I am beginning a study on the Heidelberg Catechism and have been contemplating the role of creeds and confessions for Christians. I came across this quote describing the boundary-setting properties of the Nicene and Chalcedonian Creeds.
From Crossway's book entitled The Deity of Christ:
These two creeds, the Nicene Creed (325, 381) and the Chalcedonian Creed (451), form the basis of orthodox christology, informing us that Christ is fully God and fully human, and that those two natures conjoin perfectly and fully in one person. These councils and their creeds did not put an end to christological controversies, however. Such controversies continue to this day. But they do represent the boundaries for the church in her expression of the person of Christ, and they do confront the potential challenges to a biblically faithful christology. Views of Christ err when they deny or limit the humanity of Christ, deny or limit the deity of Christ, or confuse how the two natures come together. Since all christological heresies trace back to one (or more) of these three errors, Nicaea and Chalcedon provide the boundaries to keep us from such errors.
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