“One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and  through all, and in all.”

(Ephesians 4:5-6)

If you are thinking ahead, you may notice that within verses 4-6 you have the framework behind what we know better as the Apostles’ Creed. How does the creed begin? “I believe in God the Father…” Here, we have the language of God as Father, we have the language of one Lord, which is a reference to Jesus Christ, the second section of the creed, and then we have a reference to the Holy Spirit and the work of the Spirit in calling and baptism, all covered by the third part of the Apostles’ Creed. Indeed, the creed develops these ideas further and with more Scriptural ideas and references but we can already see the workings of what we find in this universally accepted declaration of the faith.

Is the Apostles’ Creed inspired as are the Scriptures? No. But inasmuch as the creed itself reflects the plain teachings of the inspired writings, then it is binding on the life and teaching of the Christian. The word “creed” itself, derives from the Latin word, creedo, meaning, “I believe.” In other words, these creeds are designed to articulate in summary form those things that are believed by Christians and that must be believed by all who would proclaim themselves to be Christian. And again, as mentioned before, it is clear even from these words that there is propositional content that is part of what it means to be a Christian. Much more could and should be said regarding the language found here, but we will leave that for another time; for now, affirm with the Apostle that true Christianity does not find unity by diminishing the doctrine or dogma, but it finds unity by clearly articulating those things that must necessarily be true if one will claim faith.