Town North is a congregation of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA). As such, our supreme standard and sole authority is the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments; the Word of God. Our subordinate standard is the Westminster Confession of Faith, together with the Shorter and Larger Catechisms, which we believe to be an accurate and faithful summary of the doctrines contained in Scripture.
Scripture
We believe that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the inspired, infallible and inerrant word of God. We hold the Scriptures to be the only infallible rule of faith and life.
(2 Tim. 3:16; Heb. 6:18; Prov. 30:5)
God
We believe that there is only one true and living God and that there are three persons in the Godhead: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. These three are One God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory.
(Matt. 28:19; Heb. 1:3; John 1:14; John 15:26)
Man
We believe that man was created in God's image, in knowledge, righteousness and holiness. In Adam (the first man), all of humanity sinned and became corrupt in the mind, affections and the will (original sin). As a result of both original sin and our own actual sins, all stand guilty before God and are spiritually dead apart from the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit and the redemption that is found in the Lord Jesus Christ.
(Gen. 1:26-27; 2:7; 6:5; Rom. 3:23; 5:12; Jer. 17:9; Eph. 2:1)
Jesus Christ
We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is the eternal and only begotten Son of God, the second person of the Trinity. In his incarnation, Christ assumed (took on) a human nature and so became one person with two distinct, unmixed - though inseparable - natures: God and Man. He is then, the “God-Man”. Born to the virgin, Mary, Christ lived in perfect obedience to God’s law, died on the cross as an atonement for sin and was physically raised from the dead – thereby securing salvation and eternal life for all who believe.
(John 1:1-5;14; 8:58; Heb. 4:15; 1 John 2:2; Heb. 9:12; 1 Cor. 15:13-15; John 11:25)
Salvation
We believe that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in the Lord Jesus Christ alone. Having received this redemption, believers are called to live in obedience to the moral law and to walk in the good works which God has prepared from eternity. The foundation of salvation is faith in Christ; the fruit of salvation is a life of obedience and good works.
(1 Timothy 2:5; Rom. 1:17; 3:23-26; Eph. 2: 4-10; James 2:14-26)
Justification
Justification is an act of God’s free grace wherein He pardons all of our sins and accepts us as righteous in his sight; this results from the imputed righteousness of Christ, which is received by faith alone. A person cannot be justified (forgiven and declared righteous by God) by their own efforts, or good works. Instead, through faith in Christ, His perfect obedience (in life and death) and His righteousness are imputed (credited, or accounted) to us. This is often described as “the great exchange”: as our sins were imputed to Him, so His righteousness is imputed to us.
(Rom. 3:21-26; 2 Cor. 5:21)
Adoption
Adoption is an act of God’s free grace, whereby we are received into the number of His people, the household of faith, and have a right to all the privileges of the sons of God. All who are justified by God are His adopted children - those now able to cry, “Abba Father”.
(John 1:12; Rom. 8:15)
Sanctification
Sanctification is the work of God’s free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God, and are enabled more and more to die to sin and live unto righteousness. Sanctification is the work of the Holy Spirit which begins with regeneration and continues to the end of life, when a believer is conformed at last to Christ’s image.
(Phil. 1:6; 2:12; 1 Peter 1:2)
The Church
The church consists of all people throughout the world who profess faith in the one true religion of Christianity, and their children. This is the kingdom and body of the Lord Jesus Christ, the household and family of God - out of which there is no ordinary possibility of salvation.
(Eph. 2:19-21; Gal. 3:28; 1 Cor. 7:14)
Covenant theology
We believe that the distance between God and man is so great that although obedience is owed to Him, yet man could not have any fruition of Him as his blessedness and reward except by way of some voluntary condescension on His part - which He has been pleased to express by way of covenant. The first covenant was a covenant of works, wherein life was promised to Adam and his posterity, upon condition of perfect and personal obedience. Since man, by his fall, made himself incapable of life by the first covenant, God made a second covenant, known as the covenant of grace, wherein He freely offers sinners life and salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. This covenant of grace has been expressed in various ways at different times throughout redemptive history:
In the first announcement of the gospel (Gen. 3:15)
In God’s covenant with Noah (Gen. 9)
In God’s covenant with Abraham (Gen. 12, 15, 17)
In God’s covenant with Moses (Ex. 19-24)
In God’s covenant with David – (2 Sam. 7)
All of which was fulfilled by the new covenant in Jesus Christ (Jer. 31; Matt. 26:27)
This covenant of grace was administered differently at the time of the law and the time of the gospel: under the law, by promises, prophesies, sacrifices, circumcision, the paschal lamb – all of which foreshadowed the Christ who was to come; under the gospel, with Christ the substance now exhibited, by the preaching of the word and the administration of the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s supper. There are not then two covenants of grace, differing in substance, but one and the same under different dispensations.
The Sacraments
Under the law, the signs of God’s covenant were circumcision and the Passover; under the gospel, the signs of God’s covenant are baptism and the Lord’s supper.
Baptism is a sacrament, wherein the washing with water in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, signifies and seals our: ingrafting into Christ, partaking of the benefits of the covenant of grace and our engagement to be the Lord’s. We believe that baptism is not to be administered to any who are outside of the visible church, until they publicly profess faith in Christ and become communicant members, but the infants of such are to be baptized.
(Matt. 28:19; Gen. 17:10-12; Acts 2:38-39; 16:33; 1 Cor. 7:14)
The Lord’s Supper is a sacrament, wherein, by giving and receiving bread and wine, according to Christ’s appointment, his death is showed forth; and the worthy receivers are, not after a corporal and carnal manner, but by faith, made partakers of his body and blood, with all his benefits, to their spiritual nourishment, and growth in grace. It also serves as a bond and pledge of a believer’s communion with Christ and His mystical body, the church.
(1 Cor 10:16-17; 1 Cor. 11:23-26)
Judgment
Having been raised from the dead, Christ ascended into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God - the place of majesty, authority and dominion. At the end of the age, He will return to judge the living and the dead – sentencing all who have not believed to eternal damnation in hell and bringing all who have believed to everlasting life in His Kingdom.
(Matt. 24:30-31; 25:31-46; Phil. 2:10-11)