What is The Gospel?

We believe that the gospel is the good news of Jesus Christ—God’s very wisdom. This good news is christological, centering on the cross and resurrection. Consequently, the gospel is not proclaimed if Christ is not proclaimed, and the authentic Christ has not been proclaimed if His death and resurrection are not central. This good news is biblical (his death and resurrection are according to the Scriptures), theological and salvific (Christ died for our sins to reconcile us to God), historical (if the saving events did not happen our faith is worthless, we are still in our sins, and are to be pitied more than all others), apostolic (the message was entrusted to and transmitted by the apostles who were witnesses of these saving events), and personal (where it is received, believed, and held firmly, individual persons are saved).
(Luke 24:44-48; Acts 2:22-39; Romans 10:5-13; 1 Corinthians 1:18-31; 15:3-18; 2 Corinthians 5:16-21)

The Redemptive Plan of God

We believe that from all eternity God determined in grace to save a great multitude of guilty sinners from every tribe and language and people and nation, and to this end foreknew and chose them. God justifies and sanctifies those who by grace have faith in Jesus, and He will one day glorify them—all to the praise of His glorious grace. In love God commands and implores all people to repent and believe, having set His saving love on those He has chosen and having ordained Christ to be their Redeemer.

(Isaiah 53:4-6; Acts 17:29-31; Romans 5:1-11; 8:28-39; Ephesians 1:3-14; 2 Timothy 2:8-10; 1 Peter 1:1-5)

The Work of the Holy Spirit

We believe that salvation, attested in all Scripture and secured by Jesus Christ, is applied to His people by the Holy Spirit. Sent by the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ, and is present with and in believers. He convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment, and by His powerful and mysterious work regenerates spiritually dead sinners, awakening them to repentance and faith such that they are justified before God by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone. By the Spirit’s agency, believers are renewed, sanctified, and adopted into God’s family; they participate in the divine nature and receive His sovereignly distributed gifts. The Holy Spirit is Himself the down payment of our promised inheritance, and in this age indwells, guides, instructs, equips, revives, and empowers believers for Christ-like living and service.

(John 3:1-8; 6:63; 14:15-17; 15:26-27; 16:7-15; Acts 1:8; Romans 8:9-27; 1 Corinthians 2:3-5; 12:4-11; Ephesians 1:13-14; 5:18-21; Titus 3:4-7)

Baptism and the Lord’s Supper

We believe that baptism and the Lord’s Supper are sacraments ordained by the Lord Jesus himself. The former is connected with entrance into the new covenant community, the latter with ongoing covenant renewal. Together they are simultaneously God’s pledge to us, a divinely ordained means of grace, our public vows of submission to the once crucified and now resurrected Christ, and anticipations of His return and of the consummation of all things.

(Matthew 26:26-28; 28:19; Acts 2:38-39, 42; 8:34-38; 10:44-48; 16:14-15; 20:7; Romans 6:1-4; 1 Corinthians 11:17-34)

Gender Distinctions

We believe that God created human beings, male and female, in His own image. Adam and Eve belonged to the created order that God Himself declared to be very good, serving as God’s agents to care for, manage, and govern creation, living in holy and devoted fellowship with their Maker. Men and women enjoy equal access to God by faith in Jesus Christ and are both called to move beyond passive self-indulgence to significant private and public engagement in family, church, and civic life. Adam and Eve were made to complement each other in a “one flesh” union that establishes the only normative pattern of sexual relations for men and women, such that marriage ultimately serves as a type of the union between Christ and His church. In God’s wise purposes, men and women are not interchangeable, but rather complement each other in mutually enriching ways. God ordains that they assume distinctive roles which reflect the loving relationship between Christ and the church, the husband exercising headship in a way that displays the caring, sacrificial love of Christ, and the wife submitting to her husband in a way that models the love of the church for her Lord. In the ministry of the church, both men and women are encouraged to serve Christ and be developed to their full potential in the manifold ministries of the people of God. The distinctive leadership role within the church given to qualified men (elders) is grounded in creation, fall, and redemption and must not be sidelined by appeals to cultural developments.

(Genesis 1:26-31; 2:15-25; Acts 2:17-18; 21:9; Romans 16:1-16; 1 Timothy 2:12—3:13; Galatians 3:23-29; Ephesians 5:22-33; 1 Peter 4:10-11)

Divorce and Remarriage

We believe that marriage has been established by God as the first human institution. The Scriptures teach that a man should leave his father and mother, be united to his wife, and the two will become “one flesh.” When this “one flesh” design has been violated divorce is allowable (but not mandated). This violation would include marital unfaithfulness and the abandonment of the Christian by the non-Christian spouse. Remarriage, consequently, is allowable (but not mandated) when it becomes evident that the “one flesh” relationship cannot be restored. We believe that even when divorce and remarriage occur outside biblical boundaries, they are not unpardonable offenses but, because of the gospel, can and must be forgiven. Consequently, divorce and remarriage do not disqualify an individual from church membership and its privileges (including ministry in the church).

(Genesis 2:24; Matthew 5:31-32; 19:3-12; Mark 10:1-12; 1 Corinthians 6:9-11; 7:8-16)

The Kingdom of God and Social Responsibility

We believe that those who have been saved by the grace of God through union with Christ enter the kingdom of God and delight in the blessings of the new covenant: the forgiveness of sins, the inward transformation that awakens a desire to obey God, and the prospect of glory yet to be revealed. Good works constitute indispensable evidence of saving grace. Living as salt in a world that is decaying, and light in a world that is dark, believers should never withdraw from the world; nor should they become indistinguishable from it. We are to love our neighbors as ourselves, doing good to all, especially to those who belong to the household of God. The kingdom of God, already present but not fully realized, is the exercise of God’s sovereignty in the world that will culminate in the eventual redemption of all creation. It is an invasive power that plunders Satan’s dark kingdom and regenerates and renovates the lives of individuals rescued from that realm. It therefore inevitably establishes a new community of human life together under God.

(Matthew 5:13-16; Luke 10:25-37; John 17:15, 17-18; Romans 12:1-2; Galatians 6:10; Ephesians 2:8-10; 1 Peter 4:8; 1 John 3:16-18; Revelation 21:1-8)