Creeds, like the Chalcedonian Creed, are just short summaries of the full message of the Bible. They are the cliff notes that help us get into the story. Maybe in high school you were like me and used cliff notes to get out of reading the whole book. That’s not actually how they’re supposed to work. Sometimes it helps to read the cliff notes first so you have an idea of where you’re headed when you dive into a big book. Sometimes you want to read them after you read the book to have it made clearer to you.
The Chalcedonian Creed can work the same way.
The Chalcedonian Creed, as we’ve written before, is a summary of what the Bible says about Jesus—who he is and what he does. Keep this creed handy as you read Scripture and you’ll see how particular chapters, verses, and stories bear out its truth. If there is a passage or book that confuses you in the New Testament, look for a topic of the creed that it could fall under. The summary jumpstarts your thinking and meditating on what you’ve read.
Today we focus on one aspect of that. Jesus, the creed says, was born of a woman. Let’s think about this. Jesus was born of a woman. Why is that so important to the summary of who he is and what he does? It tells us several things.
First, Jesus is human just like us.
This is something we often forget when we read the Bible and see Jesus doing something that we know we should emulate. Sometimes I’m tempted to read about Jesus’ compassion toward people and say, “Of course he was compassionate. It’s Jesus! He’s God. He had to be that way.” I tend to let myself off the hook. But Jesus is a human who shows compassion. As much as I fall short of being a compassionate person, I’ve never met another human who didn’t appreciate someone else’s capacity for compassion.
Second, God is humble.
Can God make a rock so big that he can’t move it? The question is plagued with logical problems. Maybe we would do better to ask whether God can be contained in space and time, in flesh and blood, inside the womb of a teenage peasant girl growing from embryo to fetus until actual live birth? Suddenly the question about the rock seems less important to me. God born as a man from a virgin is much more incredible. No other world religion has a concept of God Almighty that is also God with us in humility.
Third, Jesus’ birth affirms that creation is good.
God isn’t bothered by our bodies. In fact, he created them and designed them with a unique form and function. So many religions throughout time have tried to say that matter is evil or that creation is bad. It’s only the supernatural, or spiritual, that counts. The spirituality of the Bible says that the physicality of humans is good and it was designed on purpose for good.
Eugene Peterson in his book Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places puts it this way:
Birth, any birth, is our primary access to the creation work of God. Jesus’ virgin birth provides and maintains the focus that God himself is personally present and totally participant in creation, which is good news indeed.
God has loved us enough to come and be with us. A popular songwriter asked, “What if God was one of us? Just a stranger on the bus? Just a slob like one of us?” The answer of Scripture summarized in the creed by the phrase “born of a woman” is YES. God is one of us. God the Son is one of us and that has further implications that we will continue to explore as we unpack the rest of this helpful creed.
In Him,
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