Concluding Thoughts 2
| Immediately the boy's father exclaimed, "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!" Mark9:24 |
We've come to the end of our study on the Apostle's Creed.
The Creed is about the content of our faith.
It describes who God is, it also gives us some idea of the when, where and what of our faith. It says a little less about the why and how.
The answer to why is wrapped up in what Jesus did for us. His enormity of His actions: incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection and ascension are all indications of His GREAT LOVE for us.
For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son so that whoever believes in Him will have eternal life. (John3:16)
But this brings us back to "believe" and back to the final aspect of the creed: how do we believe?
While the answer to this question could be a doctoral thesis numbering hundreds of pages, I would venture to give a simple but profound answer. It's not my answer, but the answer given by the father of the demon possessed boy: "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!"
The how of faith is trusting relationship. The father, reaches out with all he has and trusts Christ for what he doesn't have. I think that we are often so focussed on what we don't have that we don't even take the first step with what we do have.
What might today look like if we took a few faltering first steps and trusted that God (who settled for nothing less than sending His only Son to die for us) would be there for us?
Faith is a relationship with a God who is good, a God who wants us to pass not fail and a God who has already demonstrated His faithfulness, credibility and trustworthiness. What if faith is about a relationship rather than an exam to be passed???
The creed tells us about God. To believe is to know this God.------------------------------------------
I hope you have enjoyed the Creed series.
Next week I'll share a few thoughts about Pentecost and then we'll start our next series.
