Then we hear several things that enhance our understanding and appreciation for the Apostles’ Creed. We are brought to note its form and flow, and are struck by the disproportionate treatment of God the Son. The Father is mentioned first but it is the Son who is central. The Spirit is recognized but tersely. Then it strikes us: the Apostles’ Creed is not so much about the Trinity as it is that salvation is Trinitarian. The descriptions and flow become understandable.

Several years ago a friend of mine was visiting the Brandywine River Museum in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. This museum is known for its exhibition of three generations of Wyeth art.

My friend stood admiring a painting by Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009), when one of the museum’s docents/educators approached him. The gentleman pointed to an area on the painting that showed tousled leaves on the forest floor. He commented to my friend, “See those leaves. Just yesterday, Mr. Wyeth was in here painting over a deer that was in that spot. He thought the scene more powerful with the evidence of the deer rather than the deer itself.”

That comment profoundly affected my friend and his appreciation of that painting.

The same can be said for a closer look at the Apostles’ Creed. We can note what is missing, such as the lack of description of the Holy Spirit as compared to the Nicene Creed. We are struck by the addition centuries later of the phrase “He descended into hell” and wonder what matter of importance prompted it. And what is going on with the third paragraph headed by the Spirit that spills out into seeming miscellany?

Then we hear several things that enhance our understanding and appreciation for the Apostles’ Creed. We are brought to note its form and flow, and are struck by the disproportionate treatment of God the Son. The Father is mentioned first but it is the Son who is central. The Spirit is recognized but tersely. Then it strikes us: the Apostles’ Creed is not so much about the Trinity as it is that salvation is Trinitarian. The descriptions and flow become understandable.

Now it makes sense why the core of the Creed is the person and work of Jesus Christ. Our mind turns to Paul’s magisterial Trinitarian sentence in Ephesians 1:3-14 that features the Son. The refrain “in Christ,” “in Him,” “in the Beloved” rings in our ear. When Paul speaks of the need to be “rooted and built up in Christ and established in the faith” (Col. 2:7), we understand the emphasis on Christ. We come to appreciate the Apostles’ Creed as a syllabus to the Christian faith that is to be taught, a faith founded on Christ.

Like with that Wyeth painting transformed for my friend, our appreciation for the Apostles’ Creed is enhanced. We see its value in corporate worship to give glory to God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – and to God alone. The Creed exalts what He has done. We see its value to catechize, to instruct in the faith, capturing biblical doctrine. We see its value to confess the faith, not only believing in God but believing God who testifies to His Son. And we see its value in beckoning unbelievers to profess faith in the faith.

-Stanley Gale

Click here to get the free workbook for Stanley D. Gale’s The Christians Creed !

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Stan Gale is a minister in the Presbyterian Church in America. This article appeared on the Heritage Book Talk