redeemer statement of faith
Redeemer Church affirms the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 and abides by the following Statement of Faith. Our Statement of Faith presents a concise and clear declaration of what we believe based on God’s revelation to us in the Scriptures. This Statement of Faith is not an exhaustive explanation of our beliefs, but it does specify and summarize doctrinal issues we deem as essential to membership in our local body and faithfulness to our Lord.
1. The Bible. The Bible alone is the divinely inspired Word of God and was written by human authors who were inspired by the Holy Spirit. The Bible is completely true and trustworthy and is both free from error and cannot contain error in its original writings. The Bible contains God’s revelation of Himself to man and is the final authority in instructing man in the way of salvation, faith, and obedience.
2. Trinity. We believe in the one eternal, true, and living God. God exists eternally in three equal and fully divine persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—all of whom are distinct, harmonious, and undivided in nature, essence, and being. God alone is glorious and is worthy of all worship. He is merciful, just, and loving. He governs all things according to His sovereign will for His glory.
God the Father. God the Father is Creator, and He exercises sovereign rule over all creation, providence, and redemption. He is all-powerful, all-knowing, all-loving, and all-wise. God is Father to those who become children of God through faith in Jesus. The Father draws sinners to believe in His Son through the work of the Holy Spirit.
God the Son. Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God and is fully God and fully man. Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, lived a sinless life, died on the cross as a substitute for sin, raised from the dead, ascended into heaven, and will one day return to earth to consummate His kingdom. His substitutionary death provides the only way for sinful man to be reconciled to God.
God the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the fully divine Spirit of God. He convicts the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. He draws sinners to repentance and faith, gives new life to the believer, and brings believers into union with Jesus. He indwells Christians and is the guarantee of their present and ultimate redemption in Christ.
3. Man. God created man—male and female—in His own image, originally free from sin, to know God and to glorify God. The first man voluntarily disobeyed God and brought sin, death, and condemnation to all mankind. As a result, all humans are corrupt by nature and by choice, are alienated from God, and are under God’s just condemnation without excuse or defense. Apart from God’s grace, all people are dead in sin and are unable to turn to God.
4. Salvation. Salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. Jesus paid the penalty for sin and made the way for man to be reconciled to God through His sacrificial death on the cross. All who receive Jesus by repentance and faith are declared righteous by God and become children of God.
God’s Grace. God, by His own will and eternal wisdom, elects some persons to eternal life and salvation before the foundation of the world, and He effectually calls these people to himself. His choice is for His own pleasure and glory and is not based on any action of the person. God’s grace in election does not diminish each person’s accountability toward God and is consistent with the free agency of man.
Regeneration. Regeneration, or the new birth, is God’s work in which the Holy Spirit gives new spiritual life and believers become new creations in Christ. The Holy Spirit convicts the sinner of sin and applies the truth of the gospel to the sinner’s heart, and the sinner responds in repentance toward God and faith in Christ, receiving new life in Christ.
Justification. Justification is God’s full declaration of righteousness upon sinners who repent and believe in Christ. Christ’s righteousness is imputed to repentant sinners by faith, and they stand fully forgiven of their sin. Justification is given freely by God solely through faith in Christ and His finished work. Justification brings all who believe in Jesus into favor with God.
Repentance and Faith. Repentance and faith are the necessary and proper responses of sinners to the gospel. In repentance, the sinner turns from sin toward God; in faith the sinner confesses Jesus Christ as Lord and believes on Him alone for salvation. Repentance and faith are inseparable acts and mark the believer’s life from the moment of conversion.
Sanctification. Sanctification is God’s act by which He sets apart the believer for His use and His glory. Sanctification progresses as the believer is conformed consistently to the image of Jesus. Sanctification begins at regeneration and is carried on in the believer’s life by the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. While sanctification is an act of God’s grace, the believer also actively fights sin and pursues holiness through means such as prayer, reading and hearing God’s Word, and Christian community.
Perseverance. All true believers will be kept by God’s power and will persevere by His grace to the end. Believers may fall into sin through neglect and temptation, bring reproach on Jesus’ name, and incur God’s discipline; yet they shall be kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.
5. Church. The Lord Jesus is the Head of the Church, which is comprised of all disciples of Jesus from every tribe, language, people, and nation throughout all time. The local church is an autonomous congregation of baptized believers joined in covenant community with one another. The church’s biblical offices are elders/pastors and deacons.
Governance. Elders/pastors are biblically qualified men who oversee, shepherd, protect, and lead the church with God’s Word, and they do so as a plurality. Deacons serve and minister to the church in various necessary and beneficial capacities. All members assemble regularly, defend doctrine, affirm members, and execute discipline when required by Scripture.
6. Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Baptism by immersion, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, is an act of obedience by a Christian and is the public declaration of a believer’s identification with the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. The Lord’s Supper is a symbolic act in which the local church eats bread, symbolizing the body of Jesus, and drinks from the cup, symbolizing the blood of Jesus. Through the Lord’s Supper, the church remembers the death of Jesus, proclaims the death of Jesus, and anticipates the return of Jesus.
7. Mission. Every local church has the privilege and obligation to make disciples of all nations, and Jesus commanded the church to preach the gospel to all nations. The church is to proclaim consistently the gospel to those outside of Christ and His Church by verbal witness and by Christian living.
8. Family. God has ordained the family as the foundational institution of human society. Marriage is the union of one man and one woman in covenant commitment for a lifetime. The husband and wife are of equal value before God and possess distinct but complementary roles in marriage. The husband is to lead and love his wife as Christ loved the church, and the wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband, even as the church willingly submits to Christ.
9. Last Things. God will bring the world to its appropriate end in His time and in His way. Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly to the earth, the dead will be raised, and Christ will judge all mankind. The unjust, those who have not repented and believed on Jesus, will go into everlasting punishment in hell. The righteous, those who have repented and believed and have been joined to Christ, will live forever with Christ and enjoy His presence and glory in heaven..