I believe in God, the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth.

The Apostles creed begins with an affirmation about each of the members of the Trinity.  To say that God is a Trinity immediately distinguishes Christianity from all other religious faiths and practices.  The reality is that the moment we begin speaking about God we must posit some idea about the nature of God.  We must answer the questions of “What is God?” and “Who is God?” These questions clarify between what is and what isn’t.  The Christian faith alone understands God to be Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Three distinct beings who are each God but who also are one in essence.  They are co-eternal and co-essential.  This of course is mind-boggling, and worship inducing.  The Christian understanding of God in the creed begins with God, the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth. Contained in this phrase are several unique and key truths.  First, God as Father.  Christianity alone gives us this image of the Fatherly nature of God.  In the Old Testament God is seen as the “Father” of Israel.  He created the nation, “I will make you into a great nation” (Genesis 12) and the called them into a special relationship with himself that they might be his children and He their God (Exodus 4:22, Deut 32:6).  

Additionally, God speaks of himself as a “father of the fatherless and a defender of widows (Psalm 68:5).  However, Jesus himself is the one who develops the theme of the Fatherhood of God as a central piece of his life and ministry.  This is shown both in the fact that Jesus enjoyed a Father-Son relationship that was utterly unique to him.  He spoke of His Father in a way that none of the prophets before him ever did.  “Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?  The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works.”  (John 14:10).  And yet, Jesus spoke of this relationship being made available to us, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.”  (John 14:23).  We believe in God the Father.  Second, we believe in the Father Almighty.  This teaches us that God the Father is above all.  There is no one and nothing that is greater than or over God the Father.  He is the Almighty.  On the one hand the doctrine of the Trinity teaches and affirms that each member of the God-head is equal to the other members.  Yet Jesus himself subjected himself to the will and authority of His Father.  In one place Jesus says, “My sheep hear my voice … I give them eternal life … and no one will snatch them out my hand.  My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.”  Furthermore, Paul tells us, “Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father … when all things are subject to him, then the Son himself will also be subject to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all.”  To believe in God the Father Almighty is to affirm that He will complete every work that he has set out to do both in creation and in redemption and that nothing in all creation, no enemy, no force, no power, not even ourselves is able to thwart his plan and purpose to achieve all that he has set forth to do.  He is the Almighty.  This is a great comfort to us.

 Finally, we affirm God the Father as creator of heaven and earth.  We should be quick to note that all the members of the Trinity are active in creation.  It is not as if one member created while the others look on.  Rather they each play a role in the work of creation, but their roles are distinct.  While God is the creator there are specific roles.  God the Father is the one “from whom all things came” (I Cor 8:6, Rom 11:36),  Jesus Christ is one “through whom all things came” (I Cor 8:6) and “in him all things were created” (Col 1:16), and the Spirit of God is the one who “hovers” over the waters bringing order out of chaos and breathing life into God’s created beings.  One church father wrote that the Son and Spirit were the hands the Father used in the creation of the world.  Thus we may rightly affirm God the Father as the Almighty creator / maker of heaven and earth.  We should note that God was not pushed to create.  God made the universe and all that is in it out of the exuberance of His glory and that he might share that glory with his creation and we are the special object of his love.  May you rejoice in today in the belief and knowledge that through Jesus you know God the Father the Almighty creator of heaven and earth.