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The Holy Scriptures
The Holy Scripture is the all-sufficient standard of the
knowledge, faith and obedience that constitute
salvation. The sum total of God's revelation concerning
all things essential to our salvation and faith and life
of men and women, is either explicitly set down or
implicitly contained in the Holy Scripture. Nothing,
whether a supposed revelation of the Spirit or man's
traditions, is ever to be added to Scripture. The
authority of the Bible does not depend upon the
testimony of any man or church, but entirely upon God,
its author, who is truth. |
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| The testimony of the church
of God may influence and
persuade us to hold the
Scripture in the highest esteem.
At the same time, however, we
recognize that our full
persuasion and assurance of its
infallible truth and divine
authority is the outcome of the
inward work of the Holy Spirit
bearing witness by and with the
Word in our hearts. All
religious controversies are to
be settled by Scripture, and by
Scripture alone. All decrees of
Councils, opinions of ancient
writers and doctrines of men
collectively or individually,
are similarly to be accepted or
rejected according to the
verdict of the Scripture given
to us by the Holy Spirit. In
that verdict faith finds its
final rest. |
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Jesus Christ
We believe in one Lord, Jesus
Christ, the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the
Father. God's Son, Jesus Christ
came to earth for our salvation.
Jesus came down from heaven; by
the power of the Holy Spirit He
became incarnate from the Virgin
Mary and was made man. For our
sake, he was crucified under
Pontius Pilate; he suffered
death and was buried. On the
third day he rose again in
accordance with the Scriptures;
He ascended into heaven and is
seated at the right hand of the
Father. He will come again in
glory to judge the living and
the dead, and His kingdom will
have no end. |
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Salvation
God freely justifies the persons whom He calls. He does
this, not by infusing righteousness into them, but by
pardoning their sins and by accounting them and
accepting them, as righteous. This He does for Christ's
sake alone and not for anything wrought in them or done
by them. The righteousness which is imputed to them,
that is, reckoned to their account, is the righteousness
of Christ's obedience alone. Those thus justified
receive and rest by faith upon Christ's righteousness;
and this faith they have, not of themselves, but as the
gift of God. The faith which receives and rests on
Christ and His righteousness is the sole means of
justification. Yet it is never alone in the person
justified, but is invariably accompanied by all other
saving graces. Nor is it a dead faith, for it works by
love.By His obedience and death Christ paid in full
the debt of those who are justified. By the sacrifice of
Himself in His blood-shedding on Calvary and His
suffering on their behalf of the penalty they had
incurred. He fully and absolutely satisfied all the
claims which God's justice had upon them. Their
justification is altogether of free grace, firstly
because Christ was the free gift of the Father to act on
their behalf; secondly because Christ's obedience and
His satisfying the demands of the law was freely
accepted on their behalf; and thirdly because nothing in
them merited these mercies. Hence God's exact justice
and His rich grace are alike rendered glorious in the
justification of sinners. |
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