Why the Nicene Creed Focuses on Jesus: A Look at the Creed’s 1700th Anniversary

The year 2025 marks the 1700th anniversary of the Nicene Creed. This foundational Christian document was first written in 325 AD at the Council of Nicaea, and it still plays a vital role in how we understand Christian doctrine today.

In this post, I want to take a few minutes to walk through the original creed, read it aloud, and explore why it places so much emphasis on the Son, Jesus Christ, and not as much on the Father or the Holy Spirit.

The Creed of 325: A Quick Reading

Here’s the original version from the Council of Nicaea in 325:

We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten from the Father, only begotten, that is, from the substance of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one substance with the Father, through whom all things came into being, things in heaven and things on earth. Who, because of us humans and our salvation, came down, became incarnate, and became human. He suffered, and rose again on the third day, ascended into heaven, and will come to judge the living and the dead. And in the Holy Spirit.

But as for those who say: “There was when he was not,” and “Before being born he was not,” and that he came into existence out of nothing, or who assert that the Son of God is of a different hypostasis or substance, or created, or subject to alteration or change—these the Catholic and Apostolic Church anathematizes.

It’s a weighty creed, but for good reason.

Why So Much About the Son?

When people read this creed today, they often ask: Why does it focus so heavily on the Son? The Father gets a few lines, and the Holy Spirit just one. But the Son? Nearly the entire body of the creed is about him. That’s not an accident. It’s a response to a specific controversy at the time.

Arius and his followers (later called Arians) taught that the Son was created. He may have been the first and greatest creation, but they denied he was eternal or of the same essence as the Father. This caused major theological conflict. Leaders like Alexander of Alexandria and others at the council stood against that view and helped form the creed.

It’s worth noting that Arians weren’t trying to be heretics. In many ways, they were trying to defend the idea that God is one, drawing from Scripture like the Shema: “Yahweh is our God, Yahweh is one.” But in doing so, they claimed Jesus was God in some lesser, created sense.

Why It Matters: The Heart of the Issue

For the leaders at Nicaea, this view wasn’t just a minor error—it threatened the core of Christian theology. If the Son is created, then at some point, God wasn’t the Father. That would imply God changed. And for them, that was unacceptable. God cannot change. He cannot “become” something he wasn’t.

If Jesus isn’t eternal, then the second Person of the Trinity isn’t really God. And if he isn’t truly God, salvation becomes impossible. We need a Savior who is both fully God and fully man. Only then could he die for our sins and reconcile us to the Father.

That’s why the creed spends so much time defending the Son’s full divinity. It wasn’t about slighting the Spirit or the Father. It was about confronting a specific heresy that denied the Son’s eternal nature.

So Why Doesn’t the Creed Say More About the Trinity?

Today, we might expect a creed to elaborate more on the Trinity. But the Creed of 325 doesn’t do that in detail because that wasn’t the debate they were having. The creed is not a full statement of all Christian belief; it’s a targeted theological defense against Arianism.

If you read the Creed and wonder why the Holy Spirit gets so little mention, the answer is simple: the controversy wasn’t about the Spirit at the time. That would come later, especially at the Council of Constantinople in 381, when the creed was expanded to include a fuller (though still limited) statement about the Spirit.

The Nicene Creed Still Speaks Today

The original Nicene Creed wasn’t just written as a theological exercise. It was a bold, historic stand for the truth of who Jesus is. It declares without compromise that the Son is eternal, uncreated, and fully divine.

And 1700 years later, that still matters. However, it is probably not as cut-and-dry as the Nicene fathers would have liked.

Understanding the Creed’s historical and theological context helps us grasp why our beliefs about Jesus aren’t just academic. They’re central to the gospel itself. If we lose sight of who Jesus truly is, we lose the very foundation of our salvation.