the apostles’ creed – part viii

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.

God the Father Almighty…Jesus Christ his only begotten Son…the Holy Spirit.  One in three.  Three in one.  Inseparable, yet distinct. Here the Trinity finds its full expression as the creed proclaims the one God in three Persons, blessed Trinity.  This is the mystery of all mysteries in Christian faith and doctrine.  God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.  All reveal who God is and what God is about and concerned with.  “The three persons…are indissolubly bound together in the unity of the divine love.”[1]

The Holy Spirit is distinct from the human spirit insofar as the latter is inherent in every person; while the former is the gift of God to those who believe.[2] In the Old Testament, the Spirit (ruach) of God was the creative outworking of Yahweh.  As such, we find that Spirit is the origin of all life;[3] a role that continues throughout time and into eternity.  Before creation-when the world was void and formless-God spoke through the Spirit and creation was wrought (Gen 1).  Yet again, God spoke through His Son, bringing redemption and new creation, whereby the Spirit once again brought new life where there was void and darkness.  As such, it is clear that the gift of God, in and through His Spirit, is life (bios) then Life (zoe).[4] Bios and Zoë are both gifts of God, and both are available for all.  However, the former is given to all who are born physically, the latter to all who are born spiritually through believing that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God.  The Spirit of God is the origin of all life, both physical (biological) and spiritual (viz. the new, redeemed, transformed life wrought by the death and resurrection of the Son of God).  Therefore, “[the Spirit] is the origin of the new life of the resurrection of the dead…the life-giving principle of the divine Spirit not only created the life of the resurrection; it also remains bound up with it.”[5]

“I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Mt 28.20).  Though Christ has ascended to the right hand of the throne of Majesty (Heb 1.1-4), Immanuel remains in and through His Spirit as “the personal nearness of God to human beings.”[6] This means that the Holy Spirit is the presence of God in this time between the times.  Though difficult to believe at times; faith, in our present “situation of the ‘pilgriming’ church” believes that God is here with us through His Spirit who demonstrates “the first-fruits of future salvation, the foretastes of the new life.”[7] The Spirit of God, the origin of life continues to create new life in believers in Christ, bringing them along to ultimate redemption.  God is present with us, for us, in us by His Spirit-”the present reality of God”[8]-as “the power through which the risen Lord remains present in the history of the world as the principle of a new history and a new world.”[9] It is God working from within our hearts, souls, and minds so that His inward, transforming Presence finds outward expression through us, in and for the world.  Through the Spirit we are given freedom,[10] and are thereby called to go and tell the Good News of great (and freeing) joy that was, is, and ever will be for all peoples.[11]

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[1] Pannenberg, The Apostles’ Creed, 142.

[2] cf. Lk 11.3; Jn 7.39; Barth, Dogmatics, 138; 140; Ratzinger, Introduction, 331

[3] Pannenberg, 130.

[4] C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, (SanFrancisco: HarperSanFrancisco, reprinted in 2001); see Book IV: Chapter 1 – Making and Begetting, specifically p. 159.

[5] Pannenberg, 137.

[6] Küng, Credo, 124-25.

[7] Pannenberg, The Apostles’ Creed, 132, 139.

[8] Pannenberg, 140.

[9] Ratzinger, Introduction, 332-333.

[10] Barth, Dogmatics, 138.

[11] cf. Barth, 128; Pannenberg, 141.  Barth makes an excellent point regarding the time of the Church as the time between the times-viz. between Christ’s ascension and the Parousia.  He notes that this is not the time for inaction or for complacency.  Rather, it is the time where we are united with God by faith and through His Spirit; “it is the time for mission…the time of God’s patience, in which He is waiting for the Church, and, with the Church, for the world” (128).  Such thoughts are needed even more today in order to avoid becoming too comfortable and thus complacent in and with our faith.  We cannot, as the Church, turn our focus inward and become so focused on ourselves that we miss our call, our mission.  Pannenberg also notes the need to be careful to avoid becoming selfish and self-centered in this time, and his words are worth quoting.  “[The Spirit's] presence among believers does not yet find its fulfillment and consummation in faith and hope per se, but in the love which lives out of faith and hope.  With the courage of faith which reaches beyond everything that exists in the present, and accompanied by the hope for the thing towards which it is directed, love as Christianity has discovered it since Jesus is creative love-prodigal virtue” (141).