What we believe and teach

- The atonement made by Jesus Christ -

 

 

In the fullness of the time Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins, He bore our sins in His own body on the cross, so that our sins might be forgiven and we might be reconciled to God the Father through His precious blood.

Therefore Jesus Christ is the propitiation for our sins, by faith in His blood we have received the remission of sins. His atoning sacrifice was foreshadowed by the law of Moses, for according to the law of Moses the priests had to offer sacrifices for their own sins and for the sins of the people. However while the blood of those sacrifices could not take away sins from the conscience of the worshipers, the blood of Christ cleanses the conscience of the man who repents and believes in Jesus and thus it makes him perfect in regard to the conscience.

Therefore it is absolutely necessary for a man to accept by faith the atoning sacrifice of Christ in order to be saved. Any personal sacrifice and mortification and any good work done with the intention of buying or meriting salvation is useless and also blasphemous for it pretends to replace the sacrifice of Christ and thus it sets aside the grace of God, on which the Gospel of God is based. If salvation were by works, grace would no longer be grace. But we preach that salvation is obtained by grace, through faith in Christ Jesus, and not by works of righteousness. All those who rely on the works of the law for their salvation are under the curse of the law, for it is written that everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them, is cursed. On the contrary, those who have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ are blessed with believing Abraham because their faith was accounted to them for righteousness (that is to say, they were justified by faith) and they have nothing to boast about before God, just as our father Abraham had nothing to boast about. That’s why we declare to small and great alike that they must repent of their sins and believe in Jesus Christ, because salvation can be obtained only through faith and therefore by grace; through faith in the Gospel, which is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes.

Circumcision is not that of the flesh, but that of the heart which is done by Christ Jesus when a man repents and believes in the Gospel. Therefore it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship God by the Spirit of God, glory in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh.

Through the death of Jesus Christ on the cross we have been set free from sin for we died with Christ to sin. Our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with. However that does not mean we have no sin, or we have not sinned, for we all stumble in many things. Nevertheless, if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness through the blood of Christ.

 

 

 

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