I believe that Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God, the second person of the Holy Trinity, who in the fullness of time took to Himself a true human nature , body and rational soul, by being conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. He is truly and fully God; He is truly and fully man. These two natures exist in one person, without confusion, without change, without division, without separation (Chalcedonian Definition, 451 AD). This is not a philosophical formula imposed from without, it is the only account that does justice to the full testimony of Scripture.

I believe that the Lord Jesus lived a perfectly obedient life in our place, fulfilling every demand of the law (His active obedience), and that He died on the cross as our penal substitute, bearing the wrath of God that our sins deserved (His passive obedience). His resurrection from the dead on the third day was bodily, historical, and was the Father’s public vindication of the Son. He ascended to the right hand of the Father, where He now reigns as King and serves as our great High Priest, interceding for His people.

I reject all views that reduce the atonement to mere moral influence or governmental example. The substitutionary, propitiatory nature of the cross is not one theory among many, it is the heart of the gospel.