Confession of Faith: Deut 26:16-19

1.1 Happy New School Year! Students have gone back to school, and parents finally have some free time—yay! And now, I can enjoy a good cup of coffee because the Soup Haven has resumed.

1.2 Over the past eight months, we journeyed through the book of Isaiah. Through God’s vision, Isaiah reminded us how we reflect God’s image: by doing justice and showing His mercy in our daily lives. And now, we begin a new journey exploring what authentic Christian faith is and how we embody it together.  

1.3 Let me ask you a question: What is the relationship between Christianity and culture? If they are deeply connected, how do they shape one another?

1.4 The truth is, faith cannot be separated from culture. For instance, Canadian churches don't usually hold 5:30 a.m. prayer meetings, but Korean churches do. Scripture doesn’t command dawn prayer, but early Korean believers embraced it as a heartfelt spiritual discipline, inspired by Jesus praying early in the morning and rooted in their own cultural rhythms. In itself, that was a meaningful way to express devotion.

1.5 However, when we mistake a cultural tradition for an absolute biblical command, a 'silent distortion' begins. We don't realize we’ve altered the focus until the core message of grace gets replaced by human performance. Similarly, in our Canadian culture, our strong value of individualism can quietly distort faith into something purely private, stripping away communal responsibility.

1.6 In both cases, human culture tries to redefine what it means to be a faithful Christian. That is why understanding the true Confession of Faith is vital. The Creeds do not exist to bind us to cultural rules; they anchor us to who Jesus Christ is and call us to walk with Him in covenant trust. Starting today, and leading up to Advent, we will explore together what the Christian Confession of Faith truly means for our lives.

Deuteronomy 26:17–19 GNT

Today you have acknowledged the Lord as your God; you have promised to obey him, to keep all his laws, and to do all that he commands. Today the Lord has accepted you as his own people, as he promised you; and he commands you to obey all his laws. He will make you greater than any other nation that he has created, and you will bring praise and honor to his name. You will be his own people, as he promised.

2.1 In Deuteronomy 26, when the Israelites brought the firstfruits of their harvest to the altar, they were commanded not simply to drop off an offering, but to speak aloud a sacred memory:  

Deuteronomy 26:5–6 ESV

And you shall make response before the Lord your God, ‘A wandering Aramean was my father. And he went down into Egypt and sojourned there, few in number, and there he became a nation, great, mighty, and populous. And the Egyptians treated us harshly and humiliated us and laid on us hard labor.

This reveals something profound: biblical worship was never just about performing an outward ritual or offering a sacrifice. It was about responding to God’s prevenient grace by reciting who God is and what He has done. Grounded in this redeeming story, Israel and the Lord confirmed their covenant: 'You have declared this day that the Lord is your God... and the Lord has declared that you are His treasured people.'

2.2 This shows us what the Christian Creed—our Confession of Faith—truly is. Christian confession is not merely an intellectual recitation of doctrine; it is an act of covenantal worship and whole-person allegiance where believers offer their lives in response to the downward, redeeming movement of the Triune God.  

2.3 That is why historic, liturgical churches—whether Anglican, Lutheran, Presbyterian, or Catholic—place the Apostles’ Creed at the very heart of their liturgy. It reminds us that genuine worship is not about chasing an emotional high or merely 'feeling good.' Worship is a covenantal declaration: that God the Father is our Creator and the Author of new life; Jesus the Son is our cruciform Lord and living Savior; and the Holy Spirit is the Comforter and Empowerer who sustains our walk until Christ comes again.

2.4 There are many creeds in history, and they reveal how seriously theologians and pastors have dealt with them. Among them, I want to read the Apostles' Creed to start today's sermon. 

I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.  I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord. He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again. 

He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again to judge the living and the dead.  I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy universal (catholic) Church–all believers in Christ, the communion of saints (Baptism and Lord’s Supper), the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

3.1 Why did the early church begin this demanding work of formulating creeds? Why did pastors and theologians labor so intensely over every single phrase we just recited?  

3.2 First, the Creed was born at the waters of Baptism. In the ancient Roman world, professing this was dangerous. When early believers stepped into the baptismal waters, they were asked: “Do you believe in God the Father? Do you believe in Jesus Christ His Son? Do you believe in the Holy Spirit?” Reciting this confession was not an intellectual exercise; it was a radical pledge of covenant allegiance—declaring that Caesar is not Lord, but Jesus Christ is. The confession they spoke in those waters—known as the Old Roman Creed—became the very foundation of the Apostles' Creed we hold today.    

Old Roman Creed: I believe in God the Father almighty; and in Christ Jesus His only Son, our Lord, Who was born from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary,  Who under Pontius Pilate was crucified and buried, on the third day rose again from the dead, ascended to heaven, sits at the right hand of the Father, whence He will come to judge the living and the dead, and in the Holy Spirit, the holy Church, the remission of sins, the resurrection of the flesh (the life everlasting).

3.3 The heart of this confession was simple yet earth-shaking: Jesus alone is my Lord and Savior. They understood that the church as an institution was not the ultimate object of their faith. Coming to church was not about joining an exclusive club or performing a religious ritual; it was about standing shoulder-to-shoulder with other believers to declare: Jesus is my Lord, not Caesar; Jesus is my Savior, not the empire. 

3.4 Second, the Creed was forged as a guardrail against silent distortion. As Christianity spread across different cultures, speculative teachers tried to rewrite Jesus into an appealing philosophical idea—some denying His true humanity, others denying His full divinity. In response, the early church did not invent a new religion. Instead, they built an apostolic compass to safeguard the life of discipleship and preserve the downward, self-giving grace of God.  

3.5 Therefore, the Apostles' Creed is not an ancient chain to bind our freedom. It is a shared covenant map—pointing every generation back to who God is, what He has done in Christ, and how we are called to walk together as His treasured people.

The Historical Crisis: Two Silent Distortions of Christ

4.1 In the first few centuries, the church faced an existential crisis—not just from Roman swords, but from subtle, 'silent distortions' arising from within. The battle was over one question: Who is Jesus Christ?  

• Distortion 1: Denying His Full Divinity (The Upward Ascent). Some teachers, like Arius, claimed that Jesus was not truly God, but merely a remarkable teacher, a supreme moral guide created by God. But the early church realized that if Jesus is only a created being, he cannot save us. Faith collapses into Pelagian self-help—we are left trying to climb up to God by our own moral performance.

• Distortion 2: Denying His Full Humanity (The Escapist Faith). Other groups, influenced by Greek philosophy, claimed that matter was evil, so the divine Son could not have possessed real flesh and blood; He only appeared to suffer. But Church Father Gregory of Nazianzus boldly proclaimed: “What is not assumed is not healed.” If Jesus did not take on our real human flesh, our real emotional turmoil, and our physical brokenness, then our real humanity remains unredeemed.

The Council’s Unified Voice: The Anchor of Salvation

4.2 To stop these silent distortions from tearing the church apart, bishops and pastors gathered at councils like Nicaea and Chalcedon. They were not playing abstract word games. They declared that Jesus is fully God and fully human—unconfused, indivisible, and inseparable. Why? Because only the uncreated God could descend to rescue us from death, and only by taking our genuine humanity could He heal every corner of our broken lives. The Creeds were written not as an academic exam, but as a lifeline of salvation.  

What Does This Mean for the Church Today?

5.1 So what does this 1,700-year-old victory mean for us in Saskatchewan today?

Just like the early believers, we are constantly tempted by our own cultural 'silent distortions.'

• When we reduce Jesus to an inspiring life-coach or a moral example, we turn faith into a burdensome checklist of religious duty.

• And when we reduce salvation to an escape ticket to heaven while ignoring physical injustice, sick bodies, and hurting neighbors, we fall into the ancient trap of treating real human life as disposable.

5.2 Reciting the Creed anchors us back to reality. It proclaims that the sovereign Creator has stepped down into our historical dirt, tears, and pain to redeem the whole person—body, mind, and soul. True confession of faith leads neither to moral self-righteousness nor to detached private spirituality; it propels us into the world to embody Christ’s cruciform love and practice daily discipleship (Nachfolge). This brings us right to the heart of the Apostle Paul’s plea in Romans 12:1-2.

Romans 12:1–2 NIV

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Renewing the Mind: Grounded in Confession

6.1 What does it truly mean to have our minds renewed? In our culture, people often equate it with positive thinking, feeling inspired, or resetting our emotional expectations. But biblical renewal runs vastly deeper.

6.2 Renewing our mind means renewing our confession of faith in Jesus Christ. It means refusing to let the culture's silent distortions dictate our priorities, and instead letting the apostolic truth shape how we see God, ourselves, and our neighbors.  

Worship as Living Allegiance

6.3 Paul reminds us that this mental renewal is inextricably linked to our physical bodies: "offer your bodies as a living sacrifice." The ultimate destination of the Creed was never merely the lips or the intellect; its true destination is our hands, feet, and daily lives.  

6.4 To confess that Christ came down into human flesh is to honor human bodies and care for the vulnerable. To confess that Jesus is Lord is to realign the entire trajectory of our life, stepping out into authentic discipleship (Nachfolge) and walking in His self-giving love. Genuine worship is not confined to Sunday morning songs; it is an embodied life lived under the covenant lordship of Jesus Christ. 

Concluding Questions for the Journey Ahead

7.1 As we begin this journey through the Christian Confession of Faith over the coming weeks, let us confront our own hearts with these questions:  

1. In what ways has my faith been quietly shaped by the patterns of culture—relying on mere religious routine or shrinking into privatized comfort—rather than by the living Christ?

2. When we declare 'Jesus is Lord,' what is one concrete area of our daily lives—our relationships, resources, or work—that needs to be realigned as a living sacrifice to Him this week?