If you’ve been a Christian for many years, it may have been a long time since you’ve said the Nicene Creed in church. And if you haven’t been Christian for quite as long, you may never have said it. You may not even know it exists.

These ideas didn’t sit well with English Christian singer-songwriter Matt Redman, and when he heard that 2025 was the 1700th anniversary of the Nicene Creed (see box), he felt the need to share it more widely. The result is a collaboration with Jonny Robinson and Rich Thompson from CityAlight called “The God We Love (Nicene Creed)”.

Says Jonny Robinson: “I think there is a very strong link between speaking the truth and knowing the truth, and what the Nicene Creed offers is this really well-tested, battle-tested declaration. For 1700 years people have kept getting this out and saying, ‘Does this still speak for us? Does this still represent us? Is this still what our church believes today?’ And then the answer keeps coming back, ‘Yes it is’.

“One of the things I found interesting is that when it was written, you might have thought all the doctrines and battles in Christianity had been done and dusted. But the doctrinal battles were still raging very intensely... and it made me realise that every generation is going to have to defend orthodoxy; we’re going to have to stand and defend what we believe and say it’s the truth.”

Once Redman heard about the anniversary, he decided he wanted to share the Nicene Creed with his church. His pastor was all for it so, the following Sunday, at the beginning of the five services where Mr Redman led the worship, he began by leading the congregation in the creed. And each time he finished, they broke into applause.

The powerful nature of their response was the impetus for the song – the desire to create a way for all the truths in the creed to be utilised in another way in a modern service. 

Says Mr Robinson: “Matt, to his credit, was adamant that we should try and use phrases that we wouldn’t normally sing but, when you heard them, they would resonate as credal language. Like ‘in accordance with the Scriptures’ – I wouldn’t have thought of putting those words in a song! – or ‘crucified under Pontius Pilate’. When you hear them the bells ring in your mind. 

“He was very enthusiastic about making sure that credal language was in the song so that if you know the creed you'll know that you’re singing the creed.”

Mr Robinson says the first thing he, Rich Thompson and Mr Redman did was spend a long time with the text.

“Before we thought about it as a song we tried to think what were the different elements of the creed. You’ve obviously got Father, Son and Spirit; there’s a little segment on the church now and the church to come and there’s a reference to the end times as well.

“So, because there is so much content in the verses, we really wanted the chorus to be a release. You’re taking in so much as you sing through the verse; the chorus is a moment where the church can give out and lift their voices, so the chorus is very simple:

All glory to the Father now

All honour to the Son

And praise the Spirit, now and always 

– this is the God we love.”

The song was recorded live with Mr Redman at a St Paul’s worship night, and Mr Robinson hopes that congregations will sing it and other declarations of the Nicene Creed for generations to come.

“Our prayer is that the church would enjoy singing it,” he says. “We want them to take this historic creed and bring it back to their Sunday morning worship services. 

“I think a question that anybody choosing songs on Sunday should be asking is, ‘Would God enjoy hearing his people singing this song? Would it please him to hear the voice of the church singing this song?’

“We pray there would be that balance between truth and beauty, between the historic creed and singability in such a way that people can take ownership of this declaration and make it a corporate declaration as well.”