Our Common Faith

on the Apostles' Creed (pt. 1)

What is it that makes Christians, Christians? How is it that distinct groups of people who call themselves by different names (such as Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, Roman Catholic, among many others) can all still claim the far greater title of Christian? In a word, what do all Christians actually share in common? What makes the catholic church catholic, the universal church universal?

Many among us have painted an unfortunate portrait of Christendom, one in which the dour Presbyterians scowl in disdain at the potluck happy Baptists, who are looking sideways at the rambunctious Pentecostals, who are not-so-quietly praying that those poor Methodists will leave behind their silly traditions, who are writing strongly-worded lectures against the follies of non-denominationalism — and so on and so forth for every named (and unnamed) denomination under heaven. This is a picture that is composed in sad, bleak, monochrome colors. It looks and feels like gray, lukewarm porridge. In other words, it’s gross.

In that kind of religious landscape, the only thing that the groups seem to share in common is a mutual suspicion of each other and a cultured distaste for each other. And in some cases, this may indeed be the depressing reality. Some folks really do treat their communions more like rival college fraternities than members of Christ’s body, and it shows.

But simply based on my own personal experience, I’d say that there are many, many more Christians who understand that the things that unite different groups of the Church are far greater than the things that divide us. But the rabid, uncouth folks who make a habit of demonizing their brethren tend to get more attention because they are rabid and uncouth, and so here we are thinking that the whole situation is a lot more hopeless than it actually is.

So if it’s true that there’s more that unites all of Christendom than divides it, then what exactly is it that unites us?

In the words of a dear friend of mine, I’m glad I asked.

Our Common Salvation

The book of Jude probably has more esoteric material in it per verse than any other book of the Bible. There are references to 1.) a sparring match between Michael and Satan over Moses’s corpse; 2.) angelic visions of Enoch; 3.) angels who fell by (evidently) committing some form of sexual sin. So Jude is a rather bizarre letter — and because of its bizarreness, some of its more mundane (but oh so beautiful) material gets missed, which as the theologians say, is a crying shame.

For example, right at the beginning of the letter, Jude writes this.

“Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3).

I do not wish to provide an in-depth exegesis of this verse. Rather, I simply want to direct our attention to the fact that twice in this single verse, Jude makes reference to something that all the saints of God share in common: salvation and faith. We have a shared salvation (see NIV), and if we share in the same salvation then it follows that we share in the same faith. But if that is true, then what — or who — makes up the actual body of that shared salvation and faith?

There are a number of ways that we could answer that questions, but I think that the most profound, compact, and helpful summary of our common faith and salvation is found in a short creed that a child can learn by heart and a grown-up can exult in for all of their days.

It is called The Apostles’ Creed. It does not go by this name because the Apostles actually wrote it, but because it is a faithful and unifying synopsis of the apostolic teaching. Here it is in full.

I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
Maker of Heaven and Earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ,
His Only-Begotten Son, Our Lord,
Who was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
Suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
he descended to the dead;
On the third day he rose again;
He ascended into heaven,
and is seated at the right of the Father,
And will come again to the judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
The holy catholic¹ church,
the communion of saints,
The forgiveness of sins,
The resurrection of the body,
And the life everlasting. Amen.

In the words of Philip Schaff, “As the Lord’s Prayer is the Prayer of prayers, the Decalogue [Ten Commandments] the Law of laws, so the Apostles’ Creed is the Creed of creeds. It contains all the fundamental articles of the Christian faith necessary to salvation, in the form of facts, in simple Scripture language, and in the most natural order—the order of revelation—from God and the creation down to the resurrection and life everlasting.”²

So here then is the creed which so aptly contains the foundational content of our saving faith. Any Christian worth their salt, be they Baptist or Pentecostal or Roman or anything in-between, should be able to utter a hearty amen to this creed and all that it means and signifies, because the Apostles’ Creed gives voice to our one faith and one baptism in our one Lord (Ephesians 4:6). In it we find an artful articulation of the common salvation of which Jude wrote so many thousands of years ago.

And so, if we as Christians wish to further enrich our own lives, rejoice more deeply in our salvation, and contend more heartily for the faith, then it would behoove us to better understand what we profess to believe. If, in these polarizing and divisive times, we would stand united with our brothers and sisters in Christ who have different affiliations from us or who belong to other communions, then we must know what actually unites us.

This is not to say that we should sandpaper over our disagreements or pretend we don’t have major differences, because we definitely do have disagreements and major differences, and we should faithfully debate those differences. This is to say that, at the center of each Christian communion, we really are more united than our differences might lead us to believe: because what unites is our God and Father along with his Eternal Son and his own Holy Spirit.

So one of my hopes over the course of the coming year is to drop in to the creed as time permits and try to exult in the riches of what we are professing to believe when we Christians say “I believe” — because to paraphrase the great British writer G.K. Chesterton, we did not (strictly speaking) make the creed; the creed makes us.

And may it continue to do so, until we all attain to the perfect unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God.

1. Little “c” catholic means universal.

2. The Creeds of Christendom, with a History and Critical Notes: The History of Creeds , vol. 1 (New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, 1878), 14–15