God
There is only one God, who has revealed Himself to be three Persons in one undivided Godhead: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He made everything that is directly through the power of His Word, and He preserves that creation through the same.
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. (2 Cor. 13:14)The human condition
We are unable to know this God as we ought, because the first man Adam fell into sin. Therefore all are born in sin and deserving of death and damnation. This is not a comfortable teaching, but it is the truth that makes the Gospel good news.
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Rom. 3:23) Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned. (Rom. 5:12)Jesus Christ
God revealed Himself in the person of Jesus Christ, who is both truly man and truly God. Though He exists throughout eternity, He was born in time of the Virgin Mary, suffered, and was crucified. On the third day He rose from death, and then ascended into heaven, where He now fills all things with His power and majesty.
For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. (1 Cor. 15:22) Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! (John 1:29)Justification
On account of the work of Christ, we are justified, that is, declared righteous before God by faith, apart from works. This faith is itself a gift of God. It does not come through our own efforts or any decision on our part, but solely through the work of God through the means He has ordained.
For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. (Rom. 3:28) For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Eph. 2:8–9)The Office of the Ministry
Jesus won forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation through his death on the cross, but He delivers that forgiveness to us through the means of grace: the Word of God and the Sacraments. He has therefore established the Office of the Holy Ministry to preach His word, to baptize, and to feed His people with His Supper.
This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful. (1 Cor. 4:1–2) How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” (Rom. 10:14–15)Holy Baptism
We are made part of the Church through Holy Baptism. Baptism is not our work but the work of God, and therefore as St. Peter says:
Baptism now saves you. (1 Pet. 3:21)Because all children are also sinners by nature, Baptism is also for them, as Peter declares:
Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself. (Acts 2:38–39)The Lord’s Supper
God has ordained for our salvation the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. On account of the plain words of Christ, He Himself is truly present in, with, and under the bread and wine, given for the forgiveness of sins:
For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” (1 Cor. 11:23–25)Absolution
The Office of the Ministry also proclaims the forgiveness of sins won by Christ. Those who come in repentance, confessing their sins, hear the voice of Christ in the words of Absolution, whether spoken publicly in the Divine Service or privately with the pastor. When the pastor says “I forgive you all of your sins,” he is not acting on his own authority, but in the stead and by the command of Jesus Christ.
Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.” (John 20:21–23)Law and Gospel
True repentance begins with contrition when the Law of God shows us our sin. Then the holy, sweet, and comforting Gospel show us that we have been forgiven by the death of Jesus on the cross for the sins of the world. Repentance is therefore not our work, but the work of God through His Word.
What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. (Rom. 7:7–11) For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (Rom. 8:3–4)The Church
God has founded the one holy Church, which will persist throughout all eternity. We are not Christians in isolation who happen to gather together, but part of the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church founded on Christ. Wherever the Word is preached purely and the Sacraments rightly administered, this Church will be found.
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. (1 Pet. 2:9–10)Liturgy and tradition
Because the Church has existed throughout all time, a number of human traditions have been handed down from the ancient Church: the use of a church calendar, a liturgical order of worship, vestments, church decorations, and the like. These traditions do not justify us before God, but we retain them for the sake of good order and for the aid of teaching, so long as they do not contradict the Scriptures. They should be promoted and increased in order to foster peace and unity in the Church.
At the outset we must again make the preliminary statement that we do not abolish the Mass, but religiously maintain and defend it. For among us masses are celebrated every Lord’s Day and on the other festivals, in which the Sacrament is offered to those who wish to use it, after they have been examined and absolved. And the usual public ceremonies are observed, the series of lessons, of prayers, vestments, and other like things. (Apology of the Augsburg Confession XXIV.1)The last things
Christ will return once, at the end of time. His coming will be neither secret nor predictable. This single, public return will mark the end of the world as we know it, the bodily resurrection of all the dead, and the beginning of the new heavens and the new earth where we will live in the visible presence of God.
For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. (1 Thess. 4:16–17) Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” (Rev. 21:1–4)The Lutheran Confessions
We confess the holy, inspired, and inerrant Word of God as revealed in the Holy Scriptures to be the only norm and judge of all doctrine.
We also hold to the Lutheran Confessions as true and faithful expositions of that Word. These documents, the three ecumenical Creeds, the Augsburg Confession, its Apology, the Smalcald Articles, the Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope, the Small and Large Catechisms of Luther, and the Formula of Concord, faithfully expound what we publicly teach and confess in accordance with the Scriptures.
The full text of these documents is available at bookofconcord.org, or in the print edition from Concordia Publishing House.
To see this faith confessed in worship, read about our Divine Service, or plan a visit and join us some Sunday.