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God
There is one and only one living and true God. He is an intelligent, spiritual, mysterious and personal Being, the Creator, Redeemer, Preserver, and Ruler of the universe. God is infinite in holiness and all other perfections. To Him we owe the highest love, reverence, and obedience. The eternal God reveals Himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being.
God the Father
God as Father reigns with providential care over His universe, His creatures, and the flow of the stream of human history according to the purposes of His grace. He is all powerful, all loving, and all wise. Yet, God is mysterious and we do not understand all that there is of God. God is Father in truth to those who become children of God through faith in Jesus Christ. He is fatherly in His attitude toward all human beings.
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God the Son
Christ is the eternal Son of God. In His incarnation as Jesus Christ he was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. Jesus perfectly revealed and did the will of God, taking upon Himself the demands and necessities of human nature and identifying Himself completely with humankind yet without sin. He honored the divine law by His personal obedience, and in His death on the cross He made provision for the redemption of humans from sin. He was raised from the dead with a glorified body and appeared to His disciples as the person who was with them before His crucifixion. He ascended into heaven and is now exalted at the right hand of God where He is the One Mediator, partaking of the nature of God and of human beings, and in whose Person is effected the reconciliation between God and humankind. He will return in power and glory to judge the world and to consummate His redemptive mission. He now dwells in all believers as the living and ever-present Lord.
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God the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God. He inspired holy ones of old to write the Scriptures. Through illumination He enables humankind to understand truth. He exalts Christ. He convicts of sin, of righteousness and of judgment. He calls all to the Savior, and effects regeneration. He cultivates Christian character, comforts believers, and bestows the spiritual gifts by which they serve God though His church. He seals the believer unto the day of final redemption. His presence in the Christian is the assurance of God to bring the believer into the fullness of the stature of Christ. He enlightens and empowers the believer and the church in worship, evangelism, and service.
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The Scriptures
The Holy Bible was written by individuals divinely inspired and is the record of God’s revelation of Himself to humanity. It is a perfect treasure of divine instruction. It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth for its matter. It reveals the principles by which God judges us; and therefore is, and will remain to the end of the world, the true center of Christian union, and the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and religious opinions should be tried. The criterion by which the Bible is to be interpreted is Jesus Christ.
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Humankind
Human beings are created in the image of God, and humanity represents the crowning achievement of God's creative handiwork. In the beginning, human beings rested in perfect relationship with God, but they chose to disobey God. This disobedience separated them from God, both spiritually and physically. All human beings have followed the path of rebellion against God, which means that all human beings are separated from God by their own initiative. This willingness to separate from God is what the Bible defines as "sin." The sin of all persons carries with it the penalty of death, both physical and spiritual. Since we are inclined to sin, we cannot achieve the degree of righteousness necessary to stand in God's holy presence.
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Salvation
Salvation involves the redemption of the whole person, and is offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, who by His own blood obtained eternal redemption for the believer. In its broadest sense salvation includes regeneration, sanctification, and glorification.
1. Regeneration, or the new birth, is a work of God’s grace whereby believers become new creatures in Christ Jesus. It is a change of heart wrought by the Holy Spirit through conviction of sin, to which the sinner responds in repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Repentance and faith are inseparable experiences of grace. Repentance is a genuine turning from sin toward God. Faith is the acceptance of Jesus Christ and commitment of the entire personality to Him as Lord and Savior. Justification is God’s gracious and full acquittal upon principles of His righteousness of all sinners who repent and believe in Christ. Justification brings the believer into a relationship of peace and favor with God.
2. Sanctification is the experience, beginning in regeneration, by which the believer is set apart to God’s purposes, and is enabled to progress toward moral and spiritual perfection through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in him. Growth in grace should continue throughout the regenerate person’s life.
3. Glorification is the culmination of salvation and is the final blessed and abiding state of the redeemed.
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The Church
A New Testament church of the Lord Jesus Christ is a local body of baptized believers who are associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel, observing the two ordinances of Christ, committed to His teachings, exercising the gifts, rights, and privileges invested in them by His Word, and seeking to extend the gospel to the ends of the earth. This church is an autonomous body, operating through democratic processes under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. In such a congregation members are equally responsible. Its Scriptural officers are pastors and deacons. The New Testament speaks also of the church as the body of Christ which includes all of the redeemed of all the ages.
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The Ordinances
In obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ we participate in Christian Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Christian Baptist is an act of obedience symbolizing the believer’s faith in a crucified, buried, and risen Savior, the believer’s death to sin, the burial of the old life, and the resurrection to walk in newness of life in Christ Jesus. It is a testimony to his faith in the final resurrection of the dead. Being a church ordinance, it is prerequisite to the privileges of church membership. The Lord’s Supper is a symbolic act of obedience whereby Christians, through partaking of the bread and the fruit of the vine, memorialize the death of the Redeemer and anticipate His return.
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The Kingdom
The Kingdom of God includes both His general sovereignty over the universe and His particular kingship over persons who willfully acknowledge Him as King. Particularly the Kingdom is the realm of salvation into which persons enter by trustful, childlike commitment to Jesus Christ. Christians ought to pray and to labor that the Kingdom may come and God’s will be done on earth. The full consummation of the Kingdom awaits the return of Jesus Christ and the end of this age.
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Evangelism and Missions
It is the duty and privilege of every follower of Christ and of every church of the Lord Jesus Christ to endeavor to make disciples of all nations. The new birth of an individual by God’s Holy Spirit means the birth of love for others. Missionary effort on the part of all rests thus upon a spiritual necessity of the regenerate life, and is expressly and repeatedly commanded in the teachings of Christ. It is the duty of every child of God to seek constantly to lead the lost to Christ by personal effort and by all other methods in harmony with the gospel of Christ.
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For Scripture references regarding these statements see THE BAPTIST FAITH AND MESSAGE 1963 ED. This statement of faith, though modified, is based on the same document.
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