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We believe, teach, and confess with the whole Christian Church that the God who made all of creation is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: three persons in one essence (Matthew 28:19), and that this Trinitarian God made man in His image (Genesis 1:26-27). But this good man and woman sinned against God by disobeying His command (Genesis 3). Now all mankind is in need of salvation from the sin passed down from Adam and Eve and the sins we commit every day (Romans 5:14). For this reason God the Father sent His eternal Son into the flesh to be sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21) as our perfect atoning sacrifice (1 John 2:2). By Jesus Christ's blood shed on the cross our blood-guilt has been atoned for (Romans 3:25): His flesh for our flesh, His blood for our blood, His righteousness for our unholiness (Romans 3:21-22). By this atoning work (justification) won for us on Calvary's cross our Lord now gives to us by His promised Means of Grace: His Word (Luke 24:44;Romans 10:17), His Baptism (Matthew 28:18-20; Mark 16:16; Acts 2:38-39; 1 Peter 3:21), and His Holy Communion (Matthew 26:26-28, Mark 14:22-23; Luke 22:19-20; 1 Corinthians 11:23-29). We receive these gifts by faith (sola fide). We believe, teach, and confess that we receive these free gifts (grace) of God not because of any work, or choice, or merit on our part, but entirely by God's will and grace (sola gracia) for the sake of the His only-begotten Son Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:8-9). These gifts of faith and the Holy Spirit move us to changed and renewed lives of holy obedience to God's Law (1 John 2:3-6) even while we still struggle in the flesh with sin (Romans 7:15-25). This is why we say that we are simultaneously saint and sinner (simul justus et peccator). We are forgiven, we are renewed and moving towards perfection, but we only reach that perfection when Christ comes again to bring us to heaven where we will receive new and sinless bodies and dwell with God forever (Philippians 3:20-21). On the Last Day God will raise all people from the dead and judge them according to their faith: the faithful to God's Right Hand, Heaven, the unfaithful to the Left, Hell (Matthew 12:36, 25:31-46; John 5:28-29; Acts 24:24-25; 2 Thessalonians 1:7-10; Revelation 20:12-15). All of these teachings are found in scripture, for we believe that God chose to reveal Himself to us by the inspiration of these Holy Scriptures (2 Timothy 3:16;2 Peter 1:19-21). The consistent, divinely inspired Word of God from the mouths of prophets and apostles is without error (inerrent), and without falsehood (infallible), therefore completely reliable (Titus 1:2). That is why we hold no tradition, no word or reasoning of man, but scripture alone (sola scriptura) is the only rule and norm for our faith. Saying this, we recognize that the Christian Church has many different interpretations of the same scriptures, therefore the Lutheran Church publically publishes our interpretation of scripture so that everyone knows exactly how we interpret the Bible. This is published in the Book of Concord, also known as the Lutheran Confessions. |
