What You Believe and Why? (Part One)

This last weekend I had the honor of speaking from the pulpit at my church. We have been in a series called “Strong in Faith” and going through the Nicene Creed* (See defined below). It is impacting to slow down and take a fresh look at “What you believe—and why.”

A.W. Tozer wrote, “What first comes to mind when you think about God is the most important thing about you.” [“Knowledge of the Holy.”]  Our understanding of God frames our life compass.  If our view of God is one of anger and punishment, we may live trying to be good, as to not make Him mad, we become a works performance follower. Or if we feel He is uninterested (with a shrug of the shoulder) we too are uninterested. If our view of God, is He is holy and FULL of mercy, He is King of all! We are grace recipients—our life looks much different.

Our thoughts and beliefs dictate the way we live. We live what we believe about God. We all have known folks (or have been one) who are living a reckless life (poor decisions, willful disobedience) living out their belief system.

What do we believe?

“Who for us and for our salvation came down from heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary and was made man.” [My portion of the Creed]

This beautifully summarizes the coming of Jesus Christ into our world. In just a few phrases it tells us: Why He came. Where He came from. How He came to us.  Reminding us that the birth of Jesus was not just an event or another name listed in history, “There once was a man named Jesus.” It was rather the unfolding of God’s gracious great plan to rescue humanity.

We can understand these phrases, with three simple words: Mission, Majesty and Man.

First: The Mission: “Who for us and for our salvation.” He came to save. He came with a clear and deliberate mission. The prior lines in the creed declare the Person of Christ (begotten and equal with the Father) now we look at the work of Christ.

Jesus said, “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10).  Paul writes “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Timothy 1:15). THAT was Jesus’ mission. Every miracle, every teaching, every step toward the cross, His wonder-fill resurrection and beyond was part of that mission.

Second: The Majesty – “Came Down from Heaven.”  These words remind us that Jesus did not begin His existence in Bethlehem, as a lil baby in the manger. Before He was born of Mary, He already existed with the Father.  John 1:1: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Jesus said, “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me” (John 6:38).

Think about what this means. The One who walked the dusty roads of Galilee was the same One who shared the glory of heaven. The King of Heaven stepped down into our broken world.

Majesty indeed!

“Who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross” (NKJV). That is the majesty of Christ’s coming—the eternal Son of God humbled Himself for our sake.

Make no mistake, this was NOT an exchange of deity for humanity. Jesus is both Creator and Savior. He is not one or the other, He is both. Was He God or was He man? Yes.

Third: The Man: Jesus was “incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary and was made man.”  Incarnate, simply is Latin for “in the flesh.” He Became one of us. This is the great mystery of the Christian faith; God was now flesh.

The angel told Joseph: “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.”  All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet:  “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”–which means, “God with us” (Matthew 1:20–23, quoting and fulfilling Isaiah 7:14)

Jesus remained what He was and took up what He was not. Fully human and yet fully God united in one person. “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). “For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body”(Colossian 2:9).  He experienced human life—hunger, sorrow, temptation, fatigue (Naps! Jesus took naps). He was even angry—yet without sin.

The Mission. The Majesty. The Man.  Sounds like a good movie. But the Book is much better. He came down from heaven, becoming one of us—for us, for our salvation.

NEXT WEEK: WHY did Jesus HAVE to come down from heaven and become man under divine circumstances?

In Him, DeDe (“Let us consider how we make spur one another on toward love & good deeds” – Hebrews 10:24)

(Above is an excerpt from my Sunday Service teaching, I got to be geeky and talk theology!)

*The Nicene Creed is a foundational statement of Christian faith: Due to circulating false teaching, church leaders (in 325 AD, Nicaea) and updated in 381 AD (Constantinople) worked to define core doctrines. It declares belief in the Trinity (Father, Son, Holy Spirit), the divinity of Jesus Christ, His incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection and the Church.