Mayerthorpe Baptist Church- Affirmation of Faith
Adopted February 26, 2017
God is the loving Father. God has always existed as the Trinity; three in one, co-equal, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, among whom there is perfect unity, perfect submission, and perfect love. God has no beginning or end. There is no one, nor anything that is like God. He has no fault, brokenness, or blemish of any kind. He is wholly just, wholly righteous and wholly merciful. He is all powerful, all knowing, and is everywhere and beyond the universe.
God is the creator of all things, whether visible or invisible. God is sovereign over all creation. He designed and ordered the world, but in all creation, he is most pleased with is humans. God created the first humans, Adam and Eve, to bear his image and likeness, and they were completely good. All humans since Adam and Eve have borne the image and likeness of the triune God. He designed Adam and Eve distinctly as male and female, each with unique gifts, roles, and with equal importance. God gave Adam and Eve as a gift to each other, and they were united in a monogamous marriage and told to procreate. God appointed them as stewards of his creation and to represent God in his desire to see his Kingdom expanded on earth and over every person, tribe, tongue and nation.
Adam and Eve, the fore-father and mother of all peoples, had such a close relationship with God that they could walk and talk with God in the garden. However, having been tempted by Satan, the archenemy of God, they chose, in disobedience, to eat of the fruit of the one tree of the garden from which they were not permitted to eat. And so, sin entered the world. The innocence of the humans was lost and with that their relationship with God also became broken. Adam and Eve’s sin has passed to each and every human since, regardless of gender, age, creed, nationality or any other human distinction.
God cast Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden due to their rebellion. Though in his goodness God continued to care for and provide for them, they did not have the same closeness of relationship. Furthermore, when sin entered the world, so did death, disease, and natural disaster, for sin did not only affect humans but also all of creation.
The Old Testament Scriptures show how humans tried to restore the relationship that Adam and Eve once had with God. We built great towers to try to reach God, we offered sacrifices to worship God, and we lived the best lives we could without God. But none of these supposed answers were sufficient; people died without God, and without a close and personal relationship that Adam and Eve once had with God.
Many years ago, God called a man named Abraham and told him that he desired to call a people out of the nations of the earth that would follow Him. After Abraham, God led the Jews, his people, out of their bondage in Egypt, but they were still unable to achieve the kind of close and personal relationship that Adam and Eve once had.
God promised Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David and many others that one was coming who would fix humanity’s great problem. This Messiah—the Anointed One—would come from the house and lineage of David, Israel’s greatest King, and be our great King, Prophet and Priest.
Thankfully, God was unwilling to leave humanity in the mire that they created. God loved– the people he had created so much that he Himself took on flesh and came to live on earth and to be with us—the meaning of the word “Immanuel.” The second person of the Trinity, who had existed eternally, laid aside his power, privilege and position and became fully God and fully human.
The Holy Spirit conceived in Mary the baby who was born to restore humanity’s relationship with God and the baby’s name was Jesus. Jesus lived a sinless life on earth for 33 years, a life that pleased his Father in every way. Jesus was counted by his Father to be the acceptable sacrifice and the one mediator between God and humans.
To reconcile humans and all of creation to God, Jesus came to us, took our place, and restored our relationship to God. He took the sin of humanity upon his shoulders and willingly chose to be the
atoning sacrifice to appease the wrath of God toward our sin. He conquered sin and death once and for all, and was victorious over his enemy Satan. He died on a Roman cross outside of Jerusalem, and was buried in a tomb.
Upon Jesus’ death the wrath of God was satisfied and humans once again were enabled to come into a close and personal relationship with God. The curtain of the Jewish temple (which symbolized the separation of God and humans) was torn in two from top to bottom, showing that God himself made the way for humans to be reconciled with him apart from any ability in themselves. Jesus proved his complete defeat of sin and death as he was resurrected with a glorified body to new life on the third day.
Jesus remained on earth for forty more days and appeared to many people. He then ascended to his rightful place at the right hand of God, where today he sits making intercession for his people. After he left, Jesus sent his promised counsellor, the Holy Spirit of God, to be with his people to comfort, convict and guide them.
The Father continues to call out for himself a people for his own Kingdom— people who have repented of their sin, and who have confessed Jesus as their Saviour and Lord. These people are called Christians, and Christians together are called the Church, the body of Christ. Each Christian, upon receiving salvation by grace expressed through faith in Christ, is given the special gift of God’s Spirit who comes to live within them and in their midst as believers. The Spirit of God fills, counsels, bears witness to the truth, convicts and brings discernment and renewal to believers to help them become more like Jesus.
Christians are set apart (sanctified) by the Father from the world upon salvation, and the Father desires that they strive to live and think as Jesus did.
Together, we conduct our lives, and learn about God from the Bible, which is God’s Word to us. In this regard, the Father uses Scripture unerringly and with great profit to describe to us who God is, what we need to know about Him, and how we are to follow Jesus Christ by the Spirit’s help. The Bible was written by humans who were completely inspired by God’s Holy Spirit.
Upon salvation, we are privileged not just to call God our Father, but also to extend his Kingdom by going into the nations to make disciples of Jesus, and to receive them in Jesus Christ as our brothers and sisters. The people of God are called upon to gather in local assemblies, called churches, each of which has Christ as its Head. It is in these assemblies that Christians are edified, taught, and encouraged in discipleship.
Upon public confession of faith believers can be welcomed into the membership of the local assembly.
As believers, we have the privilege of communicating in prayer with God the Father, through our one mediator, Jesus Christ, as the Holy Spirit enables us to do so. God desires that we live a life of continual prayer. The Bible instructs disciples to follow the example of Jesus, and to be baptized, which is immersion in water. Baptism symbolizes the change made to us spiritually through the blood of Jesus which cleanses our sin and gives us new birth. The church also participates in communion (the Lord’s Supper), which symbolizes the death and resurrection of Jesus for us and our salvation as we wait for the day when we, too, shall rise with a glorified body like Christ did. Until that Day, God calls upon all of his people to share the truth about Jesus with everyone. He desires that more people would become disciples of Christ, and that at the name of Jesus, every human would worship God.
The Bible promises us that one day the Lord Jesus will physically return to earth and gather his followers. After that time, he will judge the living and the dead. Those who have repented of their sin and been welcomed into the people of God will receive eternal life and live forever with glorified body in the new restored heaven and earth, and God will dwell with them. Those who die in rebellion and unrepentance will spend eternity under God’s punishment, just as Satan and the rest of the fallen angels will also be eternally punished in the lake of fire. We can be assured that one day, at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.