ARTICLE IX

THE CLEANSING OF SIN: THE DEATH, BURIAL, AND RESURRECTION OF JESUS CHRIST

REDEMPTIONCORPS INTERNATIONAL believes, proclaims, and teaches that every person outside of Christ Jesus stands guilty before God because of sin and is alienated from the life and fellowship of the Creator. Sin brings condemnation and death, and those who remain outside God's saving grace face the final judgment and the second death described in Scripture. Humanity cannot remove its own guilt, overcome the dominion of sin, or secure reconciliation with God through personal merit, religious observance, or human effort.

We believe that God, in His righteousness, love, and mercy, provided the atonement for sin through His Son, Jesus Christ. By divine appointment, the eternal Son of God took upon Himself true human nature and lived without sin. Through His obedience to the Father, He fulfilled the righteous purpose of God's Law and willingly offered Himself as the sacrifice for the sins of humanity. By His death upon the cross and the shedding of His precious blood, Christ bore our sins and satisfied the just demands of divine judgment, providing the means by which forgiveness, justification, and reconciliation with God are freely offered to all who believe in Him.

We affirm that Jesus Christ truly died, was buried, and rose bodily from the dead on the third day, according to the Scriptures. His death was real, His burial testified to His death, and His resurrection demonstrated His victory over sin and death. The Lord Jesus declared that He laid down His life willingly and possessed authority to take it up again in obedience to the Father. His resurrection confirms the sufficiency of His sacrifice, establishes the foundation of our faith, and secures the promise of resurrection and everlasting life for those who belong to Him. The death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ constitute the heart of the Gospel that the Church is commissioned to proclaim to all nations.

We further believe, proclaim, and teach that the redemptive work of Jesus Christ provides the foundation for the believer's freedom from the dominion and consequences of sin, sickness, and the curse. Through His obedient life, sacrificial death, burial, and bodily resurrection, Christ accomplished the decisive work of redemption and secured the provision of salvation, healing, deliverance, restoration, and divine provision for those who believe. We affirm that God's promises are true and that He is faithful to His Word. Therefore, the Church must proclaim the full Gospel with confidence, teaching believers to receive God's promises by faith, to persevere in prayer, and to stand upon His Word. The believer's faith does not make God faithful; it responds to the faithfulness of God and rests upon the provision He has made through Jesus Christ. Accordingly, REDEMPTIONCORPS INTERNATIONAL will not remove healing, deliverance, or God's provision from its proclamation of the Gospel merely because their manifestation may be contested, delayed, or not yet experienced in a particular circumstance.

We believe that those who receive Jesus Christ by faith are forgiven, reconciled to God, and born again through the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit. They become children of God by grace and are made partakers of the new life that comes from Him. This new birth establishes a transformed relationship with God and begins the continuing work of spiritual renewal, sanctification, and conformity to the image of Jesus Christ. Salvation is God's gracious provision, accomplished through Christ and received by faith; it is not earned through human righteousness or works.

REDEMPTIONCORPS INTERNATIONAL therefore proclaims Jesus Christ as the sufficient and appointed Savior of humanity. Through His death, burial, and bodily resurrection, He has accomplished the decisive work of redemption. Forgiveness of sins, justification, reconciliation with God, regeneration, and everlasting life are received by grace through faith in Him. His redemptive work is also the foundation of the Church's proclamation of healing, deliverance, restoration, and divine provision. We call all people to repent, believe the Gospel, receive the new birth, and walk by faith in the promises of God, looking forward to the consummation of redemption, when death and corruption will be abolished and God's people will share fully in the life of the age to come.

SCRIPTURAL FOUNDATIONS

Romans 3:23–26 — The universality of sin, justification by grace, and Christ's role as the propitiation for sin through faith in His blood.

Romans 5:8–11 — God's love demonstrated through Christ's death, justification by His blood, and reconciliation with God through His Son.

Isaiah 53:4–12 — The suffering Servant who bears human infirmities and the sins of many, suffers on behalf of transgressors, and makes intercession for them.

Matthew 8:16–17 — Jesus' ministry of healing understood in relation to Isaiah's prophecy concerning the Servant who bears infirmities and sicknesses.

Matthew 26:26–28 — Christ's declaration concerning His blood of the covenant, poured out for the remission of sins.

John 10:17–18 — Christ's willing sacrifice of His life and His authority to take it up again.

John 19:28–37 — The historical account of Christ's crucifixion and death.

Romans 4:23–25 — Christ delivered up for our offenses and raised for our justification.

1 Corinthians 15:1–8, 12–22 — The Gospel of Christ's death, burial, and resurrection, and the central importance of the resurrection to Christian faith and the believer's future life.

2 Corinthians 5:17–21 — New creation in Christ and the ministry of reconciliation entrusted to the Church.

2 Corinthians 8:9 — Christ's self-giving poverty and the riches made available through His grace.

Galatians 3:13–14 — Christ's redemption from the curse of the Law and the blessing of Abraham made available to the nations through faith.

Hebrews 9:11–28 — Christ's once-for-all sacrifice, the shedding of blood for the remission of sins, and His appearance to put away sin through the sacrifice of Himself.

Hebrews 10:10–14 — The once-for-all offering of Christ's body and the sufficiency of His sacrifice.

Hebrews 10:23 — The call to hold fast the confession of our hope because the One who promised is faithful.

1 Peter 2:24 — Christ bearing our sins in His body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live unto righteousness; His wounds are associated with healing.

1 John 1:7–9 — The cleansing power of Christ's blood and God's faithfulness to forgive and cleanse those who confess their sins.

John 3:3–8 — The necessity of being born again through the work of the Spirit.

Matthew 9:22, 27–29; 15:28 — Accounts illustrating the relationship between faith and healing or deliverance in Jesus' ministry.

Mark 11:22–24 — Jesus' teaching concerning faith in God and confidence in prayer.

Romans 6:3–11 — Participation in Christ's death and resurrection and the call to walk in newness of life.

Revelation 20:11–15; 21:1–4 — The final judgment, the second death, and the promised end of death, mourning, crying, and pain in the new creation.