The Gospel & Our Beliefs

What Is the Gospel?

The gospel is good news—the good news of what God has done in Jesus Christ.

The Bible depicts human beings, all human beings everywhere, as in revolt against God, and therefore under his judgment. But although God stands over against us in judgment because of our sin, He also stands over against us in love—and the gospel is the good news of what God, in love, has done in Jesus Christ, especially in Jesus’s cross and resurrection.

Christ bore our sin on the cross. He bore the penalty, turned aside from God’s judgment, God’s wrath, from us, and canceled sin. The brokenness of our lives he restores; the shattered relationships he rebuilds in the context of the church; the new life that we human beings find in Christ is granted out of the sheer grace of God. It is received by faith as we repent of our sins and turn to Jesus. We confess him as Lord, and bow to him joyfully.

Basic Beliefs

Doctrine of God

We believe in one self-sufficient God eternally existing as one essence and three distinct persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, each of whom is fully God, yet there is one God.

Doctrine of Scripture

We believe that the Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is God’s revelation of Himself to humanity. We believe that all Scripture is totally true and trustworthy. All Scripture is a testimony to Christ, who is Himself the focus of divine revelation.

Doctrine of Humanity

We believe that every human being, man or woman, is an image-bearer of God, and created in His likeness.

Doctrine of Sin

We believe in the universal reality of sin. Since the first sin of our original ancestors, the entire human race bears the guilt and consequence of sin. According to the Scriptures, sin has fractured all things, leaving the world in desperate need of salvation.

Doctrine of Salvation

We believe that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. Therefore, the application of Christ's work is a gift of grace. As the perfect mediator empowered by the Holy Spirit, Christ redeems whoever believes in him, presenting them as blameless before the Triune God.

The Church

We believe that the Church is the community of those who share salvation in Christ. The church is the body of Christ sent into the world to shine forth the glory of God.

The Resurrection and Eternal Life

We believe that Jesus Christ is returning to the world to judge the living and the dead in the future. Our hope is based on an anticipated restoration of the earth as the Kingdom of God. On that day, the Lord will bring judgment as well as salvation through the second coming of the Messiah.