Introduction

This week we conclude our look at the Apostles’ Creed, the early statement of faith that predates the canonization of the New Testament.

The Creed challenges conventional notions about God.

In the first section of the creed, we affirm that God the Father is the creator of heaven and earth. We reject the idea of many gods, or of no god. Instead, we understand that God is a father, who loves and cares for his creation. This challenges the idea that God is a part of creation, present in the things around us (pantheism). Even though God is apart from creation, he cares about it, which challenges the ideas of Gnosticism which assumes that spiritual things are inherently good and physical things are inherently bad.

The second part of the Creed focuses on The Son, God with us. Contrary to what we might expect, Jesus is humble and loving. He allows himself to be mistreated and humiliated, but paradoxically this leads to his exaltation. This challenges our understanding of what true authority, power and glory look like.

This week, we look at the third section of the creed. On first inspection, it seems like a grab bag of leftovers. But the common threat that pulls them all together is the Holy Spirit and the life that the Spirit brings to those who believe. This section challenges the idea that the Spirit is reserved only for Spiritual elites. It also pushes back against the idea that there is a divine spark in each of us that we can control for our own ends. The Spirit directs us, not the other way around.

First, let’s review the text of the creed:

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

and in Jesus Christ, his 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 into hell; on the third day he rose again from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty; from there he will come 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 life everlasting. Amen.

‌The Holy Church & Communion of Saints

I’m going to treat these two things as one and the same (the communion of the saints makes up the church).

Human beings have a tendency to fracture into in-groups and out-groups (us and them)—Men vs Women, Canadians vs. Americans, Liberals vs. Conservatives. In Jesus’ day, Jews and Gentiles often wanted nothing to do with one another. But the Spirit does something strange: it calls together a new family that transcends the barriers that keep us apart. Paul says that Jesus destroys the dividing wall of hostility that keeps us apart (Ep.2:14). The result is a new kind of community in which God’s Spirit dwells: the Church.

Consequently, you [Gentiles] are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people [Jews] and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit. Ephesians 2:19–22 (NIV)

The holy catholic church is the dwelling place of God’s Spirit, the reality to which Israel’s temple had been pointing.

But we often worship as if this breaking down of the barriers hasn’t happened. Practicality means we must worship as different congregations or denominations, but sometimes we internalize those distinctions, making them more important than they should be. When we act as if other churches are our competitors rather than our collaborators, we lose sight of the universality of the one church. But there is only one church that encompasses all believers, from every tongue, tribe and nation. It includes Christians from Canada, Iran, Turkey, Cuba, the Philippines and every other country. It includes liberals and conservatives. It doesn’t just include those who presently live, but also those who have gone before us. inclusion isn’t decided by a human being, but by God who judges the heart correctly.

The church isn’t just people who are connected to God, but also to one another. Our love for God is rightly expressed in our mercy towards each another. In his prayer for the church, Jesus referred to his hope for the unity of believers

“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. ​(John 17:20–21, NIV)

If you’ve ever tried to do this, you know it’s hard work. In fact, to do it as God expects it is impossible. It’s only if we allow the Holy Spirit to work in us, teaching us forgiveness, patience and humility that we can ever form something that looks like a world-wide, epoch-spanning family.

‌The Forgiveness of Sins

When we talks about the church in such lofty ways, you may find a sense of cynicism creep in. “If God dwells with those people, I don’t want anything to do with God!,” you might scoff. Unfortunately, some of us have experienced significant pain resulting from our interactions with fellow Christians. Perhaps we’ve hoped the church could be a safe place but feel let down. If this is your experience, I’m very sorry. We have failed you.

The Church is made up of the people in whom the spirit is working, in other words, we’re a bunch of unfinished people. The church is made up of people whose sins have been forgiven by grace through faith. When people come to Jesus, their behaviour doesn’t always change immediately. Forgiveness of sins, then, isn’t just something people get when entering the church, it’s also an ongoing necessity. We are sinners constantly in need of grace, surrounded by other sinners in need of grace. Learning how to be a community defined by grace is hard work. The church has often struggled to realize what that means. A historical example:

In the 3rd century, under Roman Emperor Decian, the church was badly persecuted. All subjects of the Empire were required to offer sacrifices for the emperor or die. Many Christians, including clergy, immediately offered sacrifices, betraying their faith. When the period of persecution ended, many of these people wanted back into the church. This caused a rift between those who had buckled under pressure and those who had been imprisoned or tortured for their faith. How could those who had abandoned their faith be let back in to the church when others had paid such a dear price to remain faithful? But as the church wrestled with this dilemma, they came to the conclusion that God’s grace is available to all who sincerely repent of their sin.

We might wish God wouldn’t forgive that person who has caused us so much pain, but if we want forgiveness, then we need to offer forgiveness. Remember Jesus instructs us to pray: And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. (​Matthew 6:12, NIV). Forgiveness is freely given by God, but only to those willing to forgive those who sin against them. The forgiveness of sins feels like good news when it’s our sins, but not such good news when it is the sins committed against us. But God doesn’t have favourites, so if we want to be forgiven, we need to be willing to forgive.

The Forgiveness of sin isn’t just when we avoid the possible consequences. It’s also when God changes us, giving us the power to say no to sin. Eventually, the Spirit’s work reshapes our will so that we don’t even desire to do the things we once did. If you’ve ever hit rock bottom because the sin in your life has caused harm to you or your loved ones, this is good news. The Spirit is at work taking our old selves and, with our cooperation, transforming us into new selves who are liberated from sin’s destructive power. The Spirit is at work, restoring us, in both spirit and body.

‌Resurrection of the Body

In the days when the New Testament was being written, the idea that someone’s spirit continued to exist after their body died was common. Where Christians were out-of-step with others was their belief in resurrection of the body (Resurrection refers to a physical, not a spiritual reality). Jesus was raised in bodily form and the New Testament says that we will also be raised to bodily life:

For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. ​(1 Corinthians 15:22–23, NIV)

We are all like Adam: we are sinners subject to death. But by faith we can be joined to Jesus, so that our fate follows his: as the Spirit made Jesus alive again in a new body no longer subject to death or decay, so the Spirit will raise us to that same kind of new life. The risen Jesus is a sneak peak at the Christian Hope.

What about Heaven? Our understanding of Heaven as a place in the clouds where disembodied souls sit around and play harps isn’t an accurate reflection of Christian hope. Heaven, in a Jewish way of thinking, is God’s space, the place where his will is done. Our hope isn’t to go away to heaven, but, as we see in Revelation when evil is vanquished, heaven comes to earth. God moves in with his people:

I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. (​Revelation 21:2–4, NIV)

So, barring the Lord’s return in our lifetimes, we will die, but then The Spirit will raise us with new bodies to live in a world freed from the power of sin and death where we will be free to love one another and God perfectly.

‌Life Everlasting

The final affirmation of the creed is life everlasting. What does this mean?

A few years ago, Carolyn and I watched the Sitcom “the Good Place” which explores ideas of the afterlife. In the last episode (spoiler alert!) the protagonists finally get into “the good place.” It’s kind of like popular conceptions of heaven where people can do whatever they want and have whatever they want, forever. The people there are miserable. It seems this kind of thing is fun for a while but it gets old quickly. I think this has some truth to it. If our ultimate hope was that we could finally indulge our selfish desires forever, it would probably get old.Thankfully, this isn’t the Christian hope.

The translation of “life everlasting” isn’t very good. It would be better translated as “eternal life.” (that’s how the exact same words get translated in John 3:16, for example). Eternal life isn’t just about the length of the life, but also about the kind of life we live. Eternal life is God’s life. God lives in an eternal now with Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Theologians liken their interaction to a beautiful dance (perichoresis) but I’m a guitarist, so I’ll talk about it using that analogy. The Trinity is like a Jam session where each person knows how the others play. Each of them does what they can to make sure the others get a chance to shine. No one tries to go on an 8-minute guitar solo just to show off their chops. Eternal life is us being invited to Jam along. We don’t do it well. We try to steal the show. We play out of tune. but God is teaching us how to play like a proud father delighted to see his children pick it up. Now please understand that if an eternal jam session doesn’t sound like your idea of a good time, this is just an analogy. What I mean to say is that our hope isn’t to live in a hedonist paradise, but to live with God and to relate to him as the Son relates to him.

All our ideas about eternal life are woefully inadequate. As Paul says:

However, as it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived”— the things God has prepared for those who love him (​1 Corinthians 2:9, NIV)

When it comes to an understanding of heaven, we really don’t have any clear expectations. Our hopes for the future are always grounded in our past experiences. When you think about a cruise you’ll go on next year, you probably have expectations based on your past vacations to tropical hotspots, or based on marketing materials you’ve seen. But how can God describe something that is totally different than the kind of life you’ve ever lived? He uses metaphors. Some of the ones we find, especially in the Old Testament, aren’t very meaningful to us. We can’t know what God’s kingdom will be like in any sort of specific sense, but we can know that God has something truly wonderful in mind. Ultimately, our hope rests in our confidence that the all-knowing, all-wise God who created the universe knows how to provide the kind of blessings that are worth enjoying eternally.

‌Conclusion

The Holy Spirit is the bridge that attaches us to the Victorious Christ. It is through the Holy Spirit’s work that this community we call the church comes into being, turning a ragtag group from every tongue, tribe and nation into a family—the communion of saints. It is the Spirit that frees us from sin’s power in our lives. The Spirit who hovered over the waters in creation and who raised Jesus back to life will repeat that miracle, raising us to new creation so that we may live eternally with Father, Son and the Spirit.