What We Believe and Teach

What follows are the basic teachings that God has revealed to us in the Bible, and what is taught and believed at Living Word. If you would like to explore why we should trust what the Bible says as opposed to any other religious book, or why Christianity is different than any other religion, a good website to start is www.whataboutjesus.com.

Who is God?

There is only one God (1 Corinthians 8:4), and he has revealed himself in the Bible as three distinct Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19). Although we don’t know everything about God, what he has chosen to reveal to us is found in the Bible.
God created the universe, including the world and everything in it, in six normal 24-hour days and rested on the seventh day(Exodus 20:11). Everything in the beginning was without sin, so God said it was “very good,” meaning that it met God’s standard of perfection (Genesis 1:31).

How did sin enter the world?

Unfortunately, one of God’s holy angels rebelled against God and led other angels to do the same. The Bible calls him the devil, or Satan, and those angels who followed him demons (2 Peter 2:4).
Satan lost no time in tempting the first two humans God created, his special creatures named Adam and Eve, to disobey God’s command and lose their perfection (Genesis 3:1-6). As a result of Adam’s sin, now every human being is born into this world as a sinner (Psalm 51:5) and is subject to and deserving of death, including eternal condemnation in hell (Romans 5:12). Because all people are sinners (Romans 3:23), by nature we are also enemies of God (Romans 8:7) and blind to spiritual truth (1 Corinthians 2:14). The presence of sin ushered pain and disease and suffering into God’s world as well (Genesis 3:16-19).

How did God save the world from sin and its consequences?

But God was not content to see mankind condemned to eternal death (2 Peter 3:9), so he promised to send a Savior (Genesis 3:15) to save all people from their sins and from eternal death.
God chose the descendants of Abraham, the Israelites, to be the nation through whom he would send the Savior. Over thousands of years, God raised up leaders for his people, such as Moses and David, so the promise would be passed down from generation to generation. As the years went by, God sent prophets, such as Elijah and Isaiah, to proclaim to his people more and more specific things about the coming Savior so God’s people would recognize him when he came.
God used Isaiah to say that the Savior would be born of a virgin (Isaiah 7:14) and would suffer greatly for the sins of the world (Isaiah 53:5-6). God used David to foretell that the Savior would be crucified and that those guarding him would gamble for his clothes (Psalm 22:16-18). God used Micah to reveal that the Savior would be born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2). Dozens of prophecies were made hundreds and even thousands of years before the Savior would come.
But finally God sent the Savior. It was God’s own Son who was named Jesus (Matthew 1:21-23). Jesus was and is God and man in one person (John 5:23). Jesus lived a perfect life and died innocently in the place of all people, the perfect sacrifice, and God laid on him the sins of all people. But in doing so, God declared the whole world’s sins forgiven so there is now peace between God and men (2 Corinthians 5:19). Jesus took the world’s sin and paid for it in full (John 19:30), and in its place gave the world his righteousness or perfection (2 Corinthians 5:21). Jesus rose from the dead, as he had promised (John 2:19-21), to prove that his death on the cross has paid for the sins of all people (Romans 4:25).

How does Jesus’ victory over sin, death and Satan become mine?

This good news, that God has saved the world through his Son, is meant for all people, and God has chosen to give this gift of his grace to anyone who believes in Jesus as their Savior (John 3:16). But the Bible is also clear that anyone who doesn’t believe in Jesus alone for forgiveness and salvation will be condemned to hell (John 3:18, Acts 4:12) because trusting in Jesus for forgiveness and salvation is the only way God says anyone can be saved.

How can I come to believe in Jesus as my Savior?

How can a person believe in Jesus? It is not by our own effort or choice, but faith in Jesus is the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8-9) that the Holy Spirit gives through his means of grace (1 Corinthians 12:3). The means of grace are the tools or instruments God uses to create and strengthen faith, and it always involves the gospel, the good news that Jesus lived, died and rose for us to save us from our sins. God tells us the message of the gospel has in itself the power to save us because has given the gospel that power (Romans 1:16).
The means of grace are the gospel in God’s word and in the sacraments, which is the way the gospel comes to us. When people hear the message of the law that convicts them of their sins and the message of the gospel that tells them Jesus saved them from their sins, God uses that message to create faith in some who hear it (Romans 10:17) and to strengthen that faith. God also uses the gospel in the sacrament of baptism to create faith and strengthen that faith (1 Peter 3:21; Galatians 3:27; Ephesians 5:25-26). Since children are sinful from conception and need faith to be saved and are not excluded from God’s command to baptize all nations (Matthew 28:19), we also baptize infants so that the Holy Spirit works faith in their hearts. We instruct them in the faith into which they were baptized when they are ready to understand it.
God also works to strengthen faith through the gospel in the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, for when we remember Jesus’ death and know Jesus died for us, our faith is strengthened (Luke 22:19-20). In this precious meal, Jesus gives us his own body and blood that was once given and shed on the cross for our forgiveness (Mark 14:22-24). The Bible tells us this is Jesus’ actual body and blood, not just bread and wine that represent his body and blood, so when we receive the Lord’s Supper we are receiving bread and wine, and with them Jesus’ body and blood. (1 Corinthians 10:16; 1 Corinthians 11:27). Since the Apostle Paul tells us that those who receive the Lord’s Supper without recognizing the body of the Lord eat and drink judgment on themselves (1 Corinthians 11:29) and since receiving the Lord’s Supper in a church in a declaration that a person believes what is taught in that church (1 Corinthians 10:17; 1 Corinthians 1:10), Living Word practices close communion, inviting to the Lord’s Supper only those who have been taught the basic truths of God’s word and of the Lord’s Supper, and who believe them as we do.

What is the Bible?

We believe that the Bible has been inspired (breathed into) by God, meaning that the Holy Spirit guided the men who wrote the Bible to write not their own ideas but what the Bible clearly claims to be–God’s word (2 Peter 1:21; 2 Timothy 3:16). As a result, the Bible cannot contradict itself because it is God’s word from beginning to end, without any errors, and so is true in its every part (John 17:17). As such, it is the only source of teaching, or doctrine, that we must believe, since the words of man can contain error.

How will I live as a Christian?

Now that God has lived and died for me, and proved that my sins are forgiven by his resurrection, I will gladly strive to follow him in my life. This means that I will look at what he says in the Bible and by his strength put it into practice every day (Romans 6:1-14).
Whenever I fall into sin, I will confess those sins and repent of them, trusting that he has forgiven me and that he gives me the strength to overcome temptation (1 John 1:8-9).
When I recall that God chose me as his very own child in the waters of baptism and has promised me eternal life, I will live for my Savior God, and I will strive to serve others, just as Jesus served me. I will also use the opportunities God gives me to tell others of the good news of salvation in Jesus.
I know that living as a disciple of Jesus will not be easy, but my life is now devoted to him no matter what the circumstances I live in, because he has given me eternal life as a free gift of his grace.