The Table

At The Table, our message is built upon our understanding of the gospel. The following is a brief overview of what we believe are the central issues in the gospel rooted in the creation story found in Genesis 1 - 3.

OUR SIGNIFICANCE IS IN RELATIONSHIPS

Man's ability to enjoy powerful, intimate relationships with other humans is a capacity derived solely from God's creation of men and women made in His own image. This simply means that just as God exists in relationship, men and women will exist in relationship. This capacity allows man to exist in intimate relationship with God as well as with the rest of humanity.
 
The importance of this significance is hard to overestimate. Consider the words of Jesus when asked what was the greatest of all commandments. His response: "The first in importance is, 'Listen Israel: The Lord your God is one; so love the Lord God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence and energy.' And here is the second: 'Love others as well as you love yourself.' There is no other commandment that ranks with these." (Mark 12:29-30, The Message)
 
In short, what Jesus is communicating is that the most fundamental aspect of being human is to live in a loving relationship with God and with each other. This is the essence of what it means to be truly human.

OUR SUBSTANCE IS TO RULE

In addition, God created humans to have substance to their lives. God did not create man and leave him to find purpose on his own. In fact, right after creation, the very first words God speaks to humanity are in regards to man’s purpose:
"God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.’" (Genesis 1:28-31, NIV)
 
The substance of mankind’s life is that they are created to rule over the earth. This simply means that every human is created to count for something. It implies an order and a meaning to our existence. In fact, the entire historical content of the scriptures contains stories of how men and women, both successfully and unsuccessfully, engaged life as "rulers" under God.
The beauty of the gospel is that it confirms all that our hearts long to believe about this life. Every heart yearns to know that they have significance and substance to live for. The good news of the gospel is discovering what we were created for -- to live in relationships and to rule in God's authority.

OUR SIN HAS RUINED US

The gospel confirms something else that we know to be true about life -- something has gone terribly wrong. One doesn't have to live very long before experiencing the stark realities of pain and suffering in the world. Every human heart that has ever lived on this earth longs for significance and substance and yet in various ways finds themselves unable to truly experience life as they know they should.
 
Clearly, the gospel tells us that this is the result of sin. Man’s disobedience (man’s sin) was nothing less than a revolution against the character, person, and kingdom of God. There are many misunderstandings about what sin is today. We believe the simplest definition of sin is "a violation of the way things are supposed to be."
"Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, ‘Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden?" The woman said to the serpent, 'We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.'’ 'You will not surely die,' the serpent said to the woman. 'For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.' When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves." (Genesis 3:1-7, NIV)
 
Though man was created to live in relationship with God and with each other, sin brought ruin to humanity. As a result, these vital relationships were ruined by the choice to disobey God's Word. Man was created to rule over the earth and its creatures and instead was led astray. Their relationships and rule were ruined by sin.
When Adam and Eve were forced to face God over their willful choice to violate the way things are supposed to be (that is, their sin), serious consequences accompanied their actions:
"To the woman he said, ‘I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.’ To Adam he said, ‘Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat of it,' Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.’" (Genesis 3:16-19, NIV)
 
Notice that the consequences of sin destroyed both the significance and substance of life that both man and woman were created to enjoy.
 
The true tragedy of the Bible's message is not that Adam and Eve suffered the consequences of their sin, but that all humanity continues to suffer as a result of their sin. Even today. The ultimate consequence of sin is death -- it is the ultimate ruin of the life man was created for.
As Romans 6:23 simply says:
"The wages of sin is death." (NIV)

A SAVIOR CAME TO RESCUE US

From the very beginning, the gospel tells us that God has provided a Savior to rescue us from the sin that has destroyed our significance and substance. Right before announcing the consequences of sin to Adam and Eve, God declared to the serpent (the Devil):
"Because you have done this, you will be punished. You are singled out from all the domestic and wild animals of the whole earth to be cursed. You will grovel in the dust as long as you live, crawling along on your belly. From now on, you and woman will be enemies, and your offspring and her offspring will be enemies. He will crush your head, and you will strike his heel." (Genesis 3:14-15, NLT)
 
God promises an offspring of the woman that will crush the head of Satan and end the conflict originally initiated in the garden by the serpent himself. The rest of the scriptures contain the story of how God brought about this offspring – Jesus Christ:
"But Christ has rescued us from the curse pronounced by the law. When he was hung on the cross, he took upon himself the curse for our wrongdoing." (Galatians 3:13, NLT)
 
When Jesus came, He was sent by God to offer a new way of living – a second revolution. God, in Jesus, brought about the ultimate revolution. Instead of living in the sinful nature that had been passed down from Adam, Christ offered forgiveness and restoration. He said it Himself:
"For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost." (Luke 19:10, NIV)
 
Just how did Jesus do this? He died for our sins. When Jesus was crucified God punished Him for the sins of mankind as a sacrifice for all mankind. Listen to this important passage from scripture that speak about this glorious truth:
"Since we've compiled this long and sorry record as sinners and proved that we are utterly incapable of living the glorious lives God wills for us, God did it for us. Out of sheer generosity He puts us in right standing with Himself. A pure gift. He got us out the mess we're in and restored us to where He always wanted us to be. And He did it by means of Jesus Christ.
God sacrificed Jesus on the altar of the world to clear that world of sin. Having faith in Him sets us in the clear. God decided on this course of action in full view of the public - to set the world in the clear with Himself through the sacrifice of Jesus, finally taking care of the sins he had so patiently endured. This is not only clear, but it's now - this is current history! God sets things right. He also makes it possible for us to live in His rightness." (Romans 3:23-26, The Message)