In the last post we began to expound on the Nicene Creed's first opening words "We believe" here Growing Christian Resources: Post #4 1700 Years of the Nicene Creed - "We Believe". We now move to the first article or division of the Nicene Creed, namely the affirmation of the Person of God the Father. As we will see, the Biblical, and thus Christian view of the nature of God is inseparable from consideration of the Divine Persons of the Trinity.
Why begin with the Father? Jesus gave this Biblical definition of salvation the following in John 17:3 "This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent." Knowing God personally is the chief end of salvation. An unbeliever only knows God as their Creator to whom they are accountable and stand to face in judgment (Romans 1:18-20). All humanity descended from Adam know "about" God but do not "know" Him as Father. The Person of the Father and born-again sinners are reconciled by the Son. The phrase "the true God" in the passage speaks of the Divine Person of the Father. Thus, the Nicene Creed begins with consideration of the Father.
The seven-fold structure of the Nicene Creed centered around the Trinity.
Before we get to the phrase "One God, the Father almighty", it may help us to grasp the major divisions of the Creed. The Nicene Creed's 34 lines (per the Greek and Latin texts) are centered on the doctrine of the Trinity.1 Below I have put the headings, along with the text of the Nicene Creed in smaller print. For interested readers, I've placed additional comments in endnotes.
I. God the Father
We believe in one God,
the Father almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all things visible and invisible
II. God the Son in His Godhood and manhood.2
And in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only begotten Son of God,
begotten from the Father before all ages,
light from light,
true God from true God,
begotten not made,
of one substance with the Father,
through Whom all things came into existence,
Who because of us men and because of our salvation came down from the heavens,
and was incarnate from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary
and became man,
and was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate,
and suffered and was buried,
and rose again on the third day according to the Scriptures
and ascended to heaven, and sits on the right hand of the Father,
and will come again with glory to judge living and dead,
of Whose kingdom there will be no end;
III. God the Holy Spirit 3
And we believe in the Holy Spirit,
the Lord, the giver of life.
He proceeds from the Father and the Son,
and with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified.
Note: Let the reader see that the remaining four articles of the Creed touch upon what are by-products appropriated or "properly credited" to the Holy Spirit's work done inseparably with the Father and the Son as One Triune God.
IV. The Spirit's speaking through the Prophets, reminding us of Divine authorship of Scripture.
He spoke through the prophets.
V. The Spirit of God is responsible for birthing forth the Church, which is affirmed as "One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church."
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic church.
VI. The Spirit of God is the agent involved in the regeneration of the human soul in saving faith. The Nicene Creed's "baptism for remission of sins" is directly from Peter's words in Acts 2:38.4
We affirm one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
VII. The Holy Spirit will also be the Agent responsible for the resurrection of saints and of making it possible for them to rule and reign with Jesus Christ in His Kingdom and into the New Heavens and New Earth.
We look forward to the resurrection of the dead, and to life in the world to come. Amen.
Now that we've overviewed the Creed, let's consider the opening line about God the Father.
One God, the Father almighty
As we turn our attention to this opening line in the Creed, we are confronted with three interrelated truths. First, the oneness of God in His essence or being. Second, the Divine Person of the Father. Third, a key perfection or attribute which summarizes the totality of what it means to be God. Let's take these truths in their order, with the aim to show how belong together.
We believe in One God,
The Nicene Creed first states the oneness of God in His being. This affirmation of "monotheism" is constant throughout the Bible (see for instance Deuteronomy 6:4-5 and 1 Corinthians 8:6-7). Rufinas, a fifth century church father, wrote a commentary on the Apostle's Creed, which begins similarly to the Nicene Creed: "I believe in God the Father Almighty". In His comments he writes:
"When you hear the word God, you must understand thereby a substance without beginning, without end, simple, uncompounded, invisible, incorporeal, ineffable, inappreciable, which has in it nothing which has been either added or created. For He is without cause who is absolutely the cause of all things."
The Westminster Short Catechism's Question 4 gives us a summary of God in His nature:
"Q. 4. What is God?
A. God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth."
There is God, and then there is everything else. Although God is incomprehensible in this way, He nonetheless has made Himself knowable through creation, His Word, and the incarnate Son of God. In the Old Testament, the Father is revealed as "God", "LORD", and other Divine names.5 In most of the 5766 places within the Hebrew Bible where we observe the personal name of God, Yahweh"/"LORD", as well as most of the 2706 places where we see the more general name "Elohim" mentioned, unless otherwise indicated, God the Father is the Divine Person connected to those terms.6
As we shall see in later posts, to affirm the oneness of God means that sameness of deity in its quality and perfections is equal and undivided among the Father, Son, and Spirit. Thus, "We believe in One God,"
We believe in One God, the Father
In our English translations, as well as the Latin version of the Creed, a comma is placed after "in One God,". A comma may not seem like a big deal. However, commas indicate the carrying on whatever came before the comma and thereafter. To put it plainly, we cannot separate the "essence" or "being of God" from the Persons of the Trinity. It's not like we have the Three Persons of the Trinity in one corner and a "fourth piece of God" in another.
By nature, God is what we call "Divinely simple", meaning He is not composed of "parts". A "part" is an element or quality that is less than the whole. My arm for example is a part of me, yet it is not I. When a composer writes music, he or she includes notes, a score, and melody. Each of those are "parts" and are put together by the composer. God is not composed by anyone. His attributes are not "pieces" of His nature. By nature, God is love, is holy, is wise, and so forth. Divine simplicity preserves two other significant doctrines of God's Divine nature - the fact He never changes or "immutability" (Malachi 3:6); and the fact He is truly One in being, incapable of division or diminishment in power.
How then do we get from "One God" to "The Father"? Two truths necessarily follow from this opening statement about the Father.
1. First, as God by nature, the Father has never not been "the Father", since as God He is eternal, without beginning nor origin. Being God by nature tells us "what" the Father is - "God".7
2. A second implication in confessing "I believe in One God, the Father" is that as "Father", there must also be "The Son". The eternal relation of the Father begetting the Son tells us that the Son has always been the Son, having communicated to Him the eternal Divine essence from the Father, both of which are co-eternal, co-equal Divine Persons, one in being (see Psalm 2:7; John 5:26; 10:30; 1 Corinthians 8:6).8
We have seen so far the confession of "One God, the Father".
"One God the Father, the almighty"
We come to our third and final term in our exposition on the opening line of the Creed - "Almighty". The beauty of this opening phrase is it begins with the oneness of God's nature, ties it to the Divine Personhood of the Father, and then loops back to a core perfection of the Divine nature. Out of all the attributes the Council of Nicaea chose to use, why refer to God, the Father Almighty? Why omnipotence?
Author Charles T. Grant, in the Winter 2002 edition of "The Emmaus Journal", writing an article entitled "Our Heavenly Father", notes of Divine omnipotence,
"Omnipotence means that God can do whatever He desires to do. “My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please” (Isa. 46:10). “Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him” (Ps. 115:3). It does not mean that God’s actions are without rational or moral restraint. Rather it implies that God is able to do everything which is consistent with His nature."
When we talk of omnipotence, we must qualify the term with reference to what God can and cannot do. Scripture tells us that God cannot lie (Titus 1:2). Why? God is a God of truth - i.e. the "True and Living God" (Jeremiah 10:10; 1 Thessalonians 1:9). God cannot change His essential nature (Malachi 3:6). We know that God cannot be unfaithful to His promises, since He is always faithful (2 Timothy 2:13).
These qualifiers do not cancel out Divine omnipotence, but rather serve to underscore what the Bible says on the subject. The Father, being truly God by nature, can do all He pleases, which means such attributes as His eternality, immensity, omniscience, omnipresence, and Divine independence help us to see how the power of God is indeed unlimited.
Since the Father is Almighty, the same applies to the Son and the Holy Spirit, with whom He communicates and shares the undivided essence.
It doesn't take much to find God's omnipotence in the Scripture. Near the end of the New Testament we find the following glorious statement of God's omnipotence,
"Then I heard something like the voice of a great multitude and like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, saying, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns."
1. The Nicene Creed in total is 34 lines in length, of which 29 are devoted to summarizing the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in their eternal relationship and activity within the Godhead. The remaining five lines deal with acts for which the Holy Spirit is the chief agent, along with the understanding that His agency in the inspiration of the Scriptures, the Church, the new birth, and the forthcoming resurrection and the world to come is inseparably done with the Father and the Son as One Triune God.
2. The Creed expresses the Person of the Son under two subdivisions - His deity and humanity. The Godhood of the Son means He is equal with the Father in terms of being or essence, begotten of Him from eternity. The term "begotten" speaks of the relational property that is unique to the Son or what makes the Son "the Son" and not the Father.
The manhood of the Son deals with His incarnation through the virgin Mary, His life, death, resurrection, ascension, and return.
3. The Holy Spirit is equal in power and glory with the Father and the Son. He is worthy of worship alongside the Father and the Son as One true and living God. The Holy Spirit is also "LORD and Giver of Life", with "LORD" stating His equality with the Son, and "Giver of Life" showing His equality with the Father.
The Holy Spirit, like the Son, is equal in power and glory to the Father, sharing in the whole Divine nature. The Holy Spirit's "procession from the Father and the Son" shows His distinction from them as a Divine Person in the Godhead, not being the Father nor the Son.
4. Baptism here refers to water baptism, which is a visible sign, administered to a new believer who has already been born again in saving faith by the Holy Spirit. Baptism is used by the Spirit of God to reinforce in the disciple's mind and heart their prior, born-again experience of saving faith (see Colossians 2:12; 1 Peter 3:21).
5. We see God the Father in the following Old Testament examples. Isaiah 63:15 "Look down from heaven and see from Your holy and glorious habitation....". Then Isaiah 63:16 "For You are our Father....". In Daniel 7:9, the Father is "The Ancient of Days". In Malachi 1:6 and 2:10, we see reference to "The Father", as the "LORD of Hosts“.
6. Deuteronomy 32:6 gives first clear mention of the Father's involvement in the salvation of His people (other examples include Isaiah 43:10-11; 63:8, 15-19; 64:6-9). Passages such as Job 38:8; Psalm 33:6,9; and Malachi 2:10 indicate God the Father as having the capability to create. No doubt Jesus, in His many mentions of the Father throughout the Gospel, taught this very same truth (see Matthew 19:1-7; John 5:25-29). Jesus no doubt taught this truth in His expression of the Father sending Him, the Son, to be the Savior of the world (John 3:16).
7. Theologians will often refer to the Father as "the principle without principle", meaning He as God had no beginning. As to His subsistence or "eternal standing" within the Divine nature, the Father is God by nature, eternal, without beginning.
8. By nature the Father is eternally God. By identity, the Father shares or conveys the eternal, undivided nature with the Son, which Scripture describes as the Father "begetting the Son" (Psalm 110; John 1:14; 1:18; 3:16 and others). To put it plainly, unless the Son has always eternally been begotten by the Father, there is no Fatherness (what theologians call "Paternity") to speak of with regards to the First Person of the Trinity. True Biblical faith cannot confess the One True and Living God without beginning with affirmation of the Father.
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