The Nicene Creed

Ecumenical Creeds Reference

The Creed
Background and Historical Setting
What It Guards Against
A Walk Through the Creed
Key Doctrinal Points
Scriptural Foundation
A Reformed Reading: Clarifications and Disputed Points
How the Reformed Standards Receive It
Christ and the Gospel in the Creed
Questions for Reflection and Application
For Confession and Memory
Further Reading

The Creed

I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made. Who, for us men and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, and was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; he suffered and was buried; and the third day he rose again, according to the Scriptures; and ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of the Father; and he shall come again, with glory, to judge both the living and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end.

And I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life; who proceedeth from the Father and the Son; who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified; who spake by the prophets. And I believe in one holy catholic and apostolic church. I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins; and I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.

Background and Historical Setting

The Nicene Creed is the most universally received of all the creeds, the one confession spoken alike by East and West, by Rome and Geneva and Constantinople. Strictly it is the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed: its core was set by the First Council of Nicaea in 325 and its fuller form by the First Council of Constantinople in 381.

The crisis was Arianism. Arius, a presbyter of Alexandria, taught that the Son was the first and highest of God’s creatures — exalted, but made, not eternal. His slogan was “there was a time when he was not.” If true, the Son would be a creature, and the worship of Christ would be idolatry, and our salvation would rest on something less than God. The Emperor Constantine, seeking unity in a divided church, summoned the bishops to Nicaea. There the council confessed the Son to be homoousios — “of one substance” — with the Father, the decisive word that ruled out any lesser deity.

Nicaea did not end the struggle. For two generations Arian and semi-Arian parties contended, often with imperial backing; Athanasius of Alexandria stood almost alone for the homoousion through repeated exiles (Athanasius contra mundum). The Cappadocian Fathers — Basil the Great, Gregory of Nazianzus, and Gregory of Nyssa — refined the language of one ousia (substance) in three hypostaseis (persons) and defended the full deity of the Spirit against those who denied it. Their work bore fruit at Constantinople in 381, which reaffirmed Nicaea and expanded the third article into the rich confession of the Holy Spirit we now recite. This is the creed the church has prayed ever since.

What It Guards Against

Arianism — that the Son is a creature, however exalted. The creed answers with a wall of words: “begotten, not made,” “of one substance with the Father,” “very God of very God.” The Son is not like God; he is God.
Semi-Arianism (Homoianism) — the compromise that the Son is “of like substance” (homoiousios) rather than “of the same substance” (homoousios). A single iota separated the words; the creed insists on homoousios.
Macedonianism (Pneumatomachianism) — the denial of the Spirit’s full deity, calling him a creature or a mere power. The 381 expansion answers: the Spirit is “the Lord and Giver of Life,” who “with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified” — and what is worshipped is God.
Modalism (Sabellianism) — that Father, Son, and Spirit are masks of one person. The creed’s careful distinctions (“begotten of the Father,” “proceedeth from the Father”) name three who are one God, not one who plays three parts.
Adoptionism — that Jesus became Son by exaltation. The creed has him “begotten of the Father before all worlds.”

A Walk Through the Creed

“I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.” One God (Deut. 6:4), the Father, Maker of all — the visible world and the invisible ranks of angels alike (Col. 1:16). Creation is the work of the one God.

“And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God.” The unique Son (John 1:14, 18), eternally the Father’s own.

“begotten of the Father before all worlds.” His sonship is not in time; he is begotten eternally, never not the Son (John 17:5; Prov. 8 as read of divine Wisdom).

“God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God.” A cascade of equality: whatever the Father is in deity, the Son is. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). The Son is the radiance of God’s glory (Heb. 1:3).

“begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father.” The hinge of the creed. The Son is not made (as creatures are) but begotten (sharing the Father’s very being), homoousios — of one and the same substance. “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30).

“by whom all things were made.” The Son is the agent of creation, not part of it (John 1:3; Col. 1:16). A creature cannot create all things; therefore the Son is no creature.

“Who, for us men and for our salvation, came down from heaven.” The motive of the incarnation is grace — for us, for our salvation (John 3:16–17; 2 Cor. 8:9).

“and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, and was made man.” True God became also true man, conceived by the Spirit, born of Mary (Luke 1:35; John 1:14). One person in two natures.

“and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; he suffered and was buried.” The atoning death, fixed in history (1 Cor. 15:3; 1 Pet. 2:24).

“and the third day he rose again, according to the Scriptures.” The bodily resurrection, foretold and fulfilled (1 Cor. 15:4; Luke 24:46).

“and ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of the Father.” Exalted and enthroned (Acts 1:9–11; Ps. 110:1; Heb. 1:3).

“and he shall come again, with glory, to judge both the living and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end.” The visible return and final judgment (Acts 17:31; Matt. 25:31–32), and a reign without end (Luke 1:33; Dan. 7:14) — against any who limited Christ’s kingdom in time.

“And I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life.” The Spirit is “the Lord” — divine — and the giver of life in creation and new birth (Gen. 1:2; John 6:63; Titus 3:5).

“who proceedeth from the Father and the Son.” The Spirit’s eternal procession (John 15:26). The added “and the Son” is treated under the Reformed Reading.

“who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified.” The Spirit receives the worship due to God alone — therefore the Spirit is God (Matt. 28:19; 2 Cor. 13:14).

“who spake by the prophets.” The Spirit is the author of Scripture (2 Pet. 1:21; 2 Tim. 3:16).

“And I believe in one holy catholic and apostolic church.” Four marks: one, holy, universal, and built on the apostles’ foundation (Eph. 2:20; 4:4–6).

“I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins.” One baptism (Eph. 4:5), the sign and seal of forgiveness (treated below).

“and I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.” The believer’s forward hope (1 Cor. 15:42–44; Rev. 21:1–4).

Key Doctrinal Points

One God in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, one in substance, equal in glory.
The Son is homoousios with the Father — fully, eternally God; “begotten, not made.”
The Son is the agent of creation and, in the incarnation, true God and true man.
The Holy Spirit is fully divine, the Lord and Giver of Life, worshipped with the Father and the Son.
The gospel is historical and saving: the Son came down, was crucified, rose, ascended, and will return to judge; his kingdom has no end.
One holy catholic and apostolic church; one baptism for the remission of sins; the resurrection of the dead and life everlasting.

Scriptural Foundation

John 1:1–14 — “the Word was God… the Word became flesh” — eternal deity and incarnation of the Son.
John 10:30 — “I and the Father are one” — the unity of substance.
Col. 1:15–17 — “by him all things were created… in him all things hold together” — the Son as creator, not creature.
Heb. 1:3 — “the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature” — “Light of Light.”
Phil. 2:5–11 — the descent and exaltation of the one who was “in the form of God.”
John 15:26 — “the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father” — the procession of the Spirit.
Matt. 28:19; 2 Cor. 13:14 — the one name and shared glory of the three persons.
1 Cor. 15:3–4 — death, burial, and resurrection “in accordance with the Scriptures.”

A Reformed Reading: Clarifications and Disputed Points

“Of one substance with the Father” (homoousios). This is not a point the Reformed dispute but one we prize as the church’s hard-won confession of Christ’s true deity. The word is not in Scripture, yet it faithfully guards what Scripture everywhere teaches — that the Son is fully God, not a creature (John 1:1; 20:28; Col. 2:9). Here is a model of confessional, non-biblicist faithfulness: a single non-biblical term, rightly chosen, fences out a heresy that endless proof-texting alone could not. The Reformed receive homoousios gladly and rest the worship of Christ upon it — for if the Son were less than God, to worship him would be idolatry, and our Redeemer would be a creature unable to save.

The filioque — “and the Son.” The original creed of 381 said the Spirit “proceedeth from the Father.” The Western church, in Spain in the sixth century and gradually thereafter, added filioque (“and the Son”), so that the Spirit proceeds “from the Father and the Son.” This addition became one of the formal causes of the East–West schism of 1054. The Eastern Orthodox object on two grounds: first, that the West altered an ecumenical creed unilaterally, without a council (a procedural and ecclesial objection); second, that double procession blurs the Father’s unique role as the one source (monarchia) within the Godhead (a theological objection). They affirm that the Spirit proceeds from the Father through the Son, but not from the Son as a second origin.

The Reformed, as heirs of the Western church, affirm the filioque — and with reasons. Scripture calls the Spirit “the Spirit of Christ” as well as the Spirit of God (Rom. 8:9; Gal. 4:6; Phil. 1:19); the risen Christ “breathed on them” and gave the Spirit (John 20:22) and pours him out (Acts 2:33); and Jesus says he will send the Spirit from the Father (John 15:26; 16:7). The West reads these as grounding an eternal relation, not merely a temporal mission: the Spirit eternally proceeds from the Father and the Son as from one principle. Calvin and the Reformed defend this while honoring the Father’s monarchia — the Son himself has his deity from the Father, so the filioque does not set up two competing sources. A charitable Reformed reader can grant the force of the Eastern procedural complaint (the addition ought ideally to have been conciliar) while holding the doctrine to be biblically sound. The two traditions remain genuinely divided here, and the dispute should be stated fairly before our own conviction is given.

“One baptism for the remission of sins.” This must not be read as baptismal regeneration — as if the water itself washes away sin and infallibly conveys the new birth ex opere operato. The Reformed confess baptism as a true sacrament: a divinely appointed sign and seal of the forgiveness and cleansing that are ours by grace through faith in Christ (Rom. 4:11; Acts 22:16; Titus 3:5). The creed says “for the remission of sins” because baptism signifies and points to that forgiveness, not because the rite produces it apart from the Spirit and faith. We hold baptism in high honor — it is “one baptism” (Eph. 4:5), not to be repeated — while locating the saving power in Christ and his Spirit, of which baptism is the sign. Thus we avoid both the error that empties baptism of meaning and the error that makes the water itself the savior.

“Holy catholic and apostolic church.” As in the Apostles’ Creed, catholic means universal, not Roman. Apostolic means founded on the apostles’ doctrine (Eph. 2:20; Acts 2:42) — for the Reformed, this is fidelity to the apostolic gospel of Scripture, not a claim of unbroken episcopal succession as the guarantee of the church’s identity.

How the Reformed Standards Receive It

The Reformed churches receive the Nicene Creed as a faithful and binding summary of catholic truth. The Belgic Confession (Article 9) names it expressly, with the Apostles’ and Athanasian Creeds, as that which “we willingly receive” because it agrees with the Word of God on the Trinity. The Confession’s articles on the one God in three persons (Art. 8–11) are thoroughly Nicene. The Westminster Confession (II.3) confesses the same faith — “In the unity of the Godhead there be three persons, of one substance, power, and eternity: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost” — and locates the Spirit as “eternally proceeding from the Father and the Son,” embracing the filioque. The Heidelberg Catechism (Q&A 24–25) structures the faith around the triune name. The Reformed thus stand squarely within Nicene orthodoxy, receiving the creed as a subordinate standard — authoritative because, and insofar as, it summarizes Scripture.

Christ and the Gospel in the Creed

Everything in the Nicene Creed serves the gospel. The long defense of the Son’s deity is not abstract metaphysics but the ground of salvation: only one who is “very God of very God” could bear the weight of the world’s sin and reconcile us to the Father. The creed binds the Son’s eternal being to his saving work with a single hinge — “for us men and for our salvation, came down from heaven.” The same one who is homoousios with the Father is the one “crucified… for us under Pontius Pilate.” His full deity makes his cross sufficient, his resurrection certain, his intercession effective, and his coming kingdom unending. And because the Spirit too is “the Lord and Giver of Life,” the salvation won by the Son is surely applied: the triune God plans, accomplishes, and completes our redemption. To confess Nicaea is to confess that our salvation rests on God himself.

Questions for Reflection and Application

Q: Why does it matter that the Son is “of one substance with the Father” and not merely the highest creature?

Biblical answer: Because only God can save, and the Son who saves is God — “the Word was God” (John 1:1), “in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily” (Col. 2:9); to worship a creature would be idolatry. Why it matters: Our salvation and our worship both depend on Christ’s true deity; if he were less than God, his cross could not save and our adoration would be sin.

Q: Should I be troubled that the creed uses the non-biblical word homoousios?

Biblical answer: No — the word is not in the Bible, but the truth is everywhere in it (John 10:30; 20:28; Heb. 1:3); the church chose a precise word to guard a biblical doctrine. Why it matters: It teaches the difference between biblicism and biblical fidelity — faithful confession may use new words to defend old truths, against the “no creed but the Bible” error.

Q: What is the filioque dispute, and where do the Reformed stand?

Biblical answer: Whether the Spirit proceeds from the Father alone or “from the Father and the Son”; the Reformed, with the West, affirm “and the Son,” for the Spirit is called “the Spirit of Christ” and is sent by the Son (Rom. 8:9; John 15:26; 20:22). Why it matters: It shapes how we understand the inner life of the Trinity and reminds us to hold our convictions while dealing charitably and accurately with the Eastern church.

Q: Does “one baptism for the remission of sins” mean the water saves me?

Biblical answer: No — baptism is the sign and seal of a forgiveness received by grace through faith in Christ’s blood (Rom. 4:11; Eph. 1:7; Titus 3:5); the power is in Christ and the Spirit, not the rite. Why it matters: It guards against trusting in a ceremony rather than the Savior, while still honoring baptism as God’s appointed sign of his grace.

For Confession and Memory

The Nicene Creed is the church’s fullest common confession, sung and said at the Lord’s Table across the world and the centuries. To recite it is to join the one holy catholic and apostolic church in every age in confessing the triune God. Its length rewards slow, deliberate confession — let each clause of the second article preach the gospel as you speak it. Worth committing to memory not as a feat but as a treasure, so that the church’s deepest words about the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are ready on your lips in worship and at the Table.