Basis of Faith

Growth groups do not belong to a church denomination, rather they work alongside local churches. As such, it is difficult to come up with a typical "Statement of Faith" as members both belong to and practice in a variety of Christian churches and traditions. However, we feel that it is important that both the teaching and practical outworking of the groups have a solid foundation in Scripture. The "basis of faith" outlined in this section has been taken directly from "Evangelicals & Catholics together in Ireland" (ECTI) , a document widely supported by Christian leaders in Ireland, both Catholic and Protestant.

1. The Sovereignty of the Holy Trinity

We give unreserved affirmation to the historic, orthodox belief in the Holy Trinity. The monotheistic faith of the Old Testament, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord" (Deut.6:4), is affirmed and developed in the New "there is for us one God, the Father ... and there is for us one Lord, Jesus Christ ..." (1 Cor. 8:6). We recognise too that the Holy Spirit comes to us from the Father and the Son         (Jn. 14:15, 26, 15:26). Hence within the unity of One God, we affirm the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit as three distinct persons. It is in the name of the Trinity that we are commissioned by Jesus to baptise: "baptise ... in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Mat 28:20).
Therefore within the unity of the one God we recognise a diversity of being and function:

* The Father, Creator of heaven and earth, "who is over all and through all and in all" (Eph 4:6).

* The Son of God, Jesus Christ, the only Redeemer and Saviour of God's people (note 2).

* The Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life.

The early Church recognised this Trinitarian understanding of God as essential to the Christian faith and as a result formulated the Apostle's Creed, which we can, and hereby do, affirm together as an accurate statement of scriptural truth:

I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord. He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. He descended into hell. On the third day He rose again. He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

2. The Abundance of Grace

We affirm that God's grace abounds to us through Jesus, bringing us salvation. This grace is so rich and multifaceted that the Biblical writers had to resort to the use of a multiplicity of metaphors to describe it: election, redemption, reconciliation, washing, propitiation, justification, adoption, birth, grafting and sanctification. Each of these metaphors emphasises a significant aspect of the believer's new relationship with God and the choice of which metaphor is used at any time is related to the perspective that is being addressed at that time. No one image is capable of conveying the full character of God's grace in all its dimensions. To focus all attention on a single image is to attempt to import into it a depth of meaning for which it was never intended. This can only lead to a reductionist view of grace and a distortion of the gospel.

Salvation is by grace, received by faith, with no help needed from good works or religious observances done to improve our chances of being saved. Introducing works of any kind would only serve to detract from the glory that rightly belongs to God alone, by affording us grounds for boasting and claiming merit.

Through prayer and study of Holy Scripture, and aided by the Church's reflection on the sacred text from earliest times, we have found that, notwithstanding some persistent and serious differences, we can together bear witness to the gift of salvation in Jesus Christ. To this saving gift we now testify, speaking not for, but from and to, our several communities.

Always it is clear that the work of redemption has been accomplished once for all by Christ's atoning sacrifice on the cross. Justification is central to the scriptural account of salvation, and its meaning has been much debated between Protestants and Catholics. It is a matter of history that "justification by faith alone" was of enormous significance in the conversion of Luther and that this doctrine became, through the controversies and polemics of the Reformation period, one of the key doctrines that divided Protestantism and Roman Catholicism.

We agree that justification is not earned by any good works or merits of our own; it is entirely God's gift, conferred through the Father's sheer graciousness, out of the love that he bears us in his Son, who suffered on our behalf and rose from the dead for our justification. Jesus was "put to death for our trespasses and raised for our justification" (Romans 4:25). In justification, God, on the basis of Christ's righteousness alone, declares us to be no longer his rebellious enemies but his forgiven friends, and by virtue of his declaration it is so,  for those who believe.

The New Testament makes it clear that the gift of justification is received through faith. "By grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God" (Ephesians 2:8). By faith, which is also the gift of God, we repent of our sins and freely adhere to the gospel, the good news of God's saving work for us in Christ. By our response of faith to Christ, we enter into the blessings promised by the gospel. Faith is not merely intellectual assent but an act of the whole person involving the mind, the will, and the affections, issuing in a changed life. "The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love." (Gal.5:6)

The grace of justification in Christ and the gift of the Spirit received through faith (Galatians 3:14) are experienced and expressed in diverse ways by different Christians and in different Christian traditions, but God's gift is never dependent upon our human experience or our ways of expressing that experience. While faith is inherently personal, it is not a purely private possession but involves participation in the body of Christ. By baptism we are visibly incorporated into the community of faith and committed to a life of discipleship. "We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life" (Rom. 6:4).

We endorse wholeheartedly the words of Bernard of Clairvaux: "Whosoever, feeling compunction for his sins, hungers and thirsts after righteousness, let him believe in Thee, who 'justifies the ungodly'; and thus, being justified by faith alone, he shall have peace with God." (note 3) This accords fully with what the Reformation traditions have meant by justification by faith alone (sola fide). In affirming that "we are justified by faith alone" we also affirm that "the faith that justifies is not alone," (note 4) or it is dead and unable to save. Genuine, saving faith is always expressed by works of loving obedience, bearing fruits worthy of grace and proving our repentance, (note 5) just as "fruit ever comes from the living root of a good tree." (note 6)

3. The One Holy People.

We affirm that all who receive God's grace and are thereby washed, justified, regenerated, adopted, reconciled, ingrafted and sanctified (to use the various metaphors), are incorporated into the one holy people of God. There is only one people of God for whom these are true. Just as there is one God and Father, one Lord and one Spirit, so there can be only one body, one faith, one baptism and one table (Eph. 4:4-6, 1 Cor. 10:15-17, Gal 2:11-14). We may go further and say that God is not the Father of different families but of one, and Christ is not the husband of several brides but of one. Therefore, all who accept Christ as Lord and Saviour and are indwelt by his Spirit are brothers and sisters in Christ, by whatever name they might be known. We embrace as true Christians all who confess Jesus Christ as the Son of God, as Lord and Saviour, who love one another, who do good to others and pursue justice and peace.

In this matter, we recognise that we have not chosen one another. Rather, Christ has chosen us, and He has given us to each other. (Jn. 15:12-16). However imperfect our communion with one another, however deep our disagreements, we recognise that "we are members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise of Christ Jesus" (Eph 3:6). However difficult the way, we recognise that we are called by God to "unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God" (Eph. 4:13).

4. The Activity of the Holy Spirit

We affirm that the Holy Spirit is the absolutely crucial agent in Christian conversion, which is described as beginning with the Spirit, as well as in all subsequent Christian living (Gal 3:2, 5:25). It is through the work of the Holy Spirit that the historic work of Christ becomes experiential reality in lives of Christians. It is by the Spirit that believers experience the grace of God and are incorporated into the Body of Christ. He indwells the Body, uniting its members to Christ and to each other, so that it becomes the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. He works in Christians, equipping and energising them for service, leading into all truth, directing and empowering them to carry out the mission of Christ. As the representative of Christ, therefore, the Spirit is sent to work sovereignly in the Church. In, for instance, the formation of the canon of the Scriptures, and in the orthodox response to the great Christological and Trinitarian controversies of the early centuries, we confidently acknowledge the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

We submit confidently to the authority of the Holy Spirit as to that of Christ himself, and trust him to work in us, directing us and empowering us to fulfil the commission of Christ in Ireland and elsewhere.

5. The Authority of Scripture

Christians are to teach and live in obedience to the divinely inspired Scriptures, which are the infallible, authoritative Word of God. Christ has promised to His church the gift of the Holy Spirit, who will lead us into all truth in discerning and declaring the teaching of Scripture (Jn. 16:13). We recognize that the Holy Spirit has so guided His church in the past, and continues to do so. We endorse the following statement:

"We are agreed that as "creatura verbi" the Church together with its Tradition, stands under the living Word of God and that the preacher and teacher of the Word is to be viewed as servant of the Word (cf. Lk 1 ,2) and must teach only what the Holy Spirit permits him to hear in the Scriptures. This hearing and teaching take place in a living combination with the faith, life and, above all, the worship of the community of Christ.
       
We are agreed that the development of doctrine and the production of confessions of faith is a dynamic process. In this process the Word of God proves its own creative, critical and judging power. Through the Word, therefore, the Holy Spirit guides the Church to reflection, conversion and reform." (note 7)

Notes

(note 1) See, for example, statistics in Irish Christian Handbook, MARC Europe, 1992; 28th Edition Social Trends, Office of National Statistics Annual Publication; 1997 Census of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, Church House, Belfast.

(note 2) "We confess together that just as God is unique, the Mediator and Reconciler between God and humankind is unique, and that the fullness of reconciliation is entire and perfect in Him. Nothing and nobody could replace or duplicate, complete or in any way add to the unique mediation accomplished 'once for all' (Heb.9:12) by Christ, "mediator of a new covenant" (Heb.9:15)." (Report on Reformed-Roman Catholic Dialogue 1984-1990)

(note 3) Bernard, Opera, quoted in James Buchanan, The Doctrine of Justification, Banner of Truth, 1981, pp 110,111.    

(note 4) Calvin.

(note 5) In the words of the Reformed / Roman Catholic International Dialogue (1984-1990):
"We recognise that our justification is a totally gratuitous work accomplished by God in Christ. We confess that the acceptance in faith of justification is itself a gift of grace. By the grace of faith we recognise in Jesus of Nazareth ... the one who saves us and brings us into communion of life with  God. To rely for salvation on anything other than faith, would be to diminish the fullness accomplished and offered in Jesus Christ... The person who has received grace is called to bear fruits worthy of that grace ..."

(note 6) Calvin, on James 2:18 in Commentaries on the Catholic Epistles, Edinburgh, 1840, p312.

(note 7) Reformed - Roman Catholic Conversations (The Presence of Christ in Church and World, 1977), para. 26.