What the Christian believes.
The Commission of Christ’s Church
The Church is the Body of Christ. The Church exists to reveal and reflect God in the world. Jesus is the head of the Church, and the Church is led and governed by Jesus. As the gathered body of believers, the Church displays the nature of Jesus through its actions and words. Like Jesus, the Church loves all people, because those who truly believe in God can’t help but love God.
The Church exists for the sake of others; it speaks the Word of God and bears witness of God’s love, because God is the greatest expression of love. Love describes and defines the Church. The Church is the material evidence of what it means to love and live as God’s people. This way, truth, and life is directed by God as He has spoken through the Bible.
The Bible
OnMission recognizes the Bible as the actual Word of God (1 Corinthians 2:7-14, 1 Thessalonians 2:13) given to us by God (2 Peter 1:20-21). God’s Word, plainly, precisely, and clearly tells us who God is, that He loves us. God created us to love and to be loved by Him. Through the Bible, God helps us know Him, His character, and His nature. The Bible tells us why the world is as it is, how human rebellion has corrupted God’s good creation, and (amazingly) it tells us of God’s desire to restore our relationship to Him.
This is why OnMission is committed to teaching what the Bible says with precision and clarity.
Because God is the source of ultimate wisdom and truth, and because each word of the Bible is inspired by God, His Word is truthful and accurate. God’s Word governs the practice of His people and points to the fullness of life with God (2 Timothy 3:15-17; Hebrews 4:12).
Because God wants to be known, and because He is not a God of confusion, God has clearly spoken in the Bible. There is one Truth. There can only be one clear message contained in the Biblical text.
Jesus provides us with the lens through which the Bible is written and therefore must be read; the lens of love.
God is unbounded by time and any constructs of human culture, politics and societies. He speaks His entire Word into every human context, to every generation, and across every age with equal authority, intent and validity.
From the Bible we know that…
Our infinite God exists as a Trinity, bound by love, and expressing love. In the Trinity, God the Father, God the Son (Jesus), and God the Holy Spirit, are each identifiable yet indistinguishable in their unity of substance, quality, nature and essence. God is one God, yet three persons, unified in the Trinity. Though this challenges our mortal finite understanding, it is a clear revelation to us of God’s infinite immortal personality and being (click here for more of what God reveals about Himself).
God is the Creator of everything. God spoke and all that exists in the heavens and on earth came into being.
God created man and woman in His image. God is love, so the image we bear, His image, is the image of Love.
Man rebelled against God. God created us to love and be loved by Him, yet we spurned God’s love and grasped for something more. Love is freely given and freely received, yet we freely grasp for godlikeness, and so betray and attempt to deceive God. This is sin, and this sin has separated us from God.
God sent His Son, Jesus Christ. Though God loves us, we do not fully love Him. Because of His love, Jesus came into the world, fully man and fully God, enduring our sin and living among us. His purpose was to open the way for our restoration to God, to make possible our redemption from our sin, and to make possible our peaceful surrender and reconciliation to God.
Jesus’ death on the cross made our restoration to God possible. In sin, we were powerless to repent and return to God, so Jesus, the only sinless man, did for us what we could not do for ourselves, even though it meant His horrible death. Jesus’ death on the cross was the greatest act of love.
Redemption is a free gift of Grace. How could we earn or compensate God for the gift of redemption? He lacks nothing. For Him, nothing is impossible. What He did for us and offers freely to us displays His love and results in mercy and forgiveness. That is to say, our salvation. This salvation is available to all people who truly believe Jesus is God and have accepted Him as Lord and Saviour. When we do, this belief and acceptance will be evident in our lives.
God inspires the faith that leads to redemption in those He knows will accept the gift and so love God.
God the Son, Jesus, will return one day to judge all people, and those who have freely accepted the gift of redemption will be clothed in His righteousness and welcomed into God’s presence (the place we call heaven). God allows us to reject Him, and those who freely choose to turn away from God will live forever outside of God’s presence (the place known as hell).
Over time OnMission will post more here … but let this be our starting point.