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Week 1: Statement of Faith

Intro

When we think about what it is that is the most important aspect of a church… we might think of things like the musical style, the age of the congregation, the parking, or the children’s ministry… But the elders of Trinity would argue that the single most important thing about a church is what it believes.

We understand the mission of the church to be to make disciples by teaching people everything that Jesus commanded. To put it another way, we teach doctrine. We provide information. So we take that to mean that our mission as a church is, in part, to make sure that you are not deficient in orthodox, historical Christian doctrine.

Some folks might think that a Statement of Faith isn’t necessary. They might say something like, “I just believe what the Bible says.” Or, “I have no creed but Jesus.”

Well every Christian says they believe the Bible. The real question is this: What does an individual Christian or a Christian church profess to believe the Bible teaches? Once you start to explain what the Bible means, you’re defining doctrine. It’s unavoidable. And that’s really what a Statement of Faith is—we are summarizing what members of Trinity Bible Church believe the Bible teaches.

Here are three quick reasons why a Statement of Faith is important:

They’re Biblical—The Bible itself contains statements and confessions of faith. In the Old Testament, God’s people confessed their faith morning and evening. Deuteronomy 6:4: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God: the Lord is one.” In the New Testament, Paul summarizes the gospel in 1 Corinthians 15, saying “For I delivered to you as first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day…” 1 Timothy 3:16 has a confession within it about who Jesus is and what he did.

They’re Historical—History shows that the church has held to confessional statements of faith since the 1st century, for at least three reasons: (1) to clarify what the Bible teaches, (2) to build unity, and (3) to protect against wrong beliefs, or heresy. The Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Definition of Chalcedon are just a few examples of historical creeds.

They Set Essential Baselines—Trinity’s Statement of Faith doesn’t say everything each member believes about every Christian doctrine. But it sets the baseline of what we all agree upon. It’s a summary of truths that are essential for us to affirm in order to live and work in unity. So if you join this church, you’re saying, “I believe at least these things.”

Theological Triage

First tier doctrines are those that are essential to the gospel itself.

Second tier doctrines are urgent for the health and practice of the church to such a degree that they tend to be the cause of separation at the level of local church, denomination, and/or ministry.

Third tier doctrines are important to Christian theology, but not important enough to be the basis for separation.

Give an example of a doctrine that would fit in each: (1) justification by faith alone, (2) female pastors, (3) view of eschatology

Questions?

I’ll read each article and then add a little explanation.

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The Bible

We believe the Bible is God’s inspired, inerrant, infallible Word, which serves as our final authority in faith and practice, and is true in all that it affirms and is sufficient to lead every person to find salvation and live a joyful life that pleases God in every way. It is the supreme standard by which all human conduct, beliefs, and opinions should be evaluated.

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This is the first article because it’s foundational to everything else that follows in our Statement of Faith. Every other article is based on what we read in the Bible, so what we believe about the Bible is of primary importance.

The Bible is inerrant because it is God’s Word, and God is a God of truth.

When we say the Bible is inerrant, this is what we mean: when all the facts become known, they will demonstrate that the Bible in its original autographs (as they were written by the original author, like Paul, Luke, or Isaiah), when correctly interpreted, are entirely true and never false in all that they affirm, whether that relates to doctrine, ethics, or social, physical, or life sciences.

The ministry of the church is the ministry of the Word. So it’s imperative that we as a church get this right.

“One cannot doubt the Bible without far-reaching loss, both of fullness of truth and of fullness of life.

If therefore we have at heart spiritual renewal for society, for churches and for our own lives, we shall make much of the entire trustworthiness—that is, the inerrancy—of Holy Scripture as the inspired and liberating Word of God.”

— J. I. Packer

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God

We believe in one infinite and personal God, the holy, just, self-existent, boundless, good, loving Creator and Sustainer of all things eternally existing in three persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—each equal in power and glory. He has made himself known in creation and throughout history in mighty acts and through his Word—Jesus Christ being that Word incarnate. His purposes are always accomplished.

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— Trinity

We confess the doctrine of the Trinity. This is a foundational belief of Christianity. No one who denies this doctrine can be rightly called a Christian. There is one God in three persons. One what and three whos. God is one in essence and three in persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

They are each equal in power and glory. The only way we distinguish between the three is only by their relation to one another: Only the Father begets; only the Son is begotten; only the Father and the Son send; and only the Spirit proceeds. Each person is fully God, but they are distinct. You can read more about that in The Athanasian Creed (from the 5th century) in the back of your packet.

— Revelation

God has revealed himself to humanity in two ways: He has revealed himself generally as Creator and Judge to everyone through his creation and mighty acts (like the Exodus), and he has revealed himself as Redeemer specially through his Word.

— Sovereignty

When we say that God’s purposes are always accomplished, we are referring to the doctrine of God’s providence. By his almighty and everywhere present power, God preserves and governs all things in such a way that nothing happens in this world without God’s orderly arrangement.

Yet God is not the author of, and cannot be charged with, the sin that occurs. God’s power and goodness are so great and incomprehensible that God arranges and does his works in a way consistent with his holy, just, good, and loving nature, even when the devils and the wicked act unjustly.

There is mystery here. We do not want to inquire with undue curiosity into what God does that surpasses human understanding and is beyond our ability to comprehend.

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Jesus Christ

We believe in the eternal Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, who took on human nature when the Holy Spirit overshadowed the virgin Mary causing her to conceive and give birth to Jesus Christ, who uniquely was both fully God and fully man.

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It is not an exaggeration to say that the gospel itself is dependent upon rightly understanding the person of Jesus Christ.

When we really grasp the deep chasm between a perfect God and a sinful man, it becomes clear that we need a particular kind of mediator to reconcile us to God—one that is truly God and truly man. And that is who Scripture reveals Jesus Christ to be.

This is called the doctrine of the hypostatic union: Jesus is one person with two natures—one human, one divine. This is best articulated in the Chalcedonian Definition, written in 451. (It’s printed in the back of your packet.)

If Jesus was not truly divine, (1) his suffering would not be perfect and effective; and (2) he wouldn’t be able to able to bear the righteous anger of God against sin and yet overcome death.

If Jesus was not truly human, (1) he couldn’t perfectly obey the whole law and suffer the punishment for sin in our place, and (2) he wouldn’t be able to sympathize with our weakness.

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We believe Jesus Christ redeemed sinners from God’s infinite and just penalty against sin by obeying God’s law in every way, dying for our sins on the cross, satisfying God’s wrath by the blood of his atoning death, crediting believers with his righteousness, and proclaiming the surety of our salvation with his physical resurrection from the dead. Jesus Christ is humanity’s sole hope for salvation.

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— Atonement

This is the doctrine of penal substitutionary atonement. This is the burning heart of the cross of Christ. - Penal - Jesus absorbed the penalty - Substitutionary - Jesus took our place - Atonement - Jesus paid our price

Jesus bore the punishment and sets believers free from the penal demands of the law. Thus the righteousness of the law and the holiness of God are satisfied by this substitution.

— Resurrection

Some would have us believe that it was not a true physical resurrection. But Christianity spread as a religion because his disciples believed and were convinced that he rose bodily from the dead. It was not a blind leap of faith, but a declaration of an historical event. They had seen his empty tomb. But more than that, they had seen him alive after his death on the cross.

After his resurrection, he appeared to folks eleven times. Five times that same day and six times after that. He appeared to Mary Magdalene, to the women, the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, to Simon Peter, to the Apostles a couple of times, to seven disciples who were fishing at the sea of Tiberius, to the eleven disciples in Galilee, to more than five hundred at once (1 Cor. 15:6), to James by himself (1 Cor. 15:7) and to the apostles on the day when he ascended into heaven.

The Christian faith is dead if Jesus is not alive.

— Exclusivity of Christ

The last sentence refers to the exclusivity of Christ. John 14:6 — Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life, no man comes to the father but through me.”

Acts 4:12 — “There is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.”

- Only those who explicitly confess Jesus as Lord can possess eternal life. One’s faith must be placed in God’s Son, Jesus Christ, not just generically in God.

- Only those who confess Jesus as Lord alone can possess eternal life. Faith in Jesus alone saves, and saving faith must be placed in him alone..

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We believe Jesus ascended to heaven, remaining both fully God and fully man, where he now sits at the right hand of God interceding for believers forever, from which he will return bodily to judge the living and the dead.

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The doctrine of Jesus’s ascension is also of primary importance to Christianity. The incarnation did not stop when he ascended—he is still embodied, physically located at the right hand of God the Father. And he will return bodily, in the flesh, for the final Day of Judgment, which will come up again at the end of our Statement of Faith.

The Heidelberg Catechism, written in 1563, touches on this doctrine of Christ’s Christ’s ascension and notes three of its benefits:

(1) He is our advocate in heaven in the presence of his Father. He is alive and active, serving us, praying for us, inviting us to the throne of grace, drawing us near to God the Father. He is our sympathetic priest “who has passed through the heavens” as Hebrews 4:14 puts it. Jesus Christ the righteous one speaks on our behalf. He rises up to defend us, not based on our own righteousness but based on the merits of his own suffering and death.

(2) We have our own flesh in heaven as a sure pledge that Christ our head will also take us, his members, up to himself. Jesus has taken our human nature into the presence of God. Ephesians 2:6 says there’s a sense in which we are already ascended in Christ in the heavenly places. That will more fully happen in the future. But in the mean time, in Christ’s ascension into the presence of God the Father, we, by faith, behold our own.

(3) He sends his Spirit to us on earth as a corresponding pledge. By the Spirit’s power, we seek not earthly things but the things above, where Christ is, sitting at God’s right hand. When the Son ascended, the Spirit descended. Let’s read the next article.

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Holy Spirit

We believe the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, convicts the world of sin, and righteousness, and judgment and that he regenerates, indwells, and seals all believers until the Day of the Lord.

We believe the Holy Spirit inspired the Scriptures and guides Christians toward the truth of God’s Word. The duty and privilege of every Christian is to be filled with and led by the Holy Spirit.

We believe the Holy Spirit, sanctifies believers, from regeneration to glorification, transforming them into the image of Christ, by leading them to put sin to death and live by faith in God, making them partakers of his holiness.

We believe the Holy Spirit gives individual Christians diverse gifts for the common good of the church.

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— Deity of the Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit is not an impersonal force, but a person of the one God. Acts 5 says to lie to the Holy Spirit is to lie to God. In 2 Corinthians 3, the Spirit is called the Lord.

— Teaching

John 16:8 says that the Holy Spirit convicts the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment, which gives us hope that many who are in the “world” will repent of sin and believe in Christ. And those who do will be indwelt and sealed by the Holy Spirit until Christ returns.

Throughout the thousands of years of the Bible being inscripturated—many different human authors in different cultures and contexts—all of it is telling one story because there is one divine author of all of Scripture—and that is the Holy Spirit. And he takes what he revealed in Scripture and helps Christians understand it and convinces us of its truth.

— Sanctifying

The Holy Spirit brings us to spiritual life in regeneration and gives us the power and capacity to know, enjoy, and exercise true saving faith in Christ. And he works in us, changing us to be more like Jesus in sanctification.

— Gifts of the Holy Spirit

The Gifts of the Holy Spirit are listed in Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, and Ephesians 4. They include (but are not limited to) gifts like faith, serving, teaching, encouragement, giving, leadership, and discernment.

We don’t prescribe whether someone must believe that the miraculous sign gifts (e.g., tongues, prophecy, healing) have either ceased or continue. We believe that God can still accomplish the miracles witnessed in the foundational days of the early church, but they are not featured in our public meetings.

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Satan

We believe that Satan is a personal being. He is the enemy of God, the accuser, and tempter, of God’s people, and the deceiver of all men. Christians should not fear Satan but resist him knowing he is God’s defeated enemy, not equal, destined along with all those who follow him to eternal punishment in the lake of fire.

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The Devil is not just a concept about the source of evil. Satan and his demons are real and are actively opposed to the work of God. He accuses the Christian of sin already committed. He tempts the Christian to commit more sin. And he deceives all men because he is the father of lies. He is a fallen angel who disguises himself as an angel of light. He stands behind any unholy spirit who denies the Father and the Son.

Satan is not God’s equal counterpart. They’re not two equal beings battling to see who will win.

Jesus defeated the powers of death and darkness in and through his death and resurrection. So we should resist his accusations and temptations by running to Christ. And we should anticipate the day when he and his demons will be ultimately and finally condemned to the lake of fire with great joy.

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Mankind

We believe God created Adam and Eve “very good” as the only creatures in his own image and likeness, both male and female, innocent and fully able to worship, glorify, and enjoy God, exercising dominion over the earth as stewards.

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Humans were created to reflect and represent God by way of their structure (relationally, morally, linguistically, creatively) and their function (ruling, establishing worthy relationships with God, one another, and with the rest of creation).

Likeness refers to Adam’s relationship to God. Image refers to man’s relationship to creation. God created humanity to exercise dominion over creation in fruitful, life-giving ways.

Because every human is created in the image of God, every life has inestimable worth in all its dimensions, including pre-born babies, the aged, the physically or mentally challenged, and every other stage or condition from conception through natural death. As stewards of God’s earth, we are therefore called to defend, protect, and value all human life (Ps. 139).

Humanity was not created in a state of sin. That means sin is not built into to our human nature. It’s a corruption of the fallen human nature.

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Gender and Sexuality

We believe God created both sexes, male and female, equal in dignity and value with complementary roles both in the home and in the church.

We believe God designed marriage to unite one man and one woman in a lifelong, joyful covenant of love to display the profound mystery of Christ and his church.

We believe God gifts some individuals with singleness that they may serve him more freely without the cares that come with marriage and its attendant responsibilities.

We believe God created sex for marriage, and all sexual activity outside of marriage is sin.

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Biological Sex

We believe that God wonderfully and immutably creates each person as male or female. These two distinct, complementary sexes together reflect the image of God (Gen. 1:26-27). Rejection of one’s biological sex is a rejection of the image of God within that person.

Every person must be afforded compassion, love, kindness, respect, and dignity (Mark 12:28-31; Luke 6:31). Hateful and harassing behavior or attitudes directed toward any individual are to be repudiated and are not in accord with Scripture nor the doctrines of TBC.

Complementarianism

We are complementarian, as you see in that first clause. That means we understand man and woman to be complementary, each possessing equal dignity and worth as the image of God and are called to distinct roles and functions:

In the home, husbands should forsake harsh or selfish leadership and grow in love and care for their wives; wives should forsake resistance to their husbands’ authority and grow in willing, joyful submission to their husbands’ leadership (Eph 5:21-33; Col 3:18-19; Titus 2:3-5; 1 Pet 3:1-7). [Danvers Statement]

In the church, redemption in Christ gives men and women an equal share in the blessings of salvation; nevertheless, some governing and teaching roles within the church are restricted to men (Gal 3:28; 1 Cor 11:2-16; 1 Tim 2:11-15). [Danvers Statement]

Marriage

We believe the term “marriage” has only one meaning: a lifelong, monogamous covenantal union between one man and one woman. That marriage between one man and one woman uniquely reflects Christ’s relationship with His Church as explained in Ephesians 5.

Marriage is a good and desirable institution to enter into. At the same time, it’s important to note that one does not need to be married to be fully human. Marriage is not the only fulfilling station for the Christian. Neither singleness nor celibacy is a hindrance to joy (1 Cor. 7).

Sex

God intends sexual intimacy to occur only between a man and a woman who are married to each other (1 Cor. 6:18; 7:2-5; Heb. 13:4). So any form of sexual immorality (including adultery, fornication, homosexual behavior, rejection of one’s biological sex or use of pornography) is sinful, harmful, and offensive to God (Matt. 15:18-20; 1 Cor. 6:9-10).

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The Fall

We believe Adam’s intentional disobedience of God’s command initiated mankind’s rebellion against God. Therefore all mankind became sinners by nature and by choice. Mankind is subsequently inclined toward evil, alienated from God, and stands judged without defense or excuse. Adam’s Fall subjected relationships to brokenness and creation to corruption.

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What we believe about the nature of humanity sets some very important trajectories for how we understand salvation. There are very view theological errors that can’t be traced back to a wrong understanding of the corruption of human nature. It is foundational and must be understood rightly.

Original Sin

This is the doctrine of “original sin.” That’s not a reference to Adam’s first sin, it’s about the effects of his first sin on humanity. Original sin is the condition into which we are all born. Adam’s first sin is, in some sense, the sin of all mankind. We have also each chosen to follow our nature and enter into sin for ourselves.

Human nature is infected by the corruption of original sin. This means that we affirm the necessity of God’s supernatural, gracious initiative in salvation. God must change our nature in order for us to be saved.

Original sin renders the natural man unable to move toward God or respond to him. Man must be given supernatural grace to be able to accept the gospel.

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Salvation

We believe that, apart from the grace of Jesus Christ, the whole of humanity stands justly condemned by God as rebellious sinners and therefore worthy of eternal punishment.

We believe that the salvation of sinners is by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone, whom the Father sent to take upon himself our nature freely, yet without sin, to fulfill God’s law and die in our place, and having risen bodily from the dead to sit enthroned in heaven as both Lord and Savior.

We believe that everyone who repents and believes the gospel stands justified before God not because of any human works but solely on the basis of the righteousness of Christ credited to the believer’s account through faith in the Redeemer’s death on our behalf, resulting in the pardon of sin and adoption as Children of God to eternal life.

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The consequence of the Fall is that we stand rightly condemned before a holy and just God.

Five Solas

Please notice in that second clause that the word “alone” appears three times. Grace alone, faith alone, in Christ alone. This identifies us as a Protestant church over against the Roman Catholic church. The Roman Catholic church does teach that one is justified by grace through faith in Christ, but not alone. They teach that one must cooperate with God to complete salvation. And because we’re required to cooperate with salvation, it’s possible to fall out of grace and lose your salvation.

We affirm the Five “Solas” of the Protestant Reformation. “Sola” is the Latin word for “alone.” The Reformers rightly held that we are justified by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, that the authority of the church ought to be the Word alone, and all of it pointed to the glory of God alone.

Saving Faith

What do we mean when we say faith? Saving faith includes three basic acts.

(1) Knowledge: You need a basic understanding of the gospel message. You can’t believe something you don’t know.

(2) Assent: You agree that God’s gospel is objectively true. You agree that your sin has alienated you from the life of God. You agree that Jesus is full of grace and truth. You agree that to be saved from our sin we need to be united by faith alone in Christ alone and we need to submit ourselves to him to be made more like him.

(3) Trust: You exercise trust—faith in God’s promise of salvation through Christ. You delight in the grace of God in Christ and rest in God’s promises and cling to his promises for eternal life. It’s a personal confidence that God’s gospel is true and your sin is forgiven.

Our faith is not the ground of our righteousness, it’s simply the instrument by which we embrace Christ’s righteousness as our own.

Imputed Righteousness

Our righteousness is imputed to us, not infused into us. We’re not made just in God’s eyes as we cooperate with his grace, we’re declared just in God’s eyes by faith alone in Christ alone.

Roman Catholicism (and unfortunately many Evangelicals) picture salvation like this: (maybe you’ve heard the illustration before…) A person is drowning at the bottom of a pit of water, and he looks around and realizes that God left a rope there so he could climb out. So she needs to simply decide whether to grab the rope or not. And even after she grabs it, she has to hold onto it by her own effort and climb out. By contrast, to make the illustration more accurate, the Reformers saw the person as already drowned in the pit. She can’t reach out to grab the rope. God has to reach down and draw her out and breathe life into her. So all the glory of salvation from beginning to end belongs to God alone—soli deo gloria.

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The Church

We believe Jesus Christ is the head of the universal church—the body and bride of Christ. It is made up of all the children of God throughout the ages.

We believe local churches are God’s plan for glorifying himself by making disciples of all nations through the proclamation of the gospel. Local churches consist of elders, deacons, and members.

We believe that the local church is the proper context for observing the ordinances of baptism and communion, and practicing church discipline.

We believe that faithful church membership is the primary context for engaging in the “one anothers” of the Bible and exercising the spiritual gifts.

We believe Christians are commanded to be baptized by immersion in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit upon repentance and credible profession of faith in Jesus Christ as Lord.

We believe Christians take part in communion with Christ and one another by eating the bread and drinking the cup in commemoration of their Savior’s death on their behalf and their right relationship with God and faithful fellowship with other believers.

We believe the right exercise of church discipline is necessary to protect and promote the purity of the church.

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When someone becomes a Christian, they become a member of the universal church (“the heavenly assembly.” See Eph. 2:6, Col. 3:1, 3). The universal church is made tangible on earth in particular local churches. Belonging to the universal church becomes visible by belonging to a local church.

The local church is central to God’s plan of redemption. We’ll talk more about the church in Week 2.

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The Future

We believe Jesus will soon return bodily to conquer his enemies. God will create new heavens and a new earth where all of his children will dwell with him forever in glory.

We believe in the bodily resurrection of all people—the unsaved to a judgment of eternal conscious punishment in Hell and the saved to eternal life.

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You might notice that we don’t include many details about timing or process of Christ’s return. We consider this a third-tier issue, so we ought to be able to hold different views on this with charity towards one another.

We can disagree about details around the rapture or millennium. Particular details aren’t written into our Statement of Faith on purpose. We want to leave some room for humble disagreement on these matters—within reason. There are some positions around the end times that can go off base (e.g., we do not believe that Jesus has already returned or that there are “two peoples of God”).

This doesn’t mean that we think the doctrines around Christ’s return aren’t important. But the exact timing and details of Christ’s return are not foundational to the Christian faith or our life together as a church.

Here’s what we all do agree on: Jesus is coming back bodily as the glorious king of the universe; and when he does he will raise everyone from the dead—some to eternal judgment and some to eternal life with God; and he will remake all things—new heavens and new earth, renewed together in glory. He will come again to judge the living and the dead.

The Christian confession of Christ's return is a key component of the gospel, the "good news" of our salvation through Christ. His return will mark the end of sin and sorrow and will bring the Christian into the presence of God forever, where there is fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore.