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.