ARTICLE ONE

THE TRIUNE GOD. We believe in one God, eternally existing in three equally divine Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, who know, love, and glorify one another. This one true and living God is infinitely perfect both in his love and in his holiness. He is the Creator of all things, visible and invisible, and is therefore worthy to receive all glory and adoration. Immortal and eternal, he perfectly and exhaustively knows the end from the beginning, sustains and sovereignly rules over all things, and providentially brings about his eternal good purposes to redeem a people for himself and restore his fallen creation, to the praise of his glorious grace.

  • Pastor and author A.W. Tozer once said, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.”

    What could be more important? Our confession about who God is shapes, transcends, and subordinates all other confessions. It bears weight on every other thought and every interpretation we make of our reality.

    The first and most foundational truth we confess about God is that He is Triune. That’s not a word we often use in everyday life. But the components are obvious: “Tri” means three—like tricycle, triangle, or triad. “Une” means one—like the game Uno, unicycle, or uniform. Together, “Triune” means “three-in-one”—which is what Christians have confessed God to be for centuries.

    From where did this belief arise? And why must we hold to it?

    Theologian C. Kavin Rowe speaks of the “biblical pressure” created when Scripture asserts two truths that, at first glance, seem to be in tension. Faith requires us to hold both truths together in a coherent way.

    We see this clearly in the doctrine of the Trinity. Faithful Jews for generations confessed, “The Lord, Yahweh, the Lord God is One” (Deuteronomy 6:4). Monotheism was their unique and essential heritage and belief in a polytheistic, pagan world.

    Yet, when Jesus enters the stage of human history, the New Testament presents Him again and again as divine. John opens his Gospel by declaring that Jesus, the Word, was God in the beginning (John 1:1). Paul, in Colossians, ascribes to Jesus glory that belongs to God alone (Col. 1:15–20). Scripture proclaims, “Jesus is Lord” (Rom. 10:9; 1 Cor. 12:3) and the great “I Am” (John 6:35, 41, 48, 51; 8:12, 58; 10:7, 11, 14). 

    Likewise, the Holy Spirit is also revealed as divine. In Acts 5, Ananias and Sapphira are said to have lied to the Holy Spirit (v. 3), and then to God (v. 4)—interchangeably. Further, Jesus warns that blaspheming the Holy Spirit is an unforgivable sin (Matt. 12:32)—and only God can be blasphemed.

    Trinity, then, is how we make our way through the “biblical pressure:” Scripture affirms both that God is One, and that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are each fully God. Fusing together like atoms in a great reactor, these two truths coalesce to form the historic Christian confession: that our God is Three-in-One.

  • I don’t see the word Trinity in the Bible. Is it ok to use this word?

    Though the word does not appear, the concept does. The word offers us a shorthand for holding together a set of theological truths. 

    The Trinity doesn’t make sense. How can someone be three persons and be one God?

    The Trinity is a mystery that the church confesses or believes, based on interpreting Scripture. This does not mean “mystery” in the Agatha Christie sense; rather, mystery is a belief that we do not understand comprehensively but believe humbly because it is revealed in God’s holy Word.

ARTICLE TWO

REVELATION. God has graciously disclosed his existence and power in the created order, and has supremely revealed himself to fallen human beings in the person of his Son, the incarnate Word. Moreover, this God is a speaking God who by his Spirit has graciously disclosed himself in human words: we believe that God has inspired the words preserved in the Scriptures, the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments, which are both record and means of his saving work in the world. These writings alone constitute the verbally inspired Word of God, which is utterly authoritative and without error in the original writings, complete in its revelation of his will for salvation, sufficient for all that God requires us to believe and do, and final in its authority over every domain of knowledge to which it speaks. We confess that both our finitude and our sinfulness preclude the possibility of knowing God’s truth exhaustively, but we affirm that, enlightened by the Spirit of God, we can know God’s revealed truth truly. The Bible is to be believed, as God’s instruction, in all that it teaches; obeyed, as God’s command, in all that it requires; and trusted, as God’s pledge, in all that it promises. As God’s people hear, believe, and do the Word, they are equipped as disciples of Christ and witnesses to the gospel.

  • Many systematic theologies begin with a doctrine of revelation. This is for one simple reason–one that is possible to miss if it isn’t stated clearly. Simply, it is this,

    If God had not chosen to reveal Himself, we would not be capable of knowing Him at all. 

    It is crucial to begin with this truth, rather than cannonballing into the topic. In the sin-created darkness of our minds, we would not be able to know God at all. The fact that God communicates is a grace and is the start of the picture of God. He wants to be known. 

    Traditionally, Christians have categorized the revelation of God into general and special revelation. Everyone knows God in a sense because of general revelation–so-called because it is generally available. To an extent, God reveals Himself to everyone. As Paul writes, “For what can be known about God is plain to [everyone], because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So, they are without excuse” (Romans 1:19-20, ESV). We are called not only to see God in creation but to rejoice in His creation. 

    However, God can only be known so much by general revelation. People often fill out this imprinted idea with idolatrous imagination. As Calvin famously wrote, “The human heart is a perpetual idol factory.” Left to ourselves with this sense of the divine, we fashion gods after our own image and suppress the truth of the real God. God’s hiddenness, coupled with our sinfulness, produces all sorts of false gods, from the gods of Egypt to Allah to the modern-day gods of power or success.

    So, what does it take for us to know what God is truly like? How can we know what He requires and Has provided? Only God’s special revelation of Himself in His Word can illuminate the path to redemption and reconciliation with the creator God. We need God to speak.

    “1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. 3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.” (Hebrews 1:1-3a. ESV) 

    Graciously, He speaks in His Word and in the Word, for God has spoken ultimately by His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Without revelation, there would be no faith. With only creation and a vague fear of the power of God, faith is questionable. The Spirit-inspired Scripture reveals Jesus, who reveals His Father as the exact imprint of His nature.

  • How many books are in the Bible?

    There are 66 books in the canon, 37 written prior to the coming of Christ but anticipating His coming and 29 written following His life, death, resurrection, and ascension. 

    Who came up with the list? I’ve heard it was Contantine at Nicaea.

    This is a common misconception, perpetuated by popular fiction such as The Da Vinci Code. What the council did is recognize the books that the Church and Christians had already accepted as canon. This was a process over millennia. The Old Testament was firmly established by the time of Jesus, and each book in the New Testament was gradually recognized as canon as the church expanded in the first through third centuries, AD. For more information, the church recommends How Did We Get Our Bible? by Dr. Greg Lanier.

    What is the Apocrypha? 

    The Apocrypha is a group of seven books, plus some additions to other canonical books (Daniel, Isaiah, Esther). Protestantism thinks these were added later, likely during the time of the translation of Scripture to Latin by Jerome, and later confirmed to be Scripture by the Roman Catholic Council of Trent, which was convened by the Pope to counter the Reformation and then wanted the extra books because many of them supported and taught Roman Catholic teaching.

ARTICLE THREE

CREATION OF HUMANITY. We believe that God created human beings, male and female, in his own image. Adam and Eve belonged to the created order that God himself declared to be very good, serving as God’s agents to care for, manage, and govern creation, living in holy and devoted fellowship with their Maker. Men and women, equally made in the image of God, enjoy equal access to God by faith in Christ Jesus and are both called to move beyond passive self-indulgence to significant private and public engagement in family, church, and civic life. Adam and Eve were made to complement each other in a one-flesh union that establishes the only normative pattern of sexual relations for men and women, such that marriage ultimately serves as a type of the union between Christ and his church. In God’s wise purposes, men and women are not simply interchangeable, but rather they complement each other in mutually enriching ways. God ordains that they assume distinctive roles which reflect the loving relationship between Christ and the church, the husband exercising headship in a way that displays the caring, sacrificial love of Christ, and the wife submitting to her husband in a way that models the love of the church for her Lord. In the ministry of the church, both men and women are encouraged to serve Christ and to be developed to their full potential in the manifold ministries of the people of God. The distinctive leadership role within the church given to qualified men is grounded in creation, fall, and redemption and must not be sidelined by appeals to cultural developments. Gender is a fundamental given of human existence, with maleness and femaleness being congruent with human embodiment and being an unchangeable, stable, and consistent characteristic of each image bearer established by God’s creational intent. To his image bearers, God gave the mandate to build society through procreation and vocation. This means that most people will be married, though God also calls some to singleness (without loss or diminution of personhood, dignity, or contributive capability). Heterosexual monogamous marriage is God’s design for men and women called to covenant together in matrimony. Homosexual behavior, same-sex attraction, and gender identity confusion are a result of the fall to be redeemed through the gospel and the power of the Holy Spirit.

  • Of all the doctrinal affirmations in our statement of faith, this one may be the most contested in the modern world. 

    Scientism—belief that science can answer life’s questions—has gripped the world and pushed God as Creator to the boundaries. Instead of his will, we live in a random world. Rather than a real world created by a real divine being, we live in an imagined simulation run by nefarious AI. Our planet was seeded by aliens. And so on. 

    People rebel against their Creator. We look for self-definition, ignoring our Maker’s purpose. Indeed, some of us rebel against our very DNA as male or female and choose to be what we feel instead of what we are. 

    Dust to dust we are, says the Preacher. We were created from dust and to dust we return. Yet, many of us feel we could and should live forever. Active efforts are currently ongoing to look for immortality. 

    But in all this, it seems that we are arguing over the most irrelevant issues and focusing on tangential matters. There is so much debate over Genesis 1, concerning the days of creation, the when of creation, the manner of creation. 

    Look again at those pressing sins of modernity. Are we answering their objections and confronting their rebellion? Or, are we trying to answer a question no one is asking?

    Ironically, the heart of our doctrine of creation—the thing on which all Christians should agree—is what we need to impress on the outside world. That is, we need to begin with the very idea that God is the Creator and that he made all things ex nihilio. We must answer their questions with that answer, and from that, all other answers flow. 

    Because we are created, we have purpose. Because we are creatures, we have limits. Because he made us, we have obligations. All this flows from a robust doctrine of creation. Consequently, the corollaries of this idea answer the deepest questions facing people today. 

    Among these questions are who or what God has created us to be as men and women. While both men and women are called to emulate God in the way we care for the created world, love each other,, and reflect the glory of God in all that we do, this article also affirms that God created men and women to be different and distinct.

    Far from diminishing the value of either men or women, these differences and distinctions are in fact patterned after the nature and character of God himself. Just as God is One in his being yet is three distinct and different persons, men and women share a common nature but yet are unique and distinct in their callings and capacities. This complementary relationship between men and women is born out in three ways:

    First, we believe that marriage is a God-ordained institution, not a man made one, and that as such marriage is designed to be a one-flesh covenant that is patterned after the relationship of Christ and the church. Thus, marriage is to be lived out between one man and one woman in an exclusive, monogamous relationship.

    Second,  in as much as God created men and women as equal but different, God designed men to function in spiritual leadership in the home while women are called to support and to submit to that leadership. In the church, God has called qualified men to serve as pastors and elders as the spiritual fathers of the family of God. While this office is reserved only for men, women are called as co-laborers of the gospel to serve and to minister in every other way in the Body of Christ.

    And, third, God created men and women as a sexual binary, two distinct genders that are immutable and unchangeable. Thus, gender is not a social construct or an identity that can be shaped or changed on the basis of individual whims or desires. This binary reflects the very nature and character of God.

    Ultimately, we affirm these applications of complementarity not simply because they are traditional, familiar, or common throughout the course of human history. In fact, they are often anything but traditional, familiar, or common. Rather, we affirm these things because we believe that they are consistent with the Word of God and reflective of God’s truth, which is fixed and unchanging.

  • Does Four Oaks require members to believe in any particular view of the way that God created the world?

    No, but Article I does affirm that God is the author of all life and created everything. Thus, members need to affirm the central truth and reality that as Creator, all of life originates and functions according to God’s design, care, and purpose.

    Was Adam a real person?

    Genesis 1-3 relates the creation of man and the story of Adam of Eve. If you take the opening chapters of Bible to be myth, but still believe the truth that God created everything, you run into the risk of denying that Adam and Eve ever existed, something Scripture clearly teaches (see Romans 5:12-21). Whatever your view of Creation, most Christian traditions see the belief in an historical Adam, one that actually existed and actually sinned in the Fall.

    Is there a particular model of homelife that is required by this Article?

    The answer is in one way, “no”, but in another way, “yes.” This article does not speak to such as issues as women working outside the home, what sort of educational model is best for kids, or specific tasks that husbands and wives should be responsible for. These are all matters of Christian freedom and conscience to be worked out by husbands and wives before the Lord. However, what is taught in this article is that there needs to be a general pattern of headship and submission in the home where the man is the ultimate provider and leader, and the woman is the ultimate caregiver and household manager.

ARTICLE FOUR

THE FALL. We believe that Adam, made in the image of God, distorted that image and forfeited his original blessedness—for himself and all his progeny—by falling into sin through Satan’s temptation. As a result, all human beings are alienated from God, corrupted in every aspect of their being (e.g., physically, mentally, volitionally, emotionally, spiritually) and condemned finally and irrevocably to death—apart from God’s own gracious intervention. The supreme need of all human beings is to be reconciled to the God under whose just and holy wrath we stand; the only hope of all human beings is the undeserved love of this same God, who alone can rescue us and restore us to himself.

  • If the Bible had a cinematic score, the music in the background would be both solemn and celebratory through Genesis 1-2. But in Genesis 3, the tune would shift to darkness and danger. In Genesis 3, Satan, the serpent, deceives Eve, who gives fruit to Adam from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Adam eats and cosmic catastrophe erupts. All of humanity, and all creation with it, comes under the just curse of God, which is death. Adam and Eve's relationship is consigned to constant tension; the ground is cursed, so that Adam's work will be frustrated. Eve's childbearing will now happen through great pain. And now death reigns. All human life is lived under the shadow of death, both physical death (and it's preludes, like disease) and spiritual death, all because of Adam's sin.

    Romans 5:12-21 explains that Adam's sin effected all humanity. He was a representative of all his offspring, so that, "sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned..." This means all humanity is born in Adam, under his representation, and is therefore under the guilt of Adam's sin. This is the doctrine of "original sin." Because of original sin, all humanity is under the just wrath of God simply because were are in Adam by nature.

    Yet, Adam is not the sole responsible party for our sin and judgment. Ephesians 2:1-3 (cf. Rom. 3:9-20) explains our spiritual predicament. In ourselves, we are "dead in trespasses and sins," willing slaves to the world, the flesh, and the devil, powerless to change ourselves. This makes us enemies of God with no hope of salvation from the dominion of sin or the doom of God's wrath.

    Because of the fall, the greatest problem in the entire cosmos is the curse of sin and its deserving punishment. Therefore, the greatest need for every human person is to be delivered from the curse of sin and the wrath of God, so that they might be reconciled to him. At the same time, such a reconciling rescue must come from God, because we are too sinful to render the righteousness necessary to earn God's approval.

  • What is total depravity? Aren’t some people good?

    Total depravity teaches that all are sinners, but this does not mean there are not nice people, nor does it mean that we are as bad as we could possibly be. Rather, the doctrine teaches that we fell from a state of grace and are unable to either save ourselves or choose God without His help. It also means that sin touches every aspect of human life and experience, without exception.

    If we are so fallen, why are humans capable of so much good?

    Our fall into sin does not erase the image of God that every human bears. Being made in God's image means that we are capable of reflecting God's character. We are capable of meaningful self-sacrifice, generosity, and compassion. However, we can never perform any good in a way that ultimately earns God's reward, because even our best deeds are stained by our sinfulness. It isn't just our deeds that are the problem, the do-ers of the deeds, our very selves, are the problem as well.

    Isn’t original sin unfair?

    Original sin may seem unfair, but we must remember that we would have chosen as Adam did, and that we are no better. Additionally, original sin seems to be a mystery that pushes us to see God as someone beyond our comprehension. Not only that, but Romans 5 shows us that Adam's representation is a foreshadow of Christ's representation of all who belong to him. The same kind of representation that causes original sin is the same representation that causes justification by grace through faith.

ARTICLE FIVE

THE PLAN OF GOD. We believe that from all eternity God determined in grace to save a great multitude of guilty sinners from every tribe and language and people and nation, and to this end foreknew them and chose them. We believe that God justifies and sanctifies those who by grace have faith in Jesus, and that he will one day glorify them—all to the praise of his glorious grace. In love God commands and implores all people to repent and believe, having set his saving love on those he has chosen and having ordained Christ to be their Redeemer.

  • It is impossible for our limited intellects to grasp the wisdom of God. Most of us can barely manage a workplace, let alone a household. Our plans often fail, our dreams are unfulfilled, and our hopes slip away. This is because we are limited in our power to make them come about, and in our ability to foresee and stop anything that may keep our plans from coming to pass.

    Not so with the one who dwells on high. All the Lord’s plans come to pass. And this includes his plan for salvation. He has foreordained from all eternity those who will be saved (see Romans 9, Ephesians 1).

    This may not seem fair, and perhaps it is not. But it was never meant to be that way. The Lord has always acted according to His own purposes, and praise be to Him that He does so. If He left it up to us, no one would come to faith. If He did not have the power over salvation, He would no longer be God.

    As we comprehend His plan, we are motivated to fear and to tremble, but also to rejoice that we have been chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. Yes, the Lord passes over some, and chooses to save some, but the Christian is encouraged in this to remember that the Lord is good in all His ways, even when they seem a mystery to us. In hope, we can know that such plans are for our good and for our salvation, and the One who is Love will always be so, even when His providence is hard to swallow.

  • How do I know if I am chosen?

    There are two aspects of God’s will, that which is secret and that which is revealed. Who is among the elect, that is, those who have their name in the Book of Life, is something the Lord in His wisdom has chosen to keep to Himself (cf. Rom 11:33-36). What we can do is trust His mercy and character, and He has told us that those who place their faith in Christ and repent will find salvation on the Last Day. That being done, we are encouraged to move forward in hope.

    Does God choose believers as well as unbelievers?

    There are some within Protestant theology and Calvinism specifically who do believe in a double predestination, where God chooses both the saved and the damned. However, Four Oaks and most Reformed (Calvinistic) Christians teach that God passes over those whose names are not written in the Book of Life, instead only electing those whom He has foreknown.

    But they didn’t do anything to deserve being passed over like that, right?

    Correct, but we must remember that those who are chosen also never did anything to merit how they are treated, how they are foreknown by God, and so loved, justified, adopted, and glorified by the Father because of Christ by the Spirit. Grace makes life not fair, and this cuts both ways.

ARTICLE SIX

THE GOSPEL. We believe that the gospel is the good news of Jesus Christ—God’s very wisdom. Utter folly to the world, even though it is the power of God to those who are being saved, this good news is christological, centering on the cross and resurrection: the gospel is not proclaimed if Christ is not proclaimed, and the authentic Christ has not been proclaimed if his death and resurrection are not central (the message is: “Christ died for our sins . . . [and] was raised”). This good news is biblical (his death and resurrection are according to the Scriptures), theological and salvific (Christ died for our sins, to reconcile us to God), historical (if the saving events did not happen, our faith is worthless, we are still in our sins, and we are to be pitied more than all others), apostolic (the message was entrusted to and transmitted by the apostles, who were witnesses of these saving events), and intensely personal (where it is received, believed, and held firmly, individual persons are saved).

  • The word for gospel in Greek means simply “good news.”

    In our familiarity with the term-think gospel-centered, gospel music, etc.- we can look over this central fact: that the gospel is good news for all people. It is not good news for some, bad for others. It is certainly not, to quote the Sheriff of Rottingham, bad news in a good way.

    The Roman Empire would use the term for the announcement that the Emperor has emerged victorious over his enemies. This is another important fact: it is news. It is an announcement of what God has done in Christ, conquering our sin, Satan, and all worldly powers. Thus, if the gospel ever comes with something we must do, besides receiving it, it is no longer the gospel because it is no longer news.

    How can we recover a sense of its goodness and true nature? We can read Scripture. We can evangelize, which means to share it with others-- nothing helps us remember its goodness more than watching people hear it and accept it. Another vital way to remember what Jesus has done is attending church, where the gospel is heard, then seen and re-enacted in the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper.

    We need the gospel every day. As humans, we are prone to forget and wander from its truth. One of Satan’s keenest tricks is to sneak other things into the gospel formula, that Jesus+Nothing=Everything. It is not Jesus+Works=Salvation. No, the gospel is Jesus, who lives a perfect life for us, dies for our sins, rises for our justification, and ascends for his church. Christ is all, and this is what the gospel announces.

  • How do I know if I believe the gospel?

    Total depravity teaches that all are sinners, but this does not mean there are not nice people, nor does it mean that we are as bad as we could possibly be. Rather, the doctrine teaches that we fell from a state of grace and are unable to either save ourselves or choose God without His Help.

    What does it mean to be “gospel-centered”?

    Original sin may seem unfair, but we must remember that we would have chosen as Adam did, and that we are no better. Additionally, original sin seems to be a mystery that pushes us to see God as someone beyond our comprehension.

ARTICLE SEVEN

THE REDEMPTION OF CHRIST. We believe that, moved by love and in obedience to his Father, the eternal Son became human: the Word became flesh, fully God and fully human being, one Person in two natures. The man Jesus, the promised Messiah of Israel, was conceived through the miraculous agency of the Holy Spirit, and was born of the virgin Mary. He perfectly obeyed his heavenly Father, lived a sinless life, performed miraculous signs, was crucified under Pontius Pilate, arose bodily from the dead on the third day, and ascended into heaven. As the mediatorial King, he is seated at the right hand of God the Father, exercising in heaven and on earth all of God’s sovereignty, and is our High Priest and righteous Advocate. We believe that by his incarnation, life, death, resurrection, and ascension, Jesus Christ acted as our representative and substitute. He did this so that in him we might become the righteousness of God: on the cross he canceled sin, propitiated God, and, by bearing the full penalty of our sins, reconciled to God all those who believe. By his resurrection Christ Jesus was vindicated by his Father, broke the power of death and defeated Satan who once had power over it, and brought everlasting life to all his people; by his ascension he has been forever exalted as Lord and has prepared a place for us to be with him. We believe that salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name given under heaven by which we must be saved. Because God chose the lowly things of this world, the despised things, the things that are not, to nullify the things that are, no human being can ever boast before him—Christ Jesus has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness, and redemption.

  • Because the gospel is the good news of the coming of the Son of God, Jesus Christ, it is important that we know who he is, and what he came to do.

    There is no shortage of answers to this question. To some, he was just a good teacher, who showed the way to enlightenment and a good life. To others, he was a zealot and a dangerous figure. People find in him an advocate for all sorts of causes: environmentalism, socialism, New Age-ism, even Islam or Mormonism.

    Knowing who Jesus is rightly helps us navigate these misconceptions of him-- misconceptions in the sense that, if not entirely wrong, they are only part of the picture. He was a good teacher, he was zealous for the kingdom of God (in a certain sense, that is), and he cared for people and this world.

    But that is not merely who he was, nor is it primarily why he came.

    Listen to his own words: “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45, ESV). As the Apostle Paul would later write, “The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost” (1 Timothy 1:15, ESV).

    For him to save sinners, he had to be more than just a man. In his famous work, Cur Deus Homo?, or Why the God-Man?, St. Anselm answered this question in a profound way, writing that our sins are so great that only the life of God’s Son can earn satisfaction. Jesus must be born of us to take our sins, and must be God to atone.

    Logic dictates he be both, yet the result is someone who is two natures one person--a formula that defies logic. Jesus is both understandable and incomprehensible. Praise God that He is, for only such a person could save us, and so could do the thing he set out to do.

  • Do I really need to believe Jesus was both God and man?

    Yes, Christian faith depends on Jesus being both. Denying his humanity or divinity leaves us dead in our sins.

    What about the Virgin Birth? That seems crazy.

    Jesus’s virgin birth by Mary is clearly in Scripture, not only proclaimed in the New Testament but prophesied in the Old Testament, the logic of His person dictates it. He had to be born of a woman to be a human, but had to be conceived by the Spirit to be divine.

    Didn’t the church later make up the idea that he was God? After all, did the early Christians even believe it?

    This is a question that is one of those that scholarship has settled, but still remains popularly fashionable. That is, the last fifty years of biblical scholarship has shown that the early church did believe this, but the idea still remains around. Some excellent and in depth books on this would be One God, One Lord by Larry Hurtado or How God Became Jesus by Michael F. Bird, Craig Evans, Simon Gathercole, and Charles Hill.

ARTICLE EIGHT

THE JUSTIFICATION OF SINNERS. We believe that Christ, by his obedience and death, fully discharged the debt of all those who are justified. By his sacrifice, he bore in our stead the punishment due us for our sins, making a proper, real, and full satisfaction to God’s justice on our behalf. By his perfect obedience he satisfied the just demands of God on our behalf, since by faith alone that perfect obedience is credited to all who trust in Christ alone for their acceptance with God. Inasmuch as Christ was given by the Father for us, and his obedience and punishment were accepted in place of our own, freely and not for anything in us, this justification is solely of free grace, in order that both the exact justice and the rich grace of God might be glorified in the justification of sinners. We believe that a zeal for personal and public obedience flows from this free justification.

  • J. I. Packer once said, "Justification by faith is like Atlas: it bears a world on its shoulders, the entire evangelical knowledge of saving grace." Martin Luther said of justification, "If this article stands, the Church stands; if it falls, the Church falls." The justification of sinners, then, is clearly an important issue, because it answers arguably the most crucial question for fallen humanity: "How can sinners be made righteous before a holy God?"

    In Romans 2-4, Paul presents two ways to pursue righteousness. One way is through "works of the law," striving to keep God's commands in a way that would earn his approval. James 2:10 tells us, however, that even if we keep the whole law, but break it at one point, we're guilty of the whole thing. Before God, righteousness is an all-or-nothing enterprise. In Romans 3:19-20, Paul tells us that "by works of the law, no human will be counted righteous in God's sight, because through the law comes knowledge of sin." The more we aim to keep the law, the more we understand what God requires, the more we realize how short we've fallen. The way of human righteousness won't work.

    But Romans 3:21-26 presents another way, "the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe." If we trust in Jesus, we are justified, declared righteousness, "by his grace as a gift throught the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith." By his righteous life and wrath-bearing death (propitiation), Jesus has both earned God's commendation and borne God's condemnation for sin. We receive Jesus by faith, and he gives us his righteousness. This is the great exchange. Jesus gets the punishment for our sin on the cross; we get the reward of his righteousness, all as a gift, apart from our earning, received by faith (2 Cor. 5:21).

    This means God's welcome, our adoption as sons into his family, and all the blessings that come through the gospel, have a sturdy legal ground. We lost everything in Adam's sin, we've received everything in Christ's righteousness. Our access to God and all that entails, is as safe as Jesus' record of righteousness before the Father, to the praise of his grace and glorious love.

  • If I am declared righteous before God, why do I still need to confess my sin?

    Our standing before God is a covenant reality. One of the promises of the New Covenant (Jer. 31:31-34; cf. Heb. 8) is that God will "remember their sin no more." Our sin happens, then, in the context of an unbreakable covenant. If a husband sins against his wife, the covenant is still intact. He is still her husband. However, he may not enjoy the intended union and companionship of marriage if he does not confess his sin and seek reconcilation. We confess and seek God's forgiveness, then, so that our relationship would be unhindered, and so that we can experience all the benefits of grace that we have access to in Christ. Our access is secure, but our experience my falter, in part, because of sin in our lives.

    What happens if I die with unconfessed sin?

    If the Sermon on the Mount is any indication of how righteous God requires us to be, we will all die with unconfessed sin because we are never fully aware of how wayward our hearts are. Our confidence in death is not that we have confessed well enough; confession is a "work of the law." Our confidence in death is that Jesus has obeyed in our place and borne God's punishment for ALL our sin, even the sin we haven't confessed.

    Why obey, then, if my obedience doesn't earn God's approval?

    There are a number of reasons we should obey. Although our obedience doesn't earn God's approval and acceptance, Scripture implies that there are rewards promised to those who persevere in obedience (Ja. 1:12). More than anything, we obey because we love and trust the God who loved us and gave his Son for us. The same God who gives grace, guides us in righteousness from the same heart of sacrificial love. The law, then is the pathway to living a life founded on the love of God, and therefore it is also the pathway to true blessedness and flourishing, both in this life, and the life to come.