its structure, with its three articles focusing on the appropriated works of the three divine persons: one God the Father Almighty, one Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life. Under this general rubric, the Creed details a treasure trove of doctrines: creation, the eternal generation and consubstantiality of the Son, the incarnation, the work of Christ, the procession of the Holy Spirit, the inspiration of the Scriptures, the attributes of the church, baptism, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the final state. If churches could help their members memorize and internalize these doctrines, then the people of God would be equipped with all of the essentials for forming a Christian understanding of reality. Insofar as it faithfully repeats and synthesizes the biblical revelation of the one true God, the Creed teaches the church the language of Zion.

The Creed is the shared faith of the whole body of Christ. Share on XSecond, confessing the Creed prevents heresy from creeping into the church. The Creed was forged in the heat of controversy. The original Nicene Creed (325) was drafted to denounce the error of Arianism, which had taught that the Son was created by the Father. In place of this heresy, the Creed affirms that the Son is begotten, not made, and is consubstantial (of the same essence) with the Father. By the time the final version of the Creed was developed at Constantinople in 381, the controversy had expanded to include the person of the Holy Spirit. Against the Macedonian heresy, which taught that the Holy Spirit was subordinated to the other two divine persons, the Creed affirms that the eternally proceeding Holy Spirit is none other than “the Lord,” who “with the Father and the Son is worshipped and glorified.” The Creed is a bulwark against other heresies besides. Against Gnosticism, the Creed teaches us that God is the maker of all things “visible and invisible.” Against all varieties of Pelagianism, the Creed teaches us that we stand in need of “the forgiveness of sins.” Against denials of the truth of Scripture, the Creed teaches us that it was the Holy Spirit himself who “spake by the prophets.” The Creed affirms the Virgin Birth, the bodily resurrection of Jesus (and of all humans at his second coming), the personal return of Christ at the end of the age, and the judgment of the living and the dead. What trinitarian, Christological, Pneumatological, soteriological, ecclesiological, and eschatological errors might our churches avoid, if they had the language of the Creed in their bloodstream?

Third, the Creed visibly connects the local church to the broader body of Christ. The ultimate root of catholicity—the universal church’s common identity across space and time—is the confession of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as he is revealed in Holy Scripture. But in the providence of God, the Creed has provided a glorious distillation of this biblical message. A creed, properly so called, is not the exclusive preserve of one particular communion. A creed is different from a confession of faith in that regard. The Creed is the shared faith of the whole body of Christ. So, when a church recites the Creed together, they add their voices to the glorious company of saints and martyrs down through the ages. Confessing the Creed, thus, gestures toward that day when the whole church will be in experience what they presently are in Christ: one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church. In a church that is so often splintered by division, confessing the Creed stands as a visible protest and witness.

If a pastor or a church is considering adding the Nicene Creed or one of the other ecumenical creeds to the church’s liturgy, how might they introduce such a change? As many others have recommended, the change should come slowly and deliberately. Perhaps one way to introduce the addition of the Creed would be to teach a series of lessons or preach a series of sermons on the Creed. Perhaps incorporating elements of the traditional liturgical calendar could aid in this as well. Many evangelical churches have begun adding Advent and Lent to their normal Christmas and Easter celebrations. Considering other aspects of the church year is beneficial as well. Trinity Sunday would be a most fitting time to begin reciting the Creed. Proceeding with caution and wisdom, pastors can help their churches see the many and great benefits of reciting the Creed in their liturgies. If every church has a liturgy, we could do far worse than framing our liturgies in the explicitly trinitarian way that the Creed affords.