Because we bear your name August–September 2025

When we speak of our Lutheran Confessions, we are referring to the writings of the Reformation era that are in the Book of Concord. These writings include the Augsburg Confession, Luther’s catechisms, the Formula of Concord and others.

Many people don’t realise that the collection of the Lutheran Confessions, published in the Book of Concord of 1580, actually begins with the Three Chief Symbols or Creeds of the Christian Faith Commonly Used in the Church. These are the Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed and the Athanasian Creed.

That makes 2025 an especially significant year for Lutheran churches around the world, as Christians of all denominations commemorate the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea. In the year 325, between 200 and 300 bishops representing the communities of the early Christian church gathered in what is now western Türkiye to establish clear teaching on the meaning of the death of our Lord Jesus Christ.

From the Council of Nicaea to the following Council of Constantinople in the year 381, the formula we know today as the Nicene Creed was eventually finalised and then adopted as the church’s statement of our faith in the Triune God. In 1580, the Nicene Creed was formally included among the Lutheran Confessional writings, and we use this ancient creed Sunday by Sunday as the regular confession of faith during the liturgy of holy communion.

The core matter at Nicaea in 325 was the incarnation. The council determined orthodox Christian teaching declared Jesus Christ was truly God in flesh, as written in John 1:14, ‘And the word became flesh and dwelt amongst us full of grace and truth.’ The council also rejected the teaching of Arius of Libya, who declared Jesus was only a created being.

The Council of Nicaea was making a vital distinction for salvation. Because Jesus Christ was true God on the cross, he could take upon himself the sin of the world. Only the Holy One of Israel could take away all sin. If he were less than fully God, then maybe we would have to add to the work of his cross to gain salvation. But as true God, he exchanges his righteousness for our sin that we would have peace with God. In our baptism, we die with Christ and are raised to new life as the beneficiaries of this ‘happy exchange’.

In the years after the Council of Nicaea, Christian churches began to include the festival of the nativity in the Christian calendar, paving the way for our modern Christmas. This was the festival of the ‘incarnation’ and Mary, the mother of our Lord, began to formally receive the title ‘Theotokos’, which translates as ‘the one who bears God’.

With the Nicene Creed and these other traditions, the early church was bearing witness to the gospel of all that the Lord has done for us in his life, death and resurrection for our salvation. The work of the cross was a completed work over which the Lord himself declared, ‘It is finished!’

In Dr Martin Luther’s beautiful Christmas song ‘Vom Himmel Hoch’ (‘From Heaven Above’, LHS 23), he teaches us to pray this theology of the incarnation that is at the heart of the Nicene Creed:

Welcome to earth, Thou noble guest,
Through whom the sinful world is blest!
Thou com’st to share my misery;
What thanks shall I return to Thee?

Ah dearest Jesus, holy child
Make Thee a bed soft undefiled,
Within my heart that it may be
A quiet chamber kept for Thee.’

In Christ,
Paul

‘Lord Jesus, we belong to you,
you live in us, we live in you;
we live and work for you –
because we bear your name’