MZ101

Christians believe in one true and living God. He is the Creator of everything that exists and the One who continues to hold the world together. God is not limited by time, power, or knowledge. He is perfectly wise, completely good, and always faithful.

This one God has always existed, and He has made Himself known in a personal way. From eternity, God exists as three persons—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. They are not three gods, but one God, united in love and purpose. Through the Father we see God’s heart, through the Son we see God’s face, and through the Spirit we experience God’s presence. God is relational by nature and invites us into relationship with Him.

At the center of this story is Jesus Christ. Jesus is the eternal Son of God. He has always been God, sharing fully in God’s nature and glory. Yet, in love, He chose to enter our world as a real human being. Conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary, Jesus lived a fully human life while remaining fully divine.

Jesus experienced hunger, pain, sorrow, and temptation, yet He never sinned. He lived in perfect obedience to the Father. When Jesus was crucified, His death was not meaningless or accidental. He willingly gave His life as a sacrifice for human sin, making forgiveness and reconciliation with God possible.

Death did not have the final word. Jesus rose from the dead, defeating sin and death once and for all. He ascended into heaven and now reigns at the right hand of the Father. From there, He continues to care for His people, interceding for them and guiding His church. One day, Jesus will return—not in humility, but in power and glory—to complete God’s work of renewal.

Jesus is also the righteous Judge of all people. Every person lives under His authority now and will one day stand before Him. His judgment is fair, truthful, and just. Scripture teaches that all will be raised: those who belong to Christ to eternal life, and those who reject Him to judgment.

Because Jesus is both fully God and fully human, His judgment is not cold or distant. He judges as One who knows our weakness, has shared our suffering, and has offered salvation. This truth calls us to take our lives seriously—and to respond to God’s grace with faith, trust, and obedience.

God created the world with care and purpose, and at the center of His creation He placed human beings. Men and women were created in the image of God, made to reflect His goodness, creativity, and love. From the beginning, humanity was designed for relationship—with God, with one another, and with creation itself.

Yet something went wrong. Humanity chose independence over trust and turned away from God. This turning is what the Bible calls sin. Sin did not merely affect our actions; it wounded our hearts and distorted our nature. As a result, every person now lives with a brokenness that pulls us away from God. Left to ourselves, we fall short of the life God intended and are inclined toward selfishness and rebellion. No one escapes this condition—sin touches every life.

Even in the midst of humanity’s failure, God did not abandon His creation. From the very beginning, He set a plan in motion to rescue and restore what was broken. Salvation begins not with human effort, but with God’s grace. Before we ever reached for Him, God reached for us. He sought us when we were not looking for Him, drawing us toward Himself in love.

God’s rescue plan is fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Through Jesus’ death on the cross, God dealt fully and finally with sin. By the shedding of Jesus’ blood, we are forgiven and reconciled to God—not because we deserve it, but because God is gracious. When we turn from sin and place our trust in Jesus, we are made right with God and given new life.

Salvation does not stop there. God continues His work in us. Through the Holy Spirit living within us, God reshapes our hearts, forms our character, and teaches us how to live in freedom and obedience. This lifelong work of renewal is how God restores us to the people He created us to be.

All of this is made known to us through Holy Scripture. The Old and New Testaments tell the story of God’s creation, humanity’s fall, and God’s saving grace. Scripture is God’s trustworthy Word—given by the Holy Spirit—to guide us in what we believe and how we live. Through it, we come to know the truth about sin, salvation, and the grace that makes new life possible.

This is the good news: though we are broken by sin, we are not beyond hope. God has acted in love to save, restore, and renew all who turn to Him in faith.

God has not left His people on their own. After the work of Jesus, God comes near through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not an impersonal force or influence, but a real person—fully God, just as the Father and the Son are. He proceeds from the Father and shares the same divine nature, glory, and authority. The Spirit is eternal, living, and active, always working to carry out God’s purposes.

Jesus promised that the Spirit would come as a Helper and Teacher. The Holy Spirit reminds us of God’s truth, opens our hearts to understand it, and gives us strength when we are weak. He prays for us when we do not know what to say and draws us into deeper communion with God. Through the Spirit, God is present with His people—not only among us, but within us.

The Holy Spirit is also the One who changes us from the inside out. When we come to faith in Christ, the Spirit begins a lifelong work called sanctification. This means that God steadily reshapes our desires, attitudes, and actions so that our lives reflect Jesus more clearly. Faith is never meant to remain passive or hidden. True faith takes root in the heart and expresses itself through love, obedience, and good works.

These works do not earn God’s love or salvation. Instead, they are the natural fruit of a life being transformed by the Spirit. As the Spirit works within us, He empowers us to love God, love others, resist sin, and walk in the good purposes God has prepared for us.

Through the Holy Spirit, God continues His work—guiding, strengthening, and forming His people until the work He began is brought to completion.

The Church is not first a building or an organization. The Church is the Body of Christ—the living community of all who truly follow Jesus. Jesus Christ Himself is the Lord and head of the Church, and His people belong to Him and to one another.

When people place their faith in Christ, the Holy Spirit unites them into one body. No matter our background, age, or story, we are joined together by the Spirit and made members of one family. Because we belong to one another, we are called to live in love, humility, and peace, working to protect the unity God has given us.

Within the Church, God’s Word is faithfully preached and taught, shaping our faith and guiding our lives. The Church also celebrates the sacred gifts God has given—Baptism and the Lord’s Supper—which visibly remind us of God’s grace and our life together in Christ. Marriage, between one man and one woman, is honored as a holy covenant designed by God and nurtured within the life of the Church.

The Church exists for clear and vital purposes. It gathers for worship, offering praise and devotion to God. It builds up believers, helping one another grow in faith, love, and obedience. And it is sent into the world with a mission—to share the good news of Jesus and participate in God’s work of redemption.

In this way, the Church becomes a visible sign of God’s grace: a people called together, shaped by Christ, and sent in love for the sake of the world.