the apostles’ creed – part vii

I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,

Suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended to the dead.

On the third day he rose again; he ascended into heaven,
he is seated at the right hand of the Father,
and he will come again to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. AMEN.

Resurrection signals our hope and Christ’s vindication. Through His rising from the dead, Christ made a relationship between God and rebellious humanity possible once more.[1] Moreover, God proclaimed the life and message of Jesus-though rejected by the ruling powers of the day-as the Truth in a world both skeptical yet longing, asking with Pilate, “what is truth?” (Jn 18.38). What is more, we find that He who rose again from the dead has ascended to heaven where He is presently seated at the right hand of God. This is not to be understood literally in spatial terms; rather, it denotes Christ with God, Christ as God.[2] Therefore, “Christ ascended to the Father’s right hand” denotes his eternal, cosmic rule. Here the creed proclaims the “already, but not yet” of the Kingdom of God. Christ is risen, ascended, and seated at the right hand of the Father where he will return one day as judge. Yet he is now ruling and reigning over creation. The past, present and future coalesce into the person of Christ who is the Alpha and the Omega, the Author and Perfector, the Intercessor and Judge of all. The cosmic, eternal rule of God in Christ is both present and future reality. “Of the Son He says, ‘your throne, o god, is forever and ever” proclaiming His eternal rule, yet later we read that God says to Christ, “sit at my right hand, until i make your enemies a footstool for your feet?’” (Heb 1.8a, 13). Already a reality, but not yet fully manifest is the Kingdom of Heaven; the eternal and cosmic rule of God in and through the risen, ascended Christ. “What has still to become manifest on earth in the future is only what is already reality in God’s eternity.”[3]

“Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col 1.27b). Therein lies our hope. Christ risen and ascended does not mean Christ is absent, removed, uninvolved.[4] “I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Mt 28.20b). This promise remains and abides. The presence of God in Christ is now mediated through the Spirit of God manifested to all who believe and submit themselves to His Lordship (cf. Jn 14). In other words, “the future of the divine lordship is immediately bound up with the mystery of His own presence.”[5] What is more, this reality contains a call to action. As God is with us and for us always through the Spirit, we are to be about the business which He called us to; namely, to go and make disciples of all nations (Mt 28.19). “Here there is no rest possible; here there is rather a running and racing; here is the start of the mission, the sending of the Church into the world and for the world,”[6] for it is “only those who have understood Easter…[who] do not stand gazing into heaven but go into the world and testify to Jesus.”[7]

Finally, it is here that we find it proclaimed that Christ dead, buried, risen, ascended, seated at the Father’s right hand will one day return in judgment, which evokes both fear and hope. The sheep and the goats will be separated (Mt 25.31-46) and account will be given of the deeds done (2 Cor 5.9-10). On that Day of days there will certainly be reason for fear (cf. Heb 10.31), but more so for hope (cf. Rev 21.3-6, 22.20). The one who comes as Judge is the one who died to redeem humanity and creation, who sympathizes with us in our weakness (Heb 4.14-16), who is Immanuel.[8] As such, “Jesus Christ’s return to judge the quick and the dead is tidings of joy,”[9] as “over the judgment glows the dawn of hope.”[10] Maran atha is indeed a proclamation of hope and redemption.

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[1] Ratzinger, Introduction, 313.

[2] cf. Barth, Dogmatics, 107; Pannenberg, The Apostles’ Creed, 124-125.

[3] Pannenberg, 123; cf. 117, 126; Barth, 105.

[4] cf. Pannenberg, 124; Barth 125.

[5] Jürgen Moltmann, Theology of Hope, (New York: Harper and Row, 1967), 218.

[6] Barth, Dogmatics, 127; cf. 128.

[7] Küng, Credo, 102.

[8] Pannenberg, The Apostles’ Creed, 122.

[9] Barth, 134.

[10] Ratzinger, Introduction, 327.