He Came Down from Heaven

This transcript has been lightly edited from an automated transcription for clarity and readability. While we've worked to preserve each speaker's words faithfully, errors may remain.

1. 0:08

   Gavin Ortlund

   Boy. The process of preparation for this specific talk moved me to tears at moments, thinking about what our Savior Jesus has done for us. Here's the big idea: the Incarnation — we'll define that word — and the saving activity of the Son of God is a work of the Trinity.

2. 0:29

   Gavin Ortlund

   Let's think about that together. I want to read the paragraph we're going to focus on, even though we just said it — this time as I read it, listen for the words "Father" and "Spirit," and start to think with me about how the Trinity is at work in the incarnate and ascended work of Christ, who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven,

3. 0:57

   Gavin Ortlund

   and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary and became man.

4. 1:09

   Gavin Ortlund

   For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate. He suffered death and was buried, and rose again on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.

5. 1:36

   Gavin Ortlund

   There was once a missionary in Tibet who had been seized by the Communists following their takeover of China in 1949. He was treated very harshly. He was very discouraged. One night he was sent out to go feed the horses in the nearby stable. It's bitterly cold. The stable is dirty and smelly. He's feeling sorry for himself, thinking, "What does my life come to?" All of a sudden he realizes what day it is.

6. 2:10

   Gavin Ortlund

   It's Christmas Eve.

7. 2:13

   Gavin Ortlund

   He wrote in his journal that night these words: "I stood suddenly still in that Tibetan stable, to think that my Savior was born in a place like this — to think that He came all the way from heaven to some wretched stable, and what is more, to think that he came for me. How we beautify the cross and the crib, as if to hide the fact that at birth we resigned him to the stench of beasts, and at death exposed him to the shame of rogues. I returned to my room and bowed my head in worship." That's the end of his journal entry.

8. 2:52

   Gavin Ortlund

   What I love here is the sense of the Incarnation coming down into the messy realities of human experience and bringing hope to every person in every place, so that just as he found hope in the midst of that horrific circumstance, so can we. When we think about what Jesus has done for us — when we hear that word "incarnation," most of us are familiar with it. This refers to the Son of God assuming a human nature. We can put it simply by saying God became man. We can even say, with theological accuracy, God became a baby. But underneath that introductory language, there are many misunderstandings, or partial misunderstandings, among Christians today that creep in constantly. We want to be alert to that — the very title of

9. 3:46

   Gavin Ortlund

   my talk: He Came Down from Heaven. Those words may be the trickiest in the Nicene Creed for some of us, because it's very easy to misunderstand the word "down," to think that there is a kind of subtraction from the Trinity in the Incarnation. This is a very common misunderstanding — as though when the Son of God assumes a human nature, there's some kind of subtraction from the divine nature. So we want to use the Nicene Creed to understand this amazing, wondrous mystery: that the Son of God became a man while remaining fully God. There is no subtraction from the Trinity in the Incarnation. So let's dive into this. On my counting, there are 87 words in English in my section of the Creed, 70 in Greek, and 50 in Latin. Let's go through every single word.

10. 4:46

    Gavin Ortlund

    And I'm going to break it down into five clauses, and we'll go piece by piece. The goal is not just to think about this and understand it and ward off various heretical misunderstandings, but also to enter into worship even while we think about it. Right now, clause number one of five: "who for us men and for our salvation came down."

11. 5:12

    Gavin Ortlund

    Now, it's very significant that the first word of our portion here is the word "who." This is not initiating a new sentence, nor is it switching the subject. Rather, this is a relative clause, simply further elaborating about the one Lord Jesus Christ, in whom belief has just been confessed. So we have one sentence bridging from the person of Christ to the work of Christ. This highlights that the eternal generation of the Son is foundational to his incarnate work. It is the only begotten who is born of the Virgin Mary. It is the God from God and Light from Light who is crucified under Pontius Pilate.

12. 6:02

    Gavin Ortlund

    Now, following that subject "who" are about ten verbs, which give you a basic skeletal structure of the incarnate and ascended work of Christ — starting from the moment that Mary became pregnant, when the divine and human natures were united in one person, and concluding with a vision of the eternal state inaugurated by the second coming of Christ. These ten verbs are not exhaustive, and they somewhat overlap — I'm combining the last two into one action. But we're told that the Son of God comes down, was incarnate, became human, was crucified, suffered, was buried, rose, ascended, is seated, and will come to judge again. The first eight of these are in the past tense. What is currently happening right now is Christ's heavenly session — we'll talk about that — and his second coming is in the future.

13. 7:08

    Gavin Ortlund

    If we want to zoom out a little further, we can schematize this a bit differently by grouping the verbs into two broad phases, as is often done: humiliation and glorification, or sometimes descent and ascent. The glorification is often said to begin immediately after Christ's death, with his descent into hell and his triumphant proclamation to the spirits in prison, as referenced in 1 Peter 3:19 — which is, interestingly, in the Apostles' Creed but not in the Nicene Creed. So I don't have to tell you what it means.

14. 7:54

    Gavin Ortlund

    But if you're interested, Matt Emerson's book on that is outstanding, if you want to dive into that. Now, before we work through each of these ten activities, let's not rush too fast over the introductory phrase indicating purpose: "for us men and our salvation." The word "men" here means all human beings, men and women.

15. 8:19

    Gavin Ortlund

    This is very significant, because — and actually, I think this connects to how we want to serve the people we're speaking to — there's a temptation to think of the Nicene Creed as just abstract technicalities removed from daily Christian experience. One of the things we've already talked about a lot, in our breakout today, is that you can't even start to pray without thinking through the Trinity. So the nature of God and the person of Christ are absolutely foundational to the most basic Christian experience.

16. 8:57

    Gavin Ortlund

    And everything that is confessed in the Creed — including that the Son is consubstantial with the Father, for example — is situated toward this purpose: for our salvation.

17. 9:11

    Gavin Ortlund

    Now, interestingly, although the phrase "for our sake" will recur with reference to Christ's crucifixion,

18. 9:19

    Gavin Ortlund

    already here the entire narrative sweep of his incarnate activity is introduced with this phrase, "for our salvation." What is good for us to appreciate is that each of these different moments or events in the incarnate work of the Son of God is identified by the Creed as part of the saving activity of Christ. Sometimes we put all the focus on Christ's death and resurrection. Those are rightly seen as central and climactic, but they are organically connected to what comes before and after in one coherent narrative whole. These other moments mentioned in the Creed are also salvific in their own various and distinctive ways. For example, the New Testament speaks of Christ's intercession — his high priestly work on our behalf, right now — as saving, in Hebrews 7:25.

19. 10:24

    Gavin Ortlund

    That's just one example. So it's fascinating to consider the relationship of all these different activities Christ does for us. What we want to do is keep the cross and the resurrection central, but not flatten out all the other activity Christ does on our behalf. It is all for our salvation. Let's never just skip over this — if nothing else, the phrase "for our salvation" reminds us that the Son of God did not have to do any of this.

20. 11:00

    Gavin Ortlund

    He did it out of love and pity for us. In everything we're going to talk about — the burial of Christ, that's the one that struck me most emotionally in thinking this through, in all of it — let's have hearts of gratitude for what the Son of God has done for us, and for what the Trinity has done for us. But the phrase we really need to parse and probe before we move on to clause two is "he came down from heaven." If you hear nothing else, just follow with me for a moment. What we have to appreciate is that this is metaphorical language. It is appropriate metaphorical language because it's following the language of Scripture. For example, in John 3:13, Jesus speaks of himself as he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.

21. 11:55

    Gavin Ortlund

    In John 6:38, Jesus declares, "I came down from heaven."

22. 12:03

    Gavin Ortlund

    So language of descent is fitting for the Incarnation, because it is an act of genuine humility, as Paul teaches in Philippians 2. But we have to be careful here, because the Incarnation is not a movement from one geographical location to another. Heaven and earth are not two different places in the way that Chicago and New York are two different places. Heaven was not abandoned by the Son of God in the Incarnation, nor did he enter into unfamiliar territory. Let me read to you how some earlier Christians have put it. Here's how St. Augustine put it: he is said to have come to us not from place to place through space, but by appearing to mortals in mortal flesh.

23. 12:57

    Gavin Ortlund

    He came to a place where he was already.

24. 13:02

    Gavin Ortlund

    Even more succinctly, here's how Gregory of Nazianzus puts it — I love how brief it is: "He remained what he was and took up what he was not."

25. 13:15

    Gavin Ortlund

    The basic point here is that the Incarnation is not an abdication of deity. And this little phrase from Gregory, "he remained what he was," turns out to be quite important throughout the Christian tradition. You sometimes see tendencies — and this crops up a lot today — toward what is called kenoticism, in which, in some way or another, the Son of God is either abandoning or relinquishing his full deity.

26. 13:44

    Gavin Ortlund

    Instead, what we want to affirm is that in assuming a human nature, the Son of God fully retained his deity. Let me read how Athanasius puts it — and if this starts to make your head hurt, you're probably tracking rightly.

27. 13:58

    Gavin Ortlund

    He said the Word — that's the second member of the Trinity, the Logos — the Word was not hedged in by his body, nor did his presence in the body prevent his being present elsewhere as well. When he moved his body, he did not cease also to direct the universe.

28. 14:17

    Gavin Ortlund

    At one and the same time — this is the wonder — as man he was living a human life, and as Word he was sustaining the life of the universe, and as God he was in constant union with the Father. That's the end of the quotation from Athanasius. Hebrews 1:3: the Son is upholding the universe by the word of his power. He does not take a break from that activity from AD 1 to 30.

29. 14:48

    Gavin Ortlund

    "In him all things hold together" — Colossians 1:17. That remains true throughout the Incarnation. So here's the wonder, and let this again lead us to worship: right now, at the same moment, the Son of God is sleeping among the donkeys in a dirty stable, swaddled and tightly held by Mary, and at the same time he fills the heavens and is adored by the angels. One of Calvin's points on this — he's still the mediator of the angels, even while he's a baby.

30. 15:20

    Gavin Ortlund

    If that makes your head hurt, we've reached the limits of our understanding here. But understanding the relationship between Creator and creation can help us with that, in a pinch.

31. 15:33

    Gavin Ortlund

    One way to help those who may be struggling with this is simply to not think of the Incarnation as a spatial transition, which the language of descent could mistakenly lead us into. There's a lot more to this, and it comes up in later disputes between the Lutheran and Reformed traditions, and I've written about that elsewhere. Hopefully, though, that makes the main point clear, and we'll keep thinking about it. All right — clause number two: "by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary and became man." Now, the word "incarnate" here calls to mind John 1:14, "the Word became flesh." What we can appreciate here is that the word "incarnate," or "Incarnation," is a technical term. We want to distinguish this from metaphorical uses of that language, meaning roughly something like embodiment or presence.

32. 16:29

    Gavin Ortlund

    So, for example, we'll often hear language about "incarnational ministry" — and that's fine, provided we're clear about what we mean by that. But we want to appreciate that the Incarnation of the Son of God is something totally different. The Word of God did not merely mediate his presence in some way through a human person — he assumed a genuine human nature. You see that specified by the further phrase after "was incarnate": "became man." Now, as we read it earlier, hopefully you noticed the role of the Holy Spirit at this point in the Creed.

33. 17:13

    Gavin Ortlund

    "By the Holy Spirit... incarnate." And then there's reference to the Father, in the later phrase "seated at the right hand of the Father." However, those two references do not imply the absence of the work of the Father and the Spirit at other moments of the incarnate life of Christ. We want to think of the entire Incarnation as a work in which each member of the Godhead is involved, so we can follow the language of Scripture in speaking of the Father sending the Son and the Spirit empowering the Son during his earthly ministry. We find the role of the Father and the Spirit both identified in relation to Christ's resurrection, in passages like Romans 1:4. But the emphasis here on the role of the Holy Spirit in the virgin birth is fitting, given the Holy Spirit's identity and work elsewhere throughout creation and redemption — and even the title given to him later in this Creed, "the giver of life."

34. 18:22

    Gavin Ortlund

    What may be helpful for us to note here is that there's a difference between the Greek and Latin versions of the Nicene Creed at this point. The Greek simply carries over the same preposition for both Mary and the Spirit — "ek," "from" Mary, "from" the Spirit. In the Latin translation, you have two different prepositions: "de Spiritu Sancto, ex Maria Virgine," which you could render "incarnate by the Holy Spirit, from the Virgin Mary."

35. 18:57

    Gavin Ortlund

    The Holy Spirit and Mary are not identical in their roles in the Incarnation. We could say that Mary is the vessel, but the Holy Spirit is the cause. Think of the language of Luke 1:34–35, where the angel tells Mary that she will have a baby despite being a virgin, because the Holy Spirit will come upon her and the power of the Most High will overshadow her. Now, that word "overshadow" is the same verb used for the cloud at the Transfiguration overshadowing Jesus and the disciples. It perhaps draws to mind the Spirit's work in creation, hovering over the waters in Genesis 1:2. We can remember from Romans 8:11 that it is the Spirit who gives life to the resurrection body. So all this is to the end of the fittingness of the giver of life being instrumental in Mary's becoming pregnant. And before we say anything else — again, always wanting to bring it back to a point of wonder and worship — our understanding will continually hit a wall where we can go no further.

36. 20:12

    Gavin Ortlund

    And that's always a great spot to use that very wall for worship, and say: okay, this is now an occasion to adore God. Just think about it.

37. 20:27

    Gavin Ortlund

    So often, especially in evangelical contexts, our emphasis is so much on the death of Christ — and there's a way in which that's fitting — but we don't want to neglect the broader narrative sweep and the event of the Incarnation itself. Just think that at the moment Mary conceived, something happens that is without precedent in history or eternity.

38. 20:54

    Gavin Ortlund

    A divine and human nature are united in one person.

39. 21:00

    Gavin Ortlund

    This is utterly unique. Nothing is like it. I think we can truly say that a trillion years into the new earth, we will still be marveling at this.

40. 21:13

    Gavin Ortlund

    God became man. Clause number three: "for our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate,"

41. 21:24

    Gavin Ortlund

    "he suffered death and was buried."

42. 21:27

    Gavin Ortlund

    Now, the Creed doesn't offer any specific theory of the atonement. It simply uses the words "for our sake," which is itself instructive.

43. 21:41

    Gavin Ortlund

    Questions about in what way it is "for our sake" were being discussed, but they weren't as pressing at this early time — those questions come into greater clarity, I think this is true as a generalization, in the medieval period. This would be a great book to recommend. About 700 years later, Anselm writes a book called Cur Deus Homo, which simply means "Why the God-Man?" You could almost paraphrase it "Why Chalcedon?" — Chalcedon being the fourth ecumenical council, in 451, following the first three, affirming that Christ is one person with two natures. Anselm, at that time, is asking the question with a little greater detail: why do we need that specifically for our salvation? Why do we need the God-Man, one person with two natures? The way he sets up the whole book — chapter one — he references the Council of Chalcedon and basically says, let's understand that a little bit. Why is that fitting? My favorite passage in the book, I can paraphrase: his argument basically boils down to "none but God can make this satisfaction,"

44. 22:58

    Gavin Ortlund

    "none but a man ought to do this, and therefore it is necessary for a God-Man to do it." There's a line very similar to that in C. S. Lewis's Mere Christianity, which you may have heard of as well. The point is just to observe that if we don't have a Savior who is both fully divine and fully human, we don't have a salvation at all. The person of Christ confessed earlier in the Creed is foundational to the work of Christ being confessed here, even if it's not elaborated upon in terms of the mechanics of how it works. However, interestingly, the Creed does mention Pontius Pilate. Do you ever think about this? Why is Pilate in the Creed? There's a great line from one theologian who compares the inclusion of Pontius Pilate to a dog sneaking into the formal dining room of a house —

45. 23:56

    Gavin Ortlund

    and you're thinking, is he supposed to be in here? There are only two non-divine persons mentioned in the Creed: Mary and Pilate. Think about that. Why is Pilate in the Creed?

46. 24:10

    Gavin Ortlund

    I think the explanation has nothing to do with Pilate himself. Rather, Pilate functions as a historical reference point for the crucifixion of Christ.

47. 24:23

    Gavin Ortlund

    Three times in speeches in the Book of Acts, Christ's crucifixion under Pilate is mentioned. It's also mentioned in 1 Timothy 6:13.

48. 24:37

    Gavin Ortlund

    The language "crucified under Pontius Pilate" signals Christ's crucifixion as a public, historical event in the context of the Roman Empire. It's on the books. It really happened. There's a when and a where to it. In that way the Creed highlights the historical particularity of the Gospel. Maybe we could put it like this: the Incarnation of the Son of God is not a philosophy,

49. 25:10

    Gavin Ortlund

    it's not a principle, it's not a slogan, it's not a theory. The Incarnation of the Son of God is an actual event.

50. 25:24

    Gavin Ortlund

    It happened in this world. The same thing is signified by the phrase "on the third day," which will come up in a moment. There is a when and a where to the incarnate work of the Son of God. It happened at a particular time and place. If it's not too strange to draw an application point from that,

51. 25:50

    Gavin Ortlund

    all of us struggle with the particularity of our own lives sometimes, because particularity means limitation. We wonder, why was I born here? Why was I born at this time and not another? Why did I get this job and not that job? It's comforting to know God is at work in the nitty-gritty details. Even the Son of God embraced the particularity of a real, genuine human life. Have you ever thought about the fact that Jesus had an actual color of eye, color of hair? He wasn't some kind of pan-human being embracing all characteristics — he was a real person. He had a height, for example. Now, it's significant that the Creed references not just the crucifixion and death, but the burial. This is the part that makes me most emotional. I don't know why.

52. 26:42

    Gavin Ortlund

    Maybe you will understand this as well. Christ not only died, but remained dead for some period of time. The Westminster Shorter Catechism

53. 26:55

    Gavin Ortlund

    categorizes this in terms of Christ's humiliation, and specifically talks about him continuing under the power of death for a time as one aspect of his humiliation. We can ask, why did it happen this way? Why didn't Jesus rise right as soon as he died —

54. 27:20

    Gavin Ortlund

    right there, for public vindication? Why didn't it at least happen on Friday evening, to spare him from the shame of being buried?

55. 27:32

    Gavin Ortlund

    I think we can say this: the burial of Christ highlights his full solidarity with us from womb to tomb. Here is Gregory of Nyssa: "He who had determined once for all to share the nature of man must pass through all the peculiar conditions of that nature. Seeing then that the life of man is determined between two boundaries — had he, after having passed the one, not touched the other that follows, his proposed design would have remained only half fulfilled, from his not having touched that second condition of our nature." End quote. The two boundaries he's talking about are birth and death — the beginning and end of a typical human life.

56. 28:21

    Gavin Ortlund

    The point is that Christ passed through it all — not only dying, but entering into the state of death, in order to bring us to salvation.

57. 28:34

    Gavin Ortlund

    Another way to put it: Jesus is the perfect Savior. Anything that we need, he has done to bring us a full salvation.

58. 28:50

    Gavin Ortlund

    Now, just to make a personal reflection about this — a clarification, then a personal reflection. The clarification is: the divine nature does not die. So when we speak of this, we want to be very careful. From Friday evening to Sunday morning, the Trinity is not down to the Father and the Spirit holding down the fort.

59. 29:14

    Gavin Ortlund

    There is zero death, zero corruption, zero change in the divine nature. But here's the personal reflection — and of course your great fear, speaking at a conference like this, is accidentally saying something heretical.

60. 29:32

    Gavin Ortlund

    So —

61. 29:35

    Gavin Ortlund

    I ran this by Michael Horton last night, and he agreed. So if I say anything bad, blame him.

62. 29:43

    Gavin Ortlund

    But just think about what it would be like to behold the dead body of Jesus.

63. 29:50

    Gavin Ortlund

    This story moves me so much. We know from the Gospels that Joseph of Arimathea — I love to just imagine what this would be like — he acquired the body of Christ and prepared it for burial with linen and spices, and then laid it in a tomb. John's account tells us that Nicodemus went with him and brought a huge sum of money for the anointing. Now, wealthy, educated men like Nicodemus and Joseph, members of the Sanhedrin, the elites of society, rarely were involved in the burying of dead bodies. This was more menial labor — others would generally have done this. It was not their typical weekend experience.

64. 30:34

    Gavin Ortlund

    So I picture Joseph and Nicodemus there, struggling with the shroud, trying to get it right.

65. 30:40

    Gavin Ortlund

    Now just imagine you're Nicodemus, thinking back on the conversation you had in John 3 with this amazing man who revolutionized your life. Perhaps you've been a secret follower of him for some time, and now you're holding his body.

66. 30:56

    Gavin Ortlund

    When a human body dies, it starts to change fairly quickly. The heart stops beating,

67. 31:04

    Gavin Ortlund

    the person stops breathing, and because blood is no longer pumping through the body, changes happen very quickly. The body gets cold, for example. The eyes change, the limbs get stiff. It's too much to take in. The Son of God went into that state for us, in a true sense. Imagine you're Joseph, holding the cold, limp body of Jesus.

68. 31:30

    Gavin Ortlund

    Think of the emotional impact it would have when the stone is rolled into place.

69. 31:38

    Gavin Ortlund

    And Jesus is buried.

70. 31:42

    Gavin Ortlund

    And the point is that Jesus went through that for us. No story we could ever make up is as dramatic as the Gospel. The practical application is — and we're just saying this to distinguish between the human and the divine nature as we think through it — Jesus was truly buried. This wasn't a fake death. He really died.

71. 32:06

    Gavin Ortlund

    And the application for that is: we don't need to fear death. We have a Savior who has been there ahead of us.

72. 32:14

    Gavin Ortlund

    Clause number four.

73. 32:16

    Gavin Ortlund

    Happily, it doesn't end there.

74. 32:20

    Gavin Ortlund

    "And rose again on the third day, in accordance with the Scriptures. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father." Now, I've done a lot of thinking about the resurrection body of Christ. This is a massively encouraging topic — I love to think about it. Paul calls the resurrected body of Christ "the first fruits" of our resurrection, in 1 Corinthians 15:20. That's a farming metaphor — it's like the first sample from a crop that gives you an indication about the rest of the crop.

75. 32:55

    Gavin Ortlund

    The resurrected body of Christ is the foretaste of God's final redemption. If we want to understand the character of Christian redemption,

76. 33:09

    Gavin Ortlund

    we can consider the resurrected flesh of Christ,

77. 33:13

    Gavin Ortlund

    who, on the one hand, can eat fish and apparently digest food — because the whole point of Luke 24 is, "I'm not a ghost, let me prove it, give me some fish to eat."

78. 33:24

    Gavin Ortlund

    And at the same time, he has a different kind of physical body. Hebrews 7:16 calls it "the power of an indestructible life." Jesus was not the first person to be raised from the dead — other people, and Jesus himself, raised people from the dead. But those people had to die again.

79. 33:44

    Gavin Ortlund

    Lazarus had to die twice.

80. 33:48

    Gavin Ortlund

    Jesus rose to a new kind of life: indestructible life.

81. 33:55

    Gavin Ortlund

    The Dutch theologian Geerhardus Vos called Easter morning "the womb of the new eon."

82. 34:02

    Gavin Ortlund

    What he's saying is it's this kind of beachhead for the new creation — it's like the future thrust back into the middle of history. This is what God will do in the new heavens and the new earth, and it begins with the body of Jesus.

83. 34:18

    Gavin Ortlund

    Now, another phrase we might glide by, but is very significant, is "in accordance with the Scriptures."

84. 34:28

    Gavin Ortlund

    "He rose again on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures." This reminds us that although the Creed makes no mention of events prior to the Incarnation, the activity of the Son of God is the fulfillment of the hopes of the nation of Israel and of the Old Testament Scriptures that prophesied a coming Messiah. Think of Peter in his speech on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2, quoting from Psalm 16, for example. And therefore we can say — and should say — that the God who is at work throughout the Old Testament is the same God who is at work in the Incarnation of Christ. Which is to say, the God of Israel is none other than the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. I think a lot of our people struggle with the Trinity, because we've only taught it to them from the New Testament. So they have this — they wouldn't say this, but they might have this implicit idea that it's a unitarian God in the Old Testament.

85. 35:30

    Gavin Ortlund

    And then somehow the Trinity starts in some way. As soon as we say that out loud, we realize that can't be right. But we might be thinking like this. We want to help our people read the entire Bible as being about the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Although God's triune identity was not as clearly revealed to the people of Israel, it is consistent with it, and there are little glimmers here and there. This is one of my favorite things to study — I'm going to do a YouTube video specifically on this topic, basically trying to show there's coherence in the unfolding of progressive revelation.

86. 36:08

    Gavin Ortlund

    There's greater clarity that comes in the New Testament. But even outside of Christianity, there are other Jewish groups looking at the data of revelation they have and saying there's something more than strict unitarianism going on here. They're getting that because there are so many passages — think of Psalm 110, "the Lord said to my Lord," David writes; Jesus will appeal to this one. I'm sure the Jewish scribes were puzzled about this, wondering, who is David's Lord? Psalm 45: who is God's God?

87. 36:42

    Gavin Ortlund

    The angel of the Lord figure — what does it mean when he is worshiped? So many passages we go through in the video, I'll try to make the full case for that. I think the thing we want to be careful about here is recognizing — I think we could put it like this — that the Trinity is not explicit in the Old Testament. The Old Testament does not teach the Trinity full and proper, but it teaches something that the Trinity sheds light on and gives us fuller understanding about.

88. 37:11

    Gavin Ortlund

    Next, the Creed says that Christ has ascended into heaven. Sometimes we mush together the resurrection and the ascension, but these are two distinct events with some differing points of theological significance. They're separated by 40 days, according to Acts 1:3. What we want to emphasize here is that just as the Incarnation is not a geographical relocation, so neither is the Ascension. Let me read how one theologian has put this — this is from Thomas Torrance. He says: as in the Incarnation we have to think of the Son of God becoming man without ceasing to be transcendent God, so in his Ascension we have to think of Christ as ascending above all space and time without ceasing to be man, or without any diminishment of his physical, historical existence.

89. 38:02

    Gavin Ortlund

    Now, think about this again. It's tremendously comforting that Jesus not only took on a human body in his life here in this world, but retained that body. In his return to heaven, the Word became flesh — now the flesh is in heaven.

90. 38:22

    Gavin Ortlund

    Now, that might seem strange to us. But remember, heaven has already been capable of receiving Enoch and Elijah — so there are bodies there, somehow, some way.

91. 38:34

    Gavin Ortlund

    But there are some people who dispute this and think Jesus' body dematerialized or something like this in the Ascension. I don't think that's the right view. Just think about this: that right now there is human flesh in heaven. There's a human brain, a human heart, human feet. Glorified, resurrected human flesh is at the seat and center of heaven. By the way, if you want more treatment on Christ's ascension — another event we sometimes neglect — Patrick Schreiner's book is a great book on that topic, really helpful. Finally, this section of the Creed references Jesus' current heavenly session.

92. 39:18

    Gavin Ortlund

    This is the phrase "seated at the right hand of God." This is not about a literal place so much as about regal power — this is an image for kingly, sovereign authority. "Seated" here means enthroned, by the way. This is so happy to think about: right now Jesus is seated on the throne of heaven. All authority has been given to him. This is drawing from Psalm 110.

93. 39:46

    Gavin Ortlund

    "The Lord says to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool." Right now, as of this moment in 2025, Christ is active in heaven in his heavenly seat as our prophet, priest, and king. He is sending his Spirit to illumine and confirm the preaching of the gospel — that is prophetic. He is interceding for us as our high priest — that is priestly. And he is ruling over the nations, fulfilling the Davidic covenant and establishing God's sovereign rule over all the world — that is kingly. He is our prophet, priest, and king right now.

94. 40:30

    Gavin Ortlund

    There's so much we could say about this, but here's just one encouraging application: so many of these things again will bump into the limits of our understanding. So we worship. Through our union with Christ, we are seated in the heavenlies with Christ — that's Ephesians 2:6. If you're wondering how to pray about that, here's a good prayer from the Anglican Prayer Book.

95. 40:56

    Gavin Ortlund

    "Grant, we beseech thee, Almighty God, that like as we do believe thy only begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, to have ascended into the heavens, so we may also in heart and mind thither ascend, and with him continually dwell, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen." Quickly, final clause — clause five: "he will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end." By the way, I didn't notice this until studying to prepare for this conference: it's interesting to note that the first Advent is cast as a descent —

96. 41:42

    Gavin Ortlund

    he came down from heaven — but the second Advent is not.

97. 41:49

    Gavin Ortlund

    Rather, it is said to be in glory. This highlights the difference between the first and second Advents of Christ. The first Advent was, in its nature, humble. Think of John 1: he came to his own, but his own did not receive him. Its primary purpose was for salvation. The second coming will not be humble.

98. 42:15

    Gavin Ortlund

    He will not come as a meek baby. Its purpose will be for judgment — to judge the living and the dead. Those words, "to judge the living and the dead," are such happy news. The idea of a judgment for both the living and the dead is, to a large extent, a unique contribution of Christianity. It's such a familiar idea to us that we may not appreciate just what a comprehensively happy event this is, because it means we can look forward to a restoration of justice. In pagan literature, sometimes you'll read about a human king who will be a judge in the underworld, or something like that. But the idea of a judge of all humanity, both living and dead,

99. 43:01

    Gavin Ortlund

    is a unique contribution of Christianity. What it entails is a perfect justice in which the world is restored to harmony and shalom. Every wrong will be righted. Every score will be settled. All shall be well.

100. 43:18

     Gavin Ortlund

     And this gives us a very particular kind of hope. When we pray, on bad days, when we are suffering or frightened, "Come, Lord Jesus" — a wonderful prayer to pray — there's a particular kind of hope we are articulating: not merely for evil to cease, but for a full restoration of justice and goodness to God's world. And here's the happiest thing of all — this is what makes me most happy to think about: that day, Jesus will finally be given the glory that he deserves.

101. 44:02

     Gavin Ortlund

     Every knee will bow. I just love to think about that. Every single knee will bow. Every tongue will confess Jesus is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. The final phrase, "his kingdom shall have no end," was not in the 325 Creed.

102. 44:22

     Gavin Ortlund

     It may have been added to reject views such as that of Marcellus, who was a bishop in Ancyra in the fourth century. Marcellus drew from language in 1 Corinthians 15:28 about all things being subject to the Father,

103. 44:50

     Gavin Ortlund

     and, from that and other considerations, was arguing that the Incarnation was temporary,

104. 45:12

     Gavin Ortlund

     and that in some way the Son would merge back into the Father at some point in the future. This may be one of the erroneous views that the Creed of 381 is trying to ward off by including the phrase "his kingdom shall have no end."

105. 45:18

     Gavin Ortlund

     It is precisely the kingdom of the Son of God that shall have no end.

106. 45:22

     Gavin Ortlund

     Summing up — what do we do with all of this?

107. 45:22

     Gavin Ortlund

     I just have three basic takeaways. After all my study on this, these are the first three things that came into my heart and mind. Number one: we could never have guessed this.

108. 45:35

     Gavin Ortlund

     You get a feeling of the nature of the Christian religion when you read the Nicene Creed.

109. 45:42

     Gavin Ortlund

     This is a religion that has been divinely revealed. How many of us, if we were inventing our own religion, would come up with a Trinity, an Incarnation, a crucifixion, or a bodily resurrection?

110. 45:56

     Gavin Ortlund

     But this is the truth as it has been revealed by God to us.

111. 46:03

     Gavin Ortlund

     Simple words, but I love them, and they come into my heart. It reminds me of the old Rich Mullins song about the Apostles' Creed, and he says, "No, I did not make it, but it is making me. It is the very truth of God and not the invention of any man." By the way, pastoral sidebar —

112. 46:24

     Gavin Ortlund

     if you ever struggle with intellectual doubts about some aspect of your faith, that's a very normal experience. Even many of the disciples had that. In some ways that may be encouraging, because it's one more reminder that you're not inventing your own religion. Christianity is out there. It's God breaking into history, and so we are responding to what God has done. We don't make it — it is making us. And therefore there will be times, just like in any relationship to reality, when you don't understand something right away, and there will be seasons of difficulty and struggle.

113. 47:04

     Gavin Ortlund

     Second observation, as we've emphasized here: through these events God has accomplished a full and perfect salvation. Nothing has been overlooked that is necessary to save sinful people. Jesus has done all that needed to be done, and therefore it is enough for even you and me. No matter what else happens to us in this life — like that Tibetan missionary thinking, "What does my life come to?" — no matter what else we face, we can have hope.

114. 47:39

     Gavin Ortlund

     Third, concluding thought: the Incarnation and saving activity of the Son of God is a work of the triune God. The Father has sent the Son in the power of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, for such a great salvation, let us worship and adore the one God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Let me pray.

115. 48:11

     Gavin Ortlund

     Triune God, we worship you and we adore you with all of our hearts, for all that you have taught us through this conference. Thank you for the privilege of being here.

116. 48:24

     Gavin Ortlund

     We marvel and we wonder at who you are and what you have done. And my mind goes to the words of the great hymn: "Were the whole realm of nature mine, that were an offering far too small. Love, so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all." In light of who you are and what you have done for us, what can we do but give ourselves to you fully? We love you and we worship you. Amen.