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Salvation
 
Salvation involves the redemption of the whole man, and is offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, who by His own blood obtained eternal redemption for the believer.  In its broadest sense salvation includes regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification.  There is no salvation apart from personal faith in Jesus Christ as Lord.
 
A.  Regeneration, or the new birth, is a work of God’s grace whereby believers become new creatures in Christ Jesus.  It is a change of heart wrought by the Holy Spirit through the conviction of sin, to which the sinner responds in repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.  Repentance and faith are inseparable experiences of grace.  Repentance is genuine turning from sin toward God.  Faith is the acceptance of Jesus Christ and commitment of the entire personality to Him as Lord and Saviour.
 
B.  Justification is God’s gracious and full acquittal upon principles of His 
righteousness of all sinners who repent and believe in Christ.  Justification brings  
the believer into a relationship of peace and favor with God. 
 
C.  Sanctification is the experience, beginning in regeneration, by which the 
believer is set apart to God’s purposes, and is enabled to progress toward moral 
and spiritual maturity through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit dwelling
in him.  Growth in grace should continue throughout the regenerate person’s
life.
 
D.  Glorification is the culmination of salvation and is the final blessed and 
abiding state of the redeemed.  
 God The Father, The Son & The Holy Spirit
 
GOD
There is one and only one living and true God.  He is an intelligent, spiritual, and personal Being, the Creator, Redeemer, Preserver, and Ruler of the universe.  God is infinite in holiness and all other perfections.  God is all powerful and all knowing; and His perfect knowledge extends to all things, past present, and future, including the future decisions of His free creatures.  To Him we owe the highest love, reverence, and obedience.  The eternal triune God reveals Himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being. 
 
GOD THE FATHER
God as Father reigns with providential care over His universe, His creatures, and the flow of the stream of human history according to the purposes of His grace.  He is all powerful, all knowing, all loving, and all wise.  God is Father in truth to those who become children of God through faith in Jesus Christ.  He is fatherly in His attitude toward all men.
 
GOD THE SON
Christ is the eternal Son of God.  In His incarnation as Jesus Christ He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born the virgin Mary.  Jesus perfectly revealed and did the will of God, taking upon Himself human nature with its demands and necessities and identifying Himself completely with mankind yet without sin.  He honored the divine law by His personal obedience, and in His substitutionary death on the cross He made provision for the redemption of men from sin.  He was raised from the dead with a glorified body and appeared to His disciples as the person who was with them before His crucifixion.  He ascended into the heaven and is now exalted at the right hand of God where He is the One Mediator, fully God, fully man, in whose Person is effected the reconciliation between God and man.  He will return in power and glory to judge the world and to consummate His redemptive mission.  He now dwells in all believers as the living and ever present Lord.  
 
GOD THE HOLY SPIRT
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God, fully divine.  He inspired holy men of old to write the Scriptures.  Through illumination He enables men to understand truth.  He exalts Christ.  He convicts men of sin, of righteousness, and of judgement.  He calls men to the Saviour, and effects regeneration.  At the moment of regeneration He baptizes every believer into the Body of Christ.  He cultivates Christian character, comforts believers, and bestows the spiritual gifts by which they serve God through His church. He seals the believer unto the day of his final redemption.  His presence in the Christian is the guarantee that God will bring the believer into the fullness of the stature of Christ.  He enlightens and empowers the believer and the church in worship, evangelism, and service.
 Heaven, Hell, Sin & The End Times
 
God, in His own time and in His own way, will bring the world to its appropriate end. According to His promise, Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly in glory to the earth; the dead will be raised; and Christ will judge all men in righteousness.  The unrighteous will be consigned to Hell, the place of everlasting punishment.  The righteous in the resurrected and glorified bodies will receive their reward and will dwell forever in Heaven with the Lord.
 
 
-The Baptist Faith & Message