Creeds are not straitjackets, but guardrails that keep us safe.
Who is Jesus? The answer to that question is a matter of eternal life and eternal death.
One thing we do well within evangelicalism is in thinking of Jesus as our friend. But He is also our King.
We are in need of a way out of our poverty of soul and the desperate state of our human condition. We find it in this child lying in a manger, who was and is Jesus Christ, the long-promised Messiah, Seed, Redeemer, and King.
People of the cross? A symbol of shame has become our confidence.
If you want a symbol of Roman power and strength look no further than the Praetorian or Imperial Guard. We could take this one step further. It was this world of Roman power into which Christ came, in which the Apostles ministered, in which the New Testament authors wrote, and in which Christianity came into being. And to all of those things, Rome stood opposed, violently opposed.
