Beliefs of the United Methodist

When we say the Apostles’ Creed, we join with millions of Christians  through the ages in an understanding of God as a Trinity—three persons  in one: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. From early in our Judaic roots  we’ve affirmed that God is one and indivisible, yet God is revealed in  three distinct ways. “God in three persons, blessed Trinity” is one way  of speaking about the several ways we experience God.

We also try to find adjectives that describe the divine nature: God  is transcendent (over and beyond all that is), yet at the same time  immanent (present in everything). God is omnipresent (everywhere at  once), omnipotent (all-powerful), and omniscient (all-knowing). God is  absolute, infinite, righteous, just, loving, merciful…and more. Because  we cannot speak literally about God, we use metaphors: God is a  Shepherd, a Bridegroom, a Judge. God is Love or Light or Truth.

We cannot describe God with certainty. But we can put into words what  God does and how we experience God’s action in our lives. God works in  at least these seven ways:

• God creates. In the beginning God created the universe, and  the Creation is ongoing. From the whirling galaxies, to subatomic  particles, to the unfathomable wonders of our own minds and bodies—we  marvel at God’s creative wisdom.
• God sustains. God continues to be active in creation,  holding all in “the everlasting arms.” In particular, we affirm that God  is involved in our human history—past, present, and future.
• God loves. God loves all creation. In particular, God loves  humankind, created in the divine image. This love is like that of a  parent. We’ve followed Jesus in speaking of God as “our Father,” while  at times it seems that God nurtures us in a motherly way as well.
• God suffers. Since God is present in creation, God is hurt  when any aspect of creation is hurt. God especially suffers when people  are injured. In all violence, abuse, injustice, prejudice, hunger,  poverty, or illness, the living God is suffering in our midst.
• God judges. All human behavior is measured by God’s  righteous standards—not only the behavior itself but also the motive or  the intent. The Lord of life knows our sin—and judges it.
• God redeems. Out of infinite love for each of us, God  forgives our own self-destruction and renews us within. God is  reconciling the individuals, groups, races, and nations that have been  rent apart. God is redeeming all creation.
• God reigns. God is the Lord of all creation and of all  history. Though it may oftentimes seem that the “principalities and  powers” of evil have the stronger hand, we affirm God’s present and  future reign.

When all is done, if we have difficulty in imagining who God is or in  relating to God, there’s a simple solution: Remember Jesus—for in the  New Testament picture of Jesus, we see God.From United Methodist Member’s Handbook, Revised by George Koehler (Discipleship Resources, 2006), pp. 72-73. Used by permission.

In trying to find words to express their faith in Jesus, the New  Testament writers gave him various names. Jesus was Master, Rabbi,  Teacher. He was the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He was the Doorway to  the sheepfold, the Light of the world, the Prince of Peace, and more. In  the church’s long tradition, scores of other names or titles have been  given. Let’s look at five of the most central biblical names for Jesus: 

We believe in Jesus as God’s special child. We call this the  Incarnation, meaning that God was in the world in the actual person of  Jesus of Nazareth. The Gospel writers explain this in different ways. In  Mark, Jesus seems to be adopted as God’s Son at his baptism. In Matthew  and Luke, Jesus is conceived by the Holy Spirit. In John, Jesus is  God’s pre-existing Word who “became flesh and lived among us” (1:14).  However this mystery occurred, we affirm that God is wholly present in  Jesus Christ. 

Paradoxically, we also believe that Jesus was fully human. One of the  church’s first heresies claimed that Jesus only seemed to be human,  that he was really a divine figure in disguise. But the early church  rejected this. It affirmed that Jesus was a person in every sense that  we are. He was tempted. He grew weary. He wept. He expressed his anger.  In fact, Jesus is God’s picture of what it means to be a mature human  being. 

We say “Jesus Christ” easily, almost as if “Christ” were Jesus’  surname. Yet this name is another way of expressing who we believe Jesus  to be. Christ is the Greek translation of the Hebrew word Messiah,  which means God’s Anointed One. For years before Jesus’ time the Jews  had been expecting a new king, a descendant of the revered King David,  who would restore the nation of Israel to glory. Like kings of old, this  one would be anointed on the head with oil, signifying God’s election;  hence, the Chosen One = the Anointed One = the Messiah = the Christ. The  early Jewish Christians proclaimed that Jesus was, indeed, this Chosen  One. Thus, in calling him our Christ today, we affirm that he was and is  the fulfillment of the ancient hope and God’s Chosen One to bring  salvation to all peoples, for all time. 

We also proclaim Jesus as our Lord, the one to whom we give our  devoted allegiance. The word Lord had a more powerful meaning for people  of medieval times, because they actually lived under the authority of  lords and monarchs. Today some of us may find it difficult to  acknowledge Jesus as Lord of our lives. We’re used to being independent  and self-sufficient. We have not bowed down to authority. To claim Jesus  as Lord is to freely submit our will to his, to humbly profess that it  is he who is in charge of this world. 

Perhaps best of all, we believe in Jesus as Savior, as the one  through whom God has freed us of our sin and has given us the gift of  whole life, eternal life, and salvation. We speak of this gift as the  atonement, our “at-oneness” or reconciliation with God. We believe that  in ways we cannot fully explain, God has done this through the mystery  of Jesus’ self-giving sacrifice on the cross and his victory over sin  and death in the Resurrection.

From United Methodist Member’s Handbook, Revised by George Koehler (Discipleship Resources, 2006), pp. 76-77. Used by permission.

What does it mean to be saved and  to be assured of salvation? It’s to know that after feeling lost and  alone, we’ve been found by God. It’s to know that after feeling  worthless, we’ve been redeemed. It’s to experience a reunion with God,  others, the natural world, and our own best selves. It’s a healing of  the alienation—the estrangement—we’ve experienced. In salvation we  become whole. Salvation happens to us both now and for the future. It’s  “eternal life,” that new quality of life in unity with God of which the  Gospel of John speak—-a life that begins not at death, but in the  present. But how does salvation happen? 

Salvation cannot be earned. There’s no behavior, no matter how holy  or righteous, by which we can achieve salvation. Rather, it’s the gift  of a gracious God.

By grace we mean God’s extraordinary love for us. In most of  life we’re accustomed to earning approval from others. This is true at  school, at work, in society, even at home—to a degree. We may feel that  we have to act “just so” to be liked or loved. But God’s love, or grace,  is given without any regard for our goodness. It’s unmerited,  unconditional, and unending love.

As we come to accept this love, to entrust ourselves to it, and to  ground our lives in it, we discover the wholeness that God has promised.  This trust, as we’ve seen, is called faith. God takes the initiative in  grace; but only as we respond through faith is the change wrought in us.

This is the great theme of the Protestant Reformers, as well as John  Wesley and the Methodists who followed: We’re saved by grace alone  through faith alone. We’re made whole and reconciled by the love of God  as we receive it and trust in it.

This process of salvation involves a change in us that we call conversion.  Conversion is a turning around, leaving one orientation for another. It  may be sudden and dramatic, or gradual and cumulative. But in any case  it’s a new beginning. Following Jesus’ words to Nicodemus, “You must be  born anew” (John 3:7 RSV), we speak of this conversion as rebirth, new  life in Christ, or regeneration.

Following Paul and Luther, John Wesley called this process justification.  Justification is what happens when Christians abandon all those vain  attempts to justify themselves before God, to be seen as “just” in God’s  eyes through religious and moral practices. It’s a time when God’s  “justifying grace” is experienced and accepted, a time of pardon and  forgiveness, of new peace and joy and love. Indeed, we’re justified by  God’s grace through faith.

Justification is also a time of repentance — turning away  from behaviors rooted in sin and toward actions that express God’s love.  In this conversion we can expect to receive assurance of our present  salvation through the Holy Spirit “bearing witness with our spirit that  we are children of God” (Romans 8:16).

Conversion is but the beginning of the new life of wholeness. Through  what Wesley called God’s “sanctifying grace,” we can continue to grow.  In fact, Wesley affirmed, we’re to press on, with God’s help, in the  path of sanctification, the gift of Christian perfection. The  goal of the sanctified life is to be perfected in love, to experience  the pure love of God and others, a holiness of heart and life, a total  death to sin. We’re not there yet; but by God’s grace, as we United  Methodists say, “we’re going on to perfection!”

From United Methodist Member’s Handbook, Revised by George Koehler (Discipleship Resources, 2006), pp. 78-79. Used by permission.

The Holy Spirit is God’s present activity in our midst. When we sense  God’s leading, God’s challenge, or God’s support or comfort, we say  that it’s the Holy Spirit at work.

In Hebrew, the words for Spirit, wind, and breath are nearly the same. The same is true in Greek. In trying to describe  God’s activity among them, the ancients were saying that it was like  God’s breath, like a sacred wind. It could not be seen or held: “The  wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do  not know where it comes from or where it goes” (John 3:8). But the  effect of God’s Spirit, like the wind, could be felt and known. Where do  we find the evidence of the Spirit at work?

The Spirit is mentioned often throughout the Bible. In Genesis a  “wind from God swept over the face of the waters,” as if taking part in  the Creation (1:2). Later in the Old Testament (Hebrew Bible), we often  read of “the Spirit of the Lord.”

In Matthew’s account of Jesus’ baptism, Jesus “saw the Spirit of God  descending like a dove and alighting on him” (3:16) and he “was led up  by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted” (4:1). After his  Resurrection Christ told his disciples, “You will receive power when the  Holy Spirit has come upon you” (Acts 1:8). A few weeks later, on the  Day of Pentecost, this came to pass: “And suddenly from heaven there  came a sound like the rush of a violent wind…. All of them were filled  with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:2, 4). As the Book of Acts and Paul’s  letters attest, from that time on, the early Christians were vividly  aware of God’s Spirit leading the new church.

Today we continue to experience God’s breath, God’s Spirit. As one of  our creeds puts it, “We believe in the Holy Spirit, God present with us  for guidance, for comfort, and for strength” (The United Methodist Hymnal,  No. 884). We sense the Spirit in time alone—perhaps in prayer, in our  study of the Scriptures, in reflection on a difficult decision, or in  the memory of a loved one. The Spirit’s touch is intensely personal.

Perhaps we’re even more aware of the Holy Spirit in the community of  believers—the congregation, the church school class or fellowship group,  the soup kitchen, the planning committee, the prayer meeting, the  family. Somehow the Spirit speaks through the thoughtful and loving  interaction of God’s people. The Holy Spirit, who brought the church  into being, is still guiding and upholding it, if we will but listen.

How does the Holy Spirit affect our lives? By changing us! By renewing us and by strengthening us for the work of ministry.

• Fruits: Jesus said, “You will know them by their fruits”  (Matthew 7:16). What sort of fruit? Paul asserts that “the fruit of the  Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity,  faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (Galatians 5:22).
• Gifts: Paul also writes that the Spirit bestows spiritual  gifts on believers. In 1 Corinthians 12:8-10 he lists nine, which vary  from one person to another: the utterance of wisdom, the utterance of  knowledge, faith, healing, working of miracles, prophecy, the  discernment of spirits, various kinds of tongues, and the interpretation  of tongues.

These fruits and gifts are not of our own achievement. They and  others are the outgrowth of the Spirit’s work in us, by grace, through  our faith in Jesus the Christ. And they are not given for personal gain.  Through these fruits and gifts, the Holy Spirit empowers us for  ministry in the world.

From United Methodist Member’s Handbook, Revised by George Koehler (Discipleship Resources, 2006), pp. 84-85. Used by permission. 

• We believe that God created human beings in God’s image.
• We believe that humans can choose to accept or reject a relationship with God.
• We believe that all humans need to be in relationship with God in order to be fully human.

Excerpt from What Every Teacher Needs to Know About Theology (Discipleship Resources, 2002), p. 14 

Genesis 1:27 asserts that we’ve been made in the image of the Creator. Like God we have the capacity to love and care, to communicate, and to create. Like God we’re free, and we’re responsible. We’ve been made, says Psalm 8, “a little lower than God” and crowned “with glory and honor.” We believe that the entire created order has been designed for the well-being of all its creatures and as a place where all people can dwell in covenant with God.But we do not live as God intends. Again and again we break the covenant  relationship between God and us. We turn our backs on God and on God’s  expectations for us. We deny our birthright, the life of wholeness and  holiness for which we were created. We call this alienation from God, sin. A  distinction should be made between sin and sins. We use the word sins to denote transgressions or immoral acts. We speak of “sins of omission and commission.” These are real enough and serious, but they’re not the  essential issue.The issue is sin in the singular. Sin is our alienation from God, our willful act of turning from God as the center of life and making our own selves and our own wills the center. From this fundamental sin our various sins spring. Sin is estrangement of at  least four kinds:

Sin is breaking the covenant, separating ourselves from the One who  is our origin and destiny. It’s trying to go it alone, to be out of  touch with the God who is the center of life. Based on the story in  Genesis 3, the church has described this break in dramatic terms: the Fall.

In our sin we distance ourselves from others. We put ourselves at the  center of many relationships, exploiting others for our own advantage. Instead of loving people and using things, we love things and use  people. When confronted with human need, we may respond with token acts  of kindness or with lip service or perhaps not at all. Toward some  people and some groups, we’re totally indifferent or actively hostile.  Sin is a denial of our common humanity and our common destiny on this one small planet. 

In our sin we separate ourselves from the natural environment.  Greedily we turn upon it, consuming it, destroying it, befouling it. As natural resources dwindle, as possibilities increase for long-term  damage to the atmosphere and seas, we pause to wonder. But our chief  concern is for our own survival, not for the beauty and unity of all  God’s creation. 

We turn even from our own center, from the goodness, happiness, and  holiness that is our divinely created potential. Sometimes it seems that  there are two wills warring within us. As Paul put it, “I do not  understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the  very thing I hate” (Romans 7:15).

Paul continues: “Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this  body of death?” (Romans 7:24). Like Paul, we discover that we are  powerless to extricate ourselves from sin. Though we work ever so  earnestly at various means of saving ourselves—being good, going to  church, reading the Bible—these in themselves cannot save us. Sin is not  a problem to be solved. It’s our radical estrangement from God, a  separation that only God can heal by a radical act of love. We yearn for  this reunion, this reconciliation, this redemption, this salvation.

From United Methodist Member’s Handbook, Revised by George Koehler (Discipleship Resources, 2006), pp. 74-75. Used by permission.

What does it mean to be saved and to be assured of salvation? It’s to  know that after feeling lost and alone, we’ve been found by God. It’s to know that after feeling worthless, we’ve been redeemed. It’s to  experience a reunion with God, others, the natural world, and our own  best selves. It’s a healing of the alienation—the estrangement—we’ve  experienced. In salvation we become whole. Salvation happens to us both  now and for the future. It’s “eternal life,” that new quality of life in  unity with God of which the Gospel of John speak—-a life that begins  not at death, but in the present. But how does salvation happen? 

Salvation cannot be earned. There’s no behavior, no matter how holy  or righteous, by which we can achieve salvation. Rather, it’s the gift  of a gracious God.

By grace we mean God’s extraordinary love for us. In most of  life we’re accustomed to earning approval from others. This is true at  school, at work, in society, even at home—to a degree. We may feel that  we have to act “just so” to be liked or loved. But God’s love, or grace,  is given without any regard for our goodness. It’s unmerited,  unconditional, and unending love.

As we come to accept this love, to entrust ourselves to it, and to  ground our lives in it, we discover the wholeness that God has promised.  This trust, as we’ve seen, is called faith. God takes the initiative in  grace; but only as we respond through faith is the change wrought in  us.

This is the great theme of the Protestant Reformers, as well as John  Wesley and the Methodists who followed: We’re saved by grace alone  through faith alone. We’re made whole and reconciled by the love of God  as we receive it and trust in it.

This process of salvation involves a change in us that we call conversion.  Conversion is a turning around, leaving one orientation for another. It  may be sudden and dramatic, or gradual and cumulative. But in any case  it’s a new beginning. Following Jesus’ words to Nicodemus, “You must be  born anew” (John 3:7 RSV), we speak of this conversion as rebirth, new  life in Christ, or regeneration.

Following Paul and Luther, John Wesley called this process justification.  Justification is what happens when Christians abandon all those vain  attempts to justify themselves before God, to be seen as “just” in God’s  eyes through religious and moral practices. It’s a time when God’s  “justifying grace” is experienced and accepted, a time of pardon and  forgiveness, of new peace and joy and love. Indeed, we’re justified by  God’s grace through faith.

Justification is also a time of repentance — turning away  from behaviors rooted in sin and toward actions that express God’s love.  In this conversion we can expect to receive assurance of our present  salvation through the Holy Spirit “bearing witness with our spirit that  we are children of God” (Romans 8:16).

Conversion is but the beginning of the new life of wholeness. Through  what Wesley called God’s “sanctifying grace,” we can continue to grow.  In fact, Wesley affirmed, we’re to press on, with God’s help, in the  path of sanctification, the gift of Christian perfection. The  goal of the sanctified life is to be perfected in love, to experience  the pure love of God and others, a holiness of heart and life, a total  death to sin. We’re not there yet; but by God’s grace, as we United  Methodists say, “we’re going on to perfection!”

From United Methodist Member’s Handbook, Revised by George Koehler (Discipleship Resources, 2006), pp. 78-79. Used by permission.

We say that the Bible is vital to our faith and life, but what exactly is the Bible? Here are four ways to view it: 

The Bible is a collection of sixty-six books, thirty-nine in the Old  Testament (or Hebrew Bible) and twenty-seven in the New Testament. These  books were written over a one-thousand-year period in three languages:  Hebrew, Aramaic (the language Jesus spoke), and Greek.

The books are of different lengths and different literary styles. In  the Hebrew Bible we find legends, histories, liturgies for community  worship, songs, proverbs, sermons, even a poetic drama (Job). In the New  Testament are Gospels, a history, many letters, and an apocalypse  (Revelation). Yet through it all the Bible is the story of the one God,  who stands in a covenant relationship with the people of God.

In early times and over many generations, the sixty-six books were  thoughtfully used by faithful people. In the process their merits were  weighed, and the community of believers finally gave them special  authority. Tested by faith, proven by experience, these books have  become sacred; they’ve become our rule for faith and practice.

In Israel the Book of Deuteronomy was adopted as the Word of God  about 621 B.C. The Torah, or Law (the first five books of the Hebrew  Bible), assumed authority around 400 B.C.; the Prophets about 200 B.C.;  and the Writings about 100 B.C. After a struggle the Christians  determined that the Hebrew Bible was Scripture for them as well. The New  Testament as we know it was formed and adopted by church councils  between A.D. 200 and A.D. 400.

We say that God speaks to us through the Bible, that it’s God’s Word. This authority derives from three sources:

• We hold that the writers of the Bible were inspired, that they were  filled with God’s Spirit as they wrote the truth to the best of their  knowledge.
• We hold that God was at work in the process of canonization, during  which only the most faithful and useful books were adopted as Scripture.
• We hold that the Holy Spirit works today in our thoughtful study of  the Scriptures, especially as we study them together, seeking to relate  the old words to life’s present realities.

The Bible’s authority is, therefore, nothing magical. For example, we  do not open the text at random to discover God’s will. The authority of  Scripture derives from the movement of God’s Spirit in times past and  in our reading of it today.

We United Methodists put the Bible to work. In congregational worship  we read from the Bible. Through preaching, we interpret its message for  our lives. It forms the background of most of our hymns and liturgy.  It’s the foundation of our church school curriculum. Many of us use it  in our individual devotional lives, praying through its implications day  by day. However, we admit that there’s still vast “biblical illiteracy”  in our denomination. We need to help one another open the Bible and use it.

Perhaps the Bible is best put to use when we seriously answer these  four questions about a given text: (1) What did this passage mean to its  original hearers? (2) What part does it play in the Bible’s total  witness? (3) What does God seem to be saying to my life, my community,  my world, through this passage? and (4) What changes should I consider  making as a result of my study?

From United Methodist Member’s Handbook, Revised by George Koehler (Discipleship Resources, 2006), pp. 80-81. 

Christian faith is, in part, a matter of hoping. We believe in and  trust the Lord of the future, and we lean into the future that God has  promised. God goes before us, beckoning us into the new world that is  already being created, calling us to join in the challenging work of  fashioning it.

However, when we’re confronted with personal disasters or with the  daily horror stories of society’s ills, we may falter. Hope may seem to  be unrealistic, naive optimism.

Yet our hope is not in trends. Our hope is in the Lord of all  creation and all history — a God who is still in charge and is actively  at work transforming the world. How do we know this?

The Bible is a book of God’s promises. It may seem to be about the  past, but its outlook is toward the future. From promises in the Book of  Genesis to Abraham and Sarah for a new land, a son, and countless  descendants (chapter 17), to promises in the Book of Revelation of a  “new heaven and a new earth” (21:1), God was helping biblical people  live into the vision of creation’s ultimate goal.

The Old Testament (Hebrew Bible) uses the word shalom to describe  God’s future. We often translate this word as “peace,” but it means more  than that. Shalom means a world of plenty, of personal and  interpersonal harmony and righteousness, of liberation, of just economic  practices, and of ordered political relations.

For Jesus, the shalom of God was the kingdom of God, the coming reign  of God in human hearts and in all human affairs. In fact he proclaimed  that this reign already “has come near” (Mark 1:15) and that the  decision about one’s part in it was an urgent necessity: “Strive first  for the kingdom of God and his righteousness” (Matthew 6:33).

In the resurrection of our Lord, his amazed followers recognized that  God’s reign was breaking into their lives: “So if anyone is in Christ,  there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything  has become new!” (2 Corinthians 5:17). The old regime of hostility,  greed, injustice, and violence was obsolete and dying. The new order was  coming in: “See, I am making all things new” (Revelation 21:5). For  those who see with the eyes of faith, it is apparent that our common  human future on earth is indeed the promised reign of God.

There are signs of the coming Kingdom all about us — from random acts  of kindness by individuals to the worldwide family’s growth in  tolerance and cooperation. In particular we see the church as a sign of  the Kingdom. Imperfect as it is, the community of believers nevertheless  provides the best clue we have to God’s vision. Day after day, we see  deeds of Christian courage, of compassion and reconciliation, of  integrity in the face of temptation, and of witness for truth and  justice. 

And what is our role — to sit back and simply wait for God’s kingdom to arrive? By no means! We are to pray earnestly for the Kingdom to come  on earth (Matthew 6:10). We are to watch faithfully for any signs of  its coming (Matthew 25:13). We are to put away our old selves and clothe ourselves “with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:24). As renewed people, we’re to do “the work of ministry” (Ephesians 4:12). As Easter people witness and serve, we take part in the Kingdom’s dawning. Thy Kingdom come!

From United Methodist Member’s Handbook, Revised by George Koehler (Discipleship Resources, 2006), pp. 90-91. Used by permission.