Five-Minute Theology

Righteousness of God

Righteousness means that God's actions never violate the law which He has established. God acts according to the highest principle of justice, which is Himself. In other words, God always commands what is right and God always does what is right. He is always consistent with Himself and His own character. Sinners, however, have no righteousness of their own. Therefore, we need the righteousness of the One who actually kept the law, Jesus Christ.

Divine Immutability

Divine immutability is God's unchangeableness. God is who He is and will remain who He is forever. When we say that God is "immutable," we mean that God is forever the same in His divine being, His perfections, His purposes, and His promises. God always does what He says because He will always be Himself. This does not mean that there is no movement in God or that God is inactive. He is triune! Immutability is an incommunicable attribute.

Reconciliation

Reconciliation is the ending of the separation and enmity between God and man that was caused by sin, and the establishing of peace and eternal relationship between these two parties through the shed blood of Jesus Christ, His Son. Sin has alienated us from God, but by faith Jesus has removed the hostility and our guilt before God.

The Doctrine of Creation

God didn't create the universe because He was bored or lonely. He created out of the abundance or overflow of who He is, to manifest His glory. He created out of nothing. All three Persons of the Godhead were actively involved at creation.

The Glory of God

Divine glory is God’s beautiful self-expression of who He is and how He is. It is the radiance and the splendor of God’s holiness and His many perfect attributes. Of all these attributes, the moral beauty of God - His character - lies at the very heart of His glory.

The Doctrine of Sin

Sin is more than simply missing the mark or falling short of the glory of God (Rom3:23). It’s rebellion against God and idolatry. Sin is both an action and a state of moral bondage. And because we are slaves to sin, we must be set free. As sons and daughters of Adam, we have inherited corruption and stand guilty before God. But Jesus came to justify us before the Father and to raise us from the dead.

Inspiration & Authority of the Scripture

As the Holy-Spirit inspired, God-breathed revelation from heaven, the Bible is the inerrant, authoritative Word of God, completely sufficient for righteous living. Every word and every part of the Bible is equally inspired. The biblical writers were not mechanically inspired, but rather God accommodated to their creaturely capacities, sanctifying their personalities, gifts, languages, and experiences.

Providence

Providence is the continuous work of God to care for His creation, preserving all of His creatures and directing all that happens in the world to its appointed end.

Sanctification

Sanctification is the continuing work of God inside the born-again believer to make them holy, freeing them from sinful habits and producing Christlikeness in their lives.

Propitiation

On the cross, Jesus Christ propitiated (or satisfied) the wrath of God against sin on our behalf. God the Father sent His Son to bear His wrath. God saved us from God. By suffering in our place and drinking the cup of wrath, Christ has removed this divine anger from us and place us in good standing with the Father.

The Humanity
of Christ

At the incarnation, God was enfleshed. God the Son became fully human and remains human forever. As our human Mediator between God and man, the man Jesus Christ was able to stand in our place at the cross in order to pay our sin debt. As the second Adam, He now presides as the Head of a new humanity. Conceived by the Holy Spirit in Mary, Jesus was without sin, and yet He underwent normal human development during his lifetime.

Justification

How can sinners stand justified before a holy God? By faith in the gospel, God imputes the righteousness of Christ to sinners. Because this righteousness comes from God and not from ourselves, Martin Luther called it "alien righteousness." The gospel is a double imputation: at the cross, Jesus was accounted guilty so that, by faith, believers could be accounted righteous. Christ was stricken as if he had sinned and we are accepted by the Judge as if we had obeyed the law — dressed in the righteousness of Christ.

The Two Natures of Jesus Christ

Jesus Christ is one person with two natures. He is not half God and half man. He is fully God and fully man. As both human and divine, Jesus serves as our penal substitute, paying our infinite sin debt that we owe to God, and standing in our place at the cross.

The Trinity

The triune God is three distinct persons and one God. He is three and one. The tri-unity of God is hinted in the Old Testament and finally revealed in the New with the advent of God's Son, Jesus Christ. By understanding the the doctrine of the Trinity, we can grow deeper in our knowledge of God and in our worship of Him.