The Good News of Jesus Christ
At the very core of our beliefs is the good news of Jesus Christ — the gospel. This is the news that everyone needs to hear in order to be saved and have eternal life. What is the gospel? To understand it we must retrace the story of our world from the beginning.
The Beginning
We believe that our universe, and everything in it, began long ago when God created it, just as the Bible describes in its first chapters. God made all living things — the swimmers and fliers, the creepers and crawlers, and even the growing things — trees and plants of all different kinds. But the masterpiece of His creative power and design was the first human pair, who were uniquely and specially patterned after the Maker Himself. The first man and his wife lived in Eden, a garden made for them by God. And all was good. Best of all, the man and his wife lived in unbroken relationship with the God who made them and loved them deeply.
The Fall of Man
Everything was good until the first man and his wife did the unthinkable — they rebelled against God. God had provided abundantly for their needs — they were surrounded by fruit-bearing trees of all different kinds, made specially for them. And in this garden God had created one tree — a tree which He forbade them to eat from. He told them that if they ate from this tree they would die. They had one law to live by. One “no”, in a whole world full of “yesses”. And they chose to disobey their Maker at great cost. Much was lost that day. Though God was merciful and did not put them to death immediately, they eventually did die. But physical death was only part of the problem. They died in other ways that day in Eden. The favourable relationship they had with God was severed, and the man and his wife became corrupt and guilty before God.
Man’s Problem
The corruption and guilt of the first pair were passed down to their children, and to their children’s children, and on down through the ages to all of humanity. The Bible’s word for this problem is “sin”. Generally, “sin” is anything wrong, evil, or impure which a person does. But this is not measured by our standards, but by God’s standards. Much later God revealed just what His standards are for humanity when He gave His Law and commandments to the people of Israel. The story of Israel reveals (among other things) how every human being falls short of God’s good standard, and sins, and deserves death and punishment from God.
God’s Gift
But there is good news! Because God is a compassionate and loving God, He did something amazing for all the people of the world, so that we can be spared what we deserve from Him for our sins. At just the right time He sent His Son Jesus from heaven to earth to fix what was broken and restore us in our relationship to God. Jesus the divine Son of God became human and was born into our world. His birth was first foretold long before it happened by prophets, men sent by God to speak His words. Later, God sent angels to announce the birth of His Son. These angels gave special signs to watch for so that there would be no mistaking who this special child was.
Jesus’ Life and Ministry
Jesus, the child who was born, eventually grew up to be a man. At about the age of 30 Jesus began to teach people about God and do all kinds of miraculous signs. He healed all kinds of sicknesses and diseases. He cast demonic spirits out of people. He miraculously fed over 5,000 people with just a boy’s lunch out in the wilderness. He calmed a ferocious storm with His words, and walked on water. He even raised a few people from the dead. These are things that only God can do; they are signs that Jesus truly was sent from heaven by God, and they confirm that what He came to teach and to say is the truth.
Jesus’ Teaching
Jesus taught His followers and the crowds about all kinds of things. But most importantly, He taught them about how God loves the people of the world, and how God had made a way for them to be saved from the punishment we all deserve for our sins. Jesus called the people to “repent” — to humbly seek God’s forgiveness for the wrong things we have done. He called people to believe that God had sent Him, and to believe that He is the Way to God the Father. Jesus also promised that whoever believes in Him will receive eternal life — that they will be raised back to life after they die, when Jesus comes back, and will live forever afterwards.
Jesus’ Death
Most of the religious leaders of Jesus’ day hated Jesus. They were envious of Him, and they did not like how He exposed their greed, corruption, and hypocrisy. So they plotted to kill Jesus. They handed Jesus over to Pilate, the Roman governor of the district. They falsely accused Jesus of all kinds of things, and even though Pilate found Jesus innocent, they relentlessly demanded that Jesus be crucified until Pilate finally gave in to their demands. Jesus was crucified, and His body was laid to rest in a tomb by His followers. But this was in fact part of God’s plan all along. Jesus actually had to die in order to make a way for people to be justly pardoned of their sins against God. It was a special substitution — the innocent Son of God died and took upon Himself the punishment that the guilty deserved so that we could be forgiven and restored in our relationship to God.
Jesus’ Resurrection, Ascension, and Return
After Jesus had been dead for 3 days, God raised Him back to life from the dead. Angels appeared to the women who went to visit His tomb and told them the good news. Jesus then appeared to many of His followers over a period of about 40 days and gave many convincing proofs that He was alive. On one occasion He appeared to more than 500 people at the same time! At the end of this 40-day period, Jesus was taken up to heaven by God. His followers watched Him rise up from the ground into the sky. While Jesus was with them, He promised that He would return someday to usher in the fullness of God’s kingdom here on earth, to judge all people, both the living and the dead, and to raise His people from death to eternal life.
Repent and Believe the Good News
The story outlined above is just a brief overview of the story of God and of our world from the Bible. It’s the story of God’s power and goodness, His glory and beauty, His justice and love. Because God is just, we all must stand before Him and be judged according to His standards. According to God’s standards we are all guilty and deserving of Hell. Because God is loving, He sent Jesus to take the punishment that we deserve by dying on the cross for us. God’s gracious gift of salvation is for anyone in the world who seeks God’s forgiveness and believes that Jesus is who He said He is. Have you made peace with God and found the hope, joy, and life that comes through Jesus Christ?
Our Statement of Faith
The good news of Jesus Christ is the core of our beliefs. What follows is an excerpt of our statement of faith, which details what we believe about major doctrines of the Christian faith.
The Bible
We believe the Bible is God’s Word given by divine inspiration, the record of God’s revelation of Himself to humanity (2 Timothy 3:16). It is trustworthy, sufficient, without error — the supreme authority and guide for all doctrine and conduct (1 Peter 1:23-25; John 17:17; 2 Timothy 3:16-17). It is the truth by which God brings people into a saving relationship with Himself and leads them to Christian maturity (John 20:31; 1 John 5:9-12; Matthew 4:4; 1 Peter 2:2).
God
We believe in one living and true God, perfect in wisdom, sovereignty, holiness, justice, mercy and love (1 Timothy 1:17; Psalm 86:15; Deuteronomy 32:3-34). He exists eternally in three coequal persons who act together in creation, providence and redemption (Genesis 1:26; 1 Peter 1:2; Hebrews 1:1-3).
The Father reigns with providential care over all of life and history in the created universe. He hears and answers prayer (1 Chronicles 29:11-13; Matthew 7:11). He initiated salvation by sending His Son, and He is Father to those who by faith accept His Son as Lord and Saviour (1 John 4:9-10; John 3:16; John 1:12; Acts 16:31).
The Son became man, Jesus Christ, who was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary (John 1:14; Matthew 1:18). Being fully God and fully man, He revealed God through His sinless life, miracles and teaching (John 14:9; Hebrews 4:15; Matthew 4:23-24). He provided salvation through His atoning death in our place and by His bodily resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:3-4; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Romans 4:23-25). He ascended into heaven where He rules over all creation (Philippians 2:5-11). He intercedes for all believers and dwells in them as their ever-present Lord (Romans 8:34; John 14:23).
The Holy Spirit inspired men to write the Scriptures (2 Peter 1:21). Through this Word, He convicts individuals of their sinfulness and of the righteousness of Christ, draws them to the Saviour, and bears witness to their new birth (James 1:18; John 16:7-11; 1 Thessalonians 1:5-6; Romans 8:16). At regeneration and conversion, the believer is baptized in the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:13). The Spirit indwells, seals and gives spiritual gifts to all believers for ministry in the church and society (Romans 8:9-11; Ephesians 1:13-14; Romans 12:5-8; 1 Peter 4:10). He empowers, guides, teaches, fills, sanctifies and produces the fruit of Christ-likeness in all who yield to Him (Acts 4:31; Romans 8:14; 1 Corinthians 2:10-13; Ephesians 5:18; 2 Thessalonians 2:13; Galatians 5:16, 22-23).
Humanity
We believe God created man in His own image to have fellowship with Himself and to be steward over His creation (Genesis 1:26-28). As a result, each person is unique, possesses dignity and is worthy of respect (Psalm 139:13-17). Through the temptation of Satan, Adam chose to disobey God; this brought sin and death to the human race and suffering to all creation (Genesis 3; Romans 5:12-21, 8-22). Therefore everyone is born with a sinful nature and needs to be reconciled to God (Romans 3:9-18, 23). Satan tempts people to rebel against God, even those who love Him (Ephesians 4:27; 2 Corinthians 2:11; Matthew 16:23). Nonetheless, everyone is personally responsible to God for thoughts, actions, and beliefs and has the right to approach Him directly through Jesus Christ, the only mediator (Romans 14:12; 1 Timothy 2:5).
Salvation
We believe salvation is redemption by Christ of the whole person from sin and death (2 Timothy 1:9-10; 1 Thessalonians 5:23). It is offered as a free gift by God to all and must be received personally through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ (1 Timothy 2:4; Ephesians 2:8-9; Acts 20:21). An individual is united to Christ by the regeneration of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 2:20; Colossians 1:27). As a child of God, the believer is acquitted of all guilt and brought into a new relationship of peace (Romans 5:1). Christians grow as the Holy Spirit enables them to understand and obey the Word of God (1 Peter 3:18; Ephesians 4:15; 1 Thessalonians 3:12).
The Church
We believe the Church is the body of which Christ is the head and all who believe in Him are members (Ephesians 1:22-23; Romans 12:4-5). Christians are commanded to be baptized upon profession of faith and to unite with a local church for mutual encouragement and growth in discipleship through worship, nurture, service and the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the world (Acts 2:41-42, 47; Luke 24:45-48).
The End
We believe God, in His own time and in His own way, will bring all things to their appropriate end and establish the new heaven and the new earth (Ephesians 1:9-10; Revelation 21:1). The certain hope of the Christian is that Jesus Christ will return to the earth suddenly, personally and visibly in glory according to His promise (Titus 2:13; Revelation 1:7, 3:11; John 14:1-3). The dead will be raised, and Christ will judge mankind in righteousness (John 5:28-29). The unrighteous will be consigned to the everlasting punishment prepared for the devil and his angels (Matthew 25:41, 46; Revelation 20:10). The righteous, in their resurrected and glorified bodies, will receive their reward and dwell forever with the Lord (Philippians 3:20-21; 2 Corinthians 5:10; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18).
For more information on our church’s beliefs about other matters, check out our full statement of beliefs.