Red

God’s act of making otherwise estranged human beings part of God’s spiritual family by including them as inheritors of the riches of divine glory.

the belief that God the Father alone is eternal, that Christ was created out of nothing as the first and greatest of all creatures, and that he in turn created the universe.

A theological tradition that seeks to preserve the free choices of human beings and denies God’s providential control over the details of all events.

The internal sense we may have based upon certain evidences in our lives that we are truly “born again” and will persevere as Christians until the end of our lives.

The work Christ did in his life and death to earn our salvation and deal with man’s greatest problem, sin.

A system of thought essentially that starts with the complete sinfulness of humankind (depravity), which leaves humans unable to respond in faith towards God. Yet God predestines and elects those who are enabled to repent and believe.

The act by which God extends to humans invitation to enter into a saving relationship.

Having to do with the charismata, or “gifts,” of the Holy Spirit as delineated in several Pauline texts.

The Greek word translated in English is equivalent of the Hebrew term Messiah and means “anointed one”.

the study of Christ, answering the questions of his identity and his work

“To say the same thing” or “to agree.” Three senses: 1) to acknowledge the greatness of God in praise and worship, 2) to acknowledge and repudiate sin, and 3) to verbalize basic doctrinal commitments.

Our willing response to the gospel call, in which we sincerely repent of sins and place our trust in Christ for salvation.

Refers both to the damaged relationship between God and humans and to the corruption of the human nature such that there is within every human an ongoing tendency toward sin.

Refers to the extent and comprehensiveness of the effects of sin on all humans that all are unable to do anything to obtain salvation.

The idea that acts, events, and decisions are inevitable results of some condition or decision prior to them that is independent of the human will.

God’s choosing of individuals or a people before creation to bring about his good purposes.

The belief that sin is canceled out by being covered over.

Trust or dependence on God based on the fact that we take him at his word and believe what he has said.

The event in which Adam and Eve, the first humans, disobeyed the explicit command of God, thereby bringing sin and death onto the human race.

Adam acted as the legal representative to God for the rest of mankind.

“To know in advance”. God knows the future of all things, especially in relation to his plan of salvation set forth before the foundations of the world.

The ability to make choices that have real effects.

The supernatural ability to speak in languages not previously learned.

Jesus, the Son of God, voluntarily taking upon himself the form of a servant, suffering, and dying for the sake of humankind.

An attempt to describe the miraculous bringing together of humanity and divinity in the same person, Jesus Christ, such that he is both fully divine and fully human.

The ongoing work of the Holy Spirit in the Christian person and community in assisting believers to interpret, understand, and obey the Scriptures.

A transfer of benefit or harm from one individual to another. What God “thinks of” sin or righteousness belonging to an individual.

Jesus in the eternal Word of God taking on human form.

The Holy Spirit will work in the hearts of those whom God has chosen (the elect) such that they cannot, or at least will not, resist the saving grace God imparts.

An instantaneous legal act of God in which he (1) thinks of our sins as forgiven and Christ’s righteousness as belonging to us, and (2) declares us to be righteous in his sight.

A sinner is justified (pardoned from the punishment and condemnation of sin) and brought into relationship with God by faith in God’s grace.

Jesus’ death secured salvation for the chosen, in contrast to the idea that the work of the cross is intended to save all humankind.

“Anointed one”. The OT people of God came to anticipate a person anointed by the Spirit who would function once again as king and priest over Israel. In the NT, the Messiah was revealed as Jesus Christ.

Human effort and merit could bring about salvation without divine grace.

The view that speaks of sin as the breaking of God’s law, for which the penalty is death. Hence, on the cross Christ suffered the death penalty in the sinner’s place and so appeased the wrath of God.

A movement that began in the early twentieth century that emphasizes a post-conversion “baptism in the Holy Spirit” for all believers, with glossolalia (speaking in tongues) as the evidence of such baptism.

The doctrine that all those who are truly “born again” will be kept by God’s power and will persevere as Christians until the end of their lives, and that only those who persevere until the end have been truly “born again.”

The division of Christian doctrine dealing with the Holy Spirit. 

The sovereign determination and foreknowledge of God, especially in the work of salvation.

The gracious action of God, displayed in the person and work of Christ but present in the lives of human beings through the agency of the Holy Spirit, which precedes all human response to God’s initiative.

The privilege and freedom of all believing Christians is to stand before God in personal communion through Christ, directly receiving forgiveness without the necessary recourse to human intermediaries.

An offering that turns away the wrath of God directed against sin, and in doing so, brings the believer in Christ into a place of God’s favor.

The view that through human sin people rightfully belong to, or come under, the authority of Satan and that to remedy this situation God offered his Son as a ransom in exchange for humankind.

The removal of enmity and the restoration of fellowship between two parties.

The process by which sinful humans are “bought back” from the bondage of sin into relationship with God through grace by the “payment” of Jesus’ death.

The rebirth or re-creation of fallen human beings by the indwelling Holy Spirit who imparts new spiritual life. “Being born again”.

The process by which God discloses his will, truth, and purpose to human beings.

In the NT, synonymous with the people of God, the church of Jesus Christ.

God’s deliverance of believers from the power of sin and effects of sin and the Fall through the work of Jesus Christ.

“To be set apart” “to be made holy”. The progressive work f God and man that makes us more and more free from sin and more like Christ in our actual lives.

an understanding of the work of Christ based on the metaphor of God as a Sovereign, who having been dishonoured by sin, must receive satisfaction.

Middle ground between Pelagius and Augustine. Faith begins independently of God’s grace, although such grace is subsequently necessary for salvation, and that predestination is simply divine foreknowledge of what man would do.

The fundamental unbelief, distrust, and rejection of God and human displacement of God as the center of reality.

The doctrine that Jesus was without sin, free from all transgression of the law and thus able to do the will of the Father in complete holiness.

“The study of salvation”. The work of the Triune God in bringing creation, and especially humans, to enjoy the divine purpose for existence.

God’s divine self-revelation evidenced specifically in salvation history and culminating in the incarnation as understood through Scripture.

Connected with “wind” and “breath,” it refers to life itself, to the life principle and above all to God as the source and giver of life.

The third person of the one Triune God .

A Calvinistic view of predestination that maintains that in the “logical order of divine decrees” God decreed the election of some persons and the reprobation of others before allowing the Fall of Adam.

The view (common among Calvinists) that election, understood as the predetermination of the destiny of human individuals, is based on God’s sovereign, eternal decree rather than merely on divine foreknowledge of whether they will freely reject or accept salvation through Jesus Christ (as is generally taught by Arminians).

The belief that all persons will be saved.

“In place of”. Jesus died “for us,” that is, took on himself the consequences of human sin. His sacrifice and substitutionary death is this.