New Life is an autonomous South­ern Bap­tist Church that will­ingly coop­er­ates with the South­ern Bap­tist Con­ven­tion (SBC). The SBC is an asso­ci­a­tion of free con­fess­ing churches and does not exer­cise author­ity of any type over local con­gre­ga­tions like New Life.

New Life Bap­tist Church State­ment of Faith

The Scrip­tures

We believe Scrip­ture, con­sist­ing of the 66 books from Gen­e­sis to Rev­e­la­tion, is the writ­ten Word of God to man.  God inspired human authors who, using their own unique gifts, pas­sions, and com­mu­ni­ca­tion style, wrote his Word (2 Tim. 3:16, 2 Pet. 1:20–21).  The Scrip­tures are inerrant in every­thing they address, includ­ing mat­ters of faith, sci­ence, and his­tory (Prv. 30:5).  The Scrip­tures are infal­li­ble and achieve the ends for which God intended them (Is. 55:11). The Scrip­tures are clear, “mak­ing wise the sim­ple” (Ps. 19:7).  The Scrip­tures are suf­fi­cient for faith and prac­tice, and “are use­ful for teach­ing, cor­rect­ing, rebuk­ing, and train­ing in right­eous­ness, that the man of God may be thor­oughly equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:17).

God

We believe God is the eter­nal, uncre­ated Cre­ator and Sus­tainer of all things (Gen. 1:1, Col. 1:16–17).  He is the First and the Last, and beside him there is no god (Is. 44:6).  This one God exists in three Per­sons:  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Gen. 1:2, Deut. 6:4–5, Matt. 3:16–17) and each mem­ber of the Trin­ity is fully God.  God is holy (Is. 6:3), unchang­ing (Mal. 3:6), omni­scient (Is. 46:10), omnipresent (Ps. 139:7–8), and omnipo­tent (Jb. 42:2, Lk. 1:37).

A. God the Father

We believe God the Father is the infi­nite per­sonal Spirit, per­fect in holi­ness, wis­dom, power, and love.  We believe that he infal­li­bly fore­knows all that comes to pass, that he con­cerns him­self mer­ci­fully with the affairs of men, that he hears and answers prayer, and that he saves from sin and death all that come to him through Jesus Christ (Matt. 23:9, Lk. 10:21–22, Jn. 3:16, Jn. 6:27, Rom. 1:7, 1 Tim. 1:1–2, 1 Tim. 2:5–6, 1 Pt. 1:3, Rev. 1:6).

B. God the Son (Jesus Christ)

We believe Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man, that he came in the flesh and was born of a vir­gin, and lived a sin­less, mirac­u­lous life (Jn. 8:46, 18:38b, 19:4, 21:25).  He was in very nature God, but made him­self noth­ing, tak­ing the very nature of a ser­vant.  He taught that He alone was the means by which man would be rec­on­ciled to God. He believed and proved that He was equal to God, elic­it­ing the anger of His ene­mies accord­ing to the pre­des­tined pur­pose of God. (John 5:18; 10:30–33; 14:6; Acts 4:28) He was tempted in every way, just as we are, and yet never sinned (Heb. 4:15).  Accord­ing to the Father’s per­fect plan laid out in eter­nity past, he gave him­self up freely as a ran­som for our sins (Mk. 10:45, Jn. 10:18, Ac. 4:28, Eph. 1:3–6, Phil. 2:6–11, Rev. 13:8).  He was cru­ci­fied by sin­ful men (Ac. 2:36), and rose from the dead three days later (1 Cor. 15:4).  Today, he sits at the right hand of the Father until his sec­ond com­ing, for which we expec­tantly wait (Ac. 1:9–11, 1 Thess. 4:16, 2 Thess. 1:9–10, Rev. 1:7).

C. The Holy Spirit

We believe the Holy Spirit is fully God (Gen. 1:2, Ac. 5:3–5).  He is given as our Helper (Jn. 14:26) and is the guar­an­tee of inher­i­tance for every believer (Eph. 1:13–14).  He con­victs the world of sin, right­eous­ness, and judg­ment (Jn. 16:7–11).  He is the lead­ing agent in the plant­ing and build­ing up of the church, since his job is to tes­tify of Jesus and to the truth­ful­ness of the Gospel (Ac. 1:8, Jn. 15:26).  The Holy Spirit gives gifts to each believer for the edi­fi­ca­tion of the church and the procla­ma­tion of the Gospel (1 Cor. 12:7, 14:22).  While every believer is told to earnestly desire spir­i­tual gifts, the Holy Spirit alone decides which and how many spir­i­tual gifts each believer receives (1 Cor. 12:4–7, 11).

Man

We believe God cre­ated Man on the 6th day in his own image and like­ness (Gen. 1:26–27).   He cre­ated man upright, or morally per­fect, and with a free will to choose good or evil (Eccl. 7:29, Gen. 2:16–17).  Our first par­ents, Adam and Eve, were able to choose to obey God and live under bless­ing or to dis­obey God and die under a curse. They chose to dis­obey God, and died spir­i­tu­ally.  Every part of Man was affected by this orig­i­nal sin.  All the areas of Man’s self – his will, desires, mind, and con­science – were affected by the Fall (Jer. 17:9).  God cursed Man with imme­di­ate spir­i­tual death (sep­a­ra­tion from God) and even­tual phys­i­cal death (Gen. 3:19).  Because of their choice, their pos­ter­ity is given a sin­ful nature at con­cep­tion and is held equally respon­si­ble for Adam and Eve’s dis­obe­di­ence (Ps. 51:5).  Every per­son also chooses of his own free will to dis­obey the Law of God as revealed in Scrip­ture (Gal. 3:10, Jas. 2:10); there­fore, every per­son is a sin­ner by nature and by choice (Ps. 14:1–3).  As a result, every per­son is an enemy of God (Jb. 15:14, 25:4), under his right­eous wrath, and with­out excuse (Rom. 1:18–32).  Man is dead in tres­passes and sins, and apart from the grace of God can­not and will not seek after God (Jer. 13:23, Jn. 6:44, Rom. 3:10–18, Rom. 8:5–8, 1 Cor. 2:14, Eph. 2:1–3, Col. 2:13).

The Gospel

We believe that because every per­son has rebelled against God by refus­ing to honor him as God and obey his Law, God is under no oblig­a­tion to save any­one from his wrath; in fact, all men deserve eter­nal pun­ish­ment (Rom. 1:16–32).  The Gospel is the Good News that God has decided to save some unde­serv­ing sin­ners from his right­eous wrath for his own glory and for their eter­nal delight (Eph. 2:5–7, Tit. 3:4–7).  He sent his only begot­ten Son, Jesus Christ, to do what man could not and would not do – live a sin­less life and sub­mit per­fectly to God – then gave him­self up in our place and on our behalf (Rom. 3:25, 1 John 2:2).  He then rose from the dead on the third day, vic­to­ri­ous over sin and death (1 Cor. 15:3–4, 17).

Sal­va­tion

Sal­va­tion involves the redemp­tion of the whole man, and is offered freely to all who receive 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. (Jn. 6:44, Jn. 3:16, Ac. 4:12 Ac. 2:37–38, 11:18, 17:30, Rom. 4:1–5, 2 Cor. 7:10–11, 2 Tim. 2:25)

A. Regen­er­a­tion

We believe regen­er­a­tion is a change of heart given by the Holy Spirit who gives life to those dead in tres­passes and sins.  In regen­er­a­tion, the Holy Spirit grants the abil­ity to under­stand the Word of God and exer­cise sav­ing faith in it, as a result of this new nature which the believer is given enabling both love for and prac­tice of holi­ness (2 Cor. 5:17, Eph. 2:1–6, Tit. 3:5, 1 Jn. 5:1).

B. Repen­tance and Faith

We believe repen­tance and faith are required by God for sal­va­tion.  While two dis­tinct prin­ci­ples, they are not two sep­a­rate acts; one turns from sin (repen­tance) and turns to Christ (faith) as a result of his new nature given at regen­er­a­tion (Jn. 6:44, Ac. 2:37–38, 11:18, 17:30, Rom. 4:1–5, 2 Cor. 7:10–11, 2 Tim. 2:25). God has promised to save any who repent of their sins and trust in the fin­ished work of Christ alone for for­give­ness and rec­on­cil­i­a­tion with God (Jn. 3:16, Ac. 4:12).

C. Jus­ti­fi­ca­tion

We believe God chooses to jus­tify, or declare both not guilty and right­eous, every per­son who repents of sin and believes the Gospel.  Though no per­son is right­eous, God counts a believer’s faith in Jesus’ life, death, and res­ur­rec­tion as right­eous­ness (Rom. 4:1–5).  Through faith, the right­eous­ness of Christ is cred­ited to the believer, and the believer’s guilt through sin is cred­ited to Christ.  No believer is jus­ti­fied by works of the Law, but do give evi­dence of jus­ti­fi­ca­tion by doing good works (Gal. 2:15–16, Jas. 2:20–24).  Sal­va­tion is the work of God from start to fin­ish, not a work of man, so that no man may boast (Rom. 9:11, Eph. 2:8–9) or despair (Jn. 10:28–30).  Those God has pre­des­tined, he also called; those he called, he also jus­ti­fied; those he jus­ti­fied he also glo­ri­fied (Rom. 8:30).

D. Sanc­ti­fi­ca­tion

We believe sanc­ti­fi­ca­tion is the life­long process of becom­ing like Christ.  Those who have been jus­ti­fied are also sanc­ti­fied by God’s Word and Spirit dwelling in them. God chose us to obey him and be holy (Tit. 2:11–14, 1 Pet. 1:2).  In becom­ing like him, we know him more inti­mately and dis­play his glory to the world.  The process of sanc­ti­fi­ca­tion will cul­mi­nate in the res­ur­rec­tion of our phys­i­cal bod­ies when we will be with­out sin (Jn. 17:19, Rom. 8:29–30, 1 Pt. 1:23, Rev. 21:1–8, 22–27).

E. Glo­ri­fi­ca­tion

Glo­ri­fi­ca­tion is the cul­mi­na­tion of sal­va­tion and is the final blessed and abid­ing state of the redeemed (Rom. 8:29–39, Rev. 21:1–22:5).

The Uni­ver­sal Church

We believe every per­son who repents of sin and believes the Gospel is a mem­ber of the Uni­ver­sal Church, which con­sists of all believ­ers who have lived, are liv­ing, and will live (Col. 1:24).  The Uni­ver­sal Church is the only insti­tu­tion that will not and can­not be defeated (Matt. 16:18).  Christ died for his Bride, the Church, and will sanc­tify the Church to present her to him­self with­out spot or blem­ish (Eph. 5:25–27).

The Local Church

A. The Con­sti­tu­tion of the Local Church

We believe God has called every believer to join a local church, which is the vis­i­ble expres­sion of the Uni­ver­sal Church.  The local church is made up of a group of liv­ing believ­ers who have covenanted together to preach the Gospel and live dis­tinct lives under the author­ity of God’s Word (Ac. 11:26, 12:5, 14:23).  God has gra­ciously given each believer spir­i­tual gifts, which include but are not lim­ited to those listed in Romans 12:4–8, 1 Corinthi­ans 12:4–11 and 27–28, and Eph­esians 4:11–12.  These gifts are to be used to honor God, build up the church, and evan­ge­lize the lost; they should never be used to draw atten­tion to one’s self (1 Cor. 13:1–3, 14:12). As Christ’s ambas­sadors, believ­ers have the joy and priv­i­lege of car­ing for the poor, the widow, the orphan, and the oppressed.

B. Lead­er­ship

God has also gra­ciously given elders and dea­cons to serve the church.  The elders are set aside by God to lead the church, equip the saints, preach the Word, and pray (Eph. 4:11–12, 1 Tim. 3:1–7, 5:17–18).  Their lead­er­ship, equip­ping, preach­ing, and prayer are to be done humbly in ser­vice to God and his church.  Lead­ers are to shep­herd the flock will­ingly, not under com­pul­sion or for shame­ful gain, but eagerly; not dom­i­neer­ing over those in their charge, but serv­ing as exam­ples to the flock (1 Pet. 5:2–3).  In response, believ­ers are exhorted to obey and sub­mit to their lead­er­ship (Heb. 13:17).  Dea­cons are set aside by God to serve the church and to free the elders to devote them­selves to prayer and min­istry of the word. (Ac. 6:1–7, 1 Tim. 3:8–13).

Evan­ge­lism and Discipleship

We believe that the Church and indi­vid­ual believ­ers are God’s means for pro­claim­ing the gospel by which he draws peo­ple to Him­self, regen­er­ates souls, and grants repen­tance and faith unto sanc­ti­fy­ing per­se­ver­ance. The procla­ma­tion of the bib­li­cal gospel to all peo­ples is the joy­ful duty of every Chris­t­ian in obe­di­ence to the com­mis­sion of Jesus to make dis­ci­ples, bap­tize, and teach them to obey His com­mands (Romans 10:14–15; Matthew 28:18–20).  The local church and every indi­vid­ual believer have a respon­si­bil­ity to obey and teach the com­mands of Christ to those under their care.

The Ordi­nances

We believe God has given two ordi­nances to his church:  bap­tism and the Lord’s Sup­per.  Jesus com­manded every believer to make dis­ci­ples of all nations, bap­tiz­ing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:18–20).  Bap­tism serves as a sym­bol of being buried with Christ and being raised to walk in new life and as such is to be per­formed only on pro­fess­ing believ­ers (Rom. 6:4–6).  Bap­tism, as a work, is a mat­ter of obe­di­ence, not sal­va­tion.  It does not con­fer favor from God or bless­ing from God beyond the bless­ings that are attached to obe­di­ence to God’s Word.  (Lk. 23:43, 1 Cor. 1:13–17).

We believe the Lord’s Sup­per was insti­tuted by Christ on the night he was betrayed (1 Cor. 11:23).  The Lord’s Sup­per con­sists of bread and juice or wine, which rep­re­sent his body that was bro­ken for believ­ers and his blood that was shed for believ­ers (1 Cor. 11:24–25).  The Lord’s Sup­per serves as a reminder to both believ­ers and non-believers that Jesus has died, is risen, and is com­ing again (1 Cor. 11:26). We will share com­mu­nion with any believer of like faith and prac­tice, but will not allow unbe­liev­ers or those liv­ing in unre­pen­tant sin or church dis­ci­pline to par­tic­i­pate, since these peo­ple would be eat­ing and drink­ing judg­ment on them­selves (1 Cor. 11:27–30).

Eter­nity

We believe the full con­sum­ma­tion of the King­dom of God awaits the return of Jesus Christ and the end of this age.  We believe that every per­son will spend eter­nity in a lit­eral place of bless­ing called Heaven or a lit­eral place of curs­ing called Hell (Matt. 25:31–33).  Every per­son who has repented of sin and believed the Gospel will spend eter­nity in Heaven wor­ship­ing God and enjoy­ing his bless­ings (Matt. 25:34–40, Phil. 3:20, 1 Pet. 1:3–5).  Every per­son who has not repented of sin and believed the Gospel will spend eter­nity in Hell endur­ing God’s right­eous wrath. (Matt. 25:41–46, Eph. 5:6, Rev. 21:8).  As such, we desire that every per­son exam­ine them­selves and test them­selves to see whether or not they are in the faith revealed in the Scrip­tures, and we encour­age every per­son to repent of sin and believe the Gospel (Ac. 2:38, 2 Cor. 13:5).