We trust in Jesus Christ,    Fully human, fully God.

He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter answered,
"You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God."
(Matt. 16:15-16)

Thomas said to him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?" Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
(John 14:5-6)

Jesus was born of a woman--Mary; in a particular place--the Middle East; to a particular people--the Jews. He was born as a helpless infant who hungered, cried, had to be changed and grew as all babies grow. As a grown man, Jesus knew all of the feelings humans know--joy, sadness, discouragement, loneliness and longing. Yet, Jesus also trusted completely in God and was without sin.

Jesus' actual ministry on earth was short-- approximately three years. Because his teachings challenged powerful religious and government leaders, he was executed as a dangerous and seditious criminal. He died, was buried, and was resurrected by God. For Christians, this resurrection is God's most amazing miracle and proof that Jesus was indeed divine.

Jesus proclaimed the reign of God:
   preaching good news to the poor and release to the captives,
   teaching by word and deed and blessing the children,
   healing the sick and binding up the brokenhearted,
   eating with outcasts, forgiving sinners,
   and calling all to repent and believe the gospel.
Unjustly condemned for blasphemy and sedition,
   Jesus was crucified,
   suffering the depths of human pain
   and giving his life for the sins of the world.
God raised Jesus from the dead,
   vindicating his sinless life,
   breaking the power of sin and evil,
   delivering us from death to life eternal. (Brief Statement of Faith)

We believe that Jesus is as alive today as he was on the first Easter morning and that he is present with us today, even though we cannot see him or physically touch him. We call Jesus "Lord" because he has saved us from the power of death and the power of sin and because, through his sacrifice, we are able to know the fullness of God's love for us.

Christians also believe that Jesus will one day return to the earth to complete the task of creating a world where justice, peace and love rule and evil is no more. To those who believe in Christ, such an event is seen not with fear but with joyful anticipation. Because Jesus showed that not even death can stop God's purpose and God's activity, we know that we have life and hope forever.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. "Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him."
(John 3:16-17)

Jesus of Nazareth is the central figure in the New Testament. The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John provide a record or a portrait of Jesus. His birth, life and ministry, crucifixion, and resurrection form the central story or message of the New Testament. The gospel story of Jesus was seen by his followers to attest to his unique person. Jesus was in every sense human, just as we are. He experienced joys and sorrows, (Luke 10:21) human emotions (Mark 1:41; John 11:35), and at the end, "thirst" (John 19:22). Yet, Jesus was significantly different, too. In Jesus, his followers experienced the presence of God in an unparalleled way. To his followers, Jesus was the fulfillment of God’s Old Testament promises to Israel to send a "messiah" or "anointed one" (where we get the word "Christ"). Early Christians proclaimed Jesus as the Messiah.

The man, Jesus was not the kind of "messiah" that many of Jesus’ time expected. They believed the messiah would be a warrior-king who would drive out Israel’s enemies from its lands and establish Israel as the nation to which all other nations would look and would mark the fullness of God’s reign and rule.

Jesus as "messiah" was quite different. In Jesus’ life and teaching he lived and taught the way of love as a lifestyle. His followers proclaimed that in Jesus God has fulfilled ancient promises in ways that had not been expected or anticipated.

From a Reformed perspective, to confess that Jesus is "the way, and the truth, and the life" (John 14:6) is to recognize that our theology and our faith is "Christocentric" (that is, "Christ-centered"). Our conviction is that Jesus Christ himself must stand at the center of all our theological reflections, or we are committing the sin of idolatry. If we want to better understand the character of God, for example, we look to Jesus Christ, and he reveals that God is a God of love as well as power. If we want to ponder who we are created to be, we look to Jesus Christ and see true humanity living in perfect response to the love of God. If we are working to understand something we have read in Scripture, we look to Jesus Christ as the ultimate criterion for every interpretation and any interpretation that contradicts what we know to be true of God in Jesus Christ is not the Word of God, according to Reformed theology.