As we continue in our series on the Nicene Creed, we come to a section that is the crux of the entire Creed. The phrase “God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God” is carefully crafted to affirm the biblical, orthodox (dare I say catholic) understanding of the divinity of Jesus Christ, the second member of the Trinity. The great council itself was convened to combat the heresy of Arianism which denied the full deity of Jesus. For this reason, this section of the Creed goes on the offensive to ardently and beautifully affirm the truth.
The famous axiom of Arianism is, speaking of Jesus, that “there was a time when he was not.” To the catechised believer, this sentence obviously misses the mark. It most certainly falls short of the truth. If there was a time in history that Jesus did not exist, he would therefore not be God. Instead, by default, he would be a creature. Even if he were to be the highest of all the creatures, he would still not be God. Jesus, as the second member of the Trinity, is not a demi-god, like Maui in the Disney movie Moana, who borrows his power from higher (so-called) gods. Instead, as true God from true God, Jesus is self-existent, uncreated, and eternal. To make this case the council fathers progress through this three point phrase to affirm Jesus’ divine nature. Let’s look at each of these three in turn.
God from God
What does it mean that Jesus is, as the Creed states, “God from God”? I think a good place to start is the prologue to the Gospel of John. In this famous passage of Scripture, St. John describes Jesus this way, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men” (John 1:1-4, ESV). The Creed itself firmly rests on the truth proclaimed in this passage, which is so eloquently and beautifully rendered by St. John. The Word of which St. John is, most assuredly, Jesus. This Word (Greek: Logos) existed in the beginning, and is therefore God. John states that through this Logos, “all things were made” (vs. 3). Dipping our feet a little bit into philosophy, let us consider the implications of this statement. The logical implications are that all things have a cause, and there must be something that is the “uncaused first cause.” That “uncaused first cause” must therefore be self-existent. If Jesus is the self-existent maker of all things, he is therefore God.
St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) states that God is ipsum esse subsistens, which means that God is “subsistent being itself.” God is not simply a being among many, but rather God is being itself. God is the pure act of existing. From Him, all things derive their being. Truly “without him was not anything made that was made” (John 1:3, ESV). St. Paul, in his speech at the Areopagus put it this way, “In him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28, ESV). This is quite right, and to this Aquinas would give St. Paul a hearty “Amen”.
Light from Light
This is a peculiar phrase for the council fathers to use in order to describe the divinity of Jesus. What does it mean that Jesus is “light from light”? Taking the prologue of the Gospel of John as a starting point, when we read this passage we think of the book of Genesis, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth…and God said ‘let there be light’ and there was light” (Genesis 1:1 & 3). St. Paul picks up on theme in his second letter to the church in Corinth. He writes “For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor 4:6, ESV). All throughout Scripture God is referred to as light. Technically speaking, God does not have a body, he is spirit (John 4:24). Nonetheless, this is how God is described in several passages of scripture. In the book of Revelation, when describing the new Jerusalem St. John states “And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb” (Rev 21:23, ESV). What a beautiful picture St. John gives us of God. In the presence of his glory, all we see is light. This is what the council fathers were referring to in describing Jesus in this manner.
True God from True God
This next phrase of the Creed is tied to the phrase that immediately follows “begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father”. Our finite minds cannot fully comprehend the nature of the Trinity. Yet we must give great care to how we understand the Trinity or we may be in danger of sliding into error. Theologically speaking the Son is “begotten” of the Father and the Spirit “proceeds” from the Father and the Son (as a side note, this is a great controversy among Catholics and Orthodox Christians. It is known as the Filioque meaning “and the Son”. For further discussion please see Molly Jean Pieper’s upcoming article on the subject). If we are not careful, we may be tempted to think that the Son and the Spirit are “created” by God the Father. This is the error that the Arians fell into and is the belief of the Jehovah’s Witness and Latter-Day Saints in our own day.
To help shed light on this delicate theological discussion, I love what Catholic theologian Bishop Robert Barron says on the subject, “Hence, the Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, does indeed come forth from the Father, but he comes forth precisely as one who shares utterly in the being of the one from whom he comes. And he proceeds not as the product of the free choice of the Father but as a necessary accompaniment, as light comes from the sun” (Light from Light pg. 53, 2021). To make this point abundantly clear, the council fathers state that Jesus is “consubstantial with the Father”. Other translations render it this way “of one being with the Father”. This phrase comes from the Greek word homoousios, which is a compound word meaning “same” (homo) “substance” (ousios). The letter to the Hebrews puts it this way, “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature” (Heb 1:3, ESV). Jesus Christ, the second member of the Trinity is of the same substance of God the Father. You could say that they are “cut from the same cloth”.
Conclusion
The space that we have here does not allow us to dive any deeper. We could spend the rest of our days mining the depths of the Trinity and will never fully comprehend the nature of God. And this is right, for if we could, he would cease to be God! As we wrap up our discussion today, let us ponder the words of God the Father on the Mount of Transfiguration. Jesus had taken three of his disciples Peter, James, and John up on a mountain and he was “transfigured before them” (Matt 17:2). Interestingly, Jesus appeared to them as “white as light” echoing the phrase from the Creed. Alongside Jesus stood Moses and Elijah. In the midst of this most amazing experience, the Father says to those gathered on the mountain “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him” (Matt 17:5, ESV). As we ponder the great truth of the Creed that Jesus is God himself, this makes demands of us. If Jesus was merely a good man, a creature, we could ignore him if we are so inclined. Yet if Jesus is God, as he rightly is proclaimed in the Scriptures and the Creed, the only right response is to fall down and worship our Creator and listen to what he says.
Magna Deo Gloria.
Photo Credit Unsplash.com
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