Reflections – 2024.09

The Apostles Creed (I Believe in Jesus Christ, … conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary)

For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, …’
–        I Timothy 5-6

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In this series of articles on the Apostles Creed, we have considered what it means that Jesus is “the Christ” and that he is “the Son of the living God”, the only son of God the Father, and that He is our Lord.  These are grand truths we proclaim each time we say the Apostles Creed.  But if the creed left things there, we might understand Jesus to be powerful, a ruler, one capable of saving us, but someone who is in most ways NOT like us.

One of the great mysteries and at the same time marvelous truths of the Christian faith is that the Son of God became one of us, that he was flesh and blood, that he was, and is, a man.  Fully God and fully man.  Much has been said about this.  Heresies have forced Christians to think carefully about what this means and to write about it in ways, if not exactly heart-warming, may be helpful in understanding this mysterious, marvelous truth.  For example, the Westminster Confession of Faith, in its chapter on Christ the Mediator, says, “The Son of God, the second person in the Trinity, being very and eternal God, of one substance and equal with the Father, did, when the fullness of time was come, take upon him man’s nature, with all the essential properties, and common infirmities thereof, yet without sin; being conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, in the womb of the virgin Mary, of her substance.  So that two whole, perfect, and distinct natures, the Godhead and the manhood, were inseparably joined together in one person, without conversion, composition, or confusion.  Which person is very God, and very man, yet one Christ, the only Mediator between God and man.” (WCF 8.2)

What can be lost, however, in any theological declaration like this is the beauty that underlies the declaration.  We can end up talking about Jesus in an academic sort of way without maybe rejoicing in the fact that in His great love for us, He was willing to be born, that He would humble Himself and become man. And that in being born, He was willing to share with us in our humanity in a very complete way.  His righteousness and holiness extend all the way back to conception, even as our sin does.  The Heidelberg Catechism speaks of the benefits of Christ’s birth as follows: “[Christ] is our mediator and with His innocence and perfect holiness he removes from God’s sight my sin – mine since I was conceived.”  So when we speak these words in the creed about Jesus being conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary, may we rejoice in the great love and humility displayed towards sinners like us in that Christ, the Son of God, became a man, was conceived and born, that He might identify with us in our humanity and that we might know Him in a more familiar way – as a man, as an elder brother, as a friend of sinners like us.