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. |