We believe that all people by nature are sinners, but that "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). We believe, therefore, that anyone who personally accepts God's pardon for sin through Jesus Christ will be forgiven of his or her sin, reconciled to God, and will be able to forever live in God's presence.
We believe that the salvation of humankind is wholly by grace (God's gift of love, mercy, and forgiveness), through Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who in infinite love for the lost, voluntarily accepted His Father's will and became the divinely provided sacrificial Lamb who alone can take away our sins (Ephesians 2:8-9; Titus 3:5). Salvation can only be acquired through Jesus Christ. "I am the way, the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father except through Me" (John 14:6). "For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus" (1 Timothy 2:5).
We are saved by believing in Jesus Christ and personally receiving Him into our hearts and lives, thus becoming spiritually regenerated or "born again." "As many as received Him [Jesus], to them gave He the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name" (John 1:12). "Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3).
Once saved, the believer is saved forever. We believe that it is the privilege of all who are born again through faith in Jesus Christ to be fully assured of their salvation from the very day that they receive Him as their Savior. Just as the believer is saved by grace, he or she is sustained by grace: "Who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation" (1 Peter 1:5). "I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand" (John 10:28).
- Romans 3:23; 6:23; 3:10; 1 John 1:8; Acts 4:12; 1 John 5:12