the apostles' creed: part 2

the rest of the story

Apr 21, 2024

We have covered the origins of the Apostles’ Creed and began exploring what the creed teaches. Let’s pick up with it’s teachings and finish with some ideas for how we can use it today.

Here’s the creed again, for reference:

I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord.
He was conceived by the Holy Spirit
and born of the Virgin Mary.
He 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,
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
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.1

what does it teach? (continued)

descended to the dead?

The next line of the creed after the crucifixion says he “descended to the dead.” This line is sometimes translated as “descended into hell,” and it has been the source of some extra-biblical ideas about what happened while Jesus was dead. The Roman Catholic doctrine of the Harrowing of Hell says that his spirit went to sheol, the Hebrew place of the dead, and preached the Gospel to the patriarchs and possibly other virtuous pagans who lived before Jesus’ time.2

There’s not a lot the Bible tells us about where Jesus’ spirit was while his body was in the grave. Jesus himself tells the thief on the cross “Today you will be with me in paradise.”3 Peter seems to say that while Jesus was dead in the flesh but alive in the spirit he “went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison,” but in its full context, this passage isn’t conclusive enough to provide a solid doctrinal foundation.4

Alister McGrath concludes that the main purpose of this phrase in the creed is to emphasize “that Jesus really did die.” He went, in some sense, where all dead people go. “Jesus shared the fate of all those who have died.”5 It is another clear claim to Jesus’ humanity.

The fact of his death, of course, must be established before we can address the claim of his resurrection. If he didn’t die, there is no reason to believe he rose from the dead, so this line of the creed also leads directly to the next line.6

the resurrection

Here we come to the central claim of Christianity. But here, some might find the creed just a bit too simplified: all it says is that “On the third day he rose again.” But an early controversy, and one that is still claimed by some today, is that Jesus didn’t physically rise from the grave, but only spiritually appeared to his disciples after his death. The Scriptures clearly say that the disciples touched Jesus7 and ate breakfast with him,8 so we can be sure that the Gospels claim a physical resurrection.

But as we’ll see in a little bit, the Apostles’ Creed affirms physical resurrection, too.

ascended, seated, returning

The creed’s section on Jesus ends with an affirmation that he ascended into heaven, is now seated at the right hand of God the Father, and will return and judge all of us, both living and dead.

Of course, there is no end of doctrines and theories about Christ’s return, but the important thing is that all Christians agree that he will return.

Christ’s role as judge of both the living and the dead is attested by his own words in Matthew 25: “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.” It is also affirmed in the New Testament by both Peter9 and Paul.10

the Holy Spirit

The third and final section of the Apostles’ Creed is about the Holy Spirit, but when I first took the time to consider this section, I was a little disappointed that it doesn’t seem to say much about this third member of the Holy Trinity. The first section of the creed is pretty short, but it tells us who God is: Father and almighty; and what he did: created everything. The section on Jesus tells us the essentials about who he is and what he did: the virgin birth, his place in history, his suffering, death, and resurrection.

But this section simply says “I believe in the Holy Spirit,” and then moves on to other things. What gives? Keep that in mind as we look at the next few statements.

the holy catho— wait, catholic?!

Oh boy, here we come to the line that will probably ruffle the most evangelical feathers “[I believe in] the holy catholic Church.”

But it might just be my favorite line in the whole creed.11

Before we get to that word, notice that the creed says church, not churches. There may be individual congregations, even separate denominations, but everyone who has confessed Jesus Christ as Lord is a part of one church. After all, if the church is the bride of Christ,12 is he a polygamist? Well?

No, Jesus is returning for one bride. Unity certainly does not describe the church today, or through most of its history. But Jesus prayed that we would be unified:

I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.13

I’ll be honest: that sounds like an impossible goal. Thankfully, God can work with impossible.

Now, for most of my life, the only definition of the word “Catholic” (capital C) was “of or pertaining to the Roman Catholic Church,” and that, of course, goes hand in hand with the supreme authority of the Pope, the Bishop of Rome. If that’s the definition you’re used to, and if, like me, that definition does not apply to you, then this might be where you’re tempted to go back to “No creed but Christ.”

However, the word catholic (small c) actually means universal and comes from a Greek word meaning “according to the whole.” It means that the church exists wherever the Gospel has spread.14

The reason the Roman Catholic15 church uses that word in its name is that it claims to be the one true church, and for a long time they taught that anyone outside of their church was damned. Almost all Protestant traditions, on the other hand, have recognized from the beginning that the church extends to all who confess Christ.16 In the video below, Dr. Gavin Ortlund explains that this means that Protestants are more catholic than the Roman Catholic Church!

So if you, like me, believe that every true Christian is your brother or sister in Christ, you are catholic!

the communion of saints

This is another line that may bother some people, since we’re told that saints are great Christians who lived long ago, and we know that Roman Catholics actually pray to the departed saints to ask for their intercession. But that’s not what this line is talking about.

Saint simply means one who is sanctified, or set apart, unto God. It means someone who is holy, but it doesn’t mean someone who is perfect. Paul begins his letters by addressing his listeners as saints.17 He is not writing these letters to perfected Christians who already know everything about God. He’s teaching them how to live Godly lives, even while already calling them saints!

So if you have confessed Christ and determined, with the Holy Spirit’s help, to live according to God’s kingdom rather than the world’s, then welcome to sainthood!

forgiveness, resurrection, life everlasting

Forgiveness of sins reminds us of two things. First, sin exists and is still a problem in the life of the church. We should not minimize, excuse, or explain away our sins. But second, our sins are forgiven, so we must not live in shame and condemnation. This points back to Jesus’ death, by which our sins are forgiven.

Resurrection of the body and life everlasting both point back to Christ’s resurrection, which gave us the hope of our own. Alister McGrath notes that the creed “opened with a statement of faith in God; it now concludes with a statement of hope that we will one day stand in the presence of that same God.”18

We noted earlier that the creed didn’t explicitly say that Jesus was bodily resurrected. But here, we have the phrase “resurrection of the body.” We will have a bodily resurrection. In Romans 6, Paul says that “we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.”19 The only way we will be bodily resurrected is if he was, since he is the “firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.”20 The creed does affirm the bodily resurrection!

what about the Holy Spirit?

This final section, which started with the Holy Spirit, doesn’t seem to say much about him. But look again: the life of the church is the active work of the Holy Spirit in our world and our lives today! Even when we look at forgiveness, resurrection, and everlasting life, which came through Christ, we see hopes that come to us now through the Spirit.

So yes, this whole section is about the Holy Spirit!

how can we use the creed today?

For such a short, succinct statement of belief, the Apostles’ Creed clearly packs a lot of valuable theology in! And that’s exactly the point: the creed is written to be as short and memorable as possible, while also being as useful as possible. It doesn’t include everything that a Christian should believe, but it gets us a long way down that road. And these two posts really only scratched the surface of what can be taught using the creed, since each of its simple statements can be used as a platform for a theological deep dive. I’ll recommend a couple of resources below if you want to begin a deeper study.

I am convinced that the creed is something that both individual Christians and churches should memorize and use. Some churches confess either this or the Nicene Creed during every worship service; others repeat it at special moments, such as baptisms.

But if your church doesn’t use it, you still can! Start making it a part of your personal prayer and devotions, perhaps at least once a week to start. I believe that you will find it to be a rich practice.

learn more

If you would like to learn more about the Apostles’ Creed and the theology found in it, I recommend two resources:

“I Believe: Exploring the Apostles’ Creed” by Alister McGrath, published by InterVarsity Press. This is a great book both for individual or small group use, with lots of biblical references for the ideas in the creed.

“What Christians Ought to Believe” by Michael F. Bird, published by Zondervan Academic. This originated as a series of audio lectures, which I believe is what you get if you purchase the audiobook version. You can also listen to it for free on Hoopla, if your local library gives you access to that platform.

What have you learned or how has your opinion of the creed changed? Please leave a comment and let me know, or ask any questions you may have: