Given that limitation, I believe the doctrines of the Reformed Church to be truly profound and profoundly true and I accept those doctrines as my own.  In particular, I find the most profound and true doctrines to be the ones expressed through paradox.

I believe in the Triune God: Creator, Son and Holy Spirit; one God in three persons.

It is not three Gods acting as one or one God in three forms, but three distinct, unique persons who are one God. This is a paradox. Logically it cannot be so, but when asserted and embraced in spite of logic the Trinity illuminates the reality of God. 

I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.  As Jesus of Nazareth he was fully human and fully God.  He was not half human and half God. He was not God in a human disguise. He was completely human and completely God.  This is a paradox.  Logically it cannot be so, but when asserted and embraced in spite of logic, the dual nature of Christ illuminates the reality of Jesus Christ and the hope of humanity.

I believe that we are saved by the grace of God alone yet we must “choose this day” (Joshua 24:15) whom we serve. There is nothing we can do to earn salvation and “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23) Even our faith which connects us to God’s love is a gift from God.  If we say that we must choose to receive the gift of God’s love in order to benefit from it, we are giving ourselves too much credit because our ability to receive God’s love is also a gift from God.  Yet, we still must choose.  We still must wake up in the morning and try to receive God’s love and try to live by God’s Will.  This is a paradox. Logically free will and “grace alone” cannot be true, but when asserted and embraced together, in spite of logic, they illuminate the human religious condition.

I also believe the simple but no less profound doctrines of our Reformed Faith.  Jesus Christ died on the cross for my sins. Three days later he rose from the grave and thus shows us the way through suffering, sin and death to new and eternal life. 

I believe the Church is a very human and imperfect organization that through faith becomes the body of Christ physically and spiritually serving a hurting world.

I believe that Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are the two Sacraments that uniquely connect us to Christ in ways that we are connected at no other time.

I believe the Bible is the “unique and authoritative witness to Jesus Christ in the Church universal, and God’s Word to [me].” (G-14.0405b) We must always interpret the Bible through the lens of Christ, in the context of the time and place in which it was written, with respect to the whole testimony of Scripture and by the law of love.

“God is love. And those who abide in love abide and God and God abides in them.”

(1 John 4:16b)

“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing;

 it is the gift of God—not the result of works, so that no one can boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)