God created human beings and
determined how we should live and be.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and
with all your strength and with all your mind. Love your neighbor as
yourself (Luke 10:27).
God is Triune, three
persons but one God, a fact which transcends all human understanding.
Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one (Deuteronomy 6:4).
Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19).
We have utterly failed to
be what God wants and requires of us, and therefore he has every right to
punish us for our sin and rebellion against him.
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans
3:23a).
All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts
are like filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6).
Although many people try to
gain favor with God by their "good" lives and "good" works, God has made it
clear that no one will get to heaven by his own accomplishments.
Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the
law (Romans 3:20).
All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written:
"Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the
Book of the Law." (Galatians 3:10)
God is loving and merciful,
and he sent his Son, Jesus Christ, to save us -- not by telling us what to
do, but by actually doing it for us as our perfect Substitute and Savior.
God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might
become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21).
Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to
bring you to God (1 Peter 3:18).
Jesus Christ is both true
God and true man in one person, equal to God the Father in his divinity,
less than the Father in his humanity.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word
was God. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we have
seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father,
full of grace and truth (John 1:1,14).
When Jesus died on the
cross he paid the price for the sins of the whole world.
He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also
for the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:2).
Jesus rose from the dead on
the third day, a fact that assures us of his divinity and of our completed
salvation.
Who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son
of God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans
1:4).
He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for
our justification (Romans 4:25).
God gives us the salvation
won through Jesus' death when he gives us the gift of faith to trust Christ
as our Savior.
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith -- and this not
from yourselves, it is the gift of God -- not by works, so that no one can
boast (Ephesians 2:8,9).
Saving faith or trust in
Christ is not something we can create or choose for ourselves. God the Holy
Spirit works miraculously in our hearts to bring us to Jesus.
No one can say, "Jesus is Lord," except by the Holy Spirit (1
Corinthians 12:3).
The Holy Spirit uses the
good news of Jesus (the gospel) to bring us to believe in him. The
gospel comes to us in verbal form (the Bible) and in tangible form (the
sacraments of Baptism and Holy Communion) to create and strengthen saving
trust in Jesus.
(Note: The sacraments are not rituals by which we earn forgiveness.
Rather they are means through which God works faith and forgiveness.)
Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through
the word of Christ (Romans 10:17).
He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit
(Titus 3:5).
Take eat; this is my body . . . Drink from it, all of you. This is my
blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of
sins (Matthew 26:26,28).
Out of love and gratitude
to God for his salvation, and to give him honor and praise, we want to
gather for worship and lead God-pleasing lives.
Do not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but
let us encourage one another -- and all the more as you see the Day
approaching (Hebrews 10:25).
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your
bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God (Romans 12:1).