“Deeds, not Creeds”

          You've probably heard the phrase before: “deeds, not creeds.” It has a nice ring to it. Perhaps the thought also is appealing to you. So many Christians these days butt heads over their opposing understanding of the Scriptures. Shouldn't Christians be spending more time showing love to one another and to all the non-Christians in the world?

“Deeds, not creeds.” The phrase may sound nice, but is it really the mindset God desires in his people? I don't think I even need to expound beyond this sentence on the hypocrisy inherent in a statement of belief that condemns statements of belief. Hypocrisy aside, let's analyze this anti-creedal creed.

Creeds

 

“Creed” comes from the Latin word “credo,” which means “I believe.” One's creed is whatever one believes. Usually in the Christian church we associate the word with the three Creeds of Christianity: the Apostles', Nicene, and Athanasian Creeds. One might ask, “Why are these creeds necessary? Can't we all just agree to believe what the Bible says?”

Yes, as Christians we must agree to believe what the Bible says. However, a question immediately arises: “What does the Bible say?” During the early centuries of the Christian church, many interesting ideas developed—ideas based on philosophy or logic and not based entirely on the words and teachings of Scripture. For example, Arius taught that Jesus was not divine (at least, not in the same sense in which the Father was divine). Has Scripture settled the question of the divinity of Christ? Most certainly! However, God has not inspired a particular book of the Bible to address this teaching exclusively.

Nowhere in Scripture has God said, “Do not argue over whether or not Jesus is divine. My Son Jesus is true God with me—coequal, uncreated, and eternal.” The Bible teaches this, but not in one particular passage and not in so many words. Jesus calls himself God here, his disciples call him God there, and various books of Scripture portray him doing what only God can do. Though Scripture clearly teaches that Jesus is true God, a statement was necessary to oppose the false teaching of Arius—a statement that would draw together from various parts of Scripture a systematic teaching. Not a new teaching, not anything different from what Scripture had always taught, but a clear Scripture-based rebuttal to respond directly to a particular heresy in a particular setting. Thus the church drew up the Nicene Creed.

In response to numerous abuses and false teachings in the church, the early Lutherans drew up and subscribed to a series of documents now know as the Lutheran Confessions. Composed from 1529 to 1577, these documents became a standard by which the Lutheran church would judge all doctrines to determine whether a doctrine were orthodox (true, accurate, and consistent with Scripture) or heterodox (containing falsehood).

Some may argue, “The Lutherans have replaced Scripture with a different set of books!” This claim could not be further from the truth. The Lutheran Confessions, like the Creeds, are not a replacement for Scripture, but an exposition of the teachings of Scripture presented in the face of falsehood. The Confessions are not the absolute source of doctrine in the Lutheran church—they remain secondary to Scripture. This means that Lutherans are not to handle questions not addressed in the Confessions as open questions. A true open question is only a question to which Scripture itself has provided no answer. C. F. W. Walther wrote, “The idea that such doctrines as have not yet been fixed symbolically must be counted among the open questions, militates against the historical origin of the symbols [that is, the Confessions], particularly against the fact that these were never intended to present a complete doctrinal system, while they indeed acknowledge the entire content of the Scriptures as the object of the faith held by the church.” (Thesis XII, Theses on Open Questions, 1868). A Lutheran dare not say “We have no position on that issue,” in response to a question that Scripture has answered.

Still think you need no creed? Without a creed, what do you believe? Someone might say “I believe the Bible.” Even this statement is a creed, though not a very clear creed by any means. Your belief in the Bible is good, but what do you believe the Bible says? Do you believe that the Bible means what it says, or do you interpret the Scriptures to mean something other than what they say? Arius himself claimed to believe the Bible, yet he rejected a fundamental teaching of the Bible concerning our Savior. Your creed is simply what you believe. Without a creed you believe nothing. What do you believe?

Someone might say, “It doesn't matter what we believe. All that matters is what we do. Deeds, not creeds!” The problem with this thinking is that if what we believe is unimportant, then what we do is unimportant. Deeds always follow creeds. We act according to what we believe. If I have no creed, I have no motivation to act. If I fail to act according to a particular creed, I demonstrate that I do not fully and truly hold to that belief. We cannot separate our deeds from our creeds. “Faith apart from works is useless” (James 2:20) and works apart from faith are useless.
 

Deeds

When we throw out all creeds and concern ourselves only with our actions, we run into a serious problem. We are evil. Our deeds are evil. Even the “good” things we do to serve others are prompted by evil motivations. Isaiah says, “all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment” (64:6). “Deeds, not creeds,” leaves us with nothing. We have no hope. We have no righteousness. We have no salvation. Our deeds leave us forsaken by God in hell for eternity. Yes, “deeds, not creeds” can only land us in hell.

Yet we must not downplay the importance of deeds. A lifetime of good and righteous deeds is necessary to pay the way for each of us to get into the eternal kingdom of God. Now we can spend our lifetimes trying to accumulate enough deeds to earn the trip up, but the sad truth remains: already we have failed and even with a fresh start we would fail again.

Our deeds have failed. Our deeds will continue to fail. Thank God that he sent us a Savior whose deeds have taken the place of our deeds to earn our way to eternal life. Thank God that he sent us a Savior whose sacrifice on the cross has purged all our sinful deeds from his memory. We are saved by deeds—not by deeds of our own, but by the deeds of Jesus acting in our place.

God's Deed, Our Creed

Remember that God's deed is your creed. Jesus says, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent” (John 6:29). The salvation Christ has provided by his deeds comes to us by faith. That is, we must believe it and trust in him as our Savior. That is, we are saved by creeds! We are saved by our belief and reliance in what Christ has done. We are saved by the deeds of Christ and we are saved by our creed—by our belief that Christ has saved us.

The Holy Spirit works faith in our hearts through the word of God. This is where “deeds not creeds” becomes precarious even for those who already believe in Jesus Christ. If we are not concerned about believing everything God says to us in his word, we put ourselves on a slippery slope. The denial of one teaching of Scripture leads to the denial of another teaching. You don't believe that Jonah lived three days in the belly of a great fish because it doesn't jive with your reason? Then why believe in the miracles of Jesus? Or why believe in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, which the Jonah account prefigured? By inspiration of God St. Paul teaches that “if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins” (1 Corinthians 15:17). What we believe matters. Our salvation depends on taking God at his word.

Deeds AND Creeds

 

Consider one other problem with “deeds, not creeds:” the implication that deeds and creeds are mutually exclusive. As stated earlier, deeds always follow creeds and creeds always motivate deeds. Only by faith in Jesus Christ are Christians motivated to serve God and neighbor with truly selfless acts of love. The Holy Spirit guides us as we put our faith into action.

Our creeds will influence not only how we live and interact as Christian individuals, but also how we operate as congregations and synods united by a common creed. Our beliefs will shape how we approach Scripture together, how we worship together, how we interact with those in authority over us, how we interact with those under our authority, how we approach those who act or teach in error, how we respond to those who bring our own errors to light. We express our beliefs through official synodical statements and we as synods, as congregations, and as individuals act according to these statements—not because any individual, church, or synod has authority to hold us to new rules, but because we agree that these statements are consistent with what God teaches us in Scripture.

Let us encourage one another to uphold creeds and deeds! Let us thank God for a common confession of the truth. Let us encourage one another to hold fast to our confession and to act in accordance thereto. Let us be willing humbly and lovingly to admonish those who begin to err in deed or in creed. Let us be willing to accept the heartfelt admonition of brothers and sisters in the faith.

Glory be to God! Amen.