The Devotional Benefit of Reading Creeds

Thanks to Crossway’s recent publication of Jonathan Gibson’s excellent resource, Be Thou My Vision: A Liturgy for Daily Worship, I have, since the beginning of this year, been immersed in the creeds on a daily basis. Each morning, as a part of the daily liturgy in this resource, readers privately confess their belief in the Christian God by reading either the Apostle’s Creed, the Nicene Creed, or the Athanasius Creed. Engaging in this practice was a refreshing novelty for the first couple of weeks—when unfamiliarity was still a feature and certain words or phrases struck me as surprising—but doing so daily for seven months, this practice has turned into something much deeper and richer. Now, I am beginning to notice not so much certain elements about the creed, but rather, I notice certain elements of myself—ways that I have been shaped by the habit of confessing the creeds daily.
The Creeds and the Formation of Theological ImaginationFirst, reading the creeds daily has impacted the way I think about, and pray to, God. Increasingly, when I think of what it means to worship God, I think of worshipping the “one God in Trinity and the Trinity in unity, neither confounding their Person nor dividing their essence.”[1] When I pray to my Father in heaven, I am aware of the fact that I am praying to the “Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth and of all things visible and invisible,” of whom the “only begotten Son of God” is “begotten… before all the worlds,” and from whom (with the Son) the Holy Spirit—“the Lord and Giver of Life”—proceeds.[2] When I think of Christ, I am amazed by the one who is “God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten not made, being of one substance with the Father.”[3] Consequently, it is unthinkable that I should ever imagine any kind of hierarchy in this simple, single, godhead, since “none in this Trinity is before or after, none-is greater or smaller; in their entirety, the three persons are coeternal and coequal with each other.”[4]Reading the creeds daily has impacted the way I think about, and pray to, God.CLICK TO TWEET
This has done wonders for my life of worship. To contemplate this almighty, transcendent, eternal, omnipotent God is to comprehend and worship “the unity in Trinity and the Trinity in unity.”[5] I find myself positively delighting in the Spirit’s designation of “Giver of Life,” and find no difficulty at all with worshipping and glorifying him together with the Father and the Son.[6] I find myself awestruck by the Trinity’s being “immeasurable” and “uncreated” and “one” and “eternal” and “almighty,” with my heart resounding in agreement and full desire to “confess each person individually as both God and Lord,” and embracing with full appreciation that “catholic religion forbids us to say that there are three gods or lords.”[7] Indeed, I feel as if I am getting a better grasp at what Dante describes in his final canto of Paradiso when he writes,

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