Title: Our Confession of Faith and Determination
Contents
Text of the Bible: Confession of faith is a confession of personal existence as well as a historical confession and a communal confession. For the past two thousand years, Christianity has grown with such a long history of confession of faith. Faith without such a public confession of faith is like a body without a soul. Through confession of faith, we renew our personal faith before God and strengthen our communal bonds.
Confession of faith is the foundation of the church and also expresses the identity of the church. Confession of faith has universal power that transcends time and space, but also shows the urgency of the situation because the confession and resolution are conceived and expressed in concrete historical reality. Therefore, confession of faith is not perfect. The Apostles' Creed has long been the target of criticism. It is also pointed out that Christianity's unique belief that salvation comes through faith is not reflected in the Apostles' Creed.
First, let's look at the Confession of Faith in the Father. Here, our community not only confesses God as the Creator, but also as the Lord of transformation. Creation is not a one-time event, but an amazing event and process that continues to this day. As creation continues, it manifests itself in transformation. Creation and re-creation through transformation is about correcting the wrong historical reality by using the original, beautiful creation order as a prototype. God is the master of creation and transformation, and we are called to participate in His work. That is why we proclaim a new day, a new work, by positively answering “yes” to the invitation of God the Father. Therefore, our confession of faith means that we must move forward as a community that proclaims the new day.
The second confession of faith in the Holy Son highlights Jesus Christ as the liberator and the one who establishes a new person. I confess that Jesus Christ is none other than Jesus Christ, who saves us from the sins of personal greed, arrogance, self-righteousness and all kinds of structural evil (unjust inequality, discrimination, oppression, exploitation, etc.) This is confirmed both in Jesus' inaugural address and in Jesus' answer to the questions of the disciples of John the Baptist. It is our Holy Son who is grateful to the broken, broken, despairing, lonely, afflicted, and failed people to rise again as whole, healthy and beautiful beings. Such a confession of the saints absolutely requires our community to reject all the forces of evil that exist within and outside of me. In particular, we urge our determination to reject and overcome the forces of sin that undermine human dignity. In the end, the confession of faith in the Holy Spirit invites us to become a new love community.
Third, confession of faith in the Holy Spirit is the courage to overcome hardship and adversity and the power to revive the spark of hope in the abyss of despair. And it is the power of the Holy Spirit that breaks down all kinds of adversity and barriers that sow seeds of despair. It is an amazing power that transcends barriers such as gender, class, race, ideology, system, and geography and breaks them down.
The Holy Spirit is also the power to taste tomorrow's joy here today. When hope and faith are combined, the joy of eternal life can be brought forward. Therefore, the confession of faith in the Holy Spirit is a signal to inform the community of hope-proclaiming.
Finally, the church confession of faith. Without the church, faith cannot grow. The church is the subject of experiencing the grace of the cross. We experience both suffering and resurrection. Resurrection without suffering is an illusion, suffering without resurrection is just self-discipline, but the church is a victorious community that experiences the victory of resurrection in suffering. And inside, they get to know each other through love. Love is emptying each other out. And outwardly, it is to be a neighbor to those who suffer from the evil power of injustice. A community of good Samaritan-like decisions. Only in this kind of love and determination can we meet the Trinity. God is the one who makes us whole as one.
The time and place when such a confession of faith was conceived was the gloomy mid-1980s. Can you recall the context of the Gospel of Jesus in Mark 1:14-15? It was officially announced on the first Sunday of March 1987.
Do not forget that our confession is a precious community confession that confesses and practices the declaration of the new day, the declaration of a new person, and the declaration of a new hope, and let us always use this as a mirror to improve our individuals and the community of faith. Because the Lord leads us in this direction before us.