The 214th General Assembly (2002) of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) voted (497-11-5) to affirm "Hope in the Lord Jesus Christ," commend it to the church, and urge its study throughout the church.

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September 27, 2001

Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

May grace and peace be yours in abundance in the knowledge of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. We share with you our joy that almighty God, creator of heaven and earth, also created us; that this same God came to humankind in Jesus Christ to redeem us from sin and create us anew; and that God the Holy Spirit remains with us, leading us to faith and empowering us for new life.

Christians declare their common faith by bearing witness to God's grace in Jesus Christ, expressing their testimony in words and deeds as the time requires. In our time and place, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) confesses its faith through eleven creeds, confessions, and catechisms in The Book of Confessions. The confessions of the church articulate the shared faith of the church:

In these confessional statements the church declares to its members and to the world

who and what it is,
what it believes,
what it resolves to do.

These statements identify the church as a community of people known by its convictions as well as by its actions. They guide the church in its study and interpretation of the Scriptures; they summarize the essence of Christian tradition; they direct the church in maintaining sound doctrines; they equip the church for its work of proclamation. [Book of Order, G-2.0100]

The comprehensive witness of The Book of Confessions is sufficient to lead, instruct, and guide the church. From time to time, however, questions arise in the church that call for careful articulation of a particular aspect of Christian faith, drawing upon the testimony of the confessions in a way that illuminates the unique and authoritative witness of the Scriptures. Such occasions do not require a new confession, but rather a faithful expression of the consistent teaching of Scripture and confessions. In this way, we may be helped to reappropriate central affirmations of the faith and to renew our faithful witness in the world.

In recent times, some within the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) have expressed understandings of Jesus Christ that other Presbyterians believe breach the limits of Scripture and the church's confessions. Many Presbyterians have been dissatisfied with responses to the controversy, and some have questioned the clarity of the General Assembly's affirmation of Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.

The 213th General Assembly (2001) requested the Office of Theology and Worship to help the church better understand the theological richness of the Lordship of Jesus Christ. The Office of Theology and Worship has prepared a concise articulation of the church's historic faith, which also expresses our clear convictions. We invite all Presbyterians to join us in reaffirming the faith that has been imparted to us through the testimony of the great cloud of witnesses.

Peace be to the whole community, and love with faith.

The Office of Theology and Worship
Joseph D. Small, Coordinator
Martha Moore-Keish
Theodore A. Gill, Jr.
Sheldon Sorge
Eunice McGarrahan
Charles A. Wiley

Hope in the Lord Jesus Christ

We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life—this life was revealed, and we have seen it and testify to it, and declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us—we declare to you what we have seen and heard so that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. We are writing these things so that our joy may be complete. [1 John 1:1-4]

"Jesus is Lord!" This foundational declaration is the earliest Christian confession of faith. The Scriptures and our confessions expand the basic affirmation, providing abundant witness to the word of life revealed in Jesus Christ. "The depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God" revealed in Christ far exceed the scope of this brief exposition. We cannot say all there is to be said, but there is much that we can say, clearly and confidently.

Christian faith is Trinitarian faith. Our understanding of Jesus Christ is necessarily expressed within our understanding of "the one triune God, the Holy One of Israel, whom alone we worship and serve." From the Nicene Creed to A Brief Statement of Faith, the church shapes its confession by the certain knowledge of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit. Throughout the ages, when praying at the Lord's table and the baptismal font, Christians have given thankful praise for God's work in creation, providence, and covenant history—followed by thankful recalling of the acts of salvation in Jesus Christ—and concluding with a call for the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit. It is the faith expressed in creed and prayer that we invite all Presbyterians to speak and live.

In Jesus Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself. Jesus Christ is God with us. He is the eternal Son of the Father, who became human and lived among us to fulfill the work of reconciliation. He is present in the church by the power of the Holy Spirit to continue and complete his mission. This work of God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is the foundation of all confessional statements about God, humankind, and the world. [The Confession of 1967, 9.07*]

We Believe in One God
[Nicene Creed 1.1]

Our faith is in God who created heaven and earth, who formed us from dust and breathed us into life, who made us to live with one another in love. Our faith in God is far more than generalized belief in an abstract deity. We trust in God who loved us and sought us even when we chose sin and death rather than communion and life. We are loyal to God who established a covenant with us through Abraham and Sarah, who revealed the shape of faithful living in the Law given through Moses, and who called us to obedience through the cries of the prophets.

Be joyful in the Lord, all you lands;
serve the Lord with gladness
and come before God's presence with a song.
Know this: The Lord alone is God;
we belong to the Lord, who made us. [Psalm 100:1-3]

God is known to us only through self-disclosure in words and acts of grace, love, and communion. While complete knowledge of God remains beyond human capacity, and human attempts to imagine the divine nature easily become reflections of our own desires or fears, God has revealed the truth to us in the One who is the Truth. God is most fully known to us through God's free presence with us in Jesus Christ.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. . . . And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the Father's only Son, full of grace and truth. . . . No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father's heart, who has made him known. [John 1:1, 14, 18]

Thus we join with the church throughout the centuries to affirm that God was in Christ. God is not a mysterious unknown who remains veiled in remote transcendence. God has come among us in terms we can understand, in the human one, Jesus of Nazareth.

The one sufficient revelation of God is Jesus Christ, the Word of God incarnate, to whom the Holy Spirit bears unique and authoritative witness through the Holy Scriptures, which are received and obeyed as the word of God written. [The Confession of 1967, 9.27*]

We Believe in One Lord, Jesus Christ
[Nicene Creed 1.2]

It pleased God to come to us in Jesus Christ, Emmanuel, God with us. God did not simply show us a path to follow, but lived among us as the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Although we have done nothing to deserve the free gift of God, in Jesus Christ we receive new life, know the truth about God and ourselves, and are set upon God's way in the world. Jesus Christ was and is the path, for Jesus Christ was and is:

God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one Being with the Father [Nicene Creed, 1.2*]

Jesus Christ came to us as one of us, sharing our joy and sorrow. He proclaimed God's love, healed the sick, and was a friend of sinners. He continues to reveal God's gracious love, he is among us now to make us whole, and he is still the friend of sinners. Jesus Christ was and is one with us in life; Jesus Christ was and is one with us in suffering and death. The Lord and Savior is Christ crucified, in whom God's weakness is stronger than human strength and God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom.

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation . . . For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross. [Colossians 1:15, 19-20]

The cross of Christ is at the heart of our faith, for it is through the Lord's death that we receive new life. The gospel of Christ crucified is a treasure that surpasses the limits of human language, and so the Bible displays a wealth of expression that leads us to thankful knowledge and grateful faith.

God's reconciling act in Jesus Christ is a mystery which the Scriptures describe in various ways. It is called the sacrifice of a lamb, a shepherd's life given for his sheep, atonement by a priest; again it is ransom of a slave, payment of debt, vicarious satisfaction of a legal penalty, and victory over the powers of evil. These are expressions of a truth which remains beyond the reach of all theory in the depths of God's love for humankind. They reveal the gravity, cost, and sure achievement of God's reconciling work. [The Confession of 1967, 9.09*]

Jesus Christ is with us in life and death. But death is not the last word, for God has raised him from the dead and exalted him above all rule and authority and power and dominion. The risen Christ is the living Lord of the cosmos. In Jesus Christ, "God was reconciling the world to himself" [2 Cor. 5:19]. For the sake of the world, the Word became flesh, for the sake of the world Jesus Christ lived among us, was crucified and raised from the dead. For the sake of the world Christ ascended to heaven, and for the sake of the world Christ will come again. All of this is God's good pleasure set forth in Christ "as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth" [Eph. 1:10].

So we teach and believe that this Jesus Christ our Lord is the unique and eternal Savior of the human race, and thus of the whole world, in whom by faith are saved all who before the law, under the law, and under the Gospel were saved, and however many will be saved at the end of the world. [The Second Helvetic Confession, 5.077*]

Jesus Christ is the only Savior and Lord, and all people everywhere are called to place their faith, hope, and love in him. No one is saved by virtue of inherent goodness or admirable living, for "by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God" [Eph. 2:8]. No one is saved apart from God's gracious redemption in Jesus Christ. Yet we do not presume to limit the sovereign freedom of "God our Savior, who desires everyone to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth" [1 Tim. 2:4]. Thus, we neither restrict the grace of God to those who profess explicit faith in Christ nor assume that all people are saved regardless of faith. Grace, love, and communion belong to God, and are not ours to determine.

Paul, after a beautiful development of his thought, in Rom. 10:17 at length comes to the conclusion, " So faith comes from hearing, and hearing from the Word of God by the preaching of Christ." At the same time we recognize that God can illuminate whom and when he will, even without the external ministry, for that is in his power. [The Second Helvetic Confession, 5.006, 007*]

We Believe in the Holy Spirit,
the Lord, the Giver of Life
[Nicene Creed, 1.3]

The Holy Spirit unites us to Christ, draws redeemed people to a shared life of grateful praise, and shapes our lives in obedience to God's gracious law. The Spirit forms diverse people into the one body of Christ, giving a variety of gifts that enable us to up build the church and serve the world. The Holy Spirit is God's abiding presence among us, equipping us to proclaim the gospel, nurture each other in the fullness of communion, worship God, know and live the truth, cultivate justice, and exhibit God's new Way in the world.

By the indwelling of the Holy Spirit all believers being vitally united to Christ, who is the Head, are thus united one to another in the Church, which is his body . . . . By him the Church will be preserved, increased, purified, and at last made perfect in the presence of God. [The Westminster Confession of Faith, 6.054*]

The power of the Holy Spirit leads the whole community of faith into holy and joyful living, enabling each of us to conform our lives more fully to Christ. Christians are called to live by the Spirit, forsaking works of the flesh and receiving the fruit of the Spirit.

I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to the world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God-what is good and acceptable and perfect. [Romans 12:1-2]

Because the church is founded and enlivened by the presence of Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit, we can be confident that it is Christ who works through the imperfect and sinful fellowship of the church. Even in our brokenness we testify that we belong solely to Jesus Christ. In the power of the Holy Spirit, we proclaim Christ's love, in word and deed, to all the world.

The Christian Church is the congregation of the brethren in which Jesus Christ acts presently as the Lord in Word and sacrament through the Holy Spirit. As the Church of pardoned sinners, it has to testify in the midst of a sinful world, with its faith as with its obedience, with its message as with its order, that it is solely his property, and that it lives and wants to live solely from his comfort and from his direction in the expectation of his appearance. [The Theological Declaration of Barmen, 8.17*]

One Lord, One Faith

Each time we gather at the baptismal font, we rejoice that God welcomes another person into fellowship with Christ. In one baptism, through the power of the Holy Spirit, we are united to Jesus Christ in his death and resurrection. In one baptism we are also united to our brothers and sisters in faith around the world. The waters of baptism do not belong to the Presbyterian church or to any particular church. They belong to God alone, and as we pass through these waters we are incorporated into the one body of Christ. It is our new life in Christ that we Presbyterians are called to celebrate, deepen, and share with the world. Let us join together, brothers and sisters, to proclaim the gospel of God's saving love in Jesus Christ.

Beloved, build yourselves up on your most holy faith; pray in the Holy Spirit; keep yourselves in the love of God; look forward to the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. [Jude 20-21]

The Office of Theology and Worship
Joseph D. Small, Coordinator
Martha Moore-Keish
Theodore A. Gill, Jr.
Sheldon Sorge
Eunice McGarrahan
Charles A. Wiley

*All citations are from The Book of Confessions, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)