Frequently Asked Questions
Catechism
a) WHAT IS A CHRISTIAN
What is a Christian?
Christians are those who believe
that God has revealed himself in Jesus Christ, accept Jesus Christ as their Lord
and Saviour, live in communion with God and in the power of the Holy Spirit, and
take their place in the fellowship of Christ's Church.
Acts 11:26, John 1:1-
John 14:8 -
What is a Christian's calling?
A Christian is called
by God to trust and follow Jesus Christ; to keep company with him; to learn from
his words and actions; and to share in his mission, in the power of the Holy Spirit,
in company with other Christians.
Mark 1:16 -
What is the mission of Jesus Christ?
To proclaim the coming of God's Kingdom, to
call people to repent and to receive the Kingdom of God, to turn from their sins
and believe the Good News.
Mark 1;14 -
What is repentance?
Repentance is turning
in sorrow away from sin and turning to God to seek forgiveness and new life in Jesus
Christ
Luke 3:1 -
What is sin?
Sin
is the condition of estrangement from God which affects the whole human race. Sins
are specific actions, words or thoughts which arise from our sinful condition and
deny the presence, power and purpose of God.
Rom 3:9 -
What are the effects of sin?
Sin hinders the effects of God's grace. It corrupts
our relationships with him and with one another, with the world in which we live
and with our selves. The effect of sin is discord, where God intended harmony.
Gen
3:14 -
What is the Good News?
That God has acted decisively in Jesus
Christ to deal with our sinful condition: that is, he has acted to save us. God offers
us his love, forgiveness, acceptance and new life in Christ.
John 3:16 Acts 10:36
-
What is salvation?
Salvation is the forgiveness of our sin, deliverance from guilt,
and the gift of new life in Christ. It is a process that begins now, gives us victory
over death and is completed with God in Heaven.
Mark 2:1 -
b) WHAT DOES GOD DO FOR US IN CHRIST
How does God save us?
God
as a free gift, converts us by his grace, turing us from rebels into friends. He
puts us right with himself, gives us new life in Christ, and makes us his own holy
people through the Holy Spirit. We receive his gifts when we turn to him in repentance
and put our faith in Jesus Christ who was crucified and raised again for us.
Mark
1:14 -
What is grace?
Grace is God's sovereign
love and favour, freely given to undeserving and hostile people.
(Sovereign: because
he gives his grace freely to all people, not according to human merit.)
John 3:16,
Luke 15, Matthew 11:28 -
What is conversion?
It
is the change that God works in us as we respond to his grace in repentance and faith.
Acts
26:18, 9:1 -
What is faith in Jesus Christ?
Faith in Jesus
Christ is trusting that through him alone God gives us his salvation. We demonstrate
our faith by desiring to do God's will and by the practical love we show to others.
Ephesians
2:4 -
What has Jesus done?
Jesus Christ came to
reveal God to men and women and to offer them God's grace. To achieve this he shared
their human life and death, dying on the cross. God brought him back from death with
great power and glory, thereby conquering death and sin, and opening the Kingdom
of God to all believers.
Philippians 2:5 -
How do we understand Jesus Christ's death and resurrection?
Jesus Christ suffered
death and was raised again for us, so that we might live for him. The Bible uses
various expressions for this, of which the following are a few examples:
He gave his
life to redeem all people (Mark 10:45, Isaiah 53)
He is compared with the Passover
Lamb, sacrificed as a sign of God's freeing his people
(1 Corinthians 6:7, Exodus
12)
He is also compared with the Lamb sacrificed on the Day of Atonement (1 John 2:2,
Revelation 5,
Romans 5:6 -
Being joined to Christ is described as a new creation
(2 Corinthians 5:14 -
By his death and resurrection Christ has defeated the powers
of evil. (Colossians 2:11 -
None of these is complete by itself: together they
point to the fact that through the cross God acted decisively on behalf of the world
he had created.
What is new birth?
New birth, regeneration and conversion are all the
terms used to describe the process by which we are brought by God from the state
of sin into the new life in Jesus Christ, in which we grow through the working of
the Holy Spirit in us.
John 3:1 -
How are we put right with God?
We
are put right with God (that is justified) when God forgives our sin, accepts us
to be his children, and restores our relationship with himself, on the basis of what
Jesus Christ has done, to which we respond by faith in him.
1 Corinthians 1:26 -
How do we become God's holy people?
We become God's holy people (that is
we are sanctified) through the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. As we are renewed
from within, we are transformed by God's patient love into the likeness of Christ,
we are given the power to do the will of our Father, and we grow up into Christian
maturity, individually and corporately.
1 Peter 2:9 -
How can we be assured of our salvation?
Through the promises given
us in the Bible, by the inner assurance given us by the Holy Spirit, by the evidence
in our actions of God's working within us, and through the encouragement of fellow
Christians.
Romans 8:14 -
1 John 1:5 -
What is the state of those who refuse
to repent and turn to God?
They continue to be under the judgement of God and be separated
from him.
Matthew 7:13 -