At Rock of Hope Church, the good news of Jesus Christ is the foundation for our life and practice. Every page of Scripture in the 66 books of the modern Bible illuminates something about God that points to the good news of the Lord Jesus Christ. In these pages, God reveals himself as the glorious creator who is the source of everything that exists. He created the vast expanse of the universe to display His glory.
This God is King of Kings and Lord of Lords, holy, righteous, and just, deserving of all His creation to be in awe of him, and to love, serve, obey and follow Him. However, all creation rebelled against its Creator, transgressing his good and righteous plans, and doubting the goodness of his words. As a result, God placed all creation under the curse of sin with the result that all creation now resides in bondage to sin and groans under the weight of its depravity. Individually, this means that every human is corrupt in heart and soul and has no desire to love God or seek after Him and instead, follows their own will, seeking to create their own hope and meaning in life.
Each one has fully sinned against God and abandoned a relationship with their Creator, and is subsequently deserving of the just penalty of God’s wrath, resulting in eternal death and continued separation from God, who is the only source of life, love, joy, hope, and peace.
In His magnificent love, God sent his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ as a perfect and satisfactory atonement for our sin. God calls people to repentance and to believe in Jesus Christ by faith for the forgiveness of sins. Through His death on the cross, Jesus redeems people from sin and death. All those who call upon the name of Jesus for salvation receive a full pardon from sin, restoration with God, and a new identity as a child and heir of God. All those forgiven stand justified in the presence of God, no longer under the stain and guilt of sin. God Himself now dwells within his people through the Holy Spirit who graciously grants his love and strength to live this life in fullness according to all the good commands and ways of God.
In response to salvation, God’s people live as disciples, followers of Christ who desire to love God with a whole and complete heart and extend that love to others. God’s people experience true joy and abundance of life as they live in obedience to him and rejoice in the hope of future glory with God in the new heaven and earth.
God’s people live this life in future anticipation of the glorious Day when Jesus Christ will return from Heaven to establish the new heaven and earth in which no evil, suffering, disappointment, frustration, sin, or anything contrary to God will be found.
Such an understanding of salvation compels us at Rock of Hope Church to live out that hope of the gospel as God’s ambassadors. Those called by God have been entrusted with a great mission, given so that sinners might experience eternal life in Jesus Christ. The people who already follow God live out their lives in such a way so that people from all over the Earth see and hear their witness and believe upon Jesus Christ, adding to the beautiful multitude of redeemed people who join together as the Church.
Because Jesus Christ saves us, assembles us, and forms us together into a people that bear His image and carry out His mission, we are also called the body and bride of Christ.
