What We Believe

At Covenant Grace we seek to draw each of our beliefs, values, and resulting practices from the truths we find in the Bible.

The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the Word of our Lord will stand forever...

(Isaiah 40:8)

Our Values

Truth

God delights in truth. We seek to please God by submitting to his true, perfect, and all sufficient word - the Bible. We learn it, teach it, and live according to it. Not only that, we are to be people of truth, opposing lies, honest in our dealings, and standing for what is right.

Sola Gratia - By Grace Alone

If the work of Christ is the basis of our right standing before God, and if we are justified by God not on the basis of our works but only through faith in the works of his Son, then it follows that our salvation is by grace and by grace alone. Sola gratia, however, is not limited to our justification, but spans all of salvation from start to finish. In fact, the grace that saves us is, as John Newton so famously sung, “amazing,” because it does not originate with us at all but stems from God’s mercy in eternity. As Paul says, God “chose us in him [Christ] before the foundation of the world” (Eph. 1:4). “But wait a minute,” you might say, “Surely my will and my choice must be the determining factor.” Not according to Paul: God’s election “depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy” (Rom. 9:16) His choice, in short, is not conditioned on us; that would give us reason to boast. Rather, his electing grace is unconditional. And if his grace in eternity is so free, then so too must his grace be unconditional when applied by the Holy Spirit. The God who has chosen us by grace alone, is the one who alone can call us out of darkness into the light of his own Son (effectual calling; John 6) and raise us from spiritual death to spiritual life (regeneration; John 3). His grace is not synergistic, as if it depends on our will for its success. No, it is monergistic, for he alone works to bring us dead, lifeless sinners to new life in his Son. Moreover, he alone can grant us the faith that believes and work such belief within us so that we embrace Christ as our Savior and Lord (Acts 13:48–50; Eph. 2:8–10; Phil. 1:29–30; 2 Pet. 1:1).

Summary of beliefs

At Covenant Grace, we believe in the:

Sovereignty of God
Authority and Inerrancy of the Bible
Power of Expository Preaching
Effectiveness of Personal Evangelism
Importance of Small Group Ministry
Centrality of the Gospel in All We Do
The Fulfillment of God’s Promises
Mankind’s Desperate Need for Grace

We are members of the Evangelical Free Church of America (EFCA) whose practices largely align with Baptist traditions. Our theology is largely Reformed in nature and we appreciate the insights of the 9Marks Network into how a Healthy Church functions.

If all that is a foreign language to you, that's fine! It just shows that we've thought a lot about how a church should be and why. Come get to know us!

Or keep reading below to learn more.

You might also want to know our stance on

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Digging Deeper: Essentials and Distinctives

Our beliefs fall into one of these two catergories.

Essentials

Essentials define the core of our beliefs. As members of the Evangelical Free Church of America (EFCA) we unite around a Statement of Faith that summarizes the essential beliefs of true and Biblical Christianity.

Sola Gratia - By Grace Alone

If the work of Christ is the basis of our right standing before God, and if we are justified by God not on the basis of our works but only through faith in the works of his Son, then it follows that our salvation is by grace and by grace alone. Sola gratia, however, is not limited to our justification, but spans all of salvation from start to finish. In fact, the grace that saves us is, as John Newton so famously sung, “amazing,” because it does not originate with us at all but stems from God’s mercy in eternity. As Paul says, God “chose us in him [Christ] before the foundation of the world” (Eph. 1:4). “But wait a minute,” you might say, “Surely my will and my choice must be the determining factor.” Not according to Paul: God’s election “depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy” (Rom. 9:16) His choice, in short, is not conditioned on us; that would give us reason to boast. Rather, his electing grace is unconditional. And if his grace in eternity is so free, then so too must his grace be unconditional when applied by the Holy Spirit. The God who has chosen us by grace alone, is the one who alone can call us out of darkness into the light of his own Son (effectual calling; John 6) and raise us from spiritual death to spiritual life (regeneration; John 3). His grace is not synergistic, as if it depends on our will for its success. No, it is monergistic, for he alone works to bring us dead, lifeless sinners to new life in his Son. Moreover, he alone can grant us the faith that believes and work such belief within us so that we embrace Christ as our Savior and Lord (Acts 13:48–50; Eph. 2:8–10; Phil. 1:29–30; 2 Pet. 1:1).

Distinctives

Our distinctives are what make us uniquely Covenant Grace.

Distinctives are less about making distinctions and more about being upfront about who you are.

In summary: We are Distinctively Baptist & Theologically Reformed.

If those words don't mean much to you, that's okay. Though we are united around the core truths of Biblical Christianity, we also have strong convictions on subjects that are important but not worth breaking fellowship over.

Our distinctives constitute the teaching position of the church.

You don't have to agree but you'll never doubt where we stand.

Statement of Faith

While we are united around the essential truths of Biblical Christianity, we also have strong convictions on other subjects that are important.

Membership at Covenant Grace only requires agreement with the Statement of Faith (i.e. the essentials). However, our distinctives constitute the teaching position of the church and all who join us are asked to live in harmony with them for the sake of unity. Please extend us grace where our ideas differ from yours and we will do that same for you. And together we can help each other grow as we dig into the Bible to find what God says.

More About Our Distinctives

Specifically, what makes us uniquely Covenant Grace Church: the Distinctives that define our Teaching Position

...they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so...

(Acts 17:11)

Distinctively

Baptist

We believe that baptism should only be performed for those who make a credible profession of faith in Jesus Christ. If you aren't there yet, that's ok, you are welcome to join us. We'd love to walk you through what it means to have faith in Christ, and a personal, saving relationship with Jesus.

What is "Theologically Reformed"? There are long and short answers to this question. In a nutshell, we believe that God is sovereign over everything - there is nothing outside his authority. This is comforting for Christians because it means he can and will accomplish all that he has set out to do - namely save people who put their faith in Jesus Christ.

Theologically
Reformed

More about our theological positions

The following are a few more specifics about what we believe and how we worship. Except where they overlap with our Statement of Faith, we believe a person may differ from us on these points and still have a personal relationship with Jesus. But these explain our best understanding of the Bible on each point and hence define our practices and our teaching position.

Five Solas

We believe that salvation has always been and always will be by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone to the glory of God alone according to Scripture alone as our authority. The basic tenets are called the Five Solas, or five pillars, of Reformed Theology (Sola means “only”). More on this subject below and on various other sites including Ligonier Ministries.

We believe God is sovereign even over our salvation. These biblical truths are summarized in what are called the Doctrines of Grace: Total depravity, Unconditional election, Definite atonement, Effectual calling and Preserving Grace. You can find more on this subject below or in this article.

Doctrines of Grace

Our Confession

Our Statement of Faith essentially functions as our confession. We believe that the other Reformed Confessions of Faith provide invaluable tools for understanding God's word, but do not replace Scripture. God has used faithful authors of the confessions over the centuries to teach us and help us better understand his word and the Christian Faith. The Reformed Confessions inform much of our teaching, but membership in Covenant Grace Church requires agreement with our Statement of Faith. In that sense we are confessional.

We believe that the local church is self-governing and under no other ecclesiastical authority except the Lord Jesus Himself. This basically means we are an independent church that answers to God and not a governing body or denomination. The EFCA exists to support independent local churches, not rule them. We are elder-led with congregational rule (meaning elders are affirmed by the members to lead the church).

Elder-led and Self-governed

Regulative Principle

We believe God has ordained how he wants his people to worship him. In that sense, Scripture "regulates" how our gathered worship is to be conducted. We do the things God has commanded, as opposed to doing anything he hasn't explicitly forbidden.

We believe God made men and women equal in value and dignity - equally in his image - but distinct nonetheless. Each have unique gifts and callings in the home, church, and society that are aligned with their nature. We believe the office of elder is reserved for men and to only those called by God. We also believe the husband is the head of his wife (and family) as Christ is the head of the church, and he is to lead and love as Christ does, that is, sacrificially.

Complementarian

Summary

While membership and participation at Covenant Grace does not require one to hold all these views, these are the teaching positions of the church. Please note that where this is overlap between distinctives and essentials as put forth in our Statement of Faith, the essentials remain, well, essential.

The Five Solas of Reformed Theology

Sola Scriptura - Scripture Alone

Sola scriptura, sometimes referred to as the formal principle of the Reformation, is the belief that “only Scripture, because it is God’s inspired Word, is our inerrant, sufficient, and final authority for the church” (God’s Word Alone, 23). Notice, the basis of sola scriptura is Scripture’s inspired nature. As Paul says, “All Scripture is breathed-out by God” (2 Tim. 3:16–17). That cannot be said of church tradition, councils, or church leaders, as important as they all may be. While Scripture may have many human authors, it has one divine author. The Holy Spirit, Peter tells us, carried along the biblical authors so that what they said, God himself said (2 Pet. 1:21), down to the very words. For that reason, Scripture is also inerrant, inerrancy being a corollary of inspiration. Inerrancy means that Scripture is true, without error, in all that it asserts. As the Holy Spirit carried along the biblical authors, he ensured that their human words reflected his own holy character. Hence Scripture is truth because God himself is truth. It is, after all, God’s Word. Inerrancy is essential not only because it provides warrant for our assurance, giving us every reason to believe Scripture is trustworthy, but inerrancy also distinguishes Scripture from all other fallible authorities. Scripture alone is our infallible, inerrant authority. Last, sola scriptura means that only Scripture is our sufficient authority. Not only does Paul say all Scripture is God-breathed, but on that basis, Scripture is “profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” Or as the Belgic Confession says so well, “We believe that those Holy Scriptures fully contain the will of God, and that whatsoever man ought to believe unto salvation is sufficiently taught therein.” Sola Scriptura teaches us, in the end, that all other authorities in the Christian life serve underneath Scripture, while Scripture alone rules over other authorities, for it alone is God’s inspired, inerrant, and sufficient word.

Back to Solas...

Soli Deo Gloria - To The Glory of God Alone

Only if our salvation is by grace alone will God alone receive all the glory. If there is something of our own we can claim, then we no longer boast in Christ alone. But if he is the author and finisher of our salvation then he alone is to be magnified for his sovereign grace. As Christians, these solas should cultivate an attitude of total humility. Whether it is in our secular vocations or our praise on a Sunday morning, to God alone be the glory.

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Sola Gratia - By Grace Alone

If the work of Christ is the basis of our right standing before God, and if we are justified by God not on the basis of our works but only through faith in the works of his Son, then it follows that our salvation is by grace and by grace alone. Sola gratia, however, is not limited to our justification, but spans all of salvation from start to finish. In fact, the grace that saves us is, as John Newton so famously sung, “amazing,” because it does not originate with us at all but stems from God’s mercy in eternity. As Paul says, God “chose us in him [Christ] before the foundation of the world” (Eph. 1:4). “But wait a minute,” you might say, “Surely my will and my choice must be the determining factor.” Not according to Paul: God’s election “depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy” (Rom. 9:16) His choice, in short, is not conditioned on us; that would give us reason to boast. Rather, his electing grace is unconditional. And if his grace in eternity is so free, then so too must his grace be unconditional when applied by the Holy Spirit. The God who has chosen us by grace alone, is the one who alone can call us out of darkness into the light of his own Son (effectual calling; John 6) and raise us from spiritual death to spiritual life (regeneration; John 3). His grace is not synergistic, as if it depends on our will for its success. No, it is monergistic, for he alone works to bring us dead, lifeless sinners to new life in his Son. Moreover, he alone can grant us the faith that believes and work such belief within us so that we embrace Christ as our Savior and Lord (Acts 13:48–50; Eph. 2:8–10; Phil. 1:29–30; 2 Pet. 1:1).

Back to Solas...

Sola Fide - By Faith Alone

But how does the believer receive the redemption Christ has accomplished? Through faith and faith alone. Rather than trusting in ourselves, we trust in another: Jesus Christ. The Reformers loved to talk about a “great, marvelous exchange.” Christ has taken our sin and its penalty on the cross. What have we received in exchange? The perfect, spotless, righteousness of Christ. Not only have we been forgiven, and our debt been paid in full but imputed to our account is Christ’s perfect record of obedience. That means, then, that God declares us right with him not on the basis of something in us but only on the basis of an alien righteousness, a righteousness that is extra nos, outside ourselves. Of course, it is none other than the righteousness of Christ (2 Cor. 5:21; Phil. 3:9). Faith, then, is the instrument through which we receive this alien righteousness. Through faith in Christ that blessed status in Christ, which God alone can give, is reckoned to us. Hence Paul warns Christians that no one will be justified by works of the law but only through faith in Christ (Gal. 2:15–3:14).

Back to Solas...

Solus Christus - Through Christ Alone

Scripture, as the Christian’s final authority, is a gift from God. It is a gift because in Scripture we are given Jesus Christ himself. God would have been perfectly just and holy to leave us in our sin and condemnation. But our great God stooped down so low as to speak a saving word to us lost sinners, a word that reached its pinnacle in the living Word, the Lord Jesus himself (John 1:1). Our temptation is to think, however, that there is something in ourselves, even in the slightest, that can contribute to our redemption. Perhaps it’s obedience to the law, or perhaps it’s good works that spring from faith itself. But Scripture counters: “None is righteous, no, not one” (Rom 3:10). God and God alone can save us. The Father has done just that by sending his Son to “become flesh” (John 1:14) to represent us, substituting himself on our behalf. Whereas we failed to keep the law, Christ obeyed the law for us; whereas we deserve the penalty for breaking the law, Christ died for us. Christ fulfilled the law we could not keep, and he bore the wrath of God that we deserve (Rom. 3:21–26). And he did so in full. As that old hymn says, “Jesus paid it all.” That means, then, that the work of Christ, and Christ alone, is the basis on which the ungodly are justified in God’s sight.

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Doctrines of Grace

Total Depravity

The first man, Adam, sinned, and his transgression and guilt were immediately imputed to all mankind (Christ excepted). By this one act of disobedience, he became morally polluted in every part of his being—mind, affections, body, and will. By this sin, death entered the world, and Adam’s fellowship with God was broken. Adam’s guilt and corruption were transmitted to his natural offspring at the moment of conception. In turn, each of his children’s children inherited this same radical fallenness. Subsequently, it has been passed down to each generation to the present day. Adam’s perverse nature has spread to the whole of every person. Apart from grace, our minds are darkened by sin, unable to understand the truth. Our hearts are defiled, unable to love the truth. Our bodies are dying, progressing to physical death. Our wills are dead, unable to choose the good. Moral inability to please God plagues every person from their entrance into the world. In their unregenerate state, no one seeks after God. No one is capable of doing good. All are under the curse of the law, which is eternal death.

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Preserving Grace

Once converted, every believer is kept eternally secure by all three persons of the Trinity. All whom God foreknew and predestined in eternity past, He will glorify in eternity future. No believer will drop out or fall away. Every believer is firmly held by the sovereign hands of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, never to be lost. None of Jesus’ sheep for whom He laid down His life will perish. The Holy Spirit permanently seals in Christ all whom He draws to faith. Once born again, none can ever be unborn. Once a believer, none can ever become an unbeliever. Once saved, none will ever become unsaved. God will preserve them in faith forever, and they will persevere until the end. Thus, the doctrine of preserving grace is often called the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints. From beginning to end, salvation is of the Lord. In reality, these five doctrines of grace form one comprehensive body of truth concerning salvation. They are inseparably connected and therefore stand or fall together. To embrace any one of the five necessitates embracing all five. To deny one is to deny the others and fracture the Trinity, setting the three persons at odds with one another. These doctrines speak together with one voice in giving the greatest glory to God. Such high theology produces high doxology. When it is rightly understood that God alone—Father, Son, and Spirit—saves sinners, then all glory goes to Him.

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Effectual Calling

With oneness of purpose, the Father and the Son sent the Holy Spirit into the world to apply this salvation to those chosen and redeemed. The Spirit came to convict the elect of sin, righteousness, and judgment and to turn to the Son all whom the Father gave to Him. At the divinely appointed time, the Spirit removes from each elect person his unbelieving heart of stone, hardened and dead in sin, and replaces it with a believing heart of flesh, responsive and alive unto God. The Spirit implants eternal life within the spiritually dead soul. He grants the chosen men and women the gifts of repentance and faith, enabling them to believe that Jesus Christ is Lord. Suddenly, all things are made new. New life from the Spirit produces new love for God. New desires to obey the Word of God produce a new pursuit of holiness. There is a new life direction, lived with new passion for God. These born-again ones give evidence of their election with the fruit of righteousness This call from the Spirit is effectual, meaning the elect will certainly respond when it is given. They will not finally resist it. Thus, the doctrine of effectual calling is sometimes called the doctrine of irresistible grace.

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Definite Atonement

In the fullness of time, God the Father sent His Son to enter this fallen world on a mission to redeem His people. He was born of a virgin, without a sin nature, to live a sinless life. Jesus was born under the divine law so that He would fully obey it on behalf of disobedient sinners who have repeatedly broken it. This active obedience of Christ fulfilled all the righteous demands of the law. By keeping the law, the Son of God achieved a perfect righteousness, which is reckoned to believing sinners so that they are declared righteous, or justified, before God. This sinless life of Jesus further qualified Him to go to the cross and die in the place of guilty, hellbound sinners. On the cross, Jesus bore the unmitigated wrath of the Father for the sins of His people. In this vicarious death, the Father transferred to His Son all the sins of all those who would ever believe in Him. As a sin-bearing sacrifice, Jesus died a substitutionary death in the place of God’s elect. On the cross, He propitiated the righteous anger of God toward the elect. By the blood of the cross, Jesus reconciled the holy God to sinful man, establishing peace between the two parties. In His redeeming death, He purchased His bride—His elect people—out of bondage to sin and set her free. Jesus’ death did not merely make all mankind potentially savable. Nor did His death simply achieve a hypothetical benefit that may or may not be accepted. Neither did His death merely make all mankind redeemable. Instead, Jesus actually redeemed a specific people through His death, securing and guaranteeing their salvation. Not a drop of Jesus’ blood was shed in vain. He truly saved all for whom He died. This doctrine of definite atonement is sometimes called limited atonement.

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Unconditional Election

Long before Adam sinned, God had already decreed and determined salvation for sinners. In eternity past, the Father chose a people in Christ who would be saved. Before time began, God elected many from among mankind whom He purposed to save from His wrath. This selection was not based upon any foreseen faith in those whom He chose. Nor was it prompted by their inherent goodness. Instead, according to His infinite love and inscrutable wisdom, God set His affection upon His elect. The Father gave the elect to His Son to be His bride. Each one chosen was predestined by the Father to be conformed to the image of His Son and to sing His praises forever. The Father commissioned His Son to enter this world and lay down His life to save these same chosen ones. Likewise, the Father commissioned the Spirit to bring these same elect ones to faith in Christ. The Son and the Spirit freely concurred in all these decisions, making salvation the undivided work of the triune God.

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