What We Believe
Our statement of faith stands firmly within historic Christian orthodoxy, confessing the great doctrines of the Trinity and the incarnation of Christ as set forth in the Nicene and Chalcedonian creeds. Our statement of faith also makes explicit what is foundational to our doctrinal commitments—the gospel of Jesus Christ, which is the primary passion and the driving influence in our common life, worship, and outreach.
The gospel — The gospel is the good news of Jesus Christ and all that He accomplished in His perfect, sinless life, His death on the cross to pay for the sins of man, His resurrection from the dead—demonstrating His victory over death and the Father’s acceptance of His sacrifice on our behalf–and His ascension to accomplish salvation for humanity. The gospel is a fixed historical reality and is fully sufficient for the salvation of those who believe. [read more]
The church — All people who have genuinely repented of their sins and have believed and submitted to Jesus and His glorious Gospel are part of God’s universal church. The church universal is comprised of all such believers from every nation, tribe and tongue. Yet the Christian life is lived within the context of a local church. All Christians should be part of a local church in order to grow in Christ, to encourage and be encouraged by fellow believers in the truths of the Gospel, and to share the Gospel with non-believers that they too might come to saving faith. [read more]
Triune God — There is only one God. He is infinite in His being, power and perfections. The one true God exists eternally as three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Each person of the Trinity is fully God, yet God is not divided. While neither the Old nor New Testament uses the word “Trinity”, it is quite apparent that the New Testament writers addressed Father, Son and Holy Spirit (all three) as God, yet they maintained that God is One. The Trinity, like many of God’s attributes, is a mystery beyond human comprehension, yet we reverently bow to that mystery. [read more]
Our response to the Gospel — The only proper response to the Gospel is to believe and trust in Jesus’ life, death and resurrection as our only hope for salvation. Such belief and trust is inextricably connected to repentance, a desire to turn away from our sins and submit to the Lordship of Jesus. Yet our obedience cannot add to the work of Jesus Christ, which alone is sufficient for salvation. No good work will earn salvation. In fact, apart from the grace of God and the illumination of the Holy Spirit, we would be incapable and unwilling to even believe and respond to the Gospel. [read more]
Man’s Sin and Its Effects — Everything that God created is good. God originally created man innocent and righteous, yet man was led astray by Satan and willfully sinned against God by doing what He had forbidden. Since the fall of man, all humans are by nature sinful and incapable of doing anything good apart from the grace of God. They are by nature corrupt and incapable of attaining to the holy requirements of God’s law and character, and thus unable to save themselves. [read more]
The ministry of the Holy Spirit — The greatest miracle of the Holy Spirit is to awaken spiritually dead sinners to the reality of their sin and their need for a Savior, thus enabling them to believe and respond to the Gospel. The Holy Spirit points us to Jesus, but this is only His initial work. The Holy Spirit also indwells believers, continuing to convict them of sin and sanctifying them, conforming them to the image of Jesus Christ. Believers are called to continually seek to be filled and indwelt by the Spirit, who miraculously grants both ordinary and extraordinary gifts to all believers. There is nothing in the Scriptures that would indicate that the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit attested to in the New Testament are unavailable today. The Holy Spirit delights to exalt Jesus and build up His Church by working in the lives of believers, encouraging and instructing them, empowering them and giving them confidence in the mission of preaching and living the Gospel. [read more]
You can view the entirety of the Living Hope Statement of Faith here. (Opens in another tab)