Gracepoint Statement of Faith

I.              The Scriptures

The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is God’s revelation of Himself to man.  It is perfect, complete, and without error.  Therefore all Scripture is totally true and trustworthy.  God is its author and salvation through Jesus Christ is its end. 

II             God

There is one and only one living and true God.  God is infinite in holiness and all other perfections.  God is all powerful and all knowing, and His perfect knowledge extends to all things, past, present, and future, including the future decisions of His free creatures.  To Him we owe the highest love, reverence, and obedience.  The eternal triune God reveals himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being.

III.          Man

Man was created in God’s own image.  He created them male and female.  In the beginning man was innocent of sin and was endowed by his Creator with freedom of choice.  By his free choice man sinned against God and brought sin into the human race.  Through the temptation of Satan man disobeyed God and fell from his original innocence whereby his posterity inherits a nature and an environment inclined toward sin.  Only the grace of God can bring man into H is holy fellowship and enable man to fulfill the creative purpose of God. 

IV.         Salvation

Salvation involves the redemption of the whole man, 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.  There is no salvation apart from personal faith in Jesus Christ as Lord.  Salvation includes:  regeneration, repentance, justification, 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 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.
2.   Justification brings the believer into a relationship of peace and favor with God.
3.   Sanctification is a setting apart of the believer to God’s purposes and a growth from that point on towards Christ likeness through the power of the Holy Spirit.
4.   Glorification

All true believers will endure unto the end.

V.           The Church

A new Testament church of the Lord Jesus Christ is an autonomous local congregation of baptized believers, associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel; observing the two ordinances of Christ, governed by His laws, exercising the gifts, rights, and privileges invested in them by His Word, and seeking to extend the gospel to the ends of the earth.  While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.

The New Testament speaks also of the church as the Body of Christ which includes all of the redeemed of all the ages, believers from every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation.

VI.         Baptism and the Lord’s Supper

Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  It 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.  Being a church ordinance, it is prerequisite to the privileges of church membership and to the Lord’s Supper.

The Lord’s Supper is a symbolic act of obedience whereby members of the church, thorough partaking of the bread and the fruit of the vine, memorialize the death of the Redeemer and anticipate His second coming.

VII.       The Great Commission

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.  Jesus Christ has commanded the preaching of the gospel to all nations.  It is the duty of every child of God to seek constantly to win the lost to Christ by Verbal witness undergirded by a Christian lifestyle, and by other methods in harmony with the gospel of Christ.

VIII.      Stewardship

God is the source of all blessings, temporal and spiritual, all that we have and are we owe to Him.  Christians are therefore under obligation to give in the spirit of Christ, and serve Him with their time, talents, and material possessions; and should recognize all these as entrusted to them to use for the glory of God and for helping others.  According to the Scriptures, Christians should contribute of their means cheerfully, regularly, systematically, proportionately, and liberally for the advancement of the Redeemer’s cause on earth.

IX.         The Christian and the Social Order

Christians should oppose racism, every form of greed, selfishness, and vice, and all forms of sexual immorality including adultery, homosexuality, and pornography.  We should work to provide for the orphaned, the needy, the abused, the aged, the helpless, and the sick.  We should speak on behalf of the unborn and contend for the sanctity of all human life from conception to natural death.

X.           The Family

Marriage is the uniting of one man and one woman in covenant commitment for a lifetime.  It is God’s unique gift to reveal the union between Christ and His church and to provide for the man and the woman in marriage the framework for intimate companionship, the channel of sexual expression according to biblical standards, and the means for procreation of the human race.

The husband and wife are of equal worth before God, since both are created in God’s image.  A husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the church.  She graciously submits to the servant leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ.  She being the image of God as is her husband and thus equal to him, has the God given responsibility to respect her husband and to serve as his helper in managing the household and nurturing the next generation.

Children, from the moment of conception are a blessing and heritage from the Lord.  Parents are to demonstrate to their children God’s pattern for marriage.  Parents are to teach their children spiritual and moral values and to lead them, through consistent lifestyle example and loving discipline, to make choices based on biblical truth.  Children are to honor and obey their parents.