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Ephesians 2:22
“In [Christ] you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.”
We have noted that the Apostles’ Creed has a Trinitarian structure, featuring three main sections, each of which focuses on one person of the Holy Trinity. Having looked at the section on the Father and the section on the Son, we turn today to the last section of the creed, which describes the person and work of the Holy Spirit.
The creed actually does not say much about the Spirit, though we do know that the Holy Spirit is equal in power and glory to the Father and the Son, sharing the one divine nature with Them. The New Testament makes this plain in many places, including 1 Corinthians 2:11, which tells us that the Spirit can do something that only God can do—comprehend the thoughts of God. Only the infinite God can understand the infinite mind of God, so if the Holy Spirit can comprehend the thoughts of God, the Holy Spirit must be God.
Although the Apostles’ Creed has less to say about the person of the Spirit, it does say a lot about His work, and the creed focuses on the church to tell us something about the work of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit, after all, is the means by which Christ dwells in His church, as noted in John 14:16–18. Consequently, the Spirit’s work is seen most clearly in the building of the church and in the mission of the church.
The Apostles’ Creed singles out two aspects of the Spirit’s work in the church in particular: holiness and catholicity. First, the Spirit makes the church holy. The holiness of the church can be difficult to recognize because we know that people in the church are sinners and that the church has made many mistakes and fails to live up completely to God’s perfect standard. How, then, can we confess that the church is holy? To be holy, fundamentally, means to be set apart, so the church is holy because it is set apart from the world for a specific mission—to make disciples of Christ in every nation of the world (Matt. 28:18–20). The church is also holy because it is indwelt by the Holy Spirit. That is why the New Testament can refer to Christians as “saints”—literally, “holy ones” (2 Cor. 1:1). Those in whom the Spirit dwells are holy people.
The creed also says that the church is catholic (“the holy catholic church”)—that is, universal, made up of people from every nation. The Spirit creates this catholicity by building together people from around the world into one temple, the church (Eph. 2:22).
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
The Holy Spirit is working even now to grow the church in holiness and catholicity (universality). We can be agents through whom He does this by pursuing personal and corporate purity and by seeking to take the gospel to every nation.
For further study
- Ezekiel 37:23
- Micah 4:1–5
- Ephesians 5:25–27
- Revelation 7
The bible in a year
- Ecclesiastes 7–9
- 2 Corinthians 11:1–15