GOD
God has existed from all eternity as one being in three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Each Person is fully God and equal in honor, power, and glory. All acts of revelation and redemption are accomplished through the distinct, yet unified work of the triune Godhead.

God has made Himself known in and through His works of creation and providence. Creation being the act of God making all things from nothing, and providence being the act of God sustaining and governing all things to the end that they bring Him glory.

Creation is the act of God making all things, both material and immaterial, that exist in our cosmos. Genesis 1 teaches us that God’s work of creation lasted six days, and on the seventh He rested. It also teaches us that God made the first man and woman in His image to be stewards over His creation.

Because our world is the fruit of God’s creative work, it is infused with His good, loving, just, and holy character. As stewards over creation, Adam and Eve were to oversee and increase the expression of God’s character in the world through their righteous rule and governance. Such would have been the fate of the world had Adam and Eve obeyed. Instead, they listened to the crafty words of the Serpent who sowed seeds of doubt about God’s goodness, love, and faithfulness, and ate the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, from which God had commanded them not to eat. The result was that the goodness of creation was sundered and ruined by evil, injustice, and death. Adam and Eve’s rebellion brought ruin into God’s good and perfect world. In addition, mankind, whose very essence was likened to God’s, was now cursed with sin, death, and separation from Him. Because of Adam and Eve’s sin, all mankind is born corrupted by hatred of God and a bent toward evil in all aspects of their personhood. This does not mean that every person is as evil as they could be, but it does mean that there is no part of us which has not been touched and affected deeply by sin and wickedness from the time we are conceived.

Out of sheer mercy, love and grace, God did not leave the world or mankind in its ruinous state, but instead enacted a plan of redemption. Beginning with Adam and Eve and tracing through the Old Testament, is the story of God calling a people out of sin and death to be His special people who will worship Him and make his name known throughout the world as the one true God. The nature of this relationship is called covenantal in the Bible. A covenant is a relationship founded upon a promise of faithfulness and loyalty. God pledges to be our God who will deliver, preserve, and bless us, and we pledge to be His people who walk in faith and obedience to Him. Because of mankind’s sinful state, the only way this relationship can be sustained is through the ongoing mercy and grace of God who forgives sinners and welcomes the repentant.

At the heart of God’s plan to redeem what was ruined by Adam and Eve’s sin is a critical problem: how can He forgive sinful, wicked humankind without compromising His holiness, justice and goodness? God’s answer is to die for our sin Himself. Jesus, the second Person of the triune Godhead, came to earth as one who was fully God and fully human with the mission of revealing God to us and delivering us from sin and death by dying for our sin in our place. Three days later, He rose from the dead; for in His death, death itself has been defeated. With His resurrection, a new age was inaugurated–the age of redemption. It is an age in which we have begun to experience the blessings of the accomplishments of Christ on the cross, and in which we wait with eager longing for His return, when redemption will be complete, and judgment enacted against all agents of evil, whether demonic or human.

For someone to receive the blessings of this new age–forgiveness of sin; the death of our sinful, dead selves created in Adam; new life by the Spirit in Christ; a restored relationship with God; and all other blessings–they must put their faith in Christ as their divine Savior, taking His death for their own, and His life for theirs. They are to respond positively to God’s offer of salvation in and through Christ that is held out in the gospel.

Saving faith is accompanied by a changed life: a christian is a new creation. While we live in our current bodies we must still wage war against sin. We are nonetheless granted the gift of the Holy Spirit that enables us to walk in ever-increasing obedience to God. This indeed is the Christian’s greatest desire, to be like God in the way he or she lives their life. God has not left us to ourselves in this, but rather his Scripture is our ever-constant aid, support, and guide, directing us how we are to live in obedience to His will, and enlightening our hearts and minds as to who He is.

The Church exists as the people of God across all places and times who are covenantally united to God through Christ by faith. It manifests itself tangibly in local gatherings of believing communities all across the globe who are organized and ordered by the light of Scripture and the leading of God’s Spirit. Christ teaches us that in this age the tangible Church will appeal to true and false believer alike, and so the Church will not exist in its pure form until after the Day of Judgment.

The Bible is God’s divinely inspired Word. Comprised of 66 individual books, it contains the complete revelation from God to His people. As the inspired Word of God, Scripture is characterized according to the same character we ascribe to God. As God is truthful, so His Word is true.  As God is the supreme authority over all creation, so His Word bears supreme authority in our lives. As God is holy, so His Word is holy and leads us to holiness. As God is beautiful, so His Word is the apex of artistic beauty. As God is good, so His word to us is good.

Although all human beings by sheer use of human faculties are capable of reading and understanding the words contained in Scripture, yet no one apart from the regenerating and illuminating power of the Spirit can rightly perceive and apply the Word of God. This is not due to any limitation of the Word, but rather to the effects of sin in our lives, one of which is to blind us to God and make our ears dull to His truth.

In this age, God is on a mission to bring people from all tribes, nations, and tongues underneath the banner of Christ. Though nations may rage against Him, though His Church may experience seasons of great trial and persecution, God’s mission will not cease until Christ returns and all things are brought under subjection to His rule. It is the honor, joy, and responsibility of all believers everywhere to live out their unique calling in participation with God’s redemptive mission.