Faith
The major religious faiths of the world all believe something quite similar; many of the core elements are
remarkably similar. Where any of these core aspects differ it is often with the same purpose in both mind
and practice.
The Christian faith is unique in its belief that God exists in ‘Trinity’ that is, that “God is one God - in three persons” (not three Gods). Christians believe that God is ‘relational’ and that God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) eternally lives and moves in a relationship of love, giving, and self-giving, without holding back.
Jesus is central to the Christian faith. He is understood as being the image of God for us to see, or the word of God for us to hear, or the hand of God reaching out to us. In Jesus the good news of God is “forgiveness” – not repentance. In Jesus the Good news is that we are forgiven not that we may repent! We are forgiven. The Good news of the gospel is what God has done for us in Jesus. It is because we are forgiven that we repent.
Jesus offers assurance to all people that nothing can ever separate us from God's love (Romans chapter 8). This assurance is often what people seek and need in life and faith. Some wonder if they are good enough or if they have done enough or if their confession was sufficient. The Christian faith is not about us doing for God… but all about all that Jesus has done for us. The Christian faith offers us a way of responding to God's love in loving the Lord our God and loving our neighbour as we love ourselves. For many, serving others gives purpose and meaning to life proving what Jesus said to be true: “it is better to give than to receive.” This is after all the essence of God’s own way of life.
Other pages on our web site tell how we seek to learn more about the Christian faith, live out our faith, celebrate our faith, share our faith, or make sense of our faith in the 21st century. Our faith is not only for some, it is for all, and you have a place at our table.
While many of the world faiths hold that Jesus is a prophet, the Christian faith maintains that Jesus is the incarnation of God, that is, that Jesus offers a full revelation of God in his life, words and actions. There is a traditional way for the Church to convey this, and nowadays there are more contemporary ways to express this belief. The great new revelation of God in Jesus is that God is love. Revealing God as love in Jesus’ life challenged, upset and reviled many. Some preferred the old way of thinking about God (“God is just”), Jesus revealed a God of love, grace and forgiveness, which many still struggle to accept today. We may want God to be angry or vengeful or to hate our enemies along with us – Jesus reveals God’s way is a way of love and forgiveness.
