Introduction
‘I believe in Jesus Christ.’ At the heart of the Christian faith lies not a set of abstract ideas or beliefs, but a person – one of the most attractive and intriguing figures the world has ever known.
Just as all roads in the ancient world led to Rome, so all Christian thinking about God and ourselves points us to the haunting figure of Jesus. The ‘basic core’ of the Christian faith is ‘the beauty of the saving love of God made manifest in Jesus Christ who died and rose from the dead’.1 Christians have always insisted that there is something special, something qualitatively different about Jesus. The New Testament makes plain that he is the lens through which we see God most clearly, and a mirror in which we can find ourselves reflected accurately and reliably. Through Jesus, we learn what God is like. But, just as importantly, we also learn what it really means to be human.
Even a casual glance at the Apostles’ Creed or the Nicene Creed shows how central the figure of Jesus is to Christian life and thought. Both creeds devote more attention to him than to any other aspect of Christian belief. Why is this? Part of the answer, we shall discover, lies in the fact that Jesus Christ is both someone we know about, and the one who makes knowledge possible. He is the ground of our knowledge of God and, at the same time, the substance of our knowledge of God. He is, in short, the basis of our transformation and hope. ‘The joy of the gospel fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter Jesus. Those who accept his offer of salvation are set free from sin, sorrow, inner emptiness and loneliness. With Christ joy is constantly born anew.’2
In the first volume in this series, we learned that the creeds have their origins partly in the personal confession of faith that early church converts made at the time of their baptism. Traditionally, Lent was seen as a period for instruction and reflection, with baptism taking place on Easter Day. Each candidate was asked three questions:
1 Do you believe in God, the Father Almighty?
2 Do you believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God?
3 Do you believe in the Holy Spirit?
The creeds embody an expanded response to these three questions. But the answer that has been developed most fully concerns Jesus. The Apostles’ Creed goes into some detail about the identity and significance of Jesus of Nazareth:
I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s 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 to the dead. On the third day he rose again; he ascended into heaven, he is seated at the right hand of the Father, and he will come to judge the living and the dead.
This crisp, confident summary allows Christians to affirm that Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God, who entered into our history to die for our sins, and who rose again in triumph over both sin and death.
Some readers of this section of the creed may, however, feel rather uneasy. It seems to describe Jesus in much the same way as an historical textbook would tell us about Napoleon or George Washington. There is nothing, for example, about the personality of Jesus, which had such a powerful impact on those he encountered in the past, and which continues to inspire those he encounters today. The purpose of the creeds, though, is to provide us with a framework of meaning, a summary of key insights, which allow us to make more sense of who Jesus is, and why he matters. They are a brief expression of faith, a series of paragraph headings, not a comprehensive defence of its ideas or a rigorous exploration of its themes.
Other readers might find the creeds’ emphasis on Jesus puzzling. Surely the important thing is to believe in God. Why this focus on an historical rather than on a transcendent figure? The answer to this important question is that ‘God’ can easily be understood in generalized and abstract terms. But Christianity is concerned with one very specific God – namely, ‘the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ’ – a god who entered history in a specific slice of place and time, which turns out to have universal significance.
Let’s then begin to consider the rich and complex Christian understanding of the identity and significance of Jesus of Nazareth, which shapes our understanding of God.
Like the other volumes in this series, this book is based on sermons I preached over a number of years, and I would like to dedicate it once more with great affection to the people of the Shill Valley and Broadshire benefice in the diocese of Oxford, consisting of the churches in the Cotswold villages of Alvescot, Black Bourton, Broadwell, Broughton Poggs, Filkins, Holwell, Kelmscott, Kencot, Langford, Little Faringdon, Shilton and Westwell.