The Christian faith is faith in God. He rules the whole earth. He sent his Son Jesus Christ to show his love towards us. Christ is the centre of our faith. He is the object and the creator of faith. He has the central part in our confession of faith. Christ is God’s face towards us. In our confession of faith we declare what he has done for us and in us. As we study the commandments he is our role model and the one who has fulfilled the law of God. In the Bible Christ is the common theme uniting everything. Through his word he creates in us spiritual life. Christ is present in baptism and communion.
When we come to church on Sunday, we confess our faith either by the Nicene creed or by the Apostolic creed. All Christian churches confess their faith through these creeds. Even though there are differences in the teachings of different denominations, we can confess our faith together using these creeds. The Bible is God’s word, according to which faith and life should be evaluated. The creed is written by early Christians as a summary of the teachings of the Bible. According to the creeds you can examine whether a certain group is truly Christian. The church and each one of its workers has committed himself or herself to these creeds. No member of the church is dependent on the faith of the pastor, but the church requires everyone to know what they believe in. This is the will of Christ. When He commanded to preach the gospel to all nations, it included also teaching. He commanded to make disciples by baptizing and teaching everything He himself had taught. This teaching has in the church been called the catechism. We too can now belong to this group of disciples of Jesus.
When you examine the creeds carefully you will soon notice that they consist of three parts: I believe in God the Father, I believe in Jesus Christ and I believe in the Holy Spirit. The Bible very clearly says that there are not many gods, but only one God (Deuteronomy 6:4). When God acts as the Father, there the Son and the Holy Spirit are present. According to Bible when He creates the world He creates through the Son, and the Holy Spirit is present (Genesis 1:1-3 and John 1:1-3). God declares himself in Christ, and only in Christ do we learn to know God as the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. When we declare things about the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, we declare what God does. In the creeds we describe God’s plan for salvation.
Just as water can be in three elements – flowing liquid, hard ice or steam that rises up – all three are the same water. There is something similar in that in God three are one. These kinds of illustrations are of course not sufficient for describing God. He is a mystery. He is greater. In God’s oneness plurality is present. God is one, but He is not alone. In God Himself there is community and love. To describe this, a word has been formulated: the Trinity. You cannot find this word in the Bible, but actually it is present in the Bible from the very first pages. If you study carefully, for example, the Lord’s blessing (Numbers 6:24-26) you can find the Trinity in it. You can find the Trinity expressed quite openly in the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20 or 2 Corinthians 13:14). Meditate also on how the Trinity is present when Jesus is baptized (Matthew 3:13-17).
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