BUILT ON THE ONE LORD JESUS CHRIST
Paragraph 3 Basis of Union
3. BUILT UPON THE ONE LORD JESUS CHRIST
Paragraph 3 Basis of Union
The Uniting Church acknowledges that the faith and unity of the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church are built upon the one Lord Jesus Christ. The Church preaches Christ the risen crucified One and confesses him as Lord to the glory of God the Father. In Jesus Christ “God was reconciling the world to himself” (2 Corinthians 5:19 RSV). In love for the world, God gave the Son to take away the world’s sin.
raising him to live and which God had long sought in vain. In humility, obedience and trust Jesus himself, in his life and death, made the response of God’s love.could receive poor in spirit whereby the grace of God Jesus of Nazareth announced the sovereign reign , God confirmed and completed the witness which Jesus bore to God on earth, reasserted claim over the whole of creation, pardoned sinners, and made in Jesus a representative beginning of a new order of righteousness and love. To God in Christ all people are called to respond in faith. To this end God has sent forth the Spirit that people may trust God as their Father, and acknowledge Jesus as Lord. The whole work of salvation is effected by the sovereign grace of God alone.
The Church as the fellowship of the Holy Spirit confesses Jesus as Lord over its own life; it also confesses that Jesus is Head over all things, the beginning of a new creation, of a new humanity. God in Christ has given to all people in the Church the Holy Spirit as a pledge and foretaste of that coming reconciliation and renewal which is the end in view for the whole creation. The Church’s call is to serve that end: to be a fellowship of reconciliation, a body within which the diverse gifts of its members are used for the building up of the whole, an instrument through which Christ may work and bear witness to himself. The Church lives between the time of Christ’s death and resurrection and the final consummation of all things which Christ will bring; the Church is a pilgrim people, always on the way towards a promised goal; here the Church does not have a continuing city but seeks one to come. On the way Christ feeds the Church with Word and Sacraments, and it has the gift of the Spirit in order that it may not lose the way.
THE ONE LORD JESUS CHRIST
In Basis of Union Paragraph 3
LORD JESUS CHRIST IN THE ASSEMBLY OF CONFESSING CONGREGATIONS' THEOLOGICAL DECLARATION
PARAGRAPH 2. The one whom we confess
We confess Jesus Christ as Lord to the glory of God the Father. He is the incarnate Word of God, the second person of the Trinity, attested by the Spirit in prophetic and apostolic witness as Israel’s Messiah, and the one Lord and Saviour of the world. He fulfils God’s promises to Israel and, as Word and Sacrament, orders the life of the church for the sake
of all humankind.
In his life and death, Jesus Christ presented to his heavenly Father atonement for sin and the one complete, perfect offering of obedience and worship which the Father had always sought but which humankind had persistently failed to offer. He did this in our flesh and blood, and in our stead and on our behalf. Accordingly for our sake the Father, through the Spirit, raised him from the dead. The gospel is thus the word of new life for all humankind, whom the Son represented in his death and resurrection.
Therefore we rejoice in the triune God of love and confess anew the centrality of the incarnation, crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. We confess that God’s coming in Jesus Christ alone is the answer to human despair and futility. For God, in the risen, crucified One, has judged our human brokenness and alienation and rebellion against God; and has delivered us into the freedom and love of the Holy Trinity. In Christ history is transformed and humankind forgiven. Therefore, baptised into the life of Christ, and through the power of the Holy Spirit, our lives are transformed.
We believe no human disorder lies outside the inclusive redemption completed in Christ through the sanctifying love of the triune God, who is the world’s future. What we and the creation shallbe has already taken place in Christ who is the consummation of all things. Only as people of Christ can we anticipate the future and proclaim the hope of Christ’s reconciliation to the world.
Therefore we reject any notion that Jesus Christ is one sage among others in human history, or that the Christian faith is simply one path among others to the ‘god behind all gods’.
The Uniting Church acknowledges that the faith and unity of the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church are built upon
The One Lord Jesus Christ.
The Church preaches Christ
The Risen Crucified One
and confesses him as Lord
to the glory of God the Father
In Jesus Christ
“God was reconciling the world to himself”
(2 Corinthians 5:19 RSV).
In love for the world,
God gave the Son
to take away the world’s sin.
Jesus of Nazareth announced the sovereign grace of God
whereby the poor in spirit
could receive God’s love.
Jesus himself, in his life and death,
made the response of
humility, obedience and trust
which God had long sought in vain.
In raising him to
LIVE AND REIGN
God confirmed and completed the witness
which Jesus bore to God on earth,
reasserted claim over the whole of creation,
pardoned sinners,
and made in Jesus
a representative beginning of a new order
of RIGHTEOUSNESS AND LOVE
To God in Christ
all people are called to respond in faith.
To this end
God has sent forth the Spirit
that people may trust
God as their Father,
and acknowledge
Jesus as Lord.
The whole work of salvation
is effected by the SOVEREIGN GRACE
of God alone.
The Church as
the fellowship of the Holy Spirit
CONFESSES JESUS AS LORD
over her own life;
It also confesses that
JESUS IS HEAD OVER ALL THINGS
the beginning of a new creation, of a new humanity.
God in Christ
​
has given to all people in the Church
THE HOLY SPIRIT
as a pledge and foretaste of that coming reconciliation and renewal
which is the end in view for the whole creation.
The Church’s call is to serve that end:
to be a fellowship of reconciliation,
a body within which the diverse gifts of its members
are used for the building up of the whole,
an instrument through which
Christ may work and bear witness to himself.
The Church lives between the time of Christ’s death and resurrection
and the final consummation of all things
which Christ will bring;
The Church is a pilgrim people,
always on the way
towards a promised goal;
Here the Church
does not have a continuing city
but seeks one to come.
On the way Christ feeds the Church
with Word and Sacraments,
And it has
THE GIFT OF THE SPIRIT
in order
that she may not lose the way.
JESUS CHRIST AS LORD
Confessing Congregations Theological Declaration
We confess Jesus Christ as Lord to the glory of God the Father. He is the incarnate Word of God, the second person of the Trinity, attested by the Spirit in prophetic and apostolic witness as Israel’s Messiah, and the one Lord and Saviour of the world. He fulfils God’s promises to Israel and, as Word and Sacrament, orders the life of the church for the sake of all humankind.
In his life and death, Jesus Christ presented to his heavenly Father atonement for sin and the one complete, perfect offering of obedience and worship which the Father had always sought but which humankind had persistently failed to offer.
He did this in our flesh and blood, and in our stead and on our behalf. Accordingly for our sake the Father, through the Spirit, raised him from the dead. The gospel is thus the word of new life for all humankind, whom the Son represented in his death and resurrection.
Therefore we rejoice in the triune God of love and confess anew the centrality of the incarnation, crucifixion and resurrection of Christ.
We confess that God’s coming in Jesus Christ alone is the answer to human despair and futility. For God, in the risen, crucified One, has judged our human brokenness and alienation and rebellion against God; and has delivered us into the freedom and love of the Holy Trinity. In Christ history is transformed and humankind forgiven.
Therefore, baptised into the life of Christ, and through the power of the Holy Spirit, our lives are transformed.
We believe no human disorder lies outside the inclusive redemption completed in Christ through the sanctifying love of the triune God, who is the world’s future. What we and the creation shall be has already taken place in Christ who is the consummation of all things. Only as people of Christ can we anticipate the future and proclaim the hope of Christ’s reconciliation to the world.
1. Do you think it is important to have some kind of formal
liturgical structure in regular services of worship?
Do the triangular symbols in
Uniting in Worship indicating ‘essential’ components of worship provide
a helpful guide?
Therefore we reject any notion that Jesus Christ is one sage among others in human history, or that the Christian faith is simply one path among others to the ‘god behind all gods’.