At the center of everything we are and do here at Immanuel Baptist Church is the gospel. We do not consider ourselves merely good religious people. Instead we understand that we are all undeserving sinners reconciled to God by His free grace.

The Word of God informs us that we human beings are by nature rebellious against God. Though He is our Creator and Lord by right, we do not want to obey His will for us and choose instead to go our own way (1 Peter 2:25). This is bad news because the Scriptures tell us that “The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men” (Romans 1:18). As Paul told the Ephesians we were all “by nature children of wrath, even as the rest” (Ephesians 2:3).

This is why we believe Christianity is not about self-righteous religious moralism. Rather it is about the gospel. The gospel is the good news from God to rebellious sinners about how they can be saved from the wrath which will finally be poured out upon all those still in their sin in the coming judgment day. In short, the good news of the gospel is that God sent His beloved Son Jesus Christ into the world to live the perfect life we fallen humans couldn’t live and to bear the wrath and punishment of God upon the cross in the place of all those who would repent and believe in Him. The gospel declares to rebellious sinners that all who confess their sin and turn from it to put their trust in Jesus Christ as Savior will be completely forgiven and have Christ’s own perfect righteousness credited to them as a free gift apart from any work on their part to earn it. Paul declares this truth in 2 Corinthians 5:21, saying: “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” Therefore, according to the gospel, rebels against God who deserved wrath can be freely reconciled to Him by faith in Jesus Christ. And finally the gospel declares that God has raised Jesus from the dead so that in Him all those who have been reconciled through repentance and faith can have eternal life and the hope of their own future resurrection when He returns in glory.

That is what the Scriptures teach, and this is what we believe as the foundation of our lives as Christians at IBC. The gospel of Jesus Christ is the most important thing to us and we know it is the only hope for our fellow sinners who are facing the final judgment of God, so we strive to keep it at the center of everything we do.

If you would like to explore the gospel further we would suggest looking at the more complete gospel presentation called Two Ways to Live, provided by Matthias Media.