Everything we believe at The Table comes from the Bible, God's message of hope and love through the Person and work of Jesus Christ. The Bible is the only source of knowledge about God and His forgiveness. The Bible is the written Word of God, handed down to us in order to point us to the truth that we are saved from our sin and eternal death by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ at no cost to ourselves. It is through the Bible that God speaks to us today, giving us the rule and norm for all we believe, do, and say. Since it was written by men as they were directed and guided by God’s Holy Spirit, we believe that the Bible is completely reliable and without error. In the Bible, we learn everything we need to know about God’s love and His gifts to us.

There is only one true God. There is only one true God — the Triune God — who exists in three separate but equal persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Contrary to public opinion, only one spiritual path leads to salvation and eternal life. That path passes through the God of the Bible, and is revealed to us by His Son, Jesus.

God the Father is the Creator and sustainer of the universe. When God first made the universe, He was pleased with everything He created. And when He created mankind—Adam and Eve—the Bible tells us God said they were “very good!” God loved his creation, and desired that Adam and Eve would reflect his image, live in relationship with Him and care for His creation.

Adam and Eve doubted that God would provide and care for them in the best way possible. So they rebelled against God. Once they broke that relationship, their natures became selfish and self-centered. Now every human being is born with a self-centered (sinful) nature and a tendency for evil that violates God’s will and desire. The Bible says that when Adam sinned, we all sinned. The term "original sin" means that Adam's sin has been passed on down to all members of the human race. Sin is universal. Sin is a "born with" condition that affects every member of the human race, save One (Jesus Christ). Attempts to change human nature or to please God with our own good are doomed to failure, for God demands perfection. No matter how hard we try, we are not and can never be perfect. Therefore, all of us are in the same boat: we need to be forgiven. While people are in need of forgiveness and right standing with God they have no means of attaining forgiveness and right standing with God through anything that they do. Everyone has been born in sin, is guilty of sin, and deserve death, God's wrath, and eternal separation from God.

At The Table of Los Fresnos, we make a big deal about Jesus. We are always talking about Jesus. Jesus Christ is God the Son. Jesus Christ was God in the flesh—He was 100% human and 100% God, all in one. Because Jesus was human, He experienced all the pain, suffering, and temptation we do. But because Jesus was God, He dealt with it all in perfect, sinless ways. He did what none of us can do: He never sinned. After three years of publicly teaching, revealing himself to be God, and demonstrating that He was the Son God had Promised to save people from their sin, Jesus allowed Himself to be crucified on a cross, paying the price for the sin of the world. Through His crucifixion, the debt we owe for our sin has been forgiven. Jesus’ resurrection from the dead testifies to this fact. Jesus is always giving us grace. Jesus plus nothing equals everything.

Grace alone. Faith alone. Christ alone. There is absolutely nothing we can do to “be saved” — Jesus Christ has already done everything necessary. ​The only way anyone can receive forgiveness of sins is through what Jesus has done on their behalf in the cross and resurrection. Sinners are accepted by God on account of what Christ has done in making satisfaction for the sinner's sins. Not only does God give forgiveness to the sinner because of what Christ has done, God declares the sinner to be in right standing with him because of the redemption Christ has made in his suffering, death, and resurrection.

​We do not cooperate in our salvation and there is nothing we could ever present to God to make our way into eternal life with Him — not money or even good works. Neither can we really feel it or prove it. We cannot reason our way to salvation, nor can we earn it. Forgiveness and right standing with the Creator is through faith. Faith is the only way the sinner may receive forgiveness of sins and Christ's perfection of his or her behalf. Saving faith is faith by which people believe that God forgives their personal sins due to what Christ has done on their behalf. This right standing with the Creator does not come from within a person, but is provided by God in Christ through Word and Sacrament to the sinner who receives it in faith.

Faith is a gift worked in us by the power of the Holy Spirit; it doesn’t come to us through anything we are capable of, but through what God does for us. We simply receive what is already being offered out of God’s great love. The Holy Spirit gives us this new relationship with Jesus. “To have faith in Jesus” means “Jesus has saved and forgiven me…and I place my trust in that fact.” It’s the Spirit who connects us to Jesus and gives us that relationship. The Holy Spirit not only gives us faith, but also gives us gifts, and gives us His fruitfulness in our lives for life in this world. That same Spirit is constantly reminding us of what Jesus has done, encouraging and empowering us to mature in this relationship with Jesus.

The church is a gathering wherever around the gospel is rightly proclaimed and the sacraments are properly administered. The church is dependent on Jesus and His Word for its very existence. When we gather for worship on Sunday, it is God who gathers us. Through the Word, Christ by His Spirit, gathers the church together. This means, then, that the church is not a product of human ingenuity. We do not create church. God does. Just as it is not possible for an individual to save him- or herself, it is not possible for the church to will or work itself into existence. The church is God's doing, by Christ and His Spirit through the preaching and teaching of the Word and the provision of the Sacraments.

The Church is also the fellowship of everyone God has brought to faith. The Church is more than one congregation or denomination. It consists of everyone who trusts in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.

​God has given His Church two great gifts to continue its growth: Baptism and The Lord’s Supper. In Baptism, God establishes a relationship with us, marking us as members of His Family and promising to always be our God. While baptism is a simple act of washing with water in the name of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, its power lies in God’s Word as He gives us a new name—His. In giving us new life through Baptism, God also gives us the forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit.

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The power of the Lord’s Supper is also found in the Word of God when Jesus promises that “this (bread) is my body…this (wine) is my blood.” While the Supper is a simple act consisting of bread and wine and involving all of our senses, the Word of God ensures that Jesus’ body and blood are also present, in and with the bread and wine, for the forgiveness of our sins and the strengthening of our relationship with Him.

A Christian is a member of the Church not because of what she has done or who he is, but because God has brought him into a relationship with Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. It’s a very one-sided thing: God has forgiven our sin because of Jesus’ death on the cross. Now His Spirit brings us into God’s Family so that what Jesus did, He did for us personally. So even though our imperfections remain with us while here on earth, thanks to Jesus we are already perfect in God’s eyes.

We talk a lot about grace at The Table. A lot! Grace is simply receiving what we don't deserve. God does this all of the time for us, especially in His Word and through His Sacraments. In His life and death, Jesus paid the debt we owed and suffered the penalty we deserved for our sins. Jesus' unconditional love that provides our forgiveness from sin and eternal life is totally undeserved. It's all grace. The Bible tells us we are saved from sin, death, hell, God's wrath, and the devil by grace through faith alone in Christ alone. There's nothing we do or can do to make things right with God or even keep things right with God. Jesus continues to give us grace through faith when we gather to hear Him speak through His Word and feed us through His sacrament.

Since there is nothing we can ever do to earn salvation, we do not do good works in order to be saved; good works are done out of praise and thanks because we are saved. Such good works include, but are certainly not limited to, serving and caring for the needs of others, honoring and giving respect to those in authority, honoring our vows and commitments, and generally doing what is considered by many to be good and right. It’s often said that Martin Luther expressed it this way: God doesn’t need our good works, but our neighbor does.

or the Christian, death is no longer something to be feared. Rather, all those who trust in Jesus will live in joy with Him for eternity. Death is now simply a doorway to another level of intimacy with God. On Judgment Day — we don’t know when — Jesus Christ is going to return. On that day, everyone who has died will be raised and those who are still alive will be bodily transformed. At that time, the final judgment will take place. Those who do not believe will go into eternal damnation in hell and all those who believe in Jesus as Savior will have eternal life in the New Heavens and New Earth.