{"id":5253,"date":"2026-02-26T08:49:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T13:49:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/?p=5253"},"modified":"2026-02-26T08:49:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T13:49:13","slug":"and-in-jesus-christ","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/26\/and-in-jesus-christ\/","title":{"rendered":"And in Jesus Christ"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here<\/a>
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Throughout the season of Lent, we’re taking a close look at the Apostles’ Creed – one of the earliest and most concise summaries of what followers of Jesus believe.<\/em>
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Until his death in 2013, Brennan Manning was one of his generation\u2019s most compelling voices concerning the reality of God\u2019s grace.
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Towards the end of his life, he recounted how he got the name \u201cBrennan.\u201d
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Growing up in Depression-era Brooklyn, Manning\u2019s best friend was Ray.\u00a0
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They did everything together.\u00a0They attended the same school.\u00a0They co-signed a purchase agreement for a car. They double-dated.\u00a0They enlisted simultaneously in the Marines, endured boot camp side by side, and then went to the frontlines of the Korean War. Together they hunkered down in foxholes.
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One night in one of those foxholes, Manning was reminiscing about their childhood days in Brooklyn.\u00a0Ray was listening and eating a chocolate bar.
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Suddenly a live grenade landed at their feet.\u00a0Ray looked at Manning, smiled, dropped his chocolate bar, and threw himself onto the grenade.\u00a0
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An instant later, Ray was dead.\u00a0Manning lived on.
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More than a decade after that, Manning was ordained a Franciscan priest.\u00a0He was instructed to take the name of a Catholic saint.\u00a0For him it was a no-brainer.\u00a0He chose the Irish saint Brennan, a fitting way of remembering his best friend: Ray Brennan<\/em>.
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One day Manning visited Ray\u2019s mother in Brooklyn.\u00a0They were sipping tea together when Brennan asked her, \u201cDo you think Ray loved me?\u201d\u00a0
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Mrs. Brennan leapt from the couch.\u00a0She shook her finger in Manning\u2019s face.\u00a0\u201cJesus Christ!\u201d she shouted.\u00a0\u201cWhat more could he have done for you?!\u201d\u00a0
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Brennan Manning, stunned by that encounter, never forgot its significance.\u00a0
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He imagined himself standing at the foot of the cross wondering, \u201cDoes God really love me?\u201d\u00a0At that point Jesus\u2019 mother Mary could have pointed to her son and said, \u201cJesus Christ \u2013 what more could he have done for you?\u201d
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At the heart of the Christian faith is this extraordinary reality:\u00a0Jesus of Nazareth threw himself onto the grenade of the world\u2019s sin \u2013 including yours and mine \u2013 so we could live.
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Here we arrive at a flex point in the Apostles\u2019 Creed. \u201cI believe in God the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and Earth. And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord<\/strong>.\u201d
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The Creed\u2019s opening words concern God the Father. The final lines highlight the work of the Holy Spirit. In between we find the longest section of the Creed, which spotlights Jesus, who is unequivocally the central focus of the New Testament.
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And this is where names come into play.
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During Bible times, names were considered representations of character, reputation, and identity. \u201cO Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name<\/u><\/em> in all the earth!\u201d (Psalm 8:1).\u00a0 \u201cOur Father in heaven, hallowed be your name<\/u><\/em>\u201d (Matthew 6:5). We \u201challow\u201d God\u2019s name by affirming that he has no rivals in the cosmos.\u00a0
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It\u2019s eye-opening to explore the names associated with Jesus.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0
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Jesus<\/em> (or Yeshua<\/em>, a first century rendering of the name Joshua<\/em>) means \u201cthe Lord saves.\u201d\u00a0Christ<\/em> (from the Greek word Christos<\/em>) is actually a title, not a personal name. It translates the Hebrew word mashiach<\/em>, or messiah<\/em>, which means \u201cAnointed One\u201d \u2013 that is, the true king who has been sent by God to fulfill Israel\u2019s destiny of blessing the whole world.
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In the days ahead, we\u2019ll take a closer look at the words \u201conly\u201d and \u201cSon.\u201d
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But for now, let\u2019s skip ahead to the Creed\u2019s identification of Jesus as \u201cLord\u201d \u2013 a title that the apostle Paul assigns to Jesus at least 180 times.
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This is a very big deal.\u00a0In the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the word kyrios<\/em> (\u201cLord\u201d) applies only to the one true God.\u00a0Now, in the New Testament, the same word describes Jesus.\u00a0Does this mean Paul and others were saying that Jesus is the one true God?
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It took the best and brightest Christian thinkers more than three centuries to formulate an answer to that question.\u00a0The result was the doctrine of the Trinity \u2013 the recognition that the Creator God is one with regard to essence, but three when it comes to personhood (Father, Son, and Spirit).\u00a0
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Just a few years after his resurrection, Jesus\u2019 first followers \u2013 and Paul in particular \u2013 were not only using God-language to describe Jesus.\u00a0They were using Jesus-language to describe God.\u00a0
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This matters more than we can imagine.\u00a0 \u00a0
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It\u2019s theologically correct to say that Jesus = God.\u00a0 But the real revolution happens when we turn that equation around: God = Jesus.\u00a0
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Most of us would admit that it\u2019s hard to picture God.\u00a0Should we bring to mind a force-field, a king sitting on a throne, a blinding light, or an old man with a flowing beard like Michelangelo\u2019s portrait of the Creator on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel?\u00a0 \u00a0
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Jesus gives God a face.\u00a0A human face<\/em>.
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How does God respond to those who are hungry and poor, and to people who are crying out for help?\u00a0 Read the Gospel accounts of how Jesus feeds the crowds and heals the sick.\u00a0What does God think about religious stuffed shirts who are fixated on rules-keeping?\u00a0Check out how Jesus confronts the hardheartedness of the Pharisees. What is God\u2019s opinion of those who have totally messed up their lives sexually and relationally? Zero in on the ways that Jesus offers forgiveness instead of condemnation. \u00a0\u00a0
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When you want to think about God, picture Jesus.
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In the words of biblical scholar N.T. Wright, he\u2019s \u201cthe one in whom the identity of Israel\u2019s God is revealed, so that one cannot now speak of this God without thinking of Jesus, or of Jesus without thinking of the one God.\u201d
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Jesus Christ: What more could he have possibly done?<\/em>
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By calling Jesus \u201cLord,\u201d the Apostles\u2019 Creed is daringly announcing that he\u2019s done it all.

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here\u00a0Throughout the season of Lent, we’re taking a close look at the Apostles’ Creed – one of the earliest and most concise summaries of what followers of Jesus believe.\u00a0Until his death in 2013, Brennan Manning was one of his generation\u2019s most compelling voices concerning the reality of God\u2019s grace.\u00a0Towards the end of… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5254,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1080,1082,85],"class_list":["post-5253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-apostles-creed","tag-lord","tag-names"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5253"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5253\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5255,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5253\/revisions\/5255"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}