God

     God is the Creator and Ruler of all things.  He eternally exists in three persons: The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit, each with distinct attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being.  God is eternal, all-powerful, all knowing, ever present, perfect in love, justice, and holiness and worthy to receive all glory, honor, and praise.

     God the Father reigns with providential care over His universe.  He is the Father of Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit while still one with both as God.  He is adoptive Father in truth to those who become children of God through faith in Jesus Christ. 

     God the Son is Jesus Christ. While eternal in nature, His incarnation was conceived of the Holy Spirit and He was born of the virgin Mary.  Jesus perfectly revealed and lived out the will of God, taking upon Himself human nature without sin.  He offered Himself as the perfect Sacrifice for sin and through His death made provision for the redemption of humanity from sin.  He was raised from the dead and appeared to His disciples proving His power over death and His ability to raise us up from death.  He ascended into Heaven to the right hand of God the Father where He mediates reconciliation between God and humanity.  He will physically return in power and glory to judge the world and consummate His redemptive mission.

     God the Holy Spirit is fully divine.  He inspired the writers of the Scripture.  He convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment.  He enables Christians to understand truth.  He dwells in the hearts of every Christian from the moment of salvation.  He bestows spiritual gifts on believers through which they serve His church.  He comforts and intercedes for them.  He seals the believer for the day of redemption.  He enlightens and empowers the believer in the church in worship, evangelism, and service.

 

Humanity

     Unlike the rest of God’s creation, humanity was created in God’s own image.  Those whom God created were innocent of sin and endowed with freedom of choice.  By their choice influenced by the temptation of Satan, humanity fell into sin resulting in being out of fellowship with God.  The inevitable result of sin is death.  This sin and death became an inherent part of our flesh and our world, which inclines us all to sin.  Satan continues to leverage influence into these predispositions.  As transgressors under righteous judgment, only God’s grace exhibited in Jesus Christ can bring humanity back into fellowship with God.

Salvation

     Salvation is the process God designed to restore an intimate relationship between Himself and humanity that was lost because of sin.  God’s grace was extended for all people in the person and work of Jesus.

     Grace, the unmerited favor of a holy God, was given to a lost world through Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection.  It remits and forgives the sin of all who repent and believe in Christ.  Although grace is available for all humanity, it requires the response of faith.

     Faith responds to God’s grace by repentance, a change of heart brought from conviction encouraged by the Holy Spirit, by belief in Who Jesus is, and by trust evidenced in simple obedience and submission to His will.

God works through these two joined realities to provide regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification.

     Regeneration or the new birth is God working through His grace to make us new creations in Christ.  The old life is gone and the new has come.  Baptism by immersion is the outward obedient picture of Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection reflecting our belief and trust in His completed work for our salvation.

Justification is the acquittal and removal of our sin that brings us into a position of peace with God.

     Sanctification is the process of reflecting the glory of God in ever increasing measure, our thoughts and actions illustrating a pattern of growth aligned to God’s Word.  It comes through the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit placed in every believer.  He sets us apart and guides us to His purposes.  We are adopted into His family and made joint heirs with Jesus Christ. 

     Glorification is the promise given at salvation for God to be faithful in finishing the work He started until we join Him in Heaven.

 

 The Church

     The church is a communion of those who have accepted Christ by faith being called out of darkness into His marvelous light.  It is the body of Christ, the bride of Christ, the kingdom of Christ, and also the household of Christ.

     As the body of Christ, the church is His representative body on earth.  As a body, each believer performs a specific function in harmony with the whole with Christ as the head.  Because Christ is the head, these functions are determined by God’s divine plan and empowered by the Holy Spirit to complete it.  The church must be committed to unity and maturity.

     As the bride of Christ, the church is the recipient of the love of Christ.  He died for her, is building a dwelling in His Father’s house for her, and will bodily return for her and purify her at the proper time.  Marriage, the uniting of one man and one woman in covenant commitment for a lifetime, is God’s representative picture of the eternal union between Christ and His bride, the church.

     As the Kingdom of Christ, the church ministers as priests offering spiritual sacrifices in service and praise for the glory of God.  As ambassadors of this kingdom, they are commanded to love God above all else and to love all others as themselves. They are also commissioned to go and make disciples of all nations.

     As the Household of Christ, it recognizes God as Father and each other as brother and sister, existing in local bodies of believers operating under the Lordship of Christ.  Members are identified as those who submit to a common covenant of faith and fellowship defined by a common interpretation of Scripture.  It is overseen by Scripturally qualified elders under Christ’s authority.  Church members and attendees meet regularly to devote themselves to worship, to Scripture, to one another, to communion, to share their possessions, and to pray.  They are committed, as a local body to live out intentional relational discipleship.  They love their local community and the world by ministering to the needs of others and by sharing their faith regularly.

 

 

Eternity

     Being made in the image of God, humanity has an eternal quality to life.  Although we die physically, we all face literal realities of eternal destination.  Scripture teaches that Heaven is the eternal destination of those reckoned righteous through Christ and that Hell is the eternal destination of those bearing the weight of their own sin.  Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly to earth.  Those consigned to Hell will be eternally separated from God in everlasting punishment and those who have trusted in Christ will be resurrected with glorified bodies to receive their reward and dwell forever in Heaven with the Lord.