Friday, March 14, 2025

Very God of Very God,

And in one Lord Jesus Christ,                              Et in unum Dominum Iesum Christum,

the only-begotten Son of God,                            Filium Dei unigenitum,

begotten of His Father before all worlds,            et ex Patre natum, ante omnia saecula,

God of God, Light of Light,                                   Deum de Deo, lumen de Lumine,

Very God of Very God,                                          Deum verum de Deo vero,

Begotten, not made, Being of one                        genitum, non factum, consubstantialem Patri:

substance with the Father,                                  

by Whom all things were made;                            per quem omnia facta sunt.

This section of the Nicene Creed is a beautiful description of the nature of Jesus Christ, and his part in the Trinity. The mystery and beauty of the Trinity is that the Father, Son and Spirit are distinct, and yet all have the same eternal and divine essence. This section is the heart of the Nicene Creed, in the sense that the councils of Nicaea in 325 and Constantinople in 381 were called in response to the Arian heresy that Christ was created, and hence finite, non-eternal and inferior to God the Father. The terms begotten (vs. created) and con-substantial (of one substance) are the councils’ response that became our orthodox doctrine.

To our modern ears, the phrasing Very God of Very God may seem ‘very odd’. But the term ‘very’ is not used in the modern sense of ‘extreme’, but rather in the older sense of ‘true’. The Latin phrasing (above) is Deum verum de Deo vero meaning True God of True God, and the root noun veritas (truth) is still present in modern words like verity or verifiable. So, very’ in this instance is more like ‘genuine’. Jesus is truly and genuinely divine.

In an age where people say that they have their “own truth”, and there is no objective truth, what is spiritual truth? What does it mean to be truly God? What is His essence, the ‘one’ in ‘three in one? God told Moses, “Tell them I Am sent you”. God is, He is eternal, before time and forever, omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent. He has perfect integrity of thought, purpose, and action (He cannot act counter to His own nature). He is both loving and just. He reveals himself to us yet is beyond our full understanding. And He comes in the person of Jesus to redeem and claim us for his own.

If you were creating a religion from scratch to be easily believable, you wouldn’t just make up the Trinity. But this is the true divine nature revealed to us by scripture, teaching and revelation, and encapsulated in this creed. Credo – we believe.

Prayer:  Dear Lord, as we meditate on the true, awesome, and divine nature of your Son Jesus Christ, and on his part in the triune Godhead, let us look forward to Good Friday and Easter and appreciate His true sacrifice and glorious victory.