What The Bible Says Of Jesus
S. Matth. i. 21. Thou shalt call his name Jesus. xvi. 16 Thou art the
Christ, the Son of the living God. S. John i. 14 the only begotten of
the Father, full of grace and truth, 1 Cor. xvi. 23 our Lord Jesus
Christ. S. Matth. i. 18 his mother Mary was found with child of the
Holy Ghost. S. Luke i. 35 that holy thing which shall be born of thee
shall be called the Son of God. S. Matth. xxvi. 39 O my Father, if it
e possible, let this cup pass from me. S. Mark xv. 15 Pilate, willing
to content the people, released Barabbas unto them, and delivered
Jesus, when he had scourged him, to be crucified. 25 and they
crucified him. 37 And Jesus cried with a loud voice, and gave up {108}
the ghost. 44 And Pilate marvelled if he were already dead. 45 And
when he knew it of the centurion, he gave the body to Joseph. 46 And
he . . . took him down . . . and laid him in a sepulchre which was hewn
out of a rock, and rolled a stone unto the door of the sepulchre. xvi.
1-6 And when the sabbath was past . . . very early in the morning the
first day of the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of
sun . . . the stone was rolled away . . . entering into the sepulchre,
they saw a young man sitting on the right side . . . And he saith unto
them . . . Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified: he is risen;
he is not here. S. John xx. 20 he shewed unto them his hands and his
side. Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord. Acts i.
10, 11 And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up,
behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; which also said, Ye men
of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which
is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye
have seen him go into heaven. 1 Pet. iii. 22 (Jesus Christ) is gone
into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities
and powers being made subject unto him. S. Mark viii. 38 when the Son
of Man cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels, S.
Matth. xxv. 32 before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall
separate them one from another. Rom. ii. 16 God shall judge the
secrets of men by Jesus Christ. Acts x. 42 it is he which was ordained
of God to be the judge of quick and dead. Rom. xiv. 10 we shall all
stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
Note i. Quick=living. Cf. S. John vi. 63, it is the spirit that
quickeneth, A.-S. cwic.
Jesus=God the Saviour; or God is my Saviour: the same word as Joshua.
S. Matth. i. 21.
Christ=Anointed. Ps. ii. 2; cf. Acts iv. 26.
Note ii. Death is the separation of soul and body: the body returns
to earth as it was (Eccl. xii. 7), and the spirit, or soul, returns to
God who gave it. Resurrection is when the soul and body are reunited.
While we are alive there is a continual change of particles which form
the body; yet it is the same body. Similarly after death the particles
decay, but the body of the Resurrection will be in that sense the same
body (1 Cor. xv. 38). When we say that Christ was buried, we mean that
His Body was buried, and in this Creed we add that He descended into
hell: and we mean that His Soul went to the place of departed spirits,
which are waiting for the Judgment. The word, Hell, has no meaning
here of punishment. In Anglo-Saxon, helan=to cover, and hell=a covered
place. In some parts of England we still hele (=cover) over roots
to keep off the frost. Thus hell is used to translate Gehenna in S.
Matt. v. 22, and also Hades in Acts ii. 27, 31, which last is the
meaning here. This Creed should be compared in parallel lines with the
Nicene Creed, in order to see what phrases are here which are omitted
there. We shall notice the following: conceived, born, dead. He
descended into hell, from the dead. It is clear that the Nicene Creed
was framed to express more clearly the Godhead of Jesus, which had
been denied {110} by Arius. The Apostles' Creed, on the other hand,
expresses more clearly the true human nature of our Lord: His Birth and
Death are more definitely stated--either because His Resurrection from
the dead had been doubted, or because the verity of His human nature
was not well understood. The words, He descended into hell, complete
the statement that he died as truly and completely as other men die.
The passage, 1 Peter iii. 19, 20 has often been quoted as indicating
that, in His death, He had a work to do amongst those who had died
before He came on earth--viz. to carry to the blessed dead the glad
tidings of His Conquest of Sin, whereby they, as well as others after
them, are saved.
Note iii. Among early heretics were some who thought that Jesus,
being truly God, could not have died except by a substitute--that he
seemed to die. They were thence called Docetae (from dokein to
appear). In like manner, many people have since attributed His
Perfect Holiness to His Godhead only, and not to His human victory over
real temptations. This Creed sets forth the Bible doctrine of His
Manhood more particularly. But it also declares His Godhead--partly
because the words, I believe in God, belong to all three paragraphs
of it; and partly by the words, his only Son. See S. John i. 1-4,
14, 18; 1 S. John i. 3; S. Matth. xvi. 16. The Nicene Creed was
prepared at a time when His Perfect Manhood was universally believed,
but some thought that He was not God. It is therefore much fuller in
the statement of His Godhead.