Who Do You Say That I Am? Old and New Testament Creeds
This post is part 1 of our series on the creeds.
All human beings have a core set of beliefs that shape and govern the way they understand reality and live their lives. In one way or another, every human being has fundamental beliefs about God, reality, morality, and the meaning of life, whether those beliefs have been formally articulated or not. Some have clear formulations of these beliefs, some are more abstract, and some are improvising them as they go. The question, therefore, is not whether we have fundamental beliefs, but whether those beliefs have been clearly articulated, publicly confessed, and tested against Scripture.
This was true in the time of Jesus as well. First-century Judaism included several distinct groups and schools of thought that shared important scriptural and covenantal convictions while differing significantly in their interpretation of the Law, resurrection, purity, messianism, and other theological questions. Some things they all had in common included the existence of only one God who had revealed Himself in Scripture, the covenant of God with Abraham, Creation and Fall, etc. If you asked Jews from different groups—Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, scribes, or ordinary laypeople—you could receive significantly different answers.
Jesus came as the authoritative interpreter and fulfillment of the revelation given in the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings. Jesus' teaching, authority, and miracles raised a question that continues to confront every generation: Who is He? Why does He do so many miracles? Where does His power come from? And many more questions. Everyone who met, had seen, interacted with, or heard about Jesus had a theological opinion about Him. If you had asked any Jew or Roman in the province of Judea, “Who is Jesus?” you would have received multiple responses.
This was known to Jesus, who knew the hearts of all men (John 2:24). So, in an important transition in His ministry from His serving and teaching to His passion, He asked His disciples a crucial question: “Who do people say that I am?” (Mark 8:27). Why is that an important question? Because we need clear doctrinal statements to see what we truly believe.
In the case of Jesus, although many believed Him to be the Christ or Christ-like, the response from His disciples was very revealing.
“Well,” they replied, “some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah, and others say you are one of the other prophets.” (Mark 8:28)
Even though they believed Jesus to be special in one way or the other, the Messiahship they saw in Jesus was very particular. It was related to some sort of resurrected John the Baptist or the Elijah who went to heaven back on earth, or simply one of the other prophets of the Old Testament, or maybe just a new prophet who had come to Israel to declare God's will to His people.
All of these are clear theological definitions of Jesus.
If we asked many people today, we would hear similar responses: He is a good teacher, a good example, a superman, a great prophet from the past, or even, negatively, a false prophet and a schismatic.
The question is then directed to the disciples.
“But what about you?” He asked. “Who do you say I am?” (Mark 8:29a)
This is the most important question a man in the time of Jesus or in our own time can ask. Who do we say Jesus is?
Peter's answer, speaking for the whole group of disciples, is:
“You are the Messiah (or the Christ).” (Mark 8:29b)
That is as clear and as precise as a doctrinal statement can get. Jesus' identity is related to the term Christ, that is, the Anointed One of God. Everything that God promised and revealed regarding the Christ is fulfilled in Jesus.
That's an amazing statement to make, and it is not technical in language, not hard to understand, and easy to memorize and repeat. In summary, Peter's confession gives us a concise example of what a creed does: it identifies clearly who Jesus is in a simple way.
We should make a distinction here. Peter was not reciting a later ecclesiastical creed such as the Nicene Creed. His confession is a biblical example of the kind of concise theological statement that identifies what God's people believe. The later creeds of the Church are more developed and comprehensive, but they follow this same basic confessional function: they state clearly who God is, what He has done, and what His people believe about Him.
The question is therefore not whether Christians will have doctrinal convictions about Christ, but whether those convictions will be clearly confessed, tested by Scripture, and publicly identified.
Creeds in the Old Testament
There are many important creedal statements in the Old Testament. The most important of them all is the Shema:
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength” (Deuteronomy 6:4–5).
Here we have revealed the identity of God as the Only True God and the covenant commitments of God's people towards God.
The Shema is more than simply a statement that God exists. It identifies who God is and establishes the corresponding obligation of His covenant people. Israel confesses the Lord as their God and therefore is called to love Him with all their heart, soul, and strength.
Another recurring Old Testament confession is the covenant formula, “I will be their God, and they shall be my people,” which expresses the fundamental relationship between God and His covenant people (Genesis 17:7–8; Exodus 6:7; Exodus 29:45; Leviticus 26:12; Jeremiah 31:33). It shows the identity of God as covenant head and of His people as His precious possession.
We also see creedal language in the prologue to the Ten Commandments, where God's identity as Redeemer is revealed:
“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.” (Exodus 20:2)
And as a last example, we see it in the great revelation of God's character in Exodus 34:
“The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet He does not leave the guilty unpunished; He punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.” (Exodus 34:6–7)
In all these passages, and in many others throughout Scripture, God reveals Himself through concise declarations of His identity, character, covenant, and redemptive purposes.
The point is not that Israel possessed formal creeds identical to those developed by the later Church. The point is that God's people were already accustomed to confessing God's identity, character, saving acts, and covenant purposes in concise formulations.
Creeds in the New Testament
In the New Testament, we have several creedal statements as well. As stated before, the confession of Peter is one of them.
We also have the summary of the Gospel in 1 Corinthians 15:
“For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve.” (1 Corinthians 15:3–5)
In this short confession, we find both the historical proclamation of Jesus' death, burial, resurrection, and appearances and the redemptive-historical interpretation of those events in the words “according to the Scriptures.” This provides a historical root and a theological significance that are easy to proclaim and to present to all people who seek a definition of the Christian Gospel.
Paul also says that this is something he received and then passed on. The Christian faith is therefore not something each generation invents again from the beginning. It is received, confessed, and transmitted.
We have clear statements on the identity of God as one and as Father and Son (1 Corinthians 8:6).
We have the confession of Jesus as Lord (Romans 10:9; 1 Corinthians 12:3).
And as a last example, the mystery of godliness:
“Beyond all question, the mystery from which true godliness springs is great:
He appeared in the flesh,
was vindicated by the Spirit,
was seen by angels,
was preached among the nations,
was believed on in the world,
was taken up in glory.” (1 Timothy 3:16)
Here we have the incarnation and humiliation of Christ, the testimony of the Spirit, the proclamation of the Gospel, faith, and the glorification or exaltation of Christ.
The New Testament therefore gives us not only individual statements of faith, but a pattern of receiving, confessing, teaching, and transmitting the fundamental truths of the Christian faith.
Creeds after the Apostolic Era
After the Apostles died and the New Testament was already written, the early Church, following the biblical pattern found in both the Old and New Testaments, continued the practice of using creeds and creedal statements to define their faith both to other Christians and to the world.
The Church did not create this practice from nothing. The Old Testament people of God confessed who God was and what He had done. The New Testament Church confessed Christ, His death, His resurrection, His Lordship, His incarnation, and His relationship to the Father. The post-apostolic Church continued this same confessional practice.
In societies like the Church, from the early period until the modern era, where access to written texts was limited, concise and memorable confessions also provided an effective means of teaching, memorizing, and publicly transmitting Christian doctrine. Beyond their theological function, they were therefore an important pedagogical tool.
These are the creeds: a great tool used as a means to proclaim and teach faithfully the essential Christian faith.
The purpose of creeds was not to replace Scripture, but to help the Church understand, summarize, confess, and defend what Scripture teaches. Scripture is the supreme and infallible norm of the Christian faith; creeds are subordinate confessions that summarize what the Church understands Scripture to teach.
They aid people in understanding what Scripture teaches regarding the doctrines they need to believe and provide a rule they can follow to better understand, interpret, and provide a defense of the Christian faith.
This distinction is essential. The authority of a creed does not come from the fact that it is a creed. Its authority is derivative and subordinate. The Church does not confess a doctrine because a council invented it; the Church confesses it because it believes that doctrine to be taught in Scripture.