Beliefs of Our Faith Community Part #3
Having studied dogma,
Truth that is universally applicable to all Christians every where and in
every time.
We turned our attention to studying the Apostle’s John concept of Authentic
Christianity.
We are now studying the beliefs of our faith community.
Doctrine is a body of teachings that identify our belief system.
The study of doctrine is important because doctrine encourages right thinking
about the faith.
In our Faith community, we have 16 articles of faith that state our doctrine,
what we believe are vital to living a devout and holy life.
Another faith community may have slightly different doctrine,
But that’s all right,
If we think of all of Christendom through out the ages as the body of
Christ, then we can apply the Apostle’s Paul teaching
concerning how we think about doctrine.
1 Corinthians 12:12 (MSG)
You can easily enough see how this kind of thing works by looking no further than your own body. Your body has many parts—limbs, organs, cells—but no matter how many parts you can name, you're still one body. It's exactly the same with Christ.
When a faith community’s doctrine does not contradict dogma or the clear
teachings of the scripture then that faith community is a part of the
body of Christ,
it may be in a different part than my faith community but
in the body regardless.
What Sound doctrine does for us is safeguards.
Matthew 24:24 (MSG)
Fake Messiahs and lying preachers are going to pop up everywhere. Their impressive credentials and dazzling performances will pull the wool over the eyes of even those who ought to know better.
Sound doctrine safeguards us from the Fake Messiahs and the lying preachers.
Sound doctrine safeguards us from getting off track our pursuit of
righteousness.
Sound doctrine safeguards us from being deceived by
competing claims about Jesus and the Christian faith.
Sound doctrine safeguards us from wrong thinking
about our faith.
We have already examined our first four articles of faith
We believe in a Triune God,
we Believe that Jesus is fully God and Fully human, fully both at the
same time,
we Believe in God the Holy Spirit, present with us,
and we Believe in the Bible as our guide for
everything we need to know for guiding our
salvation.
Today we are going to consider
Our doctrine concern sin, the atonement, Prevenient grace and repentance.
[But before we do that I have another segment of the video of our
denominations Core Beliefs for us to view.
We have three core values: We are a Christian People, A Holiness People
and A Missional People. Today we will see what we mean by being a
holiness people.
Core Values Video.
What we value as a denomination is being Christian, Holy and Missional in
the body of Christ for the reconciliation of the world to God. ]
Now lets consider articles 5 through 8 of our doctrinal beliefs.
Article 5 concerns our understanding of sin and has 4 parts to it.
It rather long so instead of reading it I’ll just make some comments about it.
V. Sin, Original and Personal
5. We believe that sin came into the world through the disobedience of our first parents, and death by sin. We believe that sin is of two kinds: original sin or depravity, and actual or personal sin.
5.1. We believe that original sin, or depravity, is that corruption of the nature of all the offspring of Adam by reason of which everyone is very far gone from original righteousness or the pure state of our first parents at the time of their creation, is averse to God, is without spiritual life, and inclined to evil, and that continually. We further believe that original sin continues to exist with the new life of the regenerate, until the heart is fully cleansed by the baptism with the Holy Spirit.
5.2. We believe that original sin differs from actual sin in that it constitutes an inherited propensity to actual sin for which no one is accountable until its divinely provided remedy is neglected or rejected.
5.3. We believe that actual or personal sin is a voluntary violation of a known law of God by a morally responsible person. It is therefore not to be confused with involuntary and inescapable shortcomings, infirmities, faults, mistakes, failures, or other deviations from a standard of perfect conduct that are the residual effects of the Fall. However, such innocent effects do not include attitudes or responses contrary to the spirit of Christ, which may properly be called sins of the spirit. We believe that personal sin is primarily and essentially a violation of the law of love; and that in relation to Christ sin may be defined as unbelief.
(Original sin: Genesis 3; 6:5; Job 15:14; Psalm 51:5; Jeremiah 17:9-10; Mark 7:21-23; Romans 1:18-25; 5:12-14; 7:1-8:9; 1 Corinthians 3:1-4; Galatians 5:16-25; 1 John 1:7-8)
(Personal sin: Matthew 22:36-40 {with 1 John 3:4}; John 8:34-36; 16:8-9; Romans 3:23; 6:15-23; 8:18-24; 14:23; 1 John 1:9-2:4; 3:7-10)
Sin is the human predicament.
Created in righteousness,
In an act of rejection of this righteousness,
by doing the only thing God commanded not be done,
humankind became estranged from God.
Estranged is a relationship word that basically means that where once two
parties where united, they now have become divided.
Romans 5:12-14 (MSG)
You know the story of how Adam landed us in the dilemma we're in—first sin, then death, and no one exempt from either sin or death. That sin disturbed relations with God in everything and everyone, but the extent of the disturbance was not clear until God spelled it out in detail to Moses. So death, this huge abyss separating us from God, dominated the landscape from Adam to Moses. Even those who didn't sin precisely as Adam did by disobeying a specific command of God still had to experience this termination of life, this separation from God. But Adam, who got us into this, also points ahead to the One who will get us out of it.
We are born into this life estranged from God.
God and his ways are strangers to us.
Being ignorant of Him we do things that deters, damages or destroys
right relationships.
We sin.
Ezekiel 18:20 (NIV) & Romans 6:23 (MSG) & (NIV)
The soul who sins is the one who will die. Work hard for sin your whole life and your pension is death. For the wages of sin is death…
According to the article our sin problem is both one of nature and deeds.
Deprived of a right relationship with God we set ourselves up to be the final
authority and then act according to what we deem is best for
ourselves.
We act contrary to the law of love
Matthew 22:37-39 (NIV)
'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'
Acting contrary to the law of love we become the creators of our own
misery.
We break the law of God who holds us accountable for our
actions.
Now this doctrine helps us understand what the problem of humanity really is.
Its not poverty, or lack of education or opportunity, it because of sin.
Sin, estranged from original righteous is what we have become as a race.
Estranged from God, from Others, from Self, from the Earth.
Sin, anything that deters, damages or destroys relationships
is by default what we do
The result is everyone does what they want to regardless of anyone else.
We have become ego-centric, and in so doing,
Have the ability to unleash atrocity and devastation and abuse
and pain upon the earth as history testifies.
John Wesley preached: “Know your disease, know your cure.”
(Sermon 44 Original Sin)
Sin: unbelief, lawlessness, missing the mark, breaking the law of love, deterring,
damaging and destroying right relationships is our disease.
Article 6 deals with our understanding of the cure.
VI. Atonement
6. We believe that Jesus Christ, by His sufferings, by the shedding of His own blood, and by His death on the Cross, made a full atonement for all human sin, and that this Atonement is the only ground of salvation, and that it is sufficient for every individual of Adam’s race. The Atonement is graciously efficacious for the salvation of the irresponsible and for the children in innocency but is efficacious for the salvation of those who reach the age of responsibility only when they repent and believe.
(Isaiah 53:5-6, 11; Mark 10:45; Luke 24:46-48; John 1:29; 3:14-17; Acts 4:10-12; Romans 3:21-26; 4:17-25; 5:6-21; 1 Corinthians 6:20; 2 Corinthians 5:14-21; Galatians 1:3-4; 3:13-14; Colossians 1:19-23; 1 Timothy 2:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 2:9; 9:11-14; 13:12; 1 Peter 1:18-21; 2:19-25; 1 John 2:1-2)
If our disease begins with estrangement then it is the Atonement that begins the
healing process.
I am going to drop the sick/healing metaphor here and return to relational ‘ imagery.
Atonement, means at-one-ment,
The two estranged parties are now at one,
they have been reconciled to each other.
Mankind was created in fellowship with the Triune God.
This relationship can best be described as a love relationship.
Intimate, meaning into-me-see, response-able.
This existence in righteousness, in being rightly related,
is symbolized by the Garden of Eden.
True love must allow for its rejection.
The Tree of the knowledge of good and evil represents a choice to break this
relationship.
Mankind chose to exit the relationship.
God’s finest creation, destroys righteousness.
God wove into the fabric of the universe certain spiritual laws.
One is that living apart from Him, brings evil, decay, destruction and death.
To save His beloved Creation,
Created in His image,
God made atonement.
God took upon Himself to do what was necessary
for their to be a reconciliation.
1 Peter 2:24 (NIV)
He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.
God incarnate took on Himself the consequences of Mankind’s action.
The offended partner in the relationship, God, takes the initiative,
To draw His beloved back to Himself.
In the economy of the Created order,
God’s self-sacrifice on the cross “cut through wrath and judgment to
satisfy both His own justice and His own love.” (Leonard, p. 40)
So the consequences for mankind’s infidelity is taken care of on the Cross.
Original sin and the acts of sin are forgiven,
And the opportunity is given to all to personally appropriate the
benefits of the atonement and enter into a right relationship
with God.
Having cleared the way for you and I to return to the eternal fellowship of the
Trinity,
God now draws us to Himself.
How this feat is accomplished is detailed in our doctrinal
statement concerning Prevenient Grace.
We don’t use the word Prevenient in our normal conversations throughout
our day, so you may not be familiar with the word,
it simply means what comes before, like prelude.
VII. Prevenient Grace
7. We believe that the human race’s creation in Godlikeness included ability to choose between right and wrong, and that thus human beings were made morally responsible; that through the fall of Adam they became depraved so that they cannot now turn and prepare themselves by their own natural strength and works to faith and calling upon God. But we also believe that the grace of God through Jesus Christ is freely bestowed upon all people, enabling all who will to turn from sin to righteousness, believe on Jesus Christ for pardon and cleansing from sin, and follow good works pleasing and acceptable in His sight.
We believe that all persons, though in the possession of the experience of regeneration and entire sanctification, may fall from grace and apostatize and, unless they repent of their sins, be hopelessly and eternally lost.
(Godlikeness and moral responsibility: Genesis 1:26-27; 2:16-17; Deuteronomy 28:1-2; 30:19; Joshua 24:15; Psalm 8:3-5; Isaiah 1:8-10; Jeremiah 31:29-30; Ezekiel 18:1-4; Micah 6:8; Romans 1:19-20; 2:1-16; 14:7-12; Galatians 6:7-8
Natural inability: Job 14:4; 15:14; Psalms 14:1-4; 51:5; John 3:6a; Romans 3:10-12; 5:12-14, 20a; 7:14-25
Free grace and works of faith: Ezekiel 18:25-26; John 1:12-13; 3:6b; Acts 5:31; Romans 5:6-8, 18; 6:15-16, 23; 10:6-8; 11:22; 1 Corinthians 2:9-14; 10:1-12; 2 Corinthians 5:18-19; Galatians 5:6; Ephesians 2:8-10; Philippians 2:12-13; Colossians 1:21-23; 2 Timothy 4:10a; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 2:1-3; 3:12-15; 6:4-6; 10:26-31; James 2:18-22; 2 Peter 1:10-11; 2:20-22)
This statement of doctrine has two parts.
The first deals with Prevenient grace,
The grace that prepares us to enter into a right relationship with God.
There are for distinct stages of Prevenient grace.
Recall that grace is the unmerited favor of the desire to do the will of
God and the power to accomplish the will of God.
Freely given to every human being is a conscience.
Conscience is the ability to discern right from wrong.
Conscience is a divine endowment the first stage of
Prevenient grace.
God the Holy Spirit uses an individual’s conscience to help them see
that they can not live up to their own ideals.,
something is missing inside.
We call this a spiritual awakening, the second stage of
Prevenient grace.
This awakening begins our personal search for that crazy
missing part that somehow will make our lives
complete.
AS we stumble around looking, unbeknownst to us,
God arranges divine appoints through which we get exposed the
To the reality of a Creator.
We begin trying to make our selves acceptable to this
Creator as our notions dictate.
We try to clean up our act,
These acts of repentance are part of the
third stage of Prevenient grace.
Once again as we grow frustrated at our failures to make ourselves
acceptable to God, He arranges a divine appointment where we
get to hear the gospel.
John 3:16-18 (MSG)
"This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn't go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it.
The result of this hearing is either a turning towards or a turning away.
When a turning towards is chosen,
It is faith that leads to true repentance.
Faith is belief that motivates action.
Faith that leads to true repentance is the fourth
stage of Prevenient grace.
Now lets look at the second part of our faith community’s understanding of the
Christian life.
We believe that all persons, though in the possession of the experience of regeneration and entire sanctification, may fall from grace and apostatize and, unless they repent of their sins, be hopelessly and eternally lost.
Again you must think relationally to fully understand what this doctrine
means.
Salvation is all about being in right relationship to God.
That relationship is often described as a love relationship.
Any love relationship is a volunteer relationship.
You must choose to be in it.
Therefore we believe that it is possible that once having entered
into a right relationship with God we can choose to leave
it.
Please note the “if” in Paul’s teaching to the church--
Colossians 1:21-23 (NIV)
Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation-- if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel.
God never takes away your freedom of choice.
So you can choose to quit, to break up, divorce,
You can turn your back on love and go your own way.
Back to that fourth stage of Prevenient grace.
God gives us the power to have faith,
And that faith leads us to true repentance which is described in article
8 of our doctrinal beliefs.
VIII. Repentance
8. We believe that repentance, which is a sincere and thorough change of the mind in regard to sin, involving a sense of personal guilt and a voluntary turning away from sin, is demanded of all who have by act or purpose become sinners against God. The Spirit of God gives to all who will repent the gracious help of penitence of heart and hope of mercy, that they may believe unto pardon and spiritual life.
(2 Chronicles 7:14; Psalms 32:5-6; 51:1-17; Isaiah 55:6-7; Jeremiah 3:12-14; Ezekiel 18:30-32; 33:14-16; Mark 1:14-15; Luke 3:1-14; 13:1-5; 18:9-14; Acts 2:38; 3:19; 5:31; 17:30-31; 26:16-18; Romans 2:4; 2 Corinthians 7:8-11; 1 Thessalonians 1:9; 2 Peter 3:9)
Repentance means “turn around.”
A change of one’s mind, thoughts and ultimately behavior.
True repentance requires a revelation from God of the condition of your soul and
the penalty for sin.
I think far too many of us think that “We’re really not all that bad.”
Well from a worldly perspective you’re not.
You’re a good person,
You do good things.
But sin isn’t about being bad.
Sin is who we are and what we have done that deterred, damaged and
destroyed the relationships in our lives.
True repentance requires we understand the mess we are responsible for.
The pain we inflicted, the isolation we have caused.
The purpose of this revelation is to break the strangle hold of egoism,
We need to see that we not only have a problem,
we created the problem,
and left to ourselves we are the problem.
We need to know that we are held responsible for our actions.
We need to know that when we are called to account,
We will face a death sentence.
And this same thing goes for those who see them selves as victimized.
Something horrible happened at the hands of another,
because of the sin of another.
So we aren’t really to blame for our actions since then.
That defense won’t hold up in God’s court.
You may not be responsible for what happened to you,
But you are responsible for actions after the fact.
And because you are sinner both in nature and by deed,
You face a death sentence.
Because of the atonement, God has made a provision for you,
That instead of death, you can ask Him for mercy and forgiveness.
All you have to do is own up and desire to change,
Never to go back, rather to “turn around, reorient your heart and
life, and live in a radically new way” as a Child of God.
(Leonard, p. 49)
And all this is from God, the revelation of sin, the seeking of mercy and
forgiveness and the desire to repent, all grace to you,
that you may choose to enter into a right relationship with God
through the door of repentance,
convinced of the knowledge that God incarnate has
personally atoned for your sins,
making it possible for you to be born again.
That’s a lot of teaching to wrap your head around.
I sure you will need to think these doctrinal teachings through for your self,
You may need to dialogue with others about them.
Today we discussed sin, the atonement, Prevenient grace and repentance.
Sin is the human predicament,
Estranged from God,
Continually doing things that deter, damage and destroy right
relationships.
It is both a state of being and unrighteous
thoughts and actions.
The atonement,
God’s act of selflessness to make a way for you to return to a right
relationship with Him.
Prevenient grace.
The unmerited gift of God that awakens us to our spiritual need and
moves us towards faith in the Gospel.
Repentance
Conviction of our sin and the desire to change, that motivates us to
seek God for His mercy and forgiveness.
Repentance is the door through which we walk to enter into the Kingdom of God.
Next time we will consider the becoming a child of God, and our doctrines
of entire sanctification, the church and baptism.