I became a Christian at age 20 and was instructed to memorize the Apostle Creed a year later. N.T. Wright likens the Creed to a suitcase, in which things are more easily transportable, but which must be unpacked (Scripture’s Doctrine and Theology’s Bible. 2008, p.59-71). The Creed translated into Chinese needed a lot more “unpacking” for a young Christian such as me. Therefore, I have written the following “narrative faith statement,” not as “the last word”, but as my hopeful effort to make the fundamental truths of God both more understandable and thought provoking.
When I speak of the “God” of Christianity, I speak of a mystery beyond human understanding. A God, who always has been, always is and always will be. A God in three persons, equal in divinity and yet distinct: God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. A God, by His nature, is relational and communal.
In His love, God created the world and all that is in it. Unlike the rest of the creation, God created human beings -man and woman- in His own image and likeness, to be in a communal relationship with each other and with Him. God charged humanity with the responsibility to care for and manage the earth that He had created for them. However, since the beginning, human beings have chosen to rebel against God.
Consequently, each of us continually turns away from God. We each do what is good and right in our own eyes, even though our own ways have only led to brokenness, pain, injustice, destruction of ourselves and of this earth, and separation from each other and from God. We all sin.
But God has never abandoned His creation. In His love, God pursued us and promised to restore this broken world, as evidenced in the history and calling of Israel. The long awaited Messiah, Jesus, was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin. As much as the mystery about the Triune God, God the Son, Jesus became flesh. Jesus demonstrated the depth of God’s love for us through his complete solidarity with humanity. Jesus’ life and ministry set before us how true humanity should and could be, for Jesus lived and was tempted like us in every way, but yet he did not sin. Jesus’ life ultimately points us back to God and to who God really is. Jesus is God’s greatest self-revelation. Jesus is fully divine, yet fully human.
Jesus and his message of the coming of the Kingdom of God were rejected. His voice against the oppressive religious establishment and their ways of representing God were harshly put down. Jesus suffered a horrible death on the cross and yet, his suffering, crucifixion, death, and burial were ultimately a victory. In his obedience even unto death, Jesus took upon himself all of the consequences of sin. He willingly bore all the pain, hurt, suffering in this world.
Jesus’ death was also a victory for he did not remain in the grave-he was resurrected from the dead. His disciples touched him, spoke with him, ate with him and listened to him after his resurrection. Jesus has defeated the power of death and become the living hope to all. Jesus has risen and Jesus lives today.
Jesus is the only mediator between God and us. By the grace of God and through faith in Jesus, we have been forgiven and brought back into right relationship with God. We are His followers and apprentices. In this covenantal relationship with Jesus, our principal responsibility is not one of understanding, but of continued abiding in His presence and obeying Him out of love.
Jesus Christ ascended into Heaven, lives and reigns with God the Father in our lives through the Holy Spirit, our Counselor and Teacher. The Holy Spirit dwells in each person who trusts in Jesus. The Holy Spirit affirms us as children of God and empowers, illuminates, inspires, comforts, convicts/rebukes/corrects, gives gifts to and counsels us. The Holy Spirit forms and transforms us daily as we listen, wait upon, interact, and partner with Him.
Together with all the followers of Christ, we are the Church, the Body of Christ, Christ’s Bride and an instrument and embodiment of the resurrected Christ. The Church is called to be an ambassador of reconciliation, bringing God’s message of reconciliation to the world through the power of the Holy Spirit.
In addition to the Holy Spirit and the Church community, God also gave us the Bible, the written Word of God. The Bible was inspired by God-God-breathed-and was written by many human authors throughout history. It has been written, read, and interpreted in Christian community. The Bible reveals to us the triune God and documents the history of God’s people and the covenantal relationship between them. It is the final authority for Christian faith and practice. It is also the standard for all our thinking and teaching about who God is, what God has done, and what God requires of us as children of God.
All Christians wait eagerly for the time when Christ will return, as he promised, to make all things new and to wipe every tear away. However, until then, we as believers live with “double citizenship”: we are the citizens of this world but we are also the citizens of the Kingdom of God. The struggles and the battles of these two worlds play out in our everyday lives. By the grace and mercy of God, we are on this life-long journey of learning, growing and striving to be holy and pleasing to God. By the power of God, the Holy Spirit, we-as individual follower of Christ and as the Church, the community-can indeed serve God and His people, preach the Good News, and live out the Kingdom reality now as Christ commanded us.
