● What Do We Believe by True Faith? Everything taught to us in the gospel. The Apostles’ Creed expresses what we believe in these words: We believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried.
He descended into hell. The third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from there he will come to judge the living and the dead. We believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.

Recommended Resources

New City Catechism Commentary: “The only thing I can contribute to my salvation is my own sinful nature. It’s about coming to God with an awareness of our humble need—coming in faith, repenting of my sins, and laying out before God my sense that I need him. That’s the beginning of salvation.”
There is No Faith So Little That it Is Not Saving (The Gospel Coalition): “There is no faith so little that it can’t be saving. Faith does not have to be strong to be saving, it just has to be real. The smallest faith, if it is real, receives the same strength of Christ in salvation as the strongest faith.”
What Saving Faith Sees in Christ (DesiringGod): “Saving faith glorifies Christ by looking away from self to Christ alone — to his all-sufficiency, including his blood and righteousness, without which we could have no right standing with God. To which I say, with all my heart, Amen! Let us be willing to die for this. As many have.”

• What is Faith in Jesus Christ? Faith in Jesus Christ is acknowledging the truth of everything that God has revealed in his Word, trusting in him, and also receiving and resting on him alone for salvation as he is offered to us in the gospel.
• It is not the strength of our faith that saves us; it is the object of our faith that saves us. We do not put our confidence in how strong or smart our faith is, but on what Jesus has done for us by his life, death, resurrection, and ascension.

Recommended Resources

• New City Catechism Commentary: “The only thing I can contribute to my salvation is my own sinful nature. It’s about coming to God with an awareness of our humble need—coming in faith, repenting of my sins, and laying out before God my sense that I need him. That’s the beginning of salvation.”
• There is No Faith So Little That it Is Not Saving (The Gospel Coalition): “There is no faith so little that it can’t be saving. Faith does not have to be strong to be saving, it just has to be real. The smallest faith, if it is real, receives the same strength of Christ in salvation as the strongest faith.”
• What Saving Faith Sees in Christ (DesiringGod): “Saving faith glorifies Christ by looking away from self to Christ alone — to his all-sufficiency, including his blood and righteousness, without which we could have no right standing with God. To which I say, with all my heart, Amen! Let us be willing to die for this. As many have.”

• How Can We Be Saved? Only by faith in Jesus Christ and in his substitutionary atoning death on the cross; so even though we are guilty of having disobeyed God and are still inclined to all evil, nevertheless, God, without any merit of our own but only by pure grace, imputes to us the perfect righteous- ness of Christ when we repent and believe in him.
• “My hope does not live because I am not a sinner, but because I am a sinner for whom Christ died; my trust is not that I am holy, but that being unholy, he is my righteousness. My faith does not rest upon what I am, or shall be, or feel, or know, but in what Christ is, in what he has done, and in what he is now doing for me.” - Charles Spurgeon

Recommended Resources

• New City Catechism Commentary: “My hope does not live because I am not a sinner, but because I am a sinner for whom Christ died; my trust is not that I am holy, but that being unholy, he is my righteousness. My faith does not rest upon what I am, or shall be, or feel, or know, but in what Christ is, in what he has done, and in what he is now doing for me.”
• Dressed in His Righteousness Alone (Desiring God): “In justification, Christ’s righteousness does not become ours as some sort of personal possession. It is counted or reckoned as ours. Why? Because we do not perform the acts of justifying righteousness. Christ, as our substitute, lived the perfect life we couldn’t and died the death we deserved. The righteousness of Christ must therefore primarily and exclusively belong to him.”
• The Greatest Issue We Face (Ligonier): “How can an unforgiven person become forgiven? How can an unjust person be justified or be considered just in the sight of God? There are not many issues in theology more serious than that.”

• What Happens After Death to Those Not United to Christ by Faith? At the day of judgment they will receive the fearful but just sentence of condemnation pronounced against them. They will be cast out from the favorable presence of God, into hell, to be justly and grievously punished, forever.
• “The real issue is not how a loving God would allow there to be a hell. The issue is, if Jesus Christ would experience hell for me, then, truly, he must be a loving God. It’s not “Why would God allow hell?” It’s “Why would God experience hell for me?” And yet he did.” - John Lin

Recommended Resources

• The New City Catechism Commentary: “The real issue is not how a loving God would allow there to be a hell. The issue is, if Jesus Christ would experience hell for me, then, truly, he must be a loving God. It’s not “Why would God allow hell?” It’s “Why would God experience hell for me?” And yet he did.” - John Lin
• 5 Things You Should Know About Hell (Ligonier): "...the Bible’s many descriptions of hell are intended to magnify the grace of Christ who has saved us from it, and to fuel a zeal in us to warn others to flee from the pains of hell by turning to Christ in true faith and repentance."
• The Uncomfortable Subject Jesus Addressed More than Anyone Else (The Gospel Coalition): "Some months ago, R. C. Sproul was asked which doctrine he struggles with most. He replied: 'Hell.' It’s comforting to know a theological giant like Sproul still wrestles with something I’ve struggled with my whole Christian life."
• Will Hell Really Last Forever? (Desiring God): "Christ Jesus our Savior is worthy of eternal praise because he endured, for us, the righteous judgment that would have been ours for eternity."

Guest teacher: Marc Arteus

• Are All People, Just as They Were Lost Through Adam, Saved Through Christ? No, only those who are elected by God and united to Christ by faith. Nevertheless God in his mercy demonstrates common grace even to those who are not elect, by restraining the effects of sin and enabling works of culture for human well-being.
• If anything is good, it comes from God. From eternal goods, namely faith and salvation in Jesus Christ, to earthly goods like human art, science, government, and wisdom, there is nothing good that we have that we can say we produced ourselves. It all comes from God because God is gracious.

Additional Resources:

• The New City Catechism Commentary: "Though not all people are going to be saved, God still gives his gifts of wisdom and insight across the face of the whole human race. Through art and through science and through good government and in other ways, God is making this world a far better place than it would be if only Christians had those gifts.
• Common Grace Is Special Too (The Gospel Coalition): "The twin realities of common and saving grace share a dynamic relationship. For the believer, the joy we experience in common with the lost during a feast gives way to fullness of joy when that earthly meal redirects our hearts to the salvation feast believers share in Christ."
• Providence And Common Grace (Ligonier): "That human beings made in His image ignore and reject Him even after being shown common grace shows us just how desperate our condition is apart from His special grace."
• Four Biblical Foundations for Contextualization (9Marks): "Contextualization is both unavoidable and good. The gospel can―and should―be at home in every culture. We must identify with those we are trying to reach and adapt to their culture, no matter what discomfort it causes us. However, the gospel also challenges and condemns every culture at some points (including our own). "

• What Else Does Christ’s Death Redeem? Christ’s death is the beginning of the redemption and renewal of every part of fallen creation, as he powerfully directs all things for his own glory and creation’s good.
• Jesus came to make all things new, and the salvation of individual souls is just the first step of that process.

Guest teacher: Rodney Donahue

• Why was it necessary for Christ, the Redeemer, to die? Since death is the punishment for sin, Christ died willingly in our place to deliver us from the power and penalty of sin and bring us back to God. By his substitutionary atoning death, he alone redeems us from hell and gains for us forgiveness of sin, righteousness, and everlasting life.
• Does Christ’s death mean all our sins can be forgiven? Yes, because Christ’s death on the cross fully paid the penalty for our sin, God graciously imputes Christ’s righteousness to us as if it were our own and will remember our sins no more.
• You can receive this forgiveness today if you've never received it. Christ died for you, and this offer of forgiveness is available to anyone.

Why must the Redeemer be truly God? Because of his divine nature, his obedience and suffering would be perfect and effective; and also that he would be able to bear the righteous anger of God against sin and yet overcome death.

Jesus is only able to save us because he is fully God. Because he is God, he is able to give us the same eternal and everlasting life that he has as God. Do you believe this?

Additional Resources:

• The Athanasian Creed, a historical tool for helping us explain the Trinity.
• The Necessity of Christology (Ligonier): a brief devotional on why Christology matters to our daily lives as Christians.
• The Deity of Christ (The Gospel Coalition): a helpful introduction to the doctrine of the divinity of Christ.