In this fourth article in his series on worship under the over-all title, The Sacrifice of Praise, Rev. Jerome M. Julien writes: “Don‘t let routine take the joy out of worship. Remember that saying the creed is a liturgical profession, a meaningful profession, and a joyous profession.” He calls special attention to this verse of Scripture: “But having the same spirit of faith, according to that which is written, I believed, and therefore did I speak; we also believe, and therefore we also speak” (II Cor. 4:13). Rev. Julien is pastor of the First Christian Reformed Church of Pella, Iowa.

One common characteristic of the Church of our Jesus Christ in every age has been her love to put into words that faith that God has planted in her heart.

And this is not just a desire of the New Testament Church because the Lord Jesus Christ has come. We find this desire already in the Old Testament. Many of the Psalms are affirmations of faith. “In Thee, a Lord, I put my trust.” That’s a profession of faith. Psalm 116, from which Paul quoted as he wrote in II Corinthians 4:13, “I believed, and therefore, did I speak”–the Psalm that begins in the metrical arrangement, “I love the Lord, the fount of life and grace”—is a word of profession, a statement of faith. As a people, Israel often professed her faith. Twice each day faithful Israel expressed her faith with the words, “Hear, a Israel: Jehovah our God is one Jehovah . . .” (Deut. 6:4f). This was a statement of faith.

The Old Testament people of God regularly professed their faith, even as we New Testament people of God regularly do it, too. Oh, it’s true as we New Testament people of God regularly do it, too. Oh, it’s true that for Israel and for us, too, sometimes, the profession of faith—the staling of that which we believe becomes sheer ritual, a habit that we engage in. Maybe the last time you recited the creed as a Profession of Faith, you simply said the words, and didn‘t think about what you were doing. It was merely, ritual But who would conclude that, therefore, it is wrong to put our faith into words?

   

In the passage before us Paul is writing the Corinthians about the compulsion that he bas to preach the Gospel. He says, true, there are many who reject the Gospel. Yet, that doesn’t make him faint, Paul says. Because that happens he doesn’t have reason to disbelieve the Gospel. He believes it with all his heart. He knows that the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation.

He says that he must endure much for Christ’s sake. It isn’t always very easy or pleasant to be a professor of the name of the Lord Jesus. Yet, even that does not make him faint. Then he quotes David in the 116th Psalm: “I believed, and therefore did I speak.” He says that nothing. nothing will deter him from continuing to verbalize—put into words—the truth that God had given him in his heart.

Now, what Paul is saying is simply this: when we really believe the faith which has been given to us by God, we will not be silent. We will put it into words. no matter what happens. When we are God’s children, we will not be ashamed of the Lord Jesus Christ. We will confess with our mouth and our lives that we are the Lord’s.

In the Old Testament, this was true. There were people in those centuries who professed that they were God’s people. They did it in a regular and faithful way, by means of that regular statement of faith, “Hear, a Israel . . . .” They did it in their lives, too. Some of them knew what it was to be persecuted for the faith. Remember Daniel in the lion‘s den?

In the New Testament, we read that the Church of Jesus Christ, no matter what, would profess her faith. As the Church would face the scorching winds of hell blowing against her, she would profess her faith no matter what the consequences would be. Paul would sit in the darkness of a rat-infested prison, a filthy hole, and sing praises at midnight to the Lord. Nothing would hold back that profession of faith.

The pages of church history tell us the same thing. The church would go submissively to become the sport of the people. She would go singing, professing faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Martin Luther would say, “Here I stand. I can do no other.” “I believe, therefore, I have spoken.” Scottish Covenanters in the days of great persecution would know what it was to sing their faith as they marched through the streets. They knew what it was to be persecuted for the Lord Jesus Christ. But nothing, nothing would hold them back! They believed, therefore they spoke.

The people of God in New Testament times, as well as Old Testament times, not only professed their faith as they marched through the streets or as they found themselves in prison, they also professed faith for His servants. God speaks. He tells us that we are delivered: “I am Jehovah thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.” He tells us that His servants are delivered from bondage. Then, we hear God say, “Thou shalt not.” In saying this again and again He lays before us the demands that He has for His people.

The creed is used in the second service to balance God‘s speaking to us in the first service. Following the pattern laid down in the Word of God, you and I profess our undoubted Christian faith. In so doing, we renew our faithfulness at the second service. This is what the Old Testament statement of faith, “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God is one God,” was to do. It was a statement of the renewal of the faithfulness of God‘s people. Having heard God’s constitution, the Ten Commandments, and having heard the Word of God preached, we respond at the second service, implying by our activity, “This is my faith. I believe. He is my God. I am a child of God. The Law speaks He is my God. I am His servant. I’m redeemed by the blood of the lamb. I am a child of God. The Law speaks to me. It is for me.”

What we do as we liturgically recite the creed in worship is what God’s children have done all through the ages. The world would press the child of God to say, “There is no King but Caesar.” The child of God would respond, “I believe in God, not in Caesar.”

Today, the child of Cod responds with his faith amidst the terrors of Communism as it raises its ugly Anti-Christian head in many ways.

We join with the believers, our brothers and sisters throughout the ages, and profess faith in the one Lord, the one God who made heaven and earth.

You see, what we are doing when we profess our faith together, is really verbalizing—putting into words—our daily profession. True, they are words that have been laid down so that we include all that is essential to the faith. But these words express something that you and I, by grace, know as Truth from the Word of God. Of course, you realize that this is not just a set of facts. That’s not the kind of knowledge I mean. That’s not faith. That’s an historical faith, but not true faith.

Faith is not just knowing in our heads certain things. Many say the creed this way, of course. There are those who sit with the people of God in small chapels and vast cathedrals, here at home and in all the world, who say the creed with the people of God but who only know it in their heads. They are not professing faith because they do not know what they are saying (even though they might be able to give all the proof texts from the Word of God). Knowing the Faith is a knowledge coupled with confidence, a belief that this is true. It is saying the faith with assurance, “I believe. I certainly do in God the Father Almighty, and in the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Spirit. I believe most assuredly that He is my God, the Triune God, and I am His child.”

As we express in these words our faith, we do it together. With one voice the Church says, “I believe, therefore I speak.”

When we blend our voices together, we are saying: “By this truth we live. This is the faith that carries me through tomorrow. This is the faith that carried me through yesterday. This is the faith that carries me through today. By the grace of God, I know His comfort. By the grace of God, I know His power in my life. I believe. This is the way I live. It is my faHh in life, transformed into the deeds that I do because God is my God. For this truth we will die. For this truth, we will be persecuted. But, by grace, we know that we are not forsaken because God is a great God. He is a God who is both able and willing to do all that we need. We know this comfort because we know what Christ has done for us. We know the work that the Lord has done on Calvary.”

Oh, and then, when we profess our faith, we know that it cannot be just a liturgical form. It cannot be just formalism—a ritual. It is a joyous time of the service because we testify together that faith which God has given to us.

Ah, but you say it is not anything so special—this saying of the creed. Perhaps it isn’t because our daily life is characterized by worldliness, so that we don’t quite see the beauty of that faith. Our senses are so dulled by the world that’s around us.

The very words which we profess ought to be a statement of that faith through which we know our only comfort for life and death.

A Meaningful Profession

Really, when you stop to think about it, to profess our faith in the words of the creed is to say a lot.

By that act, we are saying that we are one with the church of all ages. True, through sin, there is much difference of opinion concerning specific passages of Scripture. There is always a movement away from the Truth. There is always an attempt to make Scripture say something it doesn’t say. In spite of this, we profess our faith and we confess that we know oneness with the others who are of the Body of Christ. And just as we sing, “We are not divided, all one body we . . .” when we sing the familiar hymn, “Onward, Christian Soldiers,” so we profess faith together.

We are saying that we are one with the Church of all ages. As it were, as we speak, we are part of the ever increasing echo of the voices of by-gone centuries. We are taking our places with Paul, Peter, John, the early church, the women who wept at the tomb, with the prophets of old, and David and Solomon. We‘re taking our place with the people of God, and the faith we profess is the echo of all that has already been said by them in history. When we say “I believe,” we are joining with them. We are one chorus with that Church of Jesus Christ.

Oh, there’s a movement today in many churches to restate the faith, and there are many new creeds being written. You can go to some churches and you‘ll find that these creeds are in use. They’re printed right in the bulletin. But how sad they all are! They miss the truth of the Triune God. They speak of social action and various programs; they state that all men are children of God.

You and I do not join with them! We join with the Church of Jesus Christ, and echo the voice that has been heard down through the centuries. You and I testify that the faith of our fathers is ours, too, because it has come to us by the Spirit of Faith.

We have the Spirit of Faith. What is Paul writing about here when he says in II Corinthians 4:13, that we have “the same spirit of faith”? He is not thinking about some kind of inspiration. He means the Holy Spirit. The Bible speaks about the Spirit as the Spirit of Adoption and the Spirit of Truth. Here, He is the Spirit of Faith. How is it that we have that faith? The Holy Spirit works it with in us. You and I, by the grace of God, have that same faith as our fathers in the faith because of the working of the Holy Spirit.

What a mouthful that profession of faith is! We are saying we believe in the Triune God.

We say, “I believe in God the Father, Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.” He is the Sustainer. He, as it were, holds out His hand and gives us what we need. We pray, “Give us this day our daily bread,” and He holds out His hand giving us all that we need, and beyond. Need we worry? He is both able—oh, He has all power—and willing—because He loves His children—to care for us. “I believe in God the Father, Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.” That’s what you say—and so much more!

Continuing, we say, “I believe in Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son, our Lord.” Saying this we confess that we are sinners. To really say this we must be humble before so great a God. As soon as we confess the Lord Jesus Christ, we confess that we are sinners before Him. We say that the Lord is our Savior, and through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ we know all the blessings of our Sovereign God! The whole program of His work was for me. And what a comfort it is! He lived; He died; He rose again.

Each one of these steps in Christ’s work supplies a definite need His own have. Oh, what a great Savior we profess when we say together “I believe in Jesus Christ.” He’s our Savior, and because of Him , we know fellowship with God. He was forsaken in those awful black hours at Calvary so that I would never be forsaken of God. What blessed words! “I believe in Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son, our Lord.”

Our profession contains more, for we say, “I believe in the Holy Spirit.” How wonderful is His work! He regenerates us. He teaches us. We learn from Him as the Word of God is opened in the midst of God‘s people. He takes that Word home to our hearts and applies it. He makes the Bible plain so that we can behold the beauty of God. He has made us alive so all of this is a reality. Daily through His work we receive strength. He converts us. He turns us. Our way, according to the old ma.n, is to walk in the way of sin. But He takes us and turns us about so that we walk toward the Lord! He sanctifies us. Working within He applies the Law so that we will be remade to what we ought to be.

We believe, therefore, we speak!

A Joyous Profession

What a happy profession! Such truths have always thrilled the hearts of God’s people! Our hearts are thrilled by them, too.

We profess our faith in the words of the creed and as we do we meditate on what we are saying. What thoughts flood into our minds! Our hearts leap for joy!

We say that our God is almighty, that is, He has all power. As we say that, echoing in our hearts is the voice of the Lord Jesus, “Be not therefore anxious for the morrow: for the morrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof” (Matt. 6:34). The Lord Jesus tells us that God cares. We need not worry; we need not fear; we need not be anxious. Our heavenly Father knows that we have need of all these things, Jesus says.

We call Jesus “Savior,” and we remember the words of Isaiah (53:5, 6): “But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised (or our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way; and Jehovah hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.” Jesus –Savior. What a joyous profession!

We say triumphantly, “He arose,” and we remember that Paul said, “He was raised for our justification” (Rom. 4:25). And our hearts begin to throb a little bit faster because we know the joy of that justification!

We say “He ascended into heaven,” and we remember that He is there as our Great High Priest at God’s right hand, pleading for us daily, even as we sin. What a relief! We have a High Priest there who knows the infirmities with which we struggle. “He ascended into heaven”—what a comforting profession!

Our hearts warm even more when we speak together about the communion of saints because we know what it is to share our mutual burdens and woes. We know what it is to pray for one another and to help one another as need arises.

Then, what assurance and what joy comes as we confess together the forgiveness of sins. We know that our sins are covered by the work of Jesus Christ. We know that they are, as it were, cast into the depths of the sea. “As far as the East is from the West, so far has he removed our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:12).

What a hope is ours as we profess together concerning the everlasting life! Before us lay “things which eye saw not, and ear heard not, and which entered not into the heart of man, whatsoever things God prepared for them that love Him” (I Cor. 2:9).

Oh , it is a joyous profession, this that we believe! We believe, therefore, we speak!

No, the reciting of the creed is no routine matter for the child of God. We are saying, when we do it, that we know. Jehovah the God who gave us the Law, as our Redeemer. We say in the creed that in every experience of life He is our God. This is our faith. The creed becomes our “Amen-song” of praise. We are so thankful for what God has done!

Now ask yourself, is this creed your life profession? As you are observed at home or at work, is it clear by your word and deed that what you say as you profess the faith—as you raise your “Amen-song” of praise –that this is, indeed, your faith?

Oh, may our testimony be: We believe, therefore, we speak!