From Colossae to Nicaea: Paul’s Witness to Christ’s Deity

The creedal achievement of Nicaea has been challenged by liberal scholars who deem the key term, homoousios, both unnecessary and contradictory.¹ Challenges, alas, come not only from the left. Polls taken in recent years repeatedly demonstrate evangelicals today must seek to recover Nicene orthodoxy.² Indeed, we may describe widespread confusion over the doctrines of God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, and truth as “the crisis in evangelical theology today.”³ Thank you to David S. Dockery, president of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, for crafting this formal celebration of the Council of Nicaea, which met 1,700 years ago to exalt God the Trinity and discipline theological error.⁴

Why Do We Need the Nicene Creed?

 We Were Warned 

In the early fourth century, the church suffered severely what our Lord and his apostles foretold: Jesus warned “false prophets” and “false christs” would arise to lead astray, if possible, the elect (Matt. 24:24). His apostles warned that “false prophets” (1 John 4:1), “false apostles” (2 Cor 11:13), and “false teachers” (2 Pet 2:1) would come, evil men who “exploit you with deceptive words” (2 Pet 2:3). 

Jude said their goal is to deny our Lord Jesus Christ and distort the redemption only our Master can offer. “For some people, who were designated for this judgment long ago, have come in by stealth; they are ungodly, turning the grace of our God into sensuality and denying Jesus Christ, our only Master and Lord” (Jude 4). 

Peter agreed, “They will bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, and will bring swift destruction on themselves” (2 Pet 2:1b). Heretics deny the Lord Jesus. But God promises the heretic he or she risks imminent destruction.⁵

Providence Governs Heresy 

Jude said God “designated” heretics “long ago” for judgment. Paul said God providentially uses them for good. “Indeed, it is necessary that there be factions (Greek haireseis; lit. “heresies”) among you, so that those who are approved may be recognized among you” (1 Cor. 11:19). In other words, God offers a megaphone to orthodoxy by allowing error to be its sounding board. Satanic heresy provides a dark backdrop against which truth may shine. It is providentially decreed that Christ will be honored by faithful proclamation of his Person and work, although true believers may suffer in the process. 

A little over two centuries after the apostles exposed various heretics, the church confronted the greatest heretic in history. It was the early fathers’ privilege to be used by God to craft a disciplinary creed at a lakeside basilica in northwest Asia Minor. We celebrate today their biblical exegesis, which exalts Jesus Christ and the Trinity. We recognize their courage to acknowledge, call out, and condemn Arius of Alexandria and other false teachers. 

Baptists Who Confess the Nicene Faith 

I originally wrote “Baptists Who Confess the Nicene Faith,” published in the most recent issue of the Southwestern Journal of Theology, for presentation on this occasion.⁶ It shows our pastors, faculty, and students how theologians of the Southwest, from B. H. Carroll and L. R. Scarborough to W. A. Criswell and James Leo Garrett Jr. to David S. Dockery, long advocated Nicene orthodoxy. However, while I must refer you to that piece, the Lord impressed me just to share my heart. And because a right heart belongs to his Word, we must exposit the Bible. 

Many ask, “Why did you and other Southern Baptist theologians propose the Convention add the Nicene Creed to The Baptist Faith and Message?”⁷ Why require it of the academy? I do not advocate Nicaea for the sake of upholding tradition. Nor to refute errant anthropologies. Nor to offend the weak who decry subscription. I advocate Nicene orthodoxy because I love Jesus and want his church to glorify him. I echo Paul’s letter to the Colossians: 

For I want you to know how greatly I am struggling for you, for those in Laodicea, and for all who have not seen me in person. I want their hearts to be encouraged and joined together in love, so that they may have all the riches of complete understanding and have the knowledge of God’s mystery—Christ. In him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Col. 2:1-3). 

Love and knowledge. Our end is not to protect biblical anthropology. Nor to promote orthodox scholars. Nor to preserve unity with the universal church. Good and right as those are, they are not our goal. Rather, we offer God’s people the knowledge of God’s mystery, the Person of Jesus Christ, because the complete measure of theological wisdom is found entirely “in him.” 

Who Is Christ?

The eternal mystery withheld by the Father until the appointed time is key to all reality. This mystery, “God’s mystery,” is “Christ.” In Colossians 2:6, Paul reminded the Christians in a small city 200 miles south of Nicaea they had “received Christ Jesus as Lord.” The language of reception is important. Through gospel proclamation, our faith is transmitted from one disciple and received by another. The Spirit-led transmission of the Word constitutes true tradition. 

In the dogmatic half of Colossians (1:3-3:4), Paul uses a diverse taxonomy to describe the eternal truth of Jesus Christ conveyed by orthodox tradition in propositional summary. Paul calls it “your faith” or “the faith” (1:4; 23; 2:5, 7); “the word of truth” or “the Word of God” (1:5; 25); “the gospel” (1:5, 23); “the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding” or “the knowledge of God” (1:9, 10; cf. 2:3); “the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints,” “this mystery,” or “God’s mystery” (1:26, 27; 2:2); our confession “in baptism” (2:12); and “the things above” (3:1, 2). Succinctly, Paul uses the title of the incarnate Word’s human office, “Christ,” to compass his Person and his work (1:26; 2:8, 17). 

The answer to the question, “Who is Christ?” is so mysterious that only God the Father can reveal it, so profound that only God the Son can verbalize it, so deep only God the Spirit can illumine it, and so important that your eternal state depends upon your correct answer. “But you, who do you say that I am?” is the existential question Jesus poses to every man. 

The Base Christian Confession

The base Christian confession, first vocalized by Peter outside Caesarea, was lauded by our Lord, then taught by all the apostles. According to Paul, every human being who wants to be saved must confess, “Jesus is Lord” (Rom. 10:9-10). We make this confession only by the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 12:3). And everyone will so confess in the end (Phil 2:9). 

There is so much in the base Christian creed! The New Testament is an inspired commentary on it. In Colossians 2:6, Paul confesses the truth about the Truth (cf. John 14:6) under three names, each indicating a major fact about him: 

“Christ” indicates his office as Prophet, Priest, and King; “Jesus” indicates his true humanity; “Lord” indicates his transcendent reality as bearer of the divine name. 

By his human name and office, we confess his humanity. By his divine name, we confess his deity. We proclaim Christ is one real Person with two full natures, divine and human. Two verses later Paul clearly affirms our Lord’s deity. But first he addresses “the cruelty of heresy.”⁸

The Cruelty of Heresy

I am saying this so that no one will deceive you with arguments that sound reasonable. … Be careful that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit based on human tradition, based on the elements of the world, rather than Christ (Col 2:4, 8). 

Jesus said false teachers come “in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves” (Matt 7:15). His brother called them “dangerous reefs,” “without reverence,” “shepherds who only look after themselves,” “waterless clouds carried along by winds; trees in late autumn—fruitless, twice dead and uprooted,” “wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shameful deeds; wandering stars for whom the blackness of darkness is reserved forever” (Jude 12-13). Paul said they “do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naïve” (Rom 16:18). Heretics pretend civility but present cruelty. 

What heresy troubled the church of Colossae? Scholars detect a variety of religions in the area: from polytheistic paganism to monotheistic Judaism, as well as the mystery religions, Hellenistic philosophies, and Jewish philosophy. The internal evidence suggests either a syncretistic soup or a mélange salad. Whatever its form, it sounded reasonable. Paul used the term, pithanalogia, “persuasive reasoning,” pithy analogies (Col 2:10). 

Most commentators believe the Colossian heresy “made room, officially, for Jesus Christ, within its system.”⁹ But that is the problem, folks! If you assign Jesus an inferior place, you dishonor him. Paul tells us to take care we are not taken captive by “philosophy,” deceived by “human tradition” (2:10, cf. v. 22), ruled by “regulations” (vv. 20, 22). Old Testament “festivals,” even the “Sabbath day,” are “a shadow of what was to come, the substance is Christ” (vv. 16-17). Ignore those who harp on, “Don’t handle, don’t taste, don’t touch” (v. 22). Rules for man guarantee no relation with the divine Ruler. 

Paul also blasted those who elevate angels and theologize from their imagination (v. 18). Undue fascination with angelic and human hierarchies reached a high point with the speculations of Pseudo-Dionysius in the sixth century.¹⁰ However, the rabbis were long before dabbling in it under Persian influence.¹¹ Jesus warned his disciples against importing pagan hierarchies into the church (Matt 20:24-28). Paul repeatedly undermined Colossae’s fetish for arche kai exousia, “rule and authority” (Col 1:16; 2:10). He taught that, in Christ God “disarmed the rulers and authorities and disgraced them publicly; he triumphed over them in him” (2:15). 

The word translated “elements” in Colossians 2:8 and 20, stoicheia, may indicate doctrines, spirits, or world principles.¹² We likely require all three meanings: Fallen angels take the basic life principles by which the world works and create new doctrines to deceive and captivate the unwary. Their goal to dishonor Christ succeeds when they distract Christians into obsessing over creaturely hierarchies. But Paul calls us back to honor Christ (cf. John 5:23). 

Christ’s Divine Ontology

Paul explains the basic Christian creed with the highest ontological confession of Christ in his epistles, a confession that compels us to embrace Nicaea’s high Christology. It is comparable to Peter’s revealed confession that Jesus is “the Christ the Son of the living God” (Matt 16:15-16); to John’s sublime confession that Jesus is the Word who is “with God,” “God,” and “became flesh” (John 1:1, 14); to Thomas’s stunning confession that the resurrected man before him is “My Lord and my God” (John 20:28); and to the apostles’ example as they “worshiped” Jesus, receiving his Great Commission (Matt. 28:16). Paul wrote, 

For the entire fullness of God’s nature dwells bodily in Christ, and you have been filled by him, who is the head over every ruler and authority (Col 2:9-10). 

He begins with Christ’s divine reality. Christ possesses tes theotetos, a rare noun which means, “Godhead” (Wycliffe, Tyndale, KJV),¹³ “the Deity” (NIV; cf. ESV), “God’s nature” (CSB), or “the essence of deity” (ISV). John Chrysostom argued that Christ’s Godhead means he is “consubstantial” with the Father;¹⁴ to Martin Luther, theotes means “der Gottheit;” to John Calvin, he possesses the Godhead entirely.¹⁵ The founder of Southwestern Seminary explains, 

Observe (1) “Godhead.” The Greek theotes means “deity,”— not the weaker word “divinity,” the natural force of which may be evaded, or shaded down. The expression is even stronger than John’s “the Word was God (Theos).”¹⁶

Paul leaves no room for a negative qualification. Instead, he buttresses the noun for divine being with at least a double positive, pan to pleroma. Christ has “divine being.” Christ has “the fullness” (to pleroma). Christ has it “all” (pan). A. T. Robertson approved: “‘all the pleroma of the Godhead,’ not just certain aspects, dwells in Christ.”¹⁷ Christ is God absolutely! According to N. T. Wright, this forestalls the Arian hermeneutic, 

The man Jesus Christ, now exalted, is not one of a hierarchy of intermediary beings, angelic or (in some sense) “divine.” He is, uniquely, God’s presence and his very self. … Christ is not a second, different Deity: he is the embodiment and full expression of the one God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.¹⁸

The last term in Paul’s statement on Christological ontology, somatikos, may be interpreted in two ways, either of which furthers orthodoxy. Somatikos can be translated, in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead, “bodily” or “substantially.” If we take the first interpretation, with Robertson, it “asserts plainly the deity and the humanity of Jesus Christ in corporeal form.”¹⁹ This was Chrysostom’s understanding. Likewise, Scot McKnight.²⁰ This interpretation prompts us to confess Christ with the fourth ecumenical council, through the Formula of Chalcedon, that Christ is one Person, truly God, truly man; God–Man. 

If we take the second interpretation with Calvin, somatikos means “substantially” or “essentially.”²¹ The second interpretation reinforces in a fourth way the high Christological claim of the later Nicene tradition that Jesus Christ is, in essence, God. Paul drags us invariably into ascribing unqualified divine ontology to Christ in the way Nicaea concluded: 

(1) In Christ dwells the Godhead. (2) In Christ dwells the fullness of the Godhead. (3) In Christ dwells all the fullness of the Godhead. (4) In Christ dwells all the fullness of the Godhead essentially. 

Nicaea’s claim that Christ is homoousios, “of the same essence,” as the Father, is grounded, as with the entire creed, in the biblical text. The Nicene Creed makes no addition to the biblical text. Rather, the Nicene Creed offers a summation of the biblical text. 

Whichever interpretation of somatikos you prefer, Wright concludes rightly, “We should not, however, drive a wedge between the two.”²² Christ is the Lord God by nature, and Christ is the man Jesus by nature. You must maintain the truth of his one Person with two natures. You may never divide his Person, nor diminish his deity, nor distort his humanity. 

Alas, Christological heresies constantly challenge the church. Every heresy and error began by insulting the being or act of Jesus Christ, the second Person of the triune God. 

Christ’s Divine Authority

Returning to the base Christian confession cited in verse 6, note the import of the third name, “Lord.” The base Hebrew confession, the Shema, requires unique devotion to the one “LORD” (Hebrew Yahweh) “God” (Hebrew ’Elohim) (Deut 6:4-5). In the Septuagint, the Greek kyrios translated the Hebrew name, Yahweh, and the Hebrew title for Lord, ’Adonai.²³ The Jews honored the covenant name of God, “LORD,” by always substituting the title, “Lord,” when speaking. “The Lord” is “the LORD God.” In the New Testament, “Lord” was applied to Jesus to indicate the perfection of his deity and his authority.²⁴ 

This helps us understand why Paul stresses the authority of Christ in verse 10: Christ “is the head over every ruler and authority.” Christ in himself as eternal God, who became man, is the kephale of every creaturely rule and authority. This includes every angelic and human office and power. “Every” (Greek pas) carries no qualification when applied to God. We must ascribe both his divine nature and his human nature to his one Person without diminution. 

Christ retains perfect headship by virtue of his eternal deity (Ps 110:1), even as he receives this lordship in his humanity (Matt 28:18). As eternal God, he always reigns from his eternal throne; as he who assumed our humanity, died, and arose, he ascended to his eternal throne. 

Nicene Christians become scandalized by the modern errors of Kenoticism²⁵ and “eternal functional subordination,” because we detect challenges to Christ’s deity.²⁶ Jesus said, “everything the Father has is mine” (John 16:15). “Everything” (Greek pas) excludes nothing. We must affirm Christ’s perfect deity and Christ’s eternal sovereignty, for God promised David (2 Sam 7:16) and Daniel (Dan 7:14) his kingdom has no end. We must reject Marcellianism, condemned by the Council of Constantinople in 381. Marcellus said the Son returns his authority to the Father, ending Christ’s kingdom. But the Nicene Creed replied, “of his Kingdom there is no end.”²⁷

Either we confess with the apostles, “Jesus is Lord”—simply, absolutely, without qualification—or we descend into heresy and error by dishonoring Christ’s Person, diminishing his deity, distorting his humanity. 

Christ descended to become man to ascend again with our humanity. God became a man that men might be united with God. The Lord took to himself humanity so that we could be granted eternal life with him; and he never compromised his perfect deity to do so. Jesus Christ is Lord—fully, absolutely, unqualifiedly, truly. If you believe this about Christ, Paul writes, “you have been filled by him” (Col 2:8). 

The dogmatic section of Colossians began with a hymn of Christological exaltation and concluded with a call to hope in Christ’s eternal headship. These texts remind us of the preeminent authority by which Christ perfectly rules everything forever from his eternal throne: 

In Colossians 1:15-17, we learn Christis preeminent over his creation; in 1:18-20, we learn Christ is preeminent over the redemption; and in 3:1-4, we learn Christ is preeminent over the consummation. 

Note how Christ is before, after, above, and under everything. The creation, the redemption, and the consummation come from him and exist by and for him. Christ is the eternal God–King. 

First, Christ is preeminent over his Creation 

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For everything was created by him, in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and by him all things hold together (Col 1:15-17). 

Then, Christ is preeminent over the Redemption 

He is also the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile everything to himself, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross (Col 1:18-20). 

Finally, Christ is preeminent over the Consummation 

So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory (Col 3:1-4). 

We could keep on exalting Christ, calling believers to look up to him, asking false teachers to stop reducing him to earthly principles; but we must now call to faith. We have learned Christ is the reality from whom, to whom, and by whom the whole movement of the universe in creation, redemption, and consummation is determined. Christ is the reality whom the entire canon reveals. Christ possesses absolute lordship. For Jesus is God! 

Will You Receive Christ?

In Colossians 2:11, Paul corrected the Judaizers, who wanted Gentiles circumcised. But Christ already provided spiritual circumcision through his death and resurrection. Paul then recalled our seminal confession in baptism: 

You were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead (Col 2:12). 

This is the gospel: Christ died. Christ arose. We enter union with him by the personal faith we confess in baptism. In verse 13, Paul reminded us it is by faith in the mediating work of Christ we are saved, and in no other way. 

Finally, in verses 14 and 15, Paul rehearsed the wondrous exchange worked by Christ: On his cross, Christ paid the price for our sin debt. In his resurrection, Christ disarmed every authority. Taking his body to the throne he always inhabits, Christ declared victory.

Jesus Christ is eternal King. He requires not our power to make him what he is.²⁸ Instead, God requires men to receive Christ by grace through the Spirit’s gift of faith. Christ reveals himself through our proclamation of his gospel. This gospel, and the Nicene Creed which centers on the gospel, affirms the divine reality of Jesus and the saving work of Jesus: In Christ all the fullness of the Godhead dwells substantially. God became man; he died; he arose; he ascended; he reigns over all eternally. 

The critical question is, “Do you believe in him?”

1. E.g., Michael Goulder, “Jesus, the Man of Universal Destiny,” in John Hick, ed., The Myth of God Incarnate (SCM Press, 1977), 62.  ↩︎
2. Malcolm B. Yarnell III, “Baptists Who Confess the Nicene Faith,” Southwestern Journal of Theology 67.2 (2025): 20-22.  ↩︎
3. Malcolm B. Yarnell III, “Identifying the Crisis in Evangelical Theology Today,” LifeWay Research (November 2025).  ↩︎
4. “A Celebration of Nicaea,” September 10, 2025, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary Chapel, Fort Worth, TX. ↩︎
5. Yes, as with men, Scripture commends women who are true teachers (e.g., Acts 18:26), and condemns women who are false teachers (e.g., Rev 2:20).  ↩︎
6. Yarnell, “Baptists Who Confess the Nicene Faith” (also available at https://equipthecalled. com/swjt-journal-article/baptists-who-confess-the-nicene-faith/). ↩︎
7. Steven A. McKinion and Malcolm B. Yarnell III, “FIRST PERSON: For Baptist Confessionalism,” Baptist Press (January 4, 2024; https://www.baptistpress.com/resource-library/news/first-person-for-baptist-confessionalism/); Andrew Brown, Stephen Lorance, Steven McKinion, and Malcolm Yarnell, “Commentary: Why Add Nicene Creed to Our Confession,” Baptist Standard (June 5, 2025; https://baptiststandard.com/opinion/other-opinions/commentary-why-add-nicene-creed-to-our-confession/); “Article XIX: The Nicene Creed,” Pro Gloria Christi (May 28, 2024; https://www.malcolmyarnell.com/2024/05/article-xix-creed.html). ↩︎
8. C. Fitzsimons Allison, The Cruelty of Heresy: An Affirmation of Christian Orthodoxy (Morehouse, 1994).  ↩︎
9. N. T. Wright, The Epistles of Paul to the Colossians and to Philemon: An Introduction and Commentary, Tyndale New Testament Commentary (Eerdmans, 1986), 28. ↩︎
10. Pseudo-Dionysius, “The Celestial Hierarchy,” and “The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy,” in The Complete Works, transl. Paul Rorem, Classics of Western Spirituality (Paulist Press, 1987), 143-89, 193-259.  ↩︎
11. On the intertestamental literature, see Anthony C. Thiselton, The Thiselton Companion to Christian Theology (Eerdmans, 2015), 15-16. Regarding Persian influence on the development of rabbinic angelic hierarchy, see J. M. Wilson, “Angels,” in Geoffrey W. Bromiley, ed., The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, rev. ed., vol. 1 (Eerdmans, 1979), 126. Cf. Wojciech Kosior, “The Angelized Rabbis and the Rabbinized Angels: The Reworked Motif of the Angelic Progeny in the Babylonian Talmud (bShabb 112b),” Verbum Vitae, 41.2 (2023): 411–427; Moisés Silva, New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology and Exegesis, rev. ed., vol. 1 (Zondervan, 2014), 121-22.  ↩︎
12. Scot McKnight, The Letter to the Colossians, New International Commentary on the New Testament (Eerdmans, 2018), 226-28. ↩︎
13. Ethelbert Stauffer, “Theotes,” in Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, vol. 3, ed. Gerhard Kittel, treansl. Geoffrey W. Bromiley (Eerdmans, 1965), 119.  ↩︎
14. John Chryosostom, Homilies, ed. Phillip Schaff, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, vol. 13 (1889; Hendrickson, 1994), 285.  ↩︎
15. John Calvin, Commentaries on the Epistles of Paul the Apostle to the Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians, transl. John Pringle (Baker, [n.d]), 182.  ↩︎
16. B. H. Carroll, Colossians, Ephesians, and Hebrews, An Interpretation of the English Bible, ed. J. B. Cranfill (Broadman Press, 1948), 49.  ↩︎
17. Archibald Thomas Robertson, The Epistles of Paul, Word Pictures in the New Testament, vol. 4 (Broadman Press, 1931), 491.  ↩︎
18. Wright, The Epistles of Paul to the Colossians and to Philemon, 103. ↩︎
19. Robertson, The Epistles of Paul, 491.  ↩︎
20. Adopting the ecclesiastical interpretation of somatikos, though taught elsewhere in Paul’s epistles (e.g., 1 Cor 12), detracts from Paul’s unwavering Christological emphasis here (Col. 2:3). McKnight, The Letter to the Colossians, 229-30.  ↩︎
21. Calvin, Commentaries on the Epistles of Paul the Apostle to the Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians, 183.  ↩︎
22. Wright, The Epistles of Paul to the Colossians and to Philemon, 103. ↩︎
23. Moisés Silva, New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology and Exegesis, rev. ed., vol. 2 (Zondervan, 2014), 769.  ↩︎
24. Silva, ed., New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology and Exegesis, 2:775-77.  ↩︎
25. Malcolm B. Yarnell III, Word, vol. 2, Theology for Every Person (B&H Publishing, forthcoming 2026), 352-56.  ↩︎
26. Yarnell, Word, 358-61.  ↩︎
27. Yarnell, Word, 86-87. ↩︎
28. Must men “make Christ king” through establishing some petty hierarchy over a nation? No, that was the false faith of the Arian emperors. George Huntston Williams, “Christology and Church-State Relations in the Fourth Century,” [two parts] Church History 20.3 (1951): 3–33, and 20.4 (1951): 3–26. ↩︎