Constitution of Covenant Redeemer
Baptist Church
The Bible. The Holy Scriptures are the only sufficient, certain, and infallible standard of all saving knowledge, faith, and obedience. The whole counsel of God concerning everything essential for His own glory and man’s salvation, faith, and life is either explicitly stated or by necessary inference contained in the Holy Scriptures. Nothing is ever added to the Scriptures; either by new revelation of the Spirit or by human tradition. We believe the Bible to be the complete Word of God, that the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testament in the original manuscripts, were written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and were entirely free from error. As such the Bible is to be the standard of faith and life. (Isaiah 8:20; 2 Timothy 3:15-17; Galatians 1:8-9)
The Trinity. The Lord our God is one, the only living and true God. We believe God eternally exists in three Persons; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Each Person is fully God, sharing the same essence and attributes. He alone has immortality, He is unchangeable, immense, perfectly wise, unchangeable, loving, gracious, merciful and patient. At the same time, He is perfectly just, hates all sin and will not clear the guilty. (Genesis 1:26; Deut. 6:4; Matthew 3:16-17, 28:19; Romans 11:36; Psalm 5:5-6; Exodus 34:6-7)
God the Father. We believe in God the Father, an infinite, personal Spirit, perfect in holiness, wisdom, power, and love. We believe He concerns Himself mercifully in the affairs of men, hears and answers prayer, and saves from sin and death all who come to Him through Jesus Christ (John 16:23-27, Galatians 4:4-6, Ephesians 1:3, 17-23).
God the Son. We believe that Jesus Christ is God's eternal Son. He is true God and true man, conceived by the Holy Spirit, and born of the virgin Mary. We believe; in His sinless life, in His death on the cross as our substitute, in His bodily resurrection, in His bodily ascension into Heaven, in His intercession on behalf of His people, and in His personal return (Matthew 1:18,23; Luke 24:1-8; John 1:1,14; Acts 1:11; 2 Corinthians 5:19-21; Phil. 2:5-11; Hebrews 4:14-16; 7:24-25; 1 John 2:1; Revelation 19:11-20).
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​God the Holy Spirit. We believe the Holy Spirit is a Person, and is fully God. He convicts of sin, convinces of righteousness and of judgment, turns the lost soul toward God, indwells every believer, and guides, empowers, and gifts believers for the work of ministry (Matthew 28:19; John 3:5, 16:7-15; Acts 1:8; 1 Corinthians 6:11,19, 12:4-13; Ephesians 3:16, 4:11-16).
Creation. We believe that in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. By God's command, the universe came into existence. All of God's creation was pronounced by God to be good and was created to glorify God. After God had created all the other creatures, he created man and woman, with rational and immortal souls. They were made in the image of God, being endowed with knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness. They had the law of God written in their hearts and the power to fulfill it. Even so, they could still transgress the law, because they were left to the liberty of their own will, which was subject to change. God is the giver of all life. God upholds and sustains His creation (Genesis 1:1, 3:6; Exodus 20:11; Nehemiah 9:6; Romans 2:14-15; Colossians 1:16; Hebrews 11:3).
Man. We believe that man, both male and female, was divinely created in the image of God and they were both created upright and perfect, yet they did not remain for long in this position of honour. Adam and Eve both sinned without any outside compulsion, deliberately disobeyed the law given to them by God, and because of this sin Adam and Eve fell from their original righteousness and communion with God, becoming guilty before God and thereby incurring physical and spiritual death. We fell in them and through this death came upon all. (Genesis 1:26-27, 2:7-3:19; Romans 3:23, 5:12-21, 6:23).
Original Sin, The Fall. God created man upright and perfect. He gave them a righteous law that would have led to life if they had kept it but threatened death if they broke it. Yet they did not remain for long in this position of honour. Satan, through his craftiness, seduced Eve, who then seduced Adam. Adam acted without any outside compulsion and deliberately transgressed the law of their creation and the command given to them by eating the forbidden fruit. God was pleased, in keeping with His wise and holy counsel, to permit this act, because He had purposed to direct it for His own glory. By this sin our first parents fell from their original righteousness and communion with God. We fell in them, and through this, death came upon all. All became dead in sin and utterly corrupted in all the capabilities and parts of soul and body. By God’s appointment, they were the root and the representatives of the whole human race. Because of this, the guilt of their sin was accounted, and their corrupt nature passed on to all their offspring who descended from them by ordinary procreation. Their descendants are now conceived in sin and are by nature children of wrath, the servants of sin, and partakers of death and all other miseries—spiritual, temporal, and eternal—unless the Lord Jesus sets them free. (Genesis 2:16-17, 3:12-13; Psalm 51:5; Romans 3:23, 5:12-19; 1 Cor 15:21-22; 2 Cor 11:3, Ephesians 2:3; Hebrews 2:14)
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​Salvation. There is no one who does good and does not sin. Even the best may fall into great sins and offenses, through the power and deceitfulness of the corruption in them, along with the strength of temptation. Therefore, God has mercifully provided in the covenant of grace that believers who sin and fall will be renewed through repentance to salvation. This saving repentance is a gospel grace in which those who are made aware by the Holy Spirit of the many evils of their sin, by faith in Christ humble themselves for it with godly sorrow, hatred of it, and self-loathing. They pray for pardon and strength of grace and determine and endeavor by provisions from the Spirit to live before God in a well-pleasing way in everything. Repentance must continue throughout our lives, because of the body of death and its activities. So it is everyone’s duty to repent of known sin specifically. God has made full provision through Christ in the covenant of grace to preserve believers in their salvation. Thus, although there is no sin so small that it is undeserving of damnation, yet there is no sin so great that it will bring damnation on those who repent. This makes the constant preaching of repentance necessary. (Psalm 119:6, 128; Ecclesiastes 7:20; Ezekiel 36:31; Zech 12:10; Luke 22:31-32; Romans 3:23, 6:23; 2 Cor 7:11; 1 Tim 1:13-15)
Future Things. We believe in the personal, bodily and glorious return of the Lord Jesus Christ; in the bodily resurrection of the just and unjust; in the eternal blessedness of the redeemed, and in the eternal judgment and conscious punishment of the wicked (John 5:29; 1 Corinthians 3:11-15, 15:51-58; 2 Corinthians 5:6-10; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; 2 John 8; Revelation 19:20).
Satan. We believe that Satan is a personal being; that he is the malignant prince of the power of the air; that he is man’s great tempter, the enemy of God and His Christ. The accuser of the saints, the author of all false religions, the inspirer of all apostasy, and the chief of all the powers of darkness. He, with his principalities, is overcome by our appropriation of Christ’s victory on Calvary. That he along with his hosts is destined to final defeat at the hands of God’s Son, and to suffer eternal punishment in a place prepared for him and his angels. (Ezekiel 28:11-15; Isaiah 14:12-20; Ephesians 6:10-12; 1 Peter 5:8).
The Local Church. We believe that the church is the spiritual body of which Christ is the Head. The true church is composed of all persons who through saving faith in Jesus Christ have been transformed by the Holy Spirit. This body expresses itself in local assemblies whose members have been baptized upon credible confession of Jesus Christ, and have associated themselves for the purpose of worship, discipleship, evangelism, fellowship, and service. The ordinances of the local church are believer's baptism by immersion, and the Lord's Supper. The local church is an independent body that voluntarily associates with other churches for the purpose of furthering the Kingdom of God (Matthew 28:19-20; Acts 1:8, 2:41-47; Romans 6:1-11; Ephesians 5:21; Colossians 1:15-18; Hebrews 10:24-25; 1 Corinthians 11:23-31).
The Church and State. We believe that each local church is self-governing in function and must be free from interference by any ecclesiastical or political authority. We further believe that every human being is directly responsible to God in matters of faith and life, and that each should be free to worship God according to the dictates of their conscience (Matthew 22:21; Romans 13:1; 1 Timothy 2:1-6).
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​Christian Conduct. We believe that the supreme task of every believer is to know God, to glorify God, and enjoy God in his or her life. The believer should labour in their vocation for the glory of Christ. The believer should live blamelessly before the world, be a faithful steward of their possessions, and seek to realize for himself or herself the full stature of maturity in Christ (1
Corinthians 10:31; Colossians 1:28, 3:23-24; 1 Timothy 6:6-9; 1 Peter 1:14-15).
Marriage. We believe that marriage is between one man and one woman. Man and woman were created by God to complement one another emotionally, physically, and spiritually for the purpose of relationship and to have the blessing of children (Genesis 2:18-24; Mark 10:5-9; Ephesians
5:21-33; Psalm 127:3).
CRBC recognizes two ordinances: Baptism and the Lord's Supper. These shall be observed in that order.
Baptism is an ordinance of the New Testament, ordained by Jesus Christ. To those baptized it is a sign of their fellowship with Him in His death and resurrection, of their being grafted into Him, of remission of sins, and of submitting themselves to God through Jesus Christ to live and walk in newness of life. Those who personally profess repentance toward God and faith in and obedience to our Lord Jesus Christ are the only proper subjects of this ordinance. The outward element to be used in this ordinance is water, in which the individual is to be baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Full immersion is necessary for this ordinance to be administered properly. The Lead Pastor, or whomever he authorizes, shall administer baptism.
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The supper of the Lord Jesus was instituted by Him the same night He was betrayed. It is to be observed in His churches to the end of the age as a perpetual remembrance and display of the sacrifice of Himself in His death. It is given for the confirmation of the faith of believers in all the benefits of Christ’s death, their spiritual nourishment and growth in Him, and their further engagement in and to all the duties they owe Him. The supper is to be a bond and pledge of their communion with Christ and each other. The outward elements in this ordinance, properly set apart for the use ordained by Christ, have such a relationship to Christ crucified that they are sometimes called—truly though figuratively—by the names of the things they represent, that is, the body and blood of Christ. However, in substance and nature they still remain truly and only bread and wine, as they were before. At such times as the Elders deem appropriate, this church shall observe the Lord's Supper in keeping with the commands of the Bible.
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