Defining the Essential and Implicit Beliefs of Biblical Christians

All Scripture quotations are taken from the New American Standard Bible 1995 Ed. (NASB95)

The fifth Christian unifying reality that Paul lists in Ephesians 4 is the one faith. He writes, “one faith,” implying a statement of its perpetual existence (v. 5). That is, “there is one faith.” This one faith follows the fact of the “one Lord”. Thus, it’s given by the Lord, and is mainly directed toward the Lord. It could be called the faith of Christ, since its substance is in Him.

But what does Paul mean by this faith? Is it a personal, subjective, faith, or an interpersonal, objective faith? Likely, he has both in mind, but since all these realities are fundamentally outside of our individual selves, he has to be emphasizing the objective faith of Christ. In other words, it’s the truths in which we place our faith. It’s the sum total of the truth claims that the Lord taught, both personally, and through His apostles. The faith is the doctrinal content of Christianity.

Since there’s only one faith, the content of this teaching must be shared by all believers in some sense. After all, it’s the faith of the one body of Christ. However, it can contain more truths than what all believers hold, since its character isn’t dependent on any one individual believer, but on the whole body of God’s people.

In order for us to understand who Jesus is, what His work is in history, and what our place is in that work, we need to have a thorough grasp of the faith expressed in Scripture. Unfortunately, many believers are never instructed thoroughly and adequately in the basic truths taught by Christ. Thus, they are perpetually like “children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming” (Eph. 4:14). This is why it’s essential that we gradually increase in our understanding of the faith, so we can believe it, and apply its principles to our lives.

In this lesson, I’d like to give you an overview of “the faith . . . once for all handed down to the saints” by our Lord and His apostles (Jude 3). What you’ll find in my articulation is expressed well by several of the historic creeds and confessions of the Assembly, such as the Nicene and Apostles’ Creeds. For starters, let’s consider the sources of our faith.

As I’ve already alluded to, the faith is based on the teachings of Jesus, and then the teachings of the apostles which represent His teachings. As apostles, the Twelve and Paul were appointed as the “sent ones” tasked with teaching exactly what Jesus taught them. Hence, their writings in Scripture are just as authoritative as Jesus’s own words. They wrote the words of God from Jesus. And so did their close companions, such as Luke, Mark, and Jude. As such, the heart and sum of the whole “curriculum” of the faith is the gospel itself – the good news of the life, death, and ascension of Jesus, and all that that implies for us. Also, the faith includes the implications of faith in the gospel – its moral demands on believers. Therefore, the faith is practice, as well as doctrine.

Next, let’s look at the main components of the biblical faith, as emphasized by the New Testament. You can find all these tenets beautifully described by the ancient Christian creeds.

  1. God exists as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – each and together God.
  2. Jesus the Christ, or anointed One, is the only begotten Son, and so truly God and truly man.
  3. His birth through a virgin woman
  4. His substitutionary death
  5. His victorious resurrection for the rule of the universe
  6. Mankind’s resurrection for the final judgment through Christ
  7. The forgiveness of sins through repentance and faith
  8. One holy and apostolic church, or Assembly
  9. The hope of God’s kingdom on the new earth

Thus would I outline the core doctrines taught by Christ. It will take a lifetime to even come close to fully understanding them, but they can be helpfully grasped with enough Bible study, teaching, and obeying Christ. I’ve obviously omitted some other fundamental doctrines that are implicit in some of these nine. For example, the earthly mission and purpose of the body of Christ is to transform sinners into saints through the preaching of the gospel. Nevertheless, you get the big picture from these nine doctrines.

What should be our response to the one faith that’s been handed down to us through Scripture and biblical teachings? First, we should recognize that this faith should be held by all Christians. Therefore, if anyone denies any of these doctrines, they ought to be considered an opponent of the Lord, and rebuked. At this point, I must apply this teaching to the popular “ecumenism” of our day.

Where Does Christianity End and a False Church Begin?

As has been the case since shortly after the Reformation, there’s a push among well-respected and knowledgeable Christian teachers and leaders to ignore and remove the foundational differences of the main Christian sects. I’m speaking mainly about traditional Protestantism, Roman Catholicism, and Eastern Orthodoxy.

Many leaders, some of whom I respect, have sought to encourage and advocate the union of these three traditions in the common cause of Christ. However, of the three, only one believes what Jesus taught about salvation and His Word.

In spite of their agreement on the core doctrines of God, Jesus’s nature, and the final resurrection, both Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy deny the biblical gospel. Among the core doctrines listed above, they mainly misunderstand Jesus’s substitutionary death and the reception of God’s forgiveness. Being corrupted and steeped in the ancient apostasy and perversion of Christianity in the vestiges of the Roman Empire, these traditions hold to a view of salvation that is fundamentally pagan and pelagian.

In the case of the Roman Catholic Church, their official teachings mix receiving God’s forgiveness with performing good deeds through the “Sacraments.” This is most egregiously seen in the doctrine of the Mass. Through the presentation and offering of the Catholic communion elements, the priest is thought to transform the bread and wine into the flesh and blood of Christ, and thereby to offer a continual sacrifice to God. They teach that this sacrifice is then literally consumed by the worshipers, so that they receive the forgiveness of sins through this act. This is an utter denial of Jesus’s substitutionary and sacrificial death. The Scriptures teach that Christ died “once for all, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God” (1 Pet. 3:18). Further, John writes that God “loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 Jn. 4:10).

This truth of propitiation is essential to Christ’s substitutionary death. The idea is simple: we’ve earned eternal death for our sins, and Jesus suffered that death from God’s wrath in the believer’s place. This means that God’s justice is fully propitiated, or satisfied, by Jesus’s one sacrifice. All the sinner must do to receive the pardon and justification provided through His death is to put his faith in the risen Savior. At that moment, your debt and guilt is removed, and God no longer holds your sins against you forever. He’s already punished Jesus instead of you.

Hence, why Roman Catholicism’s system of earning God’s grace through obedience contradicts all the gospel proclaims. This is also the case with the traditional teachings of Eastern Orthodoxy. Some branches of this tradition deny any aspect of God’s punitive justice, and thus deny Jesus’s penal death at all. On the other hand, many Eastern Orthodox confessions and teachers hold that we receive God’s forgiveness, or justification, through our good deeds. Although they claim that these deeds are done through faith, and often that this faith is the God’s undeserved gift, the means of getting God’s forgiveness is still through obedience to His commands. In other words, forgiveness and salvation is earned, rather than freely accepted.

For good primary resources regarding these stark differences with biblical protestant doctrine, a good research website is Carm.org. Let us not be deceived about the true, biblical faith of the apostles. It’s in direct opposition to the official teachings of Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy. Thus, we must defend the faith against misrepresentation, among other responses.

Our Responses to the Faith

Basically, “the faith,” is the consolidated and systematically organized expression of God’s Word. Thus, we must obey, teach, and preach the faith. As we’ve seen, it must be defended, and contended for, against error, corruption, and contradiction.

In doing these things, we have history and most of our Christian forefathers on our side. As the historic creeds and confessions demonstrate, the Christian faith has been progressively and contextually articulated throughout the centuries. If we want to understand the core doctrines of the apostles and Scriptures, then we have a great wealth of resources to draw from. Besides creeds, there is a plethora of Protestant confessions of faith that richly and powerfully convey the main teachings of Scripture. We will benefit if we use some of them to help us explain and teach God’s Word to others.

Finally, our one Christian faith should be regularly taught, remembered, recited, and even sung when our local fellowships meet together. At the least, the basic doctrines should be explained in the hearing of our fellowships. And this is precisely why we are to sing hymns and spiritual songs, and celebrate the Lord’s Supper together. Let us always remember that there’s only one faith of Christ, as taught in Scripture, and that all who hold this faith are members of the one body of Christ.