Why does the Creed include the statement that “he suffered?”
In addition to naming the crucifixion, the central act of the Lord’s work of salvation, the Creed insists that the Lord of Glory truly suffered, that his passion was not a mere semblance of suffering and death, as the heretics called docetists claimed (from dokein, “to seem”). The Lord’s Passion was real suffering and real death; as St Peter writes, he was truly “a witness of the sufferings of Christ” (1Pe 5:1); and St Ignatius insists: “he truly suffered, even as he truly raised himself” (St Ignatius of Antioch, To the Smyrnaeans, 2; see Q008, Q170).
This statement assures us that Jesus Christ really died and really rose again, according to the Scriptures (1Co 15:3–4; see Q017, Q217). The Gospels record that his enemies even set a watch at his Sepulchre and sealed the stone (Mat 27:62–66), so that the reality of the three-day burial, and therefore of the resurrection, is attested by his adversaries themselves.
