Session 4 - Jesus is definitely human

We started by praying a prayer of St Anselm and noted that St Anselm wrote approximately 500 years after the Nicene Creed was put together. Although he wrote in Latin, it was perhaps one of the first times someone had put theology into normal language. He had faith and was seeking understanding.

(The picture is of Johnathan Roumie, an actor, who plays the role of Jesus in a recent film called 'The Chosen'.)

Last week we studied the first part of the Creed which is about Jesus' divinity:

We believe in one God,

    the Father, the Almighty,
    maker of heaven and earth,
    of all that is, seen and unseen.

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
    the only Son of God,
    eternally begotten of the Father,
    God from God, Light from Light,
    true God from true God,
    begotten, not made,
    of one Being with the Father.
    Through him all things were made.

This week we studied the second part of the Creed which was about Jesus' humanity:

 For us and for our salvation
        he came down from heaven:
    by the power of the Holy Spirit
        he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary,
        and was made man.
    For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
        he suffered death and was buried.
        On the third day he rose again
            in accordance with the Scriptures;
        he ascended into heaven
            and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
    He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
        and his kingdom will have no end.

There is equal emphasis on Jesus' divinity and humanity in the Creed. The second part of the Creed, beginning 'For us and for our salvation' being about Jesus' humanity.

The wording of the second part of the Nicene Creed about Jesus' humanity

The Creed's wording was changed circa 1975 from 'For us men and for our salvation' to 'For us and for our salvation'. 

It was generally agreed that the more modern version was better. However, there is a slightly different meaning in the re-wording. The earlier version implies Jesus' death was for all of mankind. The later version applies to those people who are saying the Creed.  

It was noted that different wordings exist of: 

'was incarnate from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary' 

and another version reads: 

'by the power of the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary'.

Without knowing the original Greek it was difficult to tell which version was nearer to the original meaning of the Nicene Creed. However, it was felt that 'by the power of the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary' was more accurate. The Nicene Creed would have been constructed by bringing together existing Creeds which would have differed between churches at the time. 

The word incarnate, meaning made flesh, encapsulated the crux of the debate with Arius (discussed in previous sessions) as he believed, contrary to those who put together the Nicene Creed, that Jesus could not be seen as God in human form.

What would have been very challenging to Jews at the time is the idea that Jesus was the very image of the invisible God in the Bible. To make an image of God was against Jewish law.

For us and for our salvation

We discussed the questions:

What does the word salvation mean to you? 
Is salvation after death?

There were differing views from salvation being something that happens after death to it being an ongoing process during our lives. It was generally agreed that we are 'saved' once when we give our lives to God, but that the process of salvation is one of continually turning towards God and being continually re-created by God throughout our lives.

We discussed different shades of belief. Some people treat Christianity as an insurance policy on Sundays and it doesn't influence how they live their lives. The view was also put forward, that God desires the whole of creation to be drawn into a loving relationship with him, and those who are saved, are the firstborn in that creation.

Jesus justified his friendship with prostitutes and beggars saying that they needed him, and said he didn't come to save the righteous as they didn't need him. Here we decided that Jesus said this to perhaps deflect criticism, rather than meaning that some people, in this case, the Pharisees and the Sadducees, were righteous.

It was decided that it is alright not to know everything and to trust God. Alison, our Curate leading the course, shared that she does the work she does for the changes it makes to people's lives while they are living, as much as for the change in makes in eternity, in saving souls, so to speak.

The words for our sake are a theological statement that relates the text back to salvation. It is also a poetic technique or refrain that reinforces the idea of salvation in the Nicene Creed.

Does saying any of the statements in the Creed cause difficulty for anyone?

We decided that the Bible was written for those who didn't understand Physics and that Science is a description of the world, not an explanation of why it exists. Nevertheless, concepts such as the Ascension are still difficult for us to understand.

'Science must never foreclose on what it does not understand' (from a novel called 'Held') by Anne Michaels.

Which is the most important Christian festival?

Christmas Day

by the power of the Holy Spirit
he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary,
and was made man.

Good Friday

For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.

Easter Day

On the third day he rose again
in accordance with the Scriptures;

Ascension Day

he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.

Advent

He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.

Christmas is important for family and is more widely celebrated, being more commercial. However, they are interdependent. (We didn't discuss Pentecost as it is referred to in the last part of the Nicene Creed.)

What difference does Christ being completely human make to our faith?

Jesus being completely human means that he was tempted in every way but remained without sin. This is amazing, and makes Christianity unique: Jesus being the pivot for everything. It is also wonderful that humans were made in the image of God and that Jesus chose to become one of us. God gave a dignity to the whole of the human race by becoming one of us.