I Believe, Therefore, I am 我信故我是

Title: I believe, therefore, I am
Date: 7 July 2024
Preacher: Rev Enoch Keong

We are starting today a 5-week preaching series on the Apostles Creed. This morning, we will only focus on the opening lines:

I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord.

Before zooming into the two lines, let us say something about the Apostles’ Creed in general.

I. A brief introduction to the Apostles’ Creed
Although legend has it that each apostle contributed a clause to form the whole, the Apostle Creed wasn't written up by the apostles. Historically, things probably went this way. In the early church, the rite of baptism includes a segment where the candidates would confess their faith. The Old Roman Creed was the liturgical text used for this purpose since the 2nd century. As we can see, the Apostles Creed which has similar phrases, but longer in length, is an expansion of this older creed.

The Apostles’ Creed had more or less a fixed form by the 4th century, and the version that we see today was set in the 7th century.

In what ways is the Apostles’ Creed that took hundreds of years to shape, helpful to the church and to individual Christians? First, it is a very good summary of the Apostolic teaching on the gospel. As such, it is used in many church worship services as a declaration of faith.

Next, as a statement of faith that is biblical and balanced, it alerts us to incomplete and inadequate versions of Christianity. Take for example, if a church over emphasizes on the Holy Spirit, or conversely downplays the Holy Spirit, the Apostles Creed helped us recognize that in such cases, something is amiss.

One other thing that a Creed, and not just the Apostles’ Creed, does is helping us to recognize that we are not alone in this faith journey. It tells us that to believe is to belong. Living in a world where many can feel lonely because people around us are always busy with their own things, too occupied to be able to be concerned, the creed often used in corporate church setting remind us that we are not lonely pilgrims but members of the church family. Not only so, but we are also part of a faith community that stretches all the way back to the upper room where Jesus met his disciples.

See if this can help us to feel what we’ve just said. My daughter is P5 this year. And she just went to the NE show last Saturday. You guys know what is NE show right? That is to attend the rehearsal of the national day parade. One thing she got to do was to say the pledge with a very huge crowd. When we Christians recite the apostles’ creed, it is something like that. But it is more than that. The creed reminds us that we are joined not only with one another in our church, but also with a very huge crowd across time and geographical boundaries; fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.

Not a complete listing, but here we have four ways in which the Apostles’ Creed can be meaningful for us.

Have you ever wondered why is a statement of the Christian faith called creed? The name comes from the original Latin wordings, which begins with “Credo in Deum”, which is translated into “I believe in God” in English. Credo and its content which is a summary of the teaching of the apostles, gives us the title Apostles’ Creed.

Speaking of “I believe in God” brings us to the focus for today.

II. I believe
What does it mean to say, “I believe”? “I believe” for many would simply means I agree to, I assent to certain idea. As in, “Yes, I think God is there”. But that cannot be what it means when I believe is used in a statement of faith. To say, “I believe in God” has to mean that “I place my trust in God”. In other words, to confess “I believe” is the response of our whole person to God.

What does saying so imply?

My sharing this morning is very much a reflection on the book, “Dogmatics in Outline” by the theologian Karl Barth. Barth says that to believe imply 3 things: to trust (as mentioned), to have knowledge and to confess. [1]

Jesus says that the truth sets us free. The Bible tells us that the truth leads us to faith. Barth put the two together and says that faith is to be understood as freedom.

He says to trust is to have freedom. Because, at the end of the day, when things come to a head, when the challenges before us look so scary, and when people ridicule us saying,” why pray? Your prayers not working.” To have faith is to choose to continue to trust God despite all these. To choose is to have freedom.

This choice of ours is, however, not baseless. And the basis is that, Jesus, who is truth, sets us free. Free to comprehend and receive God's revelation and have faith in God. What follows for one who has faith? Paul says in the book of Acts, “In him we live and move and have our being”. In other words, faith engenders God's guidance and wisdom for daily living that comes to us through the words of the Bible, the Christian community and so on. Barth calls this wisdom for daily living, knowledge. Knowledge that leads us to choose God's will and to choose Christian considerations and responses. In short, we choose to trust because the living God is active guiding us in daily living through giving us wisdom, or knowledge.

To say so leads us naturally to the third point. To believe is to confess. Not necessarily using words, more often, through action. If faith means trusting God according to his guidance, then faith must mean obedience, confessing our belief with actions of obedience.

It can be stressful and even unpalatable to hear that to believe is to obey. Yet I hope by sharing Barth’s explanation on faith, that it is us who are given the freedom to respond, a freedom that we cannot purchase ourselves, a freedom that God generously gives, we are more ready to obey, because the one who calls us to do so is a God who is generous, active, loving and caring.

III. Father
This God, the Creed goes on to say is “God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.”
.

I like to think that Christian theology is at work in the way God is described herein. By addressing him first as God followed by Father carries messages.

Barth calls God the “fundamentally other” [2]. What he means is that nothing in the created world is God. We may say that God is as powerful as the bright noon sun or the mighty waves, or that he is as loving as a gentle mother, but we will not be able to say God is any of them. In other words, we can’t derive God with theories and philosophies. We can’t prove God with scientific observations. Nothing we have in our material world can be used as the starting point or basic material to discover God.

God as “Father” is the key to us knowing him. Father is placed before creator in the clause for a good reason. God is first Father before he is creator. The Apostle John says in the gospel that “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God”. (John 1:1). Hence Paul is able to declare to the Corinthian Christians that God is the origin of creation, but the son is the mediator who brought about the creation. And in time, God sends his only begotten son to us as a human being. Jesus came, revealing to us God, the one otherwise not discoverable by man. Not only so, Jesus also calls us brothers and sisters and taught us to address God as “Father”.

The Father and creator is described as almighty, and that is good news for humankind. It would be a problem for us if someone who is almighty is capricious or whimsical. That's not the case with the God almighty. Barth says that God's power is not “power in itself” [3]. The Old Testament declares that God’s power is displayed in him creating the world and giving of the law. Hence Barth deduces that God’s power is “power of law”.

We say God’s almightiness which is “power of law” is good news because the law establishes order in human society. The law demands treating others and the environment righteously and kindly. God’s power of law makes life a possibility.

One other way to say all these would be, God is love, and with love he creates and put all that’s necessary in place, so that life could flourish.

IV. Son
How should life be lived in this world that God has created? If we ask Barth, I believe would say, “look to the Lord Jesus
, and follow him.” Let me quickly unpack what I mean.

God created the world and in time chose Israel to be his representative and witness to humankind. God entrusted to them the prophetic, priestly and kingly mission. The Old Testament tells us that Israel was not a people that discharged their responsibility faithfully. Down the long history since Moses to Jesus’ time, Israel had been seen fighting away this mission that God entrusted them. The Old Testament tells stories of Israel practicing idolatry, unrighteousness, inequality and cruelty.

But God who is love would not give up on his project on establishing order. Never was there an amendment of the law. He only exercises his power through the power of law to continually shape Israel into the righteous servant. Israel was either too strong and stubborn to keep resisting God or too weak to do what God wills. I think it’s both.

The prophetic, priestly and kingly mission given first to Israel is fulfilled by Jesus Christ, God’s only son. And by redeeming us on the cross he is, therefore, our Lord. By giving himself to man on the cross, Jesus became the servant of all peoples; the role that God had wanted Israel to assume.

Jesus the servant of all is our Lord. I hesitate to say this to our modern sensibilities, but when he is our Lord then we are his property. And the servants do what the master does. Jesus is the servant of all peoples, so we are to be.

To be such a servant is to do what we have already been doing very well all this while. Or just as our Lord on the cross, to be such a servant may include witnessing God in moments of helplessness. We said earlier that it can be stressful and even unpalatable to hear, that to believe is to obey. The same thing I say once again. The question is whether we see the value of what God does for his creation, and would want to be a part of it, and be servants of all peoples.

Barth thinks we will not replicate Israel struggle against God’s calling when we could finally see that Jesus Lordship is based on God’s mercy, goodness and love. Allow me to quote his writing, “Once we have seen that Christ’s potestas [Eng: power or authority] is based on God’s mercy, goodness and love, only then do we abandon all reservations. Then the division into a religious sphere and other spheres falls out. Then, we cease to separate between body and soul, between service of God and politics. All these separations cease, for man is one, and as such is subject to the lordship of Christ.” [4]

This is how a theologian would think, and Barth is spot on in that it is indeed God’s intention for the entire human race to be one and serving one another.

Yet, closer to reality, is perhaps what our sermon text this morning is saying. Paul was handling the situation in the Corinthian church where the strong saw nothing wrong with eating food sacrificed to idols, while the weak were badly disturbed by such practices.

In telling both groups that there is, in the final analysis, one true God, Paul did not envision something as grand as Barth. He did not write about how the entire humankind ought to conduct themselves. But he does empathize on what believers as followers should do. He says in verse 6, “for us”, that is, for followers, there is only one God and one Lord, and followers live for God and his will.

When we read verse 6 in the Greek bible, we find Paul giving a reason for life to be lived this way, something we can’t read off from the English translation. Paul’s wording in the Greek text reads, “Through whom all things and we through Him”. Paul probably means with this sentence that it is through Jesus the mediator we come into being, and through Him we shall reach our final and rightful destiny. And this Him, who lead us to our destiny is Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord, who is the servant of all peoples and who calls his followers to be likewise in the present journey on earth, and to continue to be so when we reach our destination. In other words, to be servants of all peoples is a calling. At the same time, to serve is to practice now what will be doing in eternity.

[1]Barth, Karl. Dogmatics in Outline (SCM Classics). Hymns Ancient and Modern Ltd. Kindle Edition, p.15-34.
[2]ibid., p.36.
[3]ibid., p.47.
[4]ibid., p.92.

Bilingual Service Video Link: https://youtu.be/ACdLSYZKTc4?si=lRNnA8-Nru00O3qB
华语崇拜视频链接：https://youtu.be/rlQi4jBp2kI?si=MqeCe3IzAOaaouMH