What We Believe: A Narrative Journey

Let’s start at the very beginning—at the time when “God created the heavens and the earth.” The divine being Christians call God—or God the Father—wasn’t actually the major participant in the creative process. The biblical books of Hebrews and John tell us it was through the Son of God—Jesus—that the entire universe was made and is sustained. The Holy Spirit also was an active agent in bringing everything into existence. 

These three distinct beings—the Trinity, or the Godhead, as we call them—participate in individualized and unique ways in all divine-human interactions. Yet they are so united in purpose and perspective that they can be described as being a single entity.

Created in God’s Image

At creation, the triune God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness” (emphasis added). Humans were created as the final act of creation and were given authority over the earth. Looking upon all that had been created, God declared that it was “very good.” 

A relationship of love existed inwardly among the three members of the triune God and outwardly with the newly created human race and all the rest of creation. All members of the Godhead are the very essence of love. A love that doesn’t grow cold, doesn’t degenerate into hate, doesn’t forsake or abandon, doesn’t seek revenge. Indeed, “God is love” (emphasis added).

A Sabbath Rest

At the end of the creation process, God rested from his labors, setting an example for humans concerning the importance of labor as well as the need for regular rest from labor. In fact, in the Ten Commandments, God mandates a weekly Sabbath—a day of rest: “Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work.” 

The Ten Commandments come in two iterations, with differing rationales for celebrating the Sabbath. In Exodus, we’re directed back to creation: “For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” 

In Deuteronomy, we read: “Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath.” 

Christians typically have viewed Israel’s literal deliverance from slavery in Egypt as also a metaphor for humanity’s deliverance from our slavery to sin—a deliverance accomplished through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, who is intimately connected to our world as our Creator, our Sustainer and our Deliverer/Redeemer. Thus the celebration of the Sabbath is a perpetual reminder of both our divine origin and the fact that God has provided a way of escape from the dilemma into which sin has thrown us. And just what is sin?

Contagious Alienation

In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve disbelieved God, breaking the bond of human trust and friendship with divinity that had earlier existed. As a result, humanity as a whole finds itself in a contagious state of alienation from God. 

The Bible speaks of two contrasting mysteries—the mystery of iniquity and the mystery of godliness. Why, in a perfect environment, would iniquity arise? Why would created beings spurn a loving Creator? It’s a mystery. Equally, why would divinity that has been brushed aside, discounted, ignored and actively opposed still love and pursue such rebellious created beings? That too is a mystery. A breath-taking one! 

Human alienation from God typically takes one of two counter-productive forms: (1) an inability or refusal to acknowledge that something is broken and desperately needs to be fixed; or (2) a recognition that something is broken—along with the misdirected assumption that we can fix the problem ourselves. That if we’re just good enough, try hard enough, act sincere enough, God will have no choice but to accept and reinstate us. But both of those options are misguided.

Gracious and Merciful

In both the Old and New Testaments, we repeatedly encounter such words as grace and gracious; compassion and compassionate; mercy and merciful; forgive and forgiven. God is routinely portrayed as being willing to bury the past and restore the human-divine relationship—no matter how many times it has been broken. Scripture tells us that “if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins . . . .” 

Christians talk a lot about salvation—escape from the slavery of sin and its resultant alienation from God, and the restoration of the confidence, trust and love that once existed. Perhaps the most succinct salvation-forgiveness-reinstatement formula in the Bible is this: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.”

Behavior Produces Effects

One shouldn’t take from the foregoing statement that our behavior is inconsequential. Behavior can have dramatic effects. It affects us individually. It affects us collectively. It affects us cumulatively, meaning that innocent people today may suffer because of the bad choices of those who came long before us—not because God is exacting revenge, but as a natural consequence of what those bad decisions and bad actions have set in motion. 

God loves us in whatever spiritual condition we may be—just as the father in Jesus’ parable of the Prodigal Son loved his wayward offspring even when his son was covered with the muck of the pig pen. But no loving father—divine or human—could ever want a pig-pen existence for his children. Jesus said that he came that we “might have life, and have it to the full”—“have it more abundantly,” as some translations put it. God wants only the best for us. Therefore we are invited to “taste and see that the Lord is good.” 

If the reason we seek to live a godly life is to convince God that we have earned our salvation—we are misunderstanding how God works. Yes, God wants all of us to live godly lives—but we should do it as a loving and grateful response to the salvation he has already given because he is a God of grace and mercy. Through Jesus, the human-divine alienation is gone and we can legitimately be called “children of God!”

Two Great Commandments

Jesus said that it’s easy for humans to get distorted priorities—to “strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.” When Jesus was asked which was the greatest commandment, he replied: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 

“And the second is like it,” he said. “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Clearly, appropriate treatment of our fellow humans should be extremely high on our list of spiritual-moral priorities.

Selfless Love

In his last major conversation with his disciples before his crucifixion, Jesus said: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” He then goes on to say: “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” 

In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said: “In everything, do to others what you would have them do to you.” But he didn’t stop with just the command. He added commentary: “For this sums up the Law and the Prophets.” In other words, such selfless love for the other is the foundation upon which all spiritual obligation rests. It’s a prime goal to be pursued if we want to live as Christ would have us live. 

In describing his yet-to-happen return to this earth—and the Bible promises that he will return, and every eye will see his coming—Jesus makes it clear that his true followers will be found showing compassion toward the most needy, the most destitute, the most marginalized: “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me. . . . Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”

Biblical Foundation

The assertions being made in this narrative journey about belief find their foundation in the Bible. Most Christians hold the Bible in high esteem, making it their prime source in our search for God and our search for a clear understanding of humanity—humanity that was created in the image of God. But Jesus, particularly in his Sermon on the Mount, made it clear that the scriptures—which were written over a long period of time by an array of authors—are not just an ironclad rule book to be slavishly followed. 

No, he pointed out that we should seek the principles behind the rules, and the rules’ goals, as well as consider the rules themselves. 

The eye-for-an-eye, tooth-for-a-tooth rules handed down by Moses placed limits upon people who knew few boundaries when it came to revenge. By contrast, Jesus advocated a love that transcends the need for revenge. Further, while Jesus in no way condoned adultery, in at least one situation he refused to act upon the law’s call for an adulterer to be stoned, showing that he understood that circumstances may necessitate a more nuanced approach at times. 

Christian students of the Bible have typically sought to allow the Bible to interpret itself by comparing various scriptures that address the same topic. If questions still remain, history may help to clarify the true meaning. Particularly in the past two or three centuries, many Bible interpreters have recognized, just as Jesus did, that we need to apply reason to our interpretation of the Bible. We may need to test our biblical interpretations against our personal experience: What has our walk with God taught us about the matters that are in question? And when addressing a controverted biblical passage, it behooves us to look at tradition. Why did our spiritual forebears interpret that passage the way they did? This doesn’t mean we must forever be locked into the perspective of those who’ve come before us. It simply means that new interpretations will be carefully considered before those that have been long-held are pushed aside.

Varied Viewpoints

As the current plethora of Christian denominations—and the multitude of even smaller subsets of Christianity—force us to recognize, there is considerable diversity of interpretation among those claiming to be followers of Jesus. And in many cases, the interpretations are mutually exclusive. They can’t all be correct.

Although the majority of those who fellowship at Graceworx would probably agree with most of what has been said here, this is by no means descriptive of everyone in our fellowship. This statement isn’t intended to be prescriptive in any way. Nor is it comprehensive. It has been written primarily to give those searching for a congregation at least some idea of the theological terrain typically found at Graceworx Community Church.