2002 Baptist Faith and Message

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)--I am sure that many of us have played word-association games. A person throws out a word to you, and you respond by stating the first word that pops into your head. The purpose of such a game is not only to generate a lot of laughter but also to tell us something about the person who responds. Without giving that person much time for reflection, one's quick response may divulge a considerable amount of information about that person as to who they truly are.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)--One of the most shocking, morally outrageous and utterly preposterous statements in the Bible occurs in Romans 4:5. Here, Paul instructs his readers that God, the possessor of infinite righteousness and the standard bearer of perfect justice, actually "justifies the ungodly."

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)--The basis for salvation is under attack today. The questions that many ask in response to the presentation of the gospel ("I'm a good person -- isn't that enough to be right with God?" "How can you say that Jesus is the only way to God?") mirror their confusion or disdain.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)--No article of any confession compares in significance with that concerning salvation. The whole of theology is bound up with it: our understanding God, the world and our very selves. The manner in which we understand salvation decides and reveals the way in which we think about God, and vice versa.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)--The Baptist Faith and Message statement on man highlights two aspects of the human condition that set this species of creation apart from all others: man's noble status and man's ignoble state.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)--This article begins where it must, by affirming that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God and as such is fully divine. He possesses with the Father and Son the one undivided divine nature. Only because he is himself divine, yet the third member of the Trinity, can we understand the string of activities he is said to perform.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)--The uniqueness of Jesus as God's Son is taught throughout the New Testament. We find this within the Gospels (John 1:14; 3:16, 18), as well as the rest of the New Testament (1 John 4:9; Hebrews 1:1-2).

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)--It almost seems too obvious to say that at the heart and center of Christian faith and practice is the great and glorious Triune God of Scripture. But sadly, I am afraid, we too often forget this "obvious" fact.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)--When we think about God, two important questions naturally arise. First, does God exist? Second, what is God like?

EDITORS' NOTE: Over the next several weeks, Baptist Press will be running a series developed from "An Exposition from the Faculty of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary on The Baptist Faith and Message 2000." Each edition of the series will feature an article of the BF&M 2000 and an exegesis of a part or the whole of that article. We are publishing this series as an educational resource for our churches and trust that our readers will be better informed and equipped for life, work and ministry. LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)--The Southern Baptist Convention made history as messengers overwhelmingly approved revisions to the Baptist Faith and Message, our confession of faith. In so doing, Southern Baptists linked our honored past with the promise of the future, and pledged to maintain doctrinal faithfulness as a new century dawns.