The Chalcedonian Creed (The New City Catechism #21)

 The twenty-first question and answer of The New City Catechism is this:  “What sort of Redeemer is needed to bring us back to God? Answer: One who is truly human and also truly God.”  Here we are introduced to the reality that our Savior, Jesus Christ, is fully God and fully man.

The early Church, following the teaching of the Scriptures, affirmed that Jesus is fully God and fully man, but as you can imagine, this was a doctrine that was seriously challenged. And even among those who affirmed it, there was disagreement on how to think about it and state it.

 

In the year A.D. 451 in Chalcedon (modern Kadıköy in Istanbul, Turkey) the Church held a council of leaders from throughout the known world at that time to hammer out what the Bible taught about the two natures of Jesus Christ and how to describe it. The result was what many call the Chalcedonian Definition or the Chalcedonian Creed.

 

Here is what the creed says. Read it slowly and think carefully about the teaching of this beautiful and biblically accurate affirmation.

 

We then, following the holy Fathers, all with one consent, teach men to confess one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the same perfect in Godhead and also perfect in manhood; truly God and truly man, of a [real] soul and body; [of one essence] with the Father according to the Godhead, and [of one essence] with us according to the Manhood; in all things like unto us, without sin ; begotten before all ages of the Father according to the Godhead, and in these latter days, for us and for our salvation, born of the Virgin Mary, the Mother of [the] God[-man], according to the Manhood; one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-begotten, to be acknowledged in two natures; [without confusion], [without change], [without division], [without separation]; the distinction of natures being by no means taken away by the union, but rather the [characteristics] of each nature being preserved, and [coming together] in one Person and one Subsistence, not parted or divided into two persons, but one and the same Son, and only begotten God the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ, as the prophets from the beginning [have declared] concerning him, and the Lord Jesus Christ himself has taught us; and the Creed of the holy Fathers has handed down to us.[1]

 

Joyfully Delighting In The God-Man With You,

 

Tom

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[1] The translation is from Philip Schaff, Creeds of Christendom, sixth edition, vol. 2 (Baker reprint of 1931 edition), pages 62-63.

 

The Jewels Of The Gospel (The New City Catechism #20)

Few of us are unaware by now that the 117th Congress kicked off January 3 with Representative Emanuel Cleaver, Missouri Democrat and United Methodist pastor, ending his opening prayer with the words “Amen and a-woman.” It seems that this pastor-turned-politician misunderstood the meaning of “Amen” (“let it be” or “so shall it be”), taking it to have a masculine reference and so he wanted to balance that out with what he thought was its feminine counterpart, “a-woman.”

As misguided as this was, it was not as bad as what he said preceding these words: “In the name of the monotheistic god,…Brahma…and god known by many names by many different faiths.” Either Cleaver thinks there are multiple gods and the one Christians worship is one of them or more likely he believes there is one god and this is the same god all religions worship. If that were the case, then we would have little certainty about this god since the different descriptions of him within these religions are contradictory. He would have to be diminished down to the least common denominator and little is left to excite worship. What is more, we would have no certainty about how to have eternal life and to know this god, for all the various creeds’ explanations about that road to God are so different. Such a prayer not only is unfair to each of these religions, but it is not helpful at all—leaving us confused.

Yet, the Bible does not stutter when it affirms there is only one true God (Dt. 6:4; Jer. 10:10; 1 Tim. 1:17) and it speaks just as clearly when it says there is only one way to God (John 14:6; Acts 4:12) and it is through the one Savior who can bring God and man back together—Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 5:18-20; 1 Tim. 2:5).

It is this last gem that the twentieth question and answer in The New City Catechism puts on the display case for us to admire: “Who is the Redeemer?  Answer: The only Redeemer is the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, in whom God became man and bore the penalty for sin himself.” 

Here are four beautiful and priceless jewels we find.

To begin, there is only one who can purchase our freedom and keep us from an eternity in hell: Jesus Christ (2 Thes. 1:3-12; Rev. 5:9-10). There is no one else whom we can trust for forgiveness of sins (Eph. 1:7). Yet, we can trust him and in him we can be certain we have eternal life (1 John 5:13)!

What is more, this one who is the only Redeemer is also God, the second person of the Trinity, who for all eternity has been in relationship to the Father as Son to Father (Jn. 1:1, 18; 3:16; Col. 1:15-20). Since he is the ultimate communication from God about who God is (Jn. 1:1-18; Heb. 1:1-3), we discover there is no true God in heaven who is not like the Son, Jesus Christ. What we see, then, is great compassion, gentleness (Mt. 11:28-30; Mk. 6:34), and, at the same time, heroic sacrificial love (2 Cor. 8:9; Eph. 5:1-2, 25-27) in our God.

What stuns us the most, however, are the last two truths, that this Son of God humbled himself by taking on flesh and becoming human and then he suffered, died, and was buried in the place of sinners, to take upon himself their punishment (Is. 53:4-12).

As a result of the fact that Jesus has redeemed us, we belong to him, which means he has committed himself to us (1 Cor. 3:23; 6:19). Nothing should place within our hearts a greater desire to glorify him (1 Cor. 6:20). 

Many, like the congressman from Missouri, have concluded that Christianity needs to be made more palatable and beautiful by painting over it, making it look like what the world loves, and by hiding its true brilliance. Yet, there is nothing so exquisite as the jewels of the gospel, as they are displayed in this catechism question and answer. When we come into contact with the true gospel of Jesus Christ and hear it for the first time, there is nothing quite like it.

I pray that you have heard for the first time—really heard it—and responded to it in faith. And if you have, I pray that you never lose your sense of wonder in the face of it, as well as your gratitude to our Lord for what he has done to accomplish our salvation and what he continues to do in applying it.

Joyfully reveling in the jewels of the gospel with you,

Tom

Amazing Love (The New City Catechism #19)

Seven hundred years before the birth of Jesus the prophet Isaiah foretold in Isaiah 53:10–11 what God would do through him to display his love and to save God’s people. Its detail is stunning and its promises priceless:

Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.

Question and answer #19 in The New City Catechism provides sweet commentary upon the truths unveiled in Isaiah’s prophecy. Here is what it asks and the answer it gives: “Is there any way to escape punishment and be brought back into God’s favor?  Yes, to satisfy his justice, God himself, out of mere mercy, reconciles us to himself and delivers us from sin and from the punishment for sin, by a Redeemer.”

 Each of these truths is precious:

• Though we are sinners only deserving punishment, we can be returned to a position of God’s favor.

• God himself has done this.

• God brings us back into his favor in the way he does to preserve his justice (that he does not overlook sin).

• God brings us back into his favor motivated by his mercy—that is, his compassion and love by which he reaches down into our plight to rescue us.

• God brings us back into his own favor by delivering us from sin’s power and someday its presence, and right now its punishment.

• Finally, God accomplishes all this by a Redeemer, one who delivers out of bondage. We will learn in future questions and answers the biblical truth this Redeemer is Jesus Christ.

This commentary is not only helping us understand how God saves, it is leading us to worship him for what he has done. We should be moved to sing with Charles Wesley:

And can it be that I should gain

An int’rest in the Savior’s blood?

Died He for me, who caused His pain—

For me, who Him to death pursued?

Amazing love! How can it be,

That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

Refrain:

Amazing love! How can it be,

That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

Delighting In Our Savior’s Amazing Love With You,

 

Tom

God Doesn’t Overlook Sin To Save (The New City Catechism, #18)

 One of the biggest current misunderstandings about God we run across is that since God is love and a gracious God, he saves sinners by overlooking their sin. When we conclude this, we not only distort who God is and what he is like, but we distort how he saves.

This is why our next catechism question-and-answer is so vital. It corrects that view: “Will God allow our disobedience and idolatry to go unpunished?  Answer: No, every sin is against the sovereignty, holiness, and goodness of God, and against his righteous law, and God is righteously angry with our sins and will punish them in his just judgment both in this life, and in the life to come.”

There are four reasons given for why God will not allow our sin to go unpunished. To begin, because our disobedience and idolatry are committed against the reality that God is the King of kings who reigns over the universe (his sovereignty) and, as such, he is worthy of our obedience and undivided worship (Pss. 47:2, 8; 100). When we ignore and/or place other things above him, we act against that truth and as if it is not so.

The next reason God does not simply ignore our sin is that it is committed against or in opposition to his holiness. God’s holiness means that God is altogether set apart unto himself, to his own glory (Is. 42:8; 43:7). When we ignore his glory and act as if he is not worthy of our being set apart to serve him first and foremost (Dt. 5:7-10; 10:12-13), we belittle him and we raise to the level of an idol whatever we treat as more important than him.

The remaining two reasons go hand-in-hand. Our disobedience and idolatry typically come out of a sense that God is not truly good (e.g. Gen. 3:1-8) and that his will is not for our good (Dt. 10:13). Again it belittles God and if God overlooked this, he would become idolatrous just as we are.

Given what we have said about the seriousness of our sin and idolatry, it follows that God rightly hates our sin (Ps. 11:5), which what is communicated by his being “righteously angry” (Rom. 1:18; 1 Thes. 1:10). Additionally, he is just to judge us (Rev. 20:11-15).

When we grasp the biblical truths that we find in this question-and-answer, we come to see that God cannot save us by merely overlooking sin and remain consistent with his attributes. In order for him to be both just and holy, but at the same time gracious and merciful, he must save by pouring out his wrath and judgment upon a substitute so that he can forgive those who come to him in faith and repentance. That is exactly how he expresses his love to and saves sinners (Rom. 3:21-26)!

Delighting In The Glory Of God Through Salvation With You,

Tom