Why Theology Matters: Understanding God the Father Through the Nicene Creed

Theology isn't just for pastors or seminary professors—it matters for everyone. We all live our lives around the fundamental question of God's existence and identity. Some deny God exists. Others believe he's unknowable. Others imagine multiple gods. But Christianity confesses something different: there is one God who has spoken and revealed Himself through Scripture.

What Is Theology and Why Does It Matter?

Theology is simply careful, deliberate reflection on who God has revealed Himself to be, then living in light of that reality. Puritan William Ames defined it perfectly: "Theology is the doctrine of living to God." It's both simple and deeply practical.

This matters because if we get God wrong, everything else falls apart. If Jesus is less than God, his cross cannot save us and he cannot be worshipped. But if Jesus is truly God—the eternal Word made flesh—then our salvation is secure, our worship is true, and our hope is unshakeable.

The Historical Context of the Nicene Creed

In 325 AD, the Roman Empire had just ended its brutal persecution of Christians under Emperor Constantine. But as the church gained freedom, a serious controversy arose about Jesus' identity. A teacher named Arius claimed that only God the Father was truly God, while Jesus was the first and greatest created being—God-like but not fully God.

This teaching spread rapidly through popular songs, but it threatened the Scriptural witness to Jesus. If Jesus wasn't truly God, he couldn't be worshipped or provide salvation. Church leaders like Athanasius defended the biblical truth that Jesus is eternally God, equal with the Father.

Constantine gathered 200-300 church leaders in Nicaea to settle this question, resulting in the Nicene Creed—a confession that guards the gospel and protects our worship.

Why This Ancient Debate Still Matters Today

The same errors persist today in different forms. Jehovah's Witnesses teach that Jesus is a created being. Mormons claim he's one god among many. Secular culture admires Jesus as a moral teacher but denies his divinity. All of these fall short of biblical truth.

The Nicene Creed serves as essential guardrails, reminding us that our God is not unknowable but the eternal Father who sent his eternal Son and gives us his eternal Spirit.

Understanding "We Believe in One God"

The creed begins with a foundational truth found throughout Scripture: there is one God. This echoes the ancient confession from Deuteronomy 6:4: "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one."

This wasn't just Israel's way of distinguishing their God from false gods—it's a metaphysical claim that there can only be one God. He alone is eternal, uncreated, and self-existent. Everything else in existence depends on Him for life and being. He is Creator; everything else is creature.

Why Creeds Matter

Some people worry that creeds compete with Scripture's authority, but the Nicene Creed serves Scripture by summarizing its truths in words the whole church can confess together. It's only authoritative insofar as it accurately reflects what Scripture teaches.

From the beginning, Scripture itself contains creedal statements—concise confessions meant to be memorized and recited. The purpose is to remember, proclaim, and pass on the truth about who God is and what He has done.

The Father Is God

When the creed says "we believe in one God, the Father Almighty," it identifies who God the Father eternally is. He has always been Father—not a role he took on when he created the world, but his eternal identity in relation to the Son.

Before creation existed, God was already Father because the Son eternally existed with Him. This means love isn't something God learned—love is who God is. Even before creating the world, he was already giving and receiving love within himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

What It Means That God Is Our Father

While God is eternally Father to the Son by nature, we become his children by grace through faith in Christ. When someone is born again, they receive God as their heavenly Father—not because He was lonely and needed us, but out of the overflow of his eternal love.

This brings incredible security. Unlike human fathers who may fail, grow weak, or leave, our heavenly Father is Almighty—possessing all power and sovereignty. The same hands that uphold galaxies uphold our lives. Nothing can separate us from his love because he has loved us from eternity past and will carry that love into eternity future.

All Things Flow From His Hand

The confession that the Father is "Maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible" means everything exists because he willed it into being. From galaxies to gravity, from angels to atoms—everything flows from his hand.

He didn't shape pre-existing matter or collaborate with other gods. He spoke, and all things came to be out of nothing. This stands in stark contrast to ancient creation myths involving competing gods or modern theories of blind chance and self-organizing chaos.

What This Means for You

This confession changes everything about how we understand ourselves and the world. You are not an accident. Your body, soul, and spiritual hunger are not accidents. In a world that says everything came from nothing, by nothing, for nothing, Christians confess that everything came from God, through God, and for God.

Many people today are spiritually hungry, searching for transcendence through horoscopes, crystals, or other spiritual practices. Rather than mocking this search, we can gently redirect them to the God who is there—the source of all light and life they're seeking.

The Good News of Redemption

Though we were created to know and enjoy God, our sin has cut us off from the source of life, leaving us in darkness and death. But here's the incredible news: the eternal Father sent his eternal Son into the world He made to redeem creatures who had rebelled against Him.

The Word through whom all things were made became flesh, entered creation, bore our sin, and rose again so we might be brought back to the source of light through faith in Christ. The Father who made you can become the Father who adopts you through his Spirit, who gives life to dead sinners.

Application

This week, commit to being a better theologian by spending more time thinking about God as He has revealed Himself, not as you might imagine Him to be. Our greatest danger isn't ignorance of God but indifference to Him. We were made to know the Father who made us, the Son who redeems us, and the Spirit who dwells within us.

When anxiety rises, remind yourself: "My Father runs the universe." When you feel unloved, remember: "I am loved by a God who has always been love." When life feels meaningless, recall: "I am not an accident—I was created by the Father Almighty for his glory."

Ask yourself these questions:

• Do I truly believe that God is my loving, almighty Father, or do I live as if I'm on my own?
• How does knowing that I'm not an accident but created intentionally by God change how I view my purpose and worth?
• When I encounter people searching for spiritual meaning, how can I gently point them to the true God rather than dismissing their search?
• Am I living as someone who knows the Creator personally, or just conceptually?

Don't settle for a God of your own imagination. Know the God who has revealed himself, trust the one Father who rules all things, and worship the Creator who came to be your Redeemer.