What We Believe

 

Our Faith in the Crucified King


Faith is simple: "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" Hebrews 11: 1. What are these things we hope for, and what is this evidence of things not seen? Well, it may be simple but it is not simplistic. We believe the Bible is God’s Word for humanity; the one book on planet earth sharing God’s grand story for us revealed through the pattern of creation, fall, redemption, and restoration. That is, God created everything, humanity caused chaos to fall into chaos, God redeems through Jesus Christ, and one day Jesus is coming back to restore his people along with all heaven and creation! All this is GOOD news, and Christians have faith that this all is true.


Christians are those who believe in this story because the story of redemption centers around Jesus and his message known as the Gospel. The Gospel is about God’s redeeming plan to save a broken people through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  The Good News is good because Jesus came as the King of kings and Lord of lords; he had the credentials, character, ability, power, and humility to serve as our Savior.  The Good News can be summarized in a number of ways.  If the news were to be plastered on the front page of a newspaper, it could be something like: “The exectuted King is Alive and Rules Today!”


This announcement begins with who Jesus is and what he has accomplished.  The Gospel does not begin with us, although it directly impacts us.  The Gospel is an announcement that the King arrived 2,000 years ago, born in a stable and lived out a ministry that constantly pointed to a new Kingdom. The world did not understand his rule. Consequently, due to envy, greed, pride, ignorance, and hatred, Jesus was executed by crucified.  He was mocked as a king with a  crown made up of thorns. As Jesus hung to the cross, the crime was written on a piece of wood above his head, “Jesus, King of the Jews.”  The authorities made sure the crime was written in different languages so every one would know how ridiculous this mockery of a king looked.  Jesus died and was placed in a tomb.


On the third day, Jesus was raised from the dead. The King still had the scars in his hands, feet and side. The blood stripes were still observable on his back. But rather than a mocked and dead king, Jesus marched out of the tomb victorious over our sin, brokenness, evil, and death itself!


The Beliefs of Resurrection Life Church

Resurrection Life part of a denomination called the Christian Reformed Church of North America. This denomination has about 250,000 members throughout United States and Canada. The beliefs in the Christian Reformed Church are rooted in the Bible. The creeds and confessions are from the reformed tradition intended to help us understand and give shape to what the Bible says about what we believe.


For an overview of what we believe, click here.

For positions on particular social issues, click here.

To understand what 'reformed' means, click here.

Creeds:

Apostle's Creed

Athanasian Creed

Nicene Creed


Confessions:

Heidelberg Catechism

Canons of Dort

Belgic Confession


Any further questions about our beliefs, please contact us any time.


Values

All people are made in God’s image and should be the first thing we see in people.

“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1:27)

 

God's truth must be spoken in love and gentleness. 

“Walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” (Ephesians 4:1-3)

 

Christians are ambassadors of Jesus the King, called to represent him in all spheres of life. 

“Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us.” (I Corinthians 5:20)

 

Christian leaders are called to equip potential leaders.

“And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.” (Ephesians 4:11)

 

The faithless and fainthearted need Jesus and it takes training and innovation to effectively captivate them with the Gospel. 

“And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.” (Matthew 28:18-19a)

 

Our children equally belong to our church so we want them active in ministry. 

“Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 19:15)

 

Small groups have the unique ability to create opportunities for discipleship, entry points for inquirers of the faith, and opportunities to invest in future leaders. 

“And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” (Acts 2:42)

 

The spoken Word—the Gospel—must remain central to our worship and in our mission as the source for joy and assurance for salvation. 

“For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified." (I Corinthians 1:2)

 

Jesus’ death and resurrection is the motivation behind serving the Quartet of the Vulnerable: widow, orphan, immigrant, and the poor: 

“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:8-10)

 

The Kingdom of Jesus supersedes the needs of our congregation:

 “In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant.” (Philippians 2:5-7)