When many people say, "Yeah, I believe in Jesus Christ" what they mean is they believe there was a man named Jesus, that He was a historical figure. But Christians mean so much more than that when they say "I believe in Jesus Christ" and the creed explains why - because He is the Son of God!
This amazing fact is announced to Mary prior to His conception (Luke 1:35) "The angel answered, 'The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.'"
But this designation needs elaborating because it is used with different meaning in the Bible. For instance Job 38:7 uses it with reference to the angels. Paul uses it in his letter to the Galatians to describe believers (Gal.3:26).
In contrast to these uses of the phrase the new testament highlights the special Sonship of Jesus. To highlight this status Paul refers to believers as God's sons (i.e. children) by adoption (Romans 8:23; 9:4; Ephesians 1:5). Adopted children, by definition, are not natural children. Jesus, on the other hand, is the natural Son of God.
John's gospel focuses attention on His natural Sonship by calling Him God's "only begotten Son," John 1:14, 18; 3:16, 18. To understand what is unique about Jesus as "begotten" and every other creature called a "son of God" it's helpful to use an illustration used by C.S. Lewis.
Lewis used the image of a sculptor who, in his desire for a child, has carved a statue of a child, but whose wife also later bears him a real live child. While the statue is in the actual likeness of a human child, it is something he has made with his hands and it is of a different substance than the sculptor. In contrast, the real child is not created in that way but was begotten. It is the offspring of His body, of his own being and substance.
The creed's statement that Jesus is the "Son of God" amounts to saying that Jesus is God - an affirmation that is as fundamental and important today as when the creed was first formulated. Why? Because of the modern notions of pluralism and multiculturalism that have reduced all beliefs, all religions to the same level - that there is a "market place" of religious belief and none stands apart as exceptional in the popular mindset.
But in the Apostle's Creed the Church rejects this - saying of Christ "He is the Son of God" and therefore He speaks with authority. In fact, He stands in judgment over all competing and conflicting claims.
