What We Believe

We believe in salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

Salvation: As Christians we believe that we need to be “saved.”  The natural question to ask is, “Saved from what?”  First of all, we believe that God saves us from the power of death.  Each of us will die one day, but we believe that God brings us from death to eternal life.  We also believe that God saves us from the power of sin.  Sin is a force in our world that breaks relationships.  It breaks our relationships with each other as people, and, more importantly, it draws us away from our relationship with our creator, God.  When we say that we believe in salvation, we mean salvation from death and sin.

Grace: We do not believe that we can earn God’s gift of salvation through our own goodness.  Our salvation comes as a free gift from God, which is why we say that it comes by grace.  Any and all good deeds we do are in response to God’s grace.  When we say that we believe in salvation by grace, we mean that God does 100% of the work in salvation.

Faith: When we trust in the promises that God has made to save us, then we live by faith.  Faith is trust.  We do not trust in our own ability and will, and we do not trust in the power of other humans to save us.  We trust in the promises that God has made to us and in the relationship that God has formed with us.  Even this trust itself is a gift from God.  When we say that we believe in salvation by grace through faith, we mean that God has invited and empowered us to trust the promise of salvation.

Jesus Christ: We believe that Jesus Christ is God. In Jesus, God became our human brother so that we could know God our Father. You may hear Jesus described as “God Incarnate” which means God in the flesh.

 

Jesus said, “If you know me, then you will know my Father also. From now on, you do know him and have seen him. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me.”   John 14:7, 11
When we say that we believe in salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, we mean that God became a human being, died on a cross, and rose from the dead in order to save us.

 

http://www.elca.org/What-We-Believe/The-Basics.aspx

;