We believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
who entered the world in true flesh
and walked among us in time and space.
We believe that He was betrayed,
and that He submitted Himself to death,
entering fully into the mortal chain of suffering
that binds the children of Adam.
We believe that His death was real,
and that in His surrender
He exhausted the power of sin’s causality.
We believe that when He breathed His last,
the Father exalted Him
and relocated Him beyond the reach of death,
transferring Him to a world prepared from the beginning—
a world in which no nail pierced His hands,
and no spear entered His side,
and no grave held dominion over Him.
We believe that He awoke in the garden,
not by the reversal of death’s process,
but by the removal of death’s jurisdiction—
the Son restored to life where death had never been.
We believe that He appeared to His disciples,
not as one who resumed the old life of corruption,
but as one who entered their time from beyond it,
manifesting Himself at will,
passing where doors could not contain Him,
and vanishing when His purpose was accomplished.
We believe that these appearances were true,
and that the disciples beheld Him in their world
as He stood alive in His—
the risen Lord intersecting the mortal line
to reveal the triumph of God.
We believe that after these days of manifestation
He withdrew from the visible world,
not by ascending to distant skies,
but by returning to the realm of His glorified life,
where He reigns without decay
and intercedes without interruption.
We believe in the promise given through Him:
that those who belong to Christ
will be lifted from the causal chain of death,
and will be relocated into the life where He now stands,
the firstfruits of those who sleep.
We believe that resurrection means transfer,
from the world where death holds sway
to the world where life is everlasting;
from the timeline that ends in the grave
to the timeline prepared by God
before the foundation of creation.
This is our hope and our confession:
Christ died in our world,
Christ lives in the world without death,
Christ meets His own across the boundary,
and Christ will bring us where He is.
Amen.