Why would God the Son, who is all-glorious and has enjoyed all the privileges of boundless joy in the eternal life of the Godhead, step into history to suffer on my behalf? I am a sinner who cannot earn his affection. Yet, he has granted it in full.…The Creed points us to our glorious Savior as God the Son who came in our nature with the express mission to rescue his individual people.

Why did God the Son come to earth in human nature? The question takes us to the heart of the Christian faith. It prompts reflection on the greatest of mysteries: God the Son became incarnate. Why would he step down from heaven to endure the shame of living and dying in the form of a servant (Phil. 2:5–11)? The Nicene Creed, first written in 325 AD and expanded in 381 AD, helps us contemplate this profound matter. In this article, I will briefly reflect on the Nicene Creed’s statements on God the Son while reflecting on the personal nature of Christ’s salvation.

Who is God the Son?

The statement about Christ is the longest section in the whole Creed. By my count, it takes up some fifteen distinct lines, each making its own contribution to our confession about God the Son incarnate. By comparison, we have two lines about the Father and nine lines about the Holy Spirit (in the post 381 AD iteration of the Creed at least). Christ is very much the heart of the Nicene Creed.

This long statement about Christ has roughly two sections. First, the Creed reflects on Christ’s person as God the Son. This first part dwells upon the reality that Christ is truly God, equal with the Father in every respect but distinct from him in relation of origin. It reflects upon Christ’s divine identity. Second, the Creed outlines Christ’s work, namely as he became incarnate. Under this heading, the Creed says,

Who, for us men and for our salvation,
came down from heaven
and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary,
and was made man;
and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered and was buried;
and the third day he rose again, according to the Scriptures;
and ascended into heaven, and sits on the right hand of the Father;
and he shall come again, with glory, to judge the living and the dead;
whose kingdom shall have no end.^[1]

This section reflects upon Christ’s humanity.^[2] Specifically, it states the work and mission that the Son performed according to his human nature when he became incarnate.^[3]

The Nicene Gospel

The Nicene Creed is rightly known as a statement of trinitarian faith. It is less often appreciated enough as a summary of the gospel.^[4] In this respect, the opening line explaining Christ’s incarnation is the first mention about us: “Who, for us men and for our salvation.”^[5] The Creed does not provide a detailed description of how Christ’s life, death, and resurrection are the historical grounds of his saving work. In the Creed, we do not have a precise statement of penal substitutionary atonement or of justification by faith alone. Those truths are left unsaid here. After all, the focus is more on confessing the truth about Christ even as we come into view concerning his incarnate mission.

The Creed does provide an overview of what Christ did that was for our salvation. Accordingly, the Creed’s first line about Christ’s coming to earth states the purpose for the Son’s incarnation.^[6] The Son then had in view our salvation as he came to earth. This insight on the Creed’s view of the Son’s purpose in his incarnation then raises something worthy of our reflection concerning the creedal logic of the gospel in connection to personal salvation.

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