On the Relevance of Creeds and Confessions
Two things the Lord used to confirm in my heart a call to ministry were a love for his Word and a passion to help others understand it so that they might know Jesus. Both of these are essential to faithful theological inquiry.
Your words were found, and I ate them,
and your words became to me a joy
and the delight of my heart,
for I am called by your name,
O Lord, God of hosts. (Jer. 15:16)You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also. (2 Tim. 2:1–2)
To these two, there is a third Scriptural priority I want to highlight that is equally essential to faithful theological inquiry: guardianship. Paul writes, “By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you” (2 Tim. 1:14).
Lest we think this guardianship refers only to doctrine, Covenant Seminary Professor of New Testament Dr. Bob Yarbrough, quoting Timothy Johnson, reminds us that the deposit refers to “the way of life found in the healthy teaching that accords with the good news.” Nevertheless, Yarbrough notes that the ethic of Christian obedience ought not be abstracted from the “doctrine that informs it and the historical truth that the good news consists in.”
Taken together, then, these three passages call us to love the Word of the Lord, pass down that Word to faithful believers who will also be able to pass it down to succeeding generations, and to preserve a faithful understanding of this Word so that the church can live faithfully and in obedience to Christ.
The point worth observing is this: the church cannot fulfill this task without taking up the work of creating and preserving a creedal and confessional reading of the Scriptures. I write this in full awareness that for some the notion of any systematic or unitive theological effort invokes fear and raises suspicion. To name only a few possible misgivings:
a. Those who write creeds and confessions err.
b. Creeds and confessions introduce “illegitimate ecclesiastical constraint upon free and rational inquiry.”
c. Creeds and confessions written later unduly influence careful exegesis.
d. Creeds and confessions (and systematic theology more broadly) abstract the historical narrative of the Scriptures and subject it to extra-biblical systems.
To be sure, there are pitfalls, but they should not scuttle the project of forming and passing down a confessional reading of the Scriptures. Neither do they outweigh the considerable benefits arising from this work.
As the denominational seminary of the Presbyterian Church in America, Covenant Theological Seminary gladly rejoices in our confessional standards and believes them to be essential to the performance of the mission in this world that Christ has given to us. In no way do they detract from the Christian’s calling to completely submit to the authority of the Scriptures in all matters of faith and practice. In fact, their work is complementary. More broadly, all creeds and confessions of the church ought to be conceived as subordinate stewards, strengthening our ability to understand and teach the Scriptures faithfully and promoting greater obedience to Christ and service in his Kingdom.
Though not exhaustive, I'd like to suggest five reasons why this is true. I also hope that you will come away with a greater appreciation of, and encouragement to employ, our confessional standards in your ministry, regular teaching, and corporate worship.
1. Confessions Clarify and Summarize What the Bible Teaches for the church
The most important purpose deriving from the creeds and confessions of the church is their ability to clarify and summarize what the Bible says in ways that serve a specific historical and cultural context. Surveying the history of the church, it is evident that creeds and confessions were often created to defend the clear teaching of the Scripture against those who would twist the Bible to serve selfish and erroneous conclusions. For example, in the earliest creeds of the church, like the Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Creed of Chalcedon, the church, using the language available to it, articulated and defended the important doctrines of the Trinity, the unique divinity of Jesus Christ (homoouisos not homoiousios), and the full humanity of Christ (incarnatus). In each succeeding generation of the church, new questions and heresies emerge. At those critical junctures, the ensuing debates may require the church to clarify and affirm important biblical teaching in relation to those disputed issues. As they have been handed down to us, these documents are now critical to our understanding of the Bible’s teachings and guide us as we wrestle afresh with old questions and as we engage new and unforeseen ones.
2. Confessions Highlight the Communal Task Essential to Theological Inquiry While Honoring the Spiritual Authority of the church
Throughout its history, the church has been called to “contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 1:3). Faithfulness to that task through the centuries has produced not only Christians, but diverse communities of faith, comprising churches, denominations, and whole theological traditions. Consequently, no one today approaches the Bible tabula rasa, as though language, historical context, cultural realities, and intellectual capacities do not affect the task of interpreting the Bible. Despite the protestation of those who declare “no creed but Christ,” it is impossible to approach the Bible without acknowledging that Scripture and the interpretation of Scripture have already been received, studied, taught, and obeyed nby generations of believers across diverse cultures. As Scott Swain, quoting Abraham Kuyper, notes, “[T]he Christian reader ‘is no isolated worker, but . . . the organ of restored humanity. Christian reading is thus a communal enterprise.’”
For this reason, Christian summaries of the Bible’s doctrinal and ethical teaching are both a communal blessing and serve a normative, though not ultimate, authority in the life of the church. That the creeds and confessions were formed in the context of communities of faith that were “with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel” (Phil. 1:27) is an abiding example for us in the church for how we ought always to be wrestling with the truth of the gospel. There are no solitary disciples of Jesus or interpreters of his Word. That these creeds and confessions were received by the church, then, honors that work and solidifies their normative function in the church’s life. Indeed, it is impossible today, more than two millennia after the closing of the canon, “to contend for the faith” without honoring the contributions of the church’s deposit of creeds and confessions.
In confessing the creeds and confessions of the church as authoritative, we number ourselves in the communion of those who celebrate a shared understanding of God, ourselves, and the world we inhabit. Honoring the creeds and confessions of the church, then, is a matter of Christian humility. Paul summons us to “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ” (1 Cor. 11:1). Receiving our theological tradition as articulated in our confessional standards is a matter of being a humble student of the Word, yet all the while recognizing that our own study must necessarily follow in the footsteps of many others who have, in obedience to Christ and in the power of his Spirit, trod this path before us.
3. Confessions Serve to Unite the Church in Doctrine, Worship, Discipleship, and Mission
As already noted, despite there being many historical, cultural, and linguistic factors affecting the hermeneutical task and specific theological conclusions emerging from from this work, these do not deny, but rather establish essential biblical doctrines as transcultural, having relevance that spans across history. Rooted in the unchangeable character of our God, a shared story of creation-fall-redemption, and a common anthropology, those redeemed in Christ have many more things in common than they do outstanding differences. On this, theologian Michael Allen is insightful:
[The call of the Christian] is to be more contextual than the contextualizers. Focault, Lyotard, and Derrrida are correct to highlight the shaping powers of society in its various facets. They are myopic in that they focus only on the economies of this world and miss the most fundamentally defining reality for all humans: the divine economy rooted not in class, race, gender, or education but in God’s eternal fullness and his covenantal election.
When we discern that Scripture is speaking the same good news across cultures, across his history, and across the peoples of the world, an obvious benefit is its unifying purpose. “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise” (Gal. 3:28–29). Creeds and confessions that orient us to the common plight of humanity and its sole hope in Jesus Christ as revealed to us in the Scriptures have tremendous potential to unite the church in its doctrine, its practice, its worship, its discipleship, and its mission.
In today’s world, where extreme positions garner more attention and where ecclesiastical bonds frequently weaken, it is important for us to highlight our confessional standards for the unifying purpose they serve. Here is where we have said we agree. We have a shared understanding of scriptural truth. We must work hard to preserve those bonds forged out of a shared understanding of the Scriptures.
Nevertheless, as our experience testifies, mere theological agreement is insufficient for ecclesiastical unity. Our hearts must be sanctified as well as our minds if we are to enjoy the rich bond of fellowship we long for. As Paul reminds us, confessional stances (as with other matters) must be held “with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph. 4:2–3).
4. Confessions Serve a Pedagogical Purpose for the church
Next, our confessions serve a pedagogical or instructional purpose in the life of the church. In his final letter to Timothy, Paul wrote, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth” (2 Tim. 2:15). The undergirding idea in the word orthotomeō, translated in the ESV as “rightly handling,” involves the guidance of “the word of truth along a straight path.” Clearly, this work requires faithful exegesis of the Bible so that it is understood in its original historical, literary, and canonical context. But it also requires the faithful explanation and application of that text in ways that serve the particular needs and situations of succeeding faith communities as they change throughout the generations.
Theologian Kevin Vanhoozer reminds us that the purpose of Christian doctrine “is direction for the fitting participation of individuals and communities [i.e., faith communities that make up the church] in the drama of redemption.” The creeds and confessions of the church have been created precisely for that purpose. As carefully worded summaries of the Bible’s truth situated in specific historical contexts, they are essential, ensuring that succeeding generations are able to understand and apply the Word of God to their particular cultural settings. In this way, the creeds and confessions are good teachers, modeling for us key elements in the task of theological inquiry.
This is also why it is incumbent upon the servant of the Word of God to be familiar with the relevant confessions so that their insights might bear fruit in the life of the church. Faithful deployment of the creeds and the confessions through sermons, liturgical use, class instruction, programs of memorization and more, is fundamentally both an act of wisdom and of humility by the ministry leader (or a Christian institution like a seminary), recognizing that an entire legion of faithful ministers in past generations have put their hands to the proverbial plow to ensure that the faith is rightly understood and applied.
5. Writing Confessions Fulfills Our Lord’s Command to Love God with Our Minds
Finally, the task of theology, of which writing creeds and confessions is but one aspect, is an act of Christian obedience to love the Lord our God with the whole self, including our minds (Matt. 22:37). According to theologian John Webster,
Christian theology is biblical reasoning. It is an activity of the created intellect, judged, reconciled, redeemed, and sanctified through the redemptive works of the Son and the Spirit . . . it is rational contemplation and articulation of God’s communicative presence.
As with all aspects of the human person, our minds and the articulations of our minds require sanctification according to the Spirit to be brought into conformity with God’s holy Word. Historically, the creeds and confessions of the church have recognized the priority of this task and have been deployed unto that purpose. They are both servants of the Christian’s sanctification and its bounty.
Moreover, is no mere accident that during times when creeds and confessions were created, the church often flourished through greater numbers coming to personal faith in our Savior. The intellectual task of Christian theology, then, is not just a Christian avocation but absolutely essential to every Christian’s vocation in the Lord. Theologian Sinclair Ferguson notes how important is the work of the mind in the promotion of the work of the church:
The conviction that Christian Doctrine matters for Christian living is one of the most important growth points of the Christian life. Frequently in pastoral work this can be seen. Most of us, by nature are not students but more “practical” types, “doers” rather than “thinkers.” Yet both Scripture and the history of the church indicate to us that it is, generally speaking, “thinkers” who make the best “doers”! Cast your mind over the life-stories of the men and women who have had the most practical influence on the church, or perhaps on your own life. You will discover very few among them who were not students of Christian truth, however unsophisticatedly they went about their studies. From the greatest theologians, martyrs and intellectually gifted preachers, to those of lowliest gifts but spiritual power, all, perhaps without exception, have been students of the doctrines of the Bible and therein lies one of the secrets of their usefulness. However paradoxical it seems to our natural minds, it is one of the facts of spiritual reality that practical Christian living is based on understanding and knowledge. A verse in the Old Testament illustrates this. It says of man that “as he thinks within himself, so he is” (Prov. 23:7 NIV margin). That summarizes the Christian position perfectly—how we think is one of the great determining factors in how we live!
As one of the primary deposits of church history, the creeds and confessions not only testify to how important is the work of the mind in the service of Christian obedience, but they also guide the church today in that same task—to love the Lord our God with all our mind.
Conclusion
Though much more could and should be said on why we ought to value and transmit our confessional heritage, these five reasons seem self-evident. Moreover, in no way should this diminish the Bible’s role as occupying the place of final authority on matters of faith and practice. At Covenant Seminary, when it comes to interpretation, we are decidedly a Bible-first institution. To be otherwise would, as noted above, depart from our confessional commitments.
Nevertheless, to say that we are Bible-first does not disregard the rich contributions of those going before us who also were seeking to “rightly [handle] the word of truth” (2 Tim. 2:15). The creeds and confessions of the church, in fact, are a vital blessing to that end, and are even essential in attaining to a better understanding of the Scriptures. So, rather than seeing the Bible’s relation to creeds and confessions through an adversarial lens, it is far better to see the creeds and confessions of the church as complementary companions that guide us in our task. Again, Scott Swain summarizes the point well,
Reading Scripture in light of the rule of faith thus involves reading Scripture within the context of our trinitarian faith, aided by the church’s good confession, for the sake of the church’s continuing growth in this trinitarian faith.
Note: This article first appeared in the spring 2025 edition of Covenant magazine. Get your copy or subscribe to Covenant here.
