Adelaide Hills Presbyterian Church | Mt Barker, SA Australia [[@Headword:C146]]

What we believe

Advance Church is a member of the United Methodist Church and believes in the following:

Triune God: God is one God in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit (Holy Ghost).

Scripture: The Old Testament and New Testament are the inspired work of God.

Sin: While human beings were intended to bear the image of God, all humans are sinners for whom that image is distorted. Sin estranges us from God and corrupts human nature such that we cannot heal or save ourselves.

Salvation: God’s redeeming love is active to save sinners through Jesus’ incarnate life and teachings, through his atoning death, his resurrection, his sovereign presence through history, and his promised return.

Sacraments: UMC recognizes two sacraments. Holy Communion and Holy Baptism.
Free Will: People, while corrupted by sin, are free to make their own choices due to the Lord’s divine grace.

Grace: We believe that God freely and lovingly gives unmerited favor to everyone, though we may, through free will, resist His Grace and Mercy.

Grace

If there’s one word or term that essentially sums up our Methodist theology, or Wesleyan theology…the word would have to be GRACE! Grace pervades our understanding of Christian faith and life. Grace is often defined as “the undeserved, unmerited, and loving action of God in human existence through the ever-present Holy Spirit.

John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, defined grace as God’s “bounty or favor: His free, undeserved favor…man having no claim to the least of His mercies. It was free grace that ‘formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into him a living soul,’ and stamped on that soul the image of God, and ‘put all things under his feet’…For there is nothing we are, or have, or do, which can deserve the least thing at God’s hand.”

As United Methodists, we believe that all human beings are born sinners…we all come into this world with a sinful nature we inherited from our first parents, Adam and Eve, and this sinful nature we are born with is rooted in Pride and the Exaltation of Self…which results in our rebellion against GOD, and the violation and trespassing of His Righteous Standards for holy living! The New Testament affirms this truth: Romans 3:23 tells us: “ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” and, I John 1:8 also says: “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” In short, Sin is to miss the mark. Sin is to fall short of God’s best intention for us…Sin has power over us, much like drugs have hold on an addict. We are addicted to sin—to pride, self-promotion, and the refusal to accept our limited, finite, humanity! But, as Methodists, we celebrate the fact that sin is not, and does not have the last word! We believe that GOD’S GRACE IS GREATER THAN OUR SIN! For ex., in the very beginning, the final word to Adam/Eve was not punishment, for it says that the “Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins, and clothed them” (Gen. 3:21).

In short, despite our sin and our broken-ness as human beings, we remain creatures brought into being by a Just and Merciful God, who offers His Grace to ALL PERSONS!

The restoration of God’s image in our lives requires God’s Grace to renew our fallen nature… and to that end, we as Methodists understand that Jesus Christ was and is the embodiment of God’s Grace. We also affirm that the forgiveness of our sins, the gift of eternal life, and a right standing before a Holy God, is made possible only by faith in Jesus’ Christ’s Saving Work on the Cross! Ephesians 2:4-8 offers a summary of the New Testament’s proclamation of humanity’s Salvation through God’s Grace: “God who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ…For by GRACE you have been saved through FAITH; and that is not your own doing, it is the gift of God.”

John Wesley, our founder, taught and emphasized the three-fold nature of God’s Grace:

PREVENIENT GRACE: What is Prevenient Grace? Prevenient Grace is the love and favor of God that’s active in our hearts and lives, long before we’re even aware of it! It is God’s influencing Presence that comes or goes before us and woos us, and ultimately draws us into a love relationship with God Himself! Prevenient Grace is a work of the Holy Spirit, not forcing us to love and accept God’s offer for a relationship, but calling us and courting us, so that we might turn from our sins and our self-centeredness, and turn to God and receive His free gift of forgiveness and eternal life through accepting God’s Son, Jesus Christ! Amazingly, God Himself is the One who takes the initiative to seek out a relationship with us!

JUSTIFYING GRACE: What is Justifying Grace? First of all, Prevenient Grace is what “prepares” us for Justifying Grace. ‘Justification,’ said Wesley, “is another word for Pardon. It is the forgiveness of all our sins, and…our Acceptance with God!” Justifying Grace is the Assurance of our Forgiveness that comes from repentance, or turning away from our old way of sinful living and turning to God and His Gift of New Life in Christ! Justifying Grace is what makes us “right with God,” and it is based on our belief and acceptance of God’s Plan of Salvation through Jesus Christ’s Death and Resurrection!

SANCTIFYING GRACE: What is Sanctifying Grace? Sanctifying Grace is the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer between conversion and death. Sanctifying Grace is the equipping process of our maturing into mature disciples of Christ, and/or becoming more Christ-like in our character! It is growing in God’s Grace. Without the process of Sanctification in our lives, Grace would likely degenerate into what Dietrich Bonhoeffer called, “cheap grace,” which is forgiveness without repentance, and grace without any demand on our lives!

Sanctifying Grace moves us beyond acknowledging Jesus Christ simply as our Savior, and it moves us to a place of surrender to Christ’s Lordship! Jesus is now understood as the Master and Ruler of our lives. As someone once said: “Jesus is either Lord of All… or, He is not Lord at all! Sanctifying Grace is the process of restoring us to wholeness in Christ. In other words, the image of God that we once shared in perfection prior to the “Fall of Man:” that image is now being perfected in our lives, and will continue to be perfected throughout our lifetime! John Wesley affirmed that God’s Grace seeks nothing less than a new creation in the likeness of Jesus Christ. As the Kingdom of God is both a present reality and a future expectation, personal salvation has both the dimensions of “already” and “not yet.”

Apostles’ Creed

I believe in God the Father Almighty,

And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord:

I believe in the Holy Spirit;