My Beliefs

 The following is a confession of faith that I gave regarding my beliefs about Jesus when I became a member of my church.  This confession still forms the nucleus of my beliefs about Jesus Christ.

 I believe in and have given my allegiance to Jesus Christ as Lord and Master of my life.  I am convinced that in Christ and Christ alone we discover the meaning of history and life.  I likewise believe that my allegiance to Christ is the most centrally defining element of my identity, subordinating and superseding all others.  I am committed to obey what he commands, repent where I fall short and continue living into that pattern of life, which he lives for and with us.  I am convinced that there is no better place to place my trust than in Christ.  I believe that it is in following Christ that all that is true, good, and beautiful is to be found and experienced.  Therefore,  I abandon my destiny to the Lord. I surrender my plans, goals, and felt needs to him and ask him to do with them whatever he sees best.  I want to be and live as nothing more and nothing less than a follower of Jesus.

In making that confession of allegiance, I affirm that the eternal Son of the Father became fully human as Jesus of Nazareth as the pure expression of his very divinity.  He lived a human life on earth, taught, healed the sick, raised the dead, and proclaimed that the Kingdom of God had begun, in the power of the Spirit.  I believe that the principalities and powers of this world could not stand the freedom from sin, death, and oppression that Christ proclaimed and embodied, and therefore executed him as a criminal.  However, God raised Christ from the dead, validating his identity as the Son of God and thus defeating sin, death, and hell once for all and reconciling the estranged world to himself.

I believe that through Christ’s unmasking of, and triumph over the powers of sin and death in the cross and resurrection, he has now brought about in himself, a life for all humanity that is free from sin, oppression, and injustice.   I believe that the present and future freedom for new life and reconciliation in communion with the Triune God and other human persons is what the New Testament speaks of when it speaks of salvation.  I likewise believe that one day Christ will return to earth to make all things new, bringing about the consummation of the Kingdom of God in its fullness.  At that blessed time all of Christ’s new humanity will live in resurrection life and peace.

I also believe that at the center of Christ’s ministry and proclamation was the cormation of a concrete, distinct, visible community of committed disciples, known as the church.  I believe that at the center of Christ’s desire for his followers was his intention that they should form a community of love and peace committed to following his teachings and practices.  In affirming these things I am committing to living into these realities through participation in Christ’s body, the church.