by Don Brown (Elder)
What do we believe?
We believe in Jesus Christ, the one and only eternal Son of God, who, while fully divine, became a man that He might reveal God and redeem mankind. That He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. That He lived a sinless life and died a substitutionary death in order to serve as the one and only mediator between God and man. That He was buried and then physically resurrected from the grave and ascended into heaven to sit at the right hand of God the Father, where He remains as an intercessor for His people until the day in which He will return to judge the living and the dead. That His judgment is final, resulting in those who are righteous in Christ spending eternity with the Lord and the unredeemed spending eternity in Hell.
Why do we believe this?
Colossians 1:15-17- He is the image of the invisible God, firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
Why does it matter?
We cannot save ourselves. We cannot become righteous by ourselves, meaning right with God. Paul says in Romans 3:10 that nobody is righteous, no, not one. We may summarize the biblical teaching about the person of Christ as follows: Jesus Christ was fully God and fully man in one person, and will be so forever. Scripture clearly asserts that Jesus was conceived in the womb of his mother, Mary, by a miraculous work of the Holy Spirit and without a human father (Matthew 1:18-24, Luke 1:34-35).
Jesus was human. He grew through childhood to adulthood just as other children grow (Luke 2:40). He had the same human needs that we have. He hungered (Matt 4:2), he was thirsty (John 19:28), he was weary (John 4:6), he cried (John 11:35). He grew in stature and wisdom and began His formal ministry at around the age of thirty.
Jesus was sinless. Jesus made an amazing proclamation. “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12). If we understand light to represent truthfulness and moral purity, then Jesus is here claiming to be the source of truth and the source of holiness in the world- an astounding claim, and one that could only be made by someone who was free from sin. Jesus said that He always did what was pleasing to the Father (John 8:29).
This all culminated in a perfect redemptive work. By being all God and all man, Jesus became a perfect sacrifice for us. He had no sin, therefore, he was blameless. He was the spotless Lamb of God slain for the forgiveness of our sins. This is the definition of substitutionary death. “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness” (1 Peter 2:24).