Download an outline of the Creed.
Go to the beginning of this study of the Creed.
Download the handout.

Table Talk:  How might each Person of the Trinity be a part of the forgiveness of sins?

[“Table Talk” is an opening question or topic for discussion at the beginning of our time together.  The intent is to help group members (around tables, with four to six at each table) build connections with each other, as well as to guide thinking in a direction related to the passage.]

As has happened on many occasions, the sermon we heard just before our group met was remarkably relevant to our discussion.  In fact, before we met I changed the “Table Talk” based on a statement from the sermon, “A full realization of grace leads to a fruitful relationship with God,”[1] and asked for comments.  In our discussion, “grace” seemed to be one of those very familiar religious words that we use but cannot quite define with precision.  One person pointed out that “God is all about grace,” so it is important that we understand it as much as we can.  Another person commented that we only have a “partial realization” of grace.  Thinking about grace and how little we might understand about grace prepared us for our discussion on the “forgiveness of sins” in the Creed.

[For those interested in the original Table Talk topic about forgiveness as the work of the Trinity:

“Forgiveness of sins” is, again, a work of the triune God. “Father, forgive them,” says the Son on the Cross. And the Father forgives because he sees how fully the Son forgives his debtors; and both pour the Spirit of Holiness into the sinner’s icy heart so that it might melt and the love within it begin to flow.[2]

Our forgiveness is from the love of the Father, through the work of the Son, by the power of the Holy Spirit.]

Development of the Creeds

Comparing the Apostles’ Creed (ca. AD200) with the Nicene Creed (ca. 325-381) reveals that the Nicene Creed links baptism with forgiveness or remission of sins.

Apostles’ Creed (ca. AD 200)	Nicene Creed (ca. AD 325 – 381)
the forgiveness of sins,	I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins;

We discussed why the Fathers at Nicaea might have added baptism here?  One person suggested that the phrase might refer to the baptism of the Holy Spirit.  The section of the Creed about the works of the Triune God (the church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins) does fall under the heading of the Holy Spirit.  However, it seems unlikely for that to be the meaning of baptism in the phrase in the Nicene Creed.  Several writers (for example, Thomas Torrance[3]) suggest that the reference might be to the baptism of Jesus at the beginning of His ministry.  The water baptism of believers still seems to be the most direct and simple explanation of the “one” baptism:  ^“There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all” (Ephesians 4:4-6).

The question remained:  why the connection between baptism and the forgiveness of sins?  Is this a subtle suggestion that baptism is necessary for salvation (believed by some denominations)?  While everyone in our discussion rejected that idea, we always try to examine differing views.

Biblical Connection

There is a connection suggested by several Biblical passages that link baptism and the forgiveness of sins:

• Matthew 3:6 – and they were being baptized by him in the Jordan River, as they confessed their sins.
• Mark 1:4 – John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
• Mark 1:5 – And all the country of Judea was going out to him, and all the people of Jerusalem; and they were being baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins.
• Luke 3:3 – And he came into all the district around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins;
• Acts 2:38 – Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
• Acts 22:16 – Now why do you delay? Get up and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on His name.’

As one member pointed out, baptism was also part of Jesus’ Great Commission in Matthew 28:19.  However, none of these verses provide a causative link that makes baptism a necessary condition for salvation.  It seems more likely (considering other passages that describe grace and the process of salvation) that baptism is the public acknowledgement and initial entry into the belief and following of Jesus that allows the forgiveness He offers.

The Book of Acts tells us that baptism became for the earliest church the ritual medium for expressing this forgiveness. At Pentecost, Peter exhorts the crowd, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38).[4]

Baptism, inclusion into the church, our forgiveness, our salvation are all intertwined in the Biblical images that attempt to express God’s inexpressible work of grace in our lives.  Baptism is the expression of our experience of forgiveness, not the prerequisite for our forgiveness.  The structure of the Creed grows out of the nature of the Triune God.  Baptism in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19) links our forgiveness to the character of what one writer calls the “Father-Son-Holy Spirit God.”[5]

It was undoubtedly the inner connection between baptism and the wholeness of the apostolic and catholic faith, not least in respect of belief in the Holy Trinity included in baptism, that lay behind the confession or acknowledgement of ‘one baptism’ in the Creed.[6]

Historical Connection

We also considered the historical connection between baptism and forgiveness.  What effect might historical circumstances have had on the development of the creeds?

Persecution was evident in the book of Acts, and church history confirms that as the church grew and spread, so did the intensity of the persecution.  It is not hard to imagine that some sincere believers were unable to resist the demands of the Empire to renounce their faith and leave the church.  But when Constantine made Christianity a legally-recognized religion (along with many others in Rome), how was the church to react?  How should the remnant of those who had endured and survived respond to those who had not endured in order to survive?

After the persecution ceased, many of those who had weakened under its threat now sought reconciliation with the church. After due proof of sincerity, most of them were readmitted to the church-after all, the church is supposed to be a people of love and forgiveness. But others protested. They insisted that the church is supposed to be holy and to witness to the truth of Christ. How then could it accept within its bosom those who were such clear sinners and who had denied the faith? On this basis, they rejected the rest of the church as tainted by sin and created a church of their own. Since one of their leaders was named Donatus, the rest of the church dubbed them “Donatists.” It seems to have been as a response against the rigorism of the Donatists and others like them that the phrase was added to the Creed, “the forgiveness of sins.”[7]

One of many points of the sermon mentioned earlier in this article was the offensiveness of grace.

God’s grace is incredibly beautiful and it’s shockingly offensive.  You could read it that God’s grace is for the Jewish person in the prison camp, and it’s for the Nazi camp worker.  God’s grace is for both the victim and the victimizer …. We love grace when it touches the oppressed, but what about when it gets a little bit scandalous? When it gets a little bit offensive?  When it reaches further than we would have it reach if God were taking ideas from us?[8]

Perhaps the Nicene Fathers were affirming the “shockingly offensive” aspect of God’s grace.  Those who had been baptized (“one baptism”) were part of the church and presumably followers of Christ.  The church (or at least some of its faithful members) may have been offended, but the forgiveness of those lapsed brothers and sisters was an incredibly beautiful display of God’s grace.

The Meaning of Forgiveness

Another observation between the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed raised a question about the difference between the words “forgiveness” and “remission” in the two creeds.  Several suggestions came up in our discussion.  One thought was that while forgiveness suggests reconciliation of relationships, remission sounds more like a business transaction, a cancellation.  Perhaps the most helpful comment pointed out the medical use of remission regarding cancer.  It is not a cure but rather getting the disease under control.  A cancer in remission can recur.  Forgiveness might imply a complete stop, a final end.  How do the words in the creeds relate?

Actually, the words in the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed are identical.  Both in Greek (ἄφεσιν ἁμαρτιῶν, aphesin hamartion) and in Latin (remissionem peccatorum) versions, the wording is the same.  As often happens in Bible translations, the differences were introduced with the translation into English.  That fact raises the question of exactly what “forgiveness/remission” means, what it involves.  Our discussion opened the idea of the wide range of meanings and implications of “forgiveness of sins.”  As we saw in our opening discussion, “grace” itself can be difficult to define, not because it is so vague, but because it is so comprehensive.

“The New Testament uses a wide range of images to express the richness of its understanding of the work of Christ.  ‘The forgiveness of sins’ is mentioned as an example of these images and is not meant to exhaust them.”[9]  Other words that McGrath uses to elaborate on “forgiveness of sins” include legal and personal dimensions, reconciliation, salvation, rescue, wholeness, and redemption.

Michael Bird expands the list:  “In Holy Scripture we learn that Jesus’s death:

• Provides a ransom for sins (Matt 20: 28; Mark 10: 45).
• Protects from the tribulation and future judgment (Matt 23: 37– 39).
• Ushers in the new covenant (Mark 14: 22– 25 and parallels).
• Restores Israel and draws the nations into the family of Abraham (Mark 9: 12; Luke 1: 68; 2: 38; 23: 27– 31; John 11: 51– 52; Acts 3: 18– 21; 13: 25– 29; Gal 3: 13; Rev 5: 9– 10).
• Rescues us from the kingdom of darkness and the present evil age (Gal 1: 4; Col 1: 14).
• Reconciles us from enmity (Rom 5: 10– 11; 2 Cor 5: 18– 20; Eph 2: 16; Col 1: 20, 22).
• Redeems us from slavery (Rom 3: 24; 8: 23; 1 Cor 1: 30; 7: 23; Gal 3: 13; 4: 5; Eph 1: 7, 14; Col 1: 14; Titus 2: 14; Heb 9: 12; 1 Pet 1: 18; Rev 5: 9).
• Justifies us from condemnation (Rom 3: 24; 5: 9; Gal 2: 21).
• Provides forgiveness of sins (Matt 26: 28; Luke 1: 77; 24: 47; Acts 2: 38; 5: 31; 10: 43; 13: 38; 26: 18; Eph 1: 7; Col 1: 14; 3: 13; Heb 9: 22; 1 John 1: 9; Rev 1: 5).
• Brings peace to our hostility with God (Isa 53: 5; Acts 10: 36; Rom 5: 1; Eph 2: 14– 17; Col 1: 20).
• Heals our wounds and brokenness (Exod 15: 26; Isa 53: 5; Mal 4: 2; 1 Pet 2: 24).
• Cleanses our moral impurities (1 Cor 6: 11; Titus 2: 14; Heb 1: 3; 9: 14– 22; 10: 2, 22; 2 Pet 1: 9; 1 John 1: 7, 9; Rev 7: 14).
• Provides an example to be followed (Phil 2: 5– 11; Heb 12: 1– 3; 1 Pet 2: 21).

It is very difficult to reduce the effect of the cross to just one of these images. This rich array of biblical images in its entirety possesses an abundant testimony to our peace with God, our sins cancelled, divine anger set aside, all enmity ended, and all hostilities ceased.”[10]

There are numerous attempts to condense (and perhaps oversimplify?) what Jesus accomplished on the cross:[11]

Recapitulation	Jesus’s death replays the story of Adam except that, unlike Adam, Jesus is successful over sin and obedient to death on the cross.
Ransom	Jesus paid the price for the release of humanity from Satan.
Victory	Jesus’s death is a triumph over evil and the devil.
Moral Influence	Jesus’s death changes our inward disposition and enables us to love others.
Exemplar	Jesus’s death provides an example of love for believers to emulate.
Satisfaction	Jesus’s death satisfies the debt of God’s honor that our sins affronted.
Governmental	Jesus’s death shows God’s displeasure with sin and Jesus’s death pays the debt caused by our transgression of God’s justice.
Penal Substitution	Jesus died as our representative and substitute and takes away the penalty meant for us.

Among the images are redemption, reconciliation, rescue, renewal, cleansing, forgiveness, justification, adoption, pacification, eternal life, and even deification. The Apostles’ Creed regards “forgiveness of sins” as a convenient head term to encompass the whole package of salvation.[12]  It seems more useful and more conciliatory to appreciate “the whole package of salvation” rather than spend much time and energy debating which single image is “best.”

Matthew 18:15-35

Earlier in our discussion one person had opened the issue of the relationship between God’s forgiveness of us and our forgiveness of others.  The story of the unforgiving servant was mentioned.  That passage is included in the handout that we used in our discussion (one more instance, along with the sermon, of God’s providential preparation for our discussion).

The familiar story describes a servant who owed an unimaginable amount (ten-thousand talents, variously estimated in today’s terms as hundreds of millions of dollars! [13])  However the math works out, the debt was incomprehensible.  We decided to bypass the question of how the servant could acquire that much debt – an important practice in interpreting parables is to focus on the principles, not the particulars.

The other dimension of the parable is the one-hundred denarii owed by the second servant.  One person in our group mentioned the often-heard comment on this parable:  that amount was trivial.  But the amount was not trivial.  To dismiss the smaller debt as easy to forgive misses an important point in the parable.  A denarius was the wage for a worker for a day’s work.  One hundred denarii, or a hundred-day’s wages, would be significant, perhaps four or five thousand dollars.  The amount was not comparable to the overwhelming burden on the first servant, but it was certainly not trivial.  Forgiveness cost both the master and the first servant.  Certainly the relative amounts suggest the greatness of our forgiveness by a Holy God, but our forgiveness of others should not be minimized.  Whatever the financial condition of the first servant (forgiven by the master) was, he was shocked at the thought of forgiving the thousands owed to him.  The point of the story is not that forgiveness is easy but that it is appropriate.

Receiving and Giving Forgiveness

Another comment from the sermon provides a pithy summary:  “Forgiven people forgive people.”[14]

But then, to affirm the forgiveness of sin is to affirm also the forgiveness of the sins of others. There is a connection between the two. Jesus put it bluntly in his explanation of the Lord’s Prayer and in a very pointed parable. Regarding the Lord’s Prayer, he commented, “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Matt. 6: 14-15). At first, these words seem to imply a sort of transaction: If you forgive others, God will forgive you. But the matter is much deeper. Often the reason we do not forgive others is that we ourselves are not convinced that we are forgiven. We may feel that we have done nothing that requires forgiveness. Or we may have such a sense of guilt that we can cling to our own self-worth only by considering ourselves better than those whom we refuse to forgive.[15]

The creed tells us that the church, therefore, is at least this: a community that recognizes that it is sinful and stands in need of God’s forgiveness, and a community that seeks to embody the practice of forgiveness as a sign to the world.[16]

Johnson’s observation that our forgiveness provides a “sign to the world” is important.  Forgiveness is not generally on the world’s agenda.

Every one says forgiveness is a lovely idea, until they have something to forgive, as we had during the war. And then, to mention the subject at all is to be greeted with howls of anger. It is not that people think this too high and difficult a virtue: it is that they think it hateful and contemptible. ‘That sort of talk makes them sick,’ they say. And half of you already want to ask me, ‘I wonder how you’d feel about forgiving the Gestapo if you were a Pole or a Jew?’[17]

That kind of forgiveness will invite either the world’s scorn (as Lewis suggested), or the world’s wonder.  “How can you possibly forgive that?” whatever that is, perhaps the murder of innocent school girls.[18]  The familiar verse about being ready to tell why we have hope assumes our lives will prompt such questions:

¹⁴ But even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed. And do not fear their intimidation, and do not be troubled, ¹⁵ but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence;  (1 Peter 3:14-15)

Forgiving others is an opportunity to display “reproducible glory,” the reflection of God’s gracious, forgiving character.  During the incarnation, Jesus was able to display God’s character in human form.  He prayed, “The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one.”[19]  The glory Jesus desired for His disciples was (and is) that reproducible glory, to display what God is like through God-obsessed lives.  Forgiveness of others is a practical part of that reproducible glory, a part we have the opportunity to practice almost daily.

Two Caveats

But the difficulty of the practice of forgiveness should not be underestimated. We may think that we are forgiving, when all we are doing is denying that we have hurt or been hurt by sin. We may think we are forgiving when we have only grown weary of the fear and anger generated by hurt, and have accommodated ourselves to the presence of sin in ourselves or others. We may think we are forgiving when we are only acquiescing in sin against ourselves or against others.[20]

Johnson’s warnings are profound.  Forgiveness is hard (remember, $4,000 is not a trivial amount).  We can mistake denial or weariness or other shortcuts for genuine forgiveness of others.

But let us also always be aware that we are not God, and cannot forgive as God forgives. We do not see the other truly and completely. There are hurts that we are not able, either individually or communally, to get around or grow past—to forgive or accept forgiveness for. And it is precisely in this humble condition of inadequacy and failure and even sin that we most truly implore the merciful God to forgive us, so that we might someday approach forgiving others as, we trust, God now already forgives them.[21]

That inadequacy and failure and our inability to forgive as God does is why, in the words of the sermon, “A full realization of grace leads to a fruitful relationship with God.”  We must remember the hundred-million-dollar mercy shown to us to even approach a realization of the magnitude of grace.  Then that appreciation and exuberance over our own forgiveness can begin to spill over into our forgiveness of others.

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[1] Ryan Paulson, “Contrasting Grace” in the sermon series Encountering Jesus (South Fellowship Church, April 2, 2017),
http://www.southfellowship.org/encountering-jesus-contrasting-grace-luke-1835-1910/

[2] Hans Urs von Balthasar, Credo:  Meditations on the Apostles’ Creed, trans. David Kipp, (San Francisco:  Ignatius Press, 1989), Kindle Edition, location 628.

[3] Thomas F. Torrance, The Trinitarian Faith:  Evangelical Theology of the Ancient Catholic Church (London:  T&T Clark Cornerstones, 2016), Kindle Edition, location 6754.

[4] Luke Timothy Johnson, The Creed:  What Christians Believe and Why it Matters (New York:  Doubleday, 2003), 282; Kindle edition location 4052.

[5] Wes Roberts, “The Sacred, Vibrant, Life-giving Mission of Mentoring,” Engage Magazine:  Denver Seminary, Spring 2017, 15.

[6] Thomas F. Torrance, The Trinitarian Faith:  Evangelical Theology of the Ancient Catholic Church (London:  T&T Clark Cornerstones, 2016), Kindle Edition, location 6701

[7] Justo L. Gonzalez, The Apostles’ Creed for Today (Louisville, Kentucky:  Westminster John Knox Press, 2007), 83.

[8] Ryan Paulson, “Contrasting Grace” in the sermon series Encountering Jesus (South Fellowship Church, April 2, 2017),
http://www.southfellowship.org/encountering-jesus-contrasting-grace-luke-1835-1910/ ; emphasis in the original transcript of the sermon.

[9] Alistair McGrath, “I Believe” – Exploring the Apostles’ Creed (Downers Grove, Illinois:  IVP Books, 1997), 98.

[10] Michael F. Bird, What Christians Ought to Believe (Grand Rapids, Michigan:  Zondervan, 2016), 128-129; Kindle Edition location 2072.

[11] Michael F. Bird, What Christians Ought to Believe (Grand Rapids, Michigan:  Zondervan, 2016), 131; Kindle Edition location 2108.

[12] Michael F. Bird, What Christians Ought to Believe (Grand Rapids, Michigan:  Zondervan, 2016), 210; Kindle Edition location 3403.

[13] The IVP Bible Background Commentary (Downers Grove, Illinois:  InterVarsity Press, 2000), 95.

[14] This phrase is in my notes from listening to the sermon, but does not appear in the transcript.

[15] Justo L. Gonzalez, The Apostles’ Creed for Today (Louisville, Kentucky:  Westminster John Knox Press, 2007), 84.

[16] Luke Timothy Johnson, The Creed:  What Christians Believe and Why it Matters (New York:  Doubleday, 2003), 284; Kindle edition location 4085, emphasis added.

[17] C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (New York:  HarperCollins, 2000), 115; Kindle Edition location 1502

[18] Sura, Forgiveness for Sandy Hook and other Unthinkable Acts, Huffington Post blog, 12/19/2012.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sura-flow/forgiveness_b_2317996.html

[19] John 17:22.

[20] Luke Timothy Johnson, The Creed:  What Christians Believe and Why it Matters (New York:  Doubleday, 2003), 284; Kindle edition location 4085, emphases added.

[21] Luke Timothy Johnson, The Creed:  What Christians Believe and Why it Matters (New York:  Doubleday, 2003), 285; Kindle edition location 4102.