To proclaim and explain Christ crucified – the mystery and majesty of God
(1 Corinthians 1:23-24)
The Cross of Christ
The Mystery and Majesty of God
The Holy Spirit has commissioned the church to serve God’s eternal purpose by revealing the mystery and majesty of Christ’s crucifixion. The crucifixion of Jesus Christ is the most momentous event in history and the triumph of the ages. God the Father planned this epoch event from before the beginning of time. In Christ’s crucifixion is hidden God’s perfect wisdom and power. God’s eternal purpose was for His Son Jesus Christ to be revealed in glory to all heaven and earth through His church, which is His body. Christ’s death on the cross is the door into God’s heavenly realm and eternal purpose. Salvation is just the beginning not the end of God’s divine plan. God predetermined to use His Son’s death on the cross to redeem the body of Christ from this fallen world. God also predestined to use His Son’s death to prepare the bride of Christ for eternal union and co-rulership with His risen Son in the age to come. If Satan and his forces of darkness had understood God’s glorious purpose in His Son’s death, they never would have incited fallen mankind to crucify Jesus.
Through His death on the cross, Jesus Christ provided us with not only forgiveness from the penalty of our sins but also deliverance from the power of sin. On the cross, Jesus drank the cup of God’s wrath for our sin so we might drink His cup of salvation. God used the sacrificial death of His only Son to perform a divine heart transplant and save us from the power of sin and certain doom. When Jesus died on the cross, God exchanged our terminally sin-sick heart with His Son’s divine holy heart. God then raised Jesus Christ from the dead and exalted Him as the eternal King of glory. Thus God included us in His Son’s death so that His resurrected Son might now sovereignly live in us. This divine heart transplant is the promise of the New Covenant, the purpose of Christ’s Atonement and the power of Christ’s gospel. Through His death, Jesus Christ laid down His divine life and power and privilege so that we might become partakers of His divine nature. We have been born of the Spirit through faith in Christ’s sacrifice on the cross and we now live by the Spirit through faith in Christ’s victory on the cross. From His Son’s death and resurrection, God has created a new man in His Son’s image – the church, the body and bride of Christ, who is destined to triumph over Satan and fulfill God’s eternal purpose.
At the end of this age – at the marriage supper of the Lamb, God the Father will present the overcoming body of Christ as a glorious bride for His Son. This bride will then become the Son’s eternal companion and sit with Him on His throne to rule the universe. Having brought many sons and daughters to glory by His death and resurrection, the Son of God will present this heavenly family to His Holy Father so that God might be all in all. Since God is the Lord of history, this is the glorious consummation and purpose of history (“His story”). “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them… And there will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign forever and ever (Revelation 21:3; 22:5). To this end we preach Christ crucified.
Our Statement of Faith
Samuel House Ministries
. We believe in the Apostles’ Creed and Nicene Creed of historic, authentic Christianity.
• We believe that the Bible is the inspired and infallible Word of God – our final authority for all faith, life and conduct.
• We believe in one God, eternally existent in three persons – God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
• We believe in the deity and humanity of Jesus Christ; His virgin birth; His sinless life; His miracles; His atoning and substitutionary death on the cross; His bodily resurrection; His ascension to the right hand of the Father; His present rule as head of the church; and His personal return in power and glory.
• We believe that God created man in His image. However, man sinned and incurred not only physical death but also spiritual death, which is separation from God; and, as a result, all human beings are born with a sinful nature.
• We believe that Jesus Christ’s sacrificial and substitutionary death on the cross provided forgiveness for the penalty of sin and also deliverance from the power of sin. Through Christ’s death on the cross, God removed our sinful nature and replaced it with Christ’s holy nature so that we might walk in sanctification and have fellowship with the Father and His Son. We believe that salvation is by faith in Jesus Christ alone and not by any human works, but that works of faith must follow, which confirm our salvation.
• We believe that water baptism by immersion outwardly expresses the divine transformation that occurs in a believer when they are born again of the Spirit. Through baptism, new believers declare their commitment and union with Jesus Christ and His death, burial and resurrection.
• We believe in the present ministry and baptism of the Holy Spirit, by whose indwelling and empowerment the believer is enabled to live a godly life and by whose gifts the church is equipped far beyond mere human ability to be Christ’s witness on earth.
• We believe that all true believers in Jesus Christ are baptized by one Spirit into one body, which is His church destined to fulfill God’s eternal purpose and manifest the fullness of Christ who indwells her.
• We believe that Jesus Christ will soon return as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords to judge the world; claim His glorious church and faithful bride; and establish His kingdom on earth. We believe in the resurrection of both the saved and the lost: first the saved – the sons of light – to the resurrection of eternal life; then the lost – the sons of darkness – to the judgment of eternal damnation.