| This We Believe, Teach, and Confess - pg.3 |
IV. CHRIST’S PERSON AND
OUR JUSTIFICATION
We confess that, in order to rescue fallen mankind, God the Father sent His only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ, into the world. Throughout the Old Testament era God promised to send a Savior who would crush Satan’s power over the human race, and this promise was fulfilled through the incarnation of the Second Person of the Trinity. Jesus Christ is true God and true man in one Person, conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, and He is the world’s only Savior from sin, death, and the devil. Because Jesus was true God, He was able by His divine power to save us all; because He was true man, He was able to be our substitute under God’s Law. Christ was tempted in all things as we are but was in every respect without sin. See John 1:1 and 14, Col. 2:9, Matt. 1:23, 1 Tim. 2:5-6.
By His perfect life and His innocent sufferings and death Jesus has redeemed the entire world. God thereby reconciled the world to Himself, and by the resurrection of His Son declared it to be righteous in Christ. This declaration of universal righteousness is often termed “objective justification.” One has this justification as a personal possession and is personally declared by God to be righteous in Christ when he or she is brought to faith in Him as Savior. This is often called “subjective justification”. If the objective fact of Christ’s atonement is not personally received by faith, then it has no saving benefit for the individual. We reject as unscriptural any teaching that people can be saved apart from faith in Jesus Christ. See 1 John 2:2, 2 Cor. 5:19, John 1:29, 2 Pet. 2:1, John 3:16-18, 2 Cor. 5:19, Rom 4:25, 1:17 and 5:1-2.
V. THE MEANS OF GRACE
We confess that God has instituted certain Means of Grace through which He announces and bestows the forgiveness of sins and the blessings of life and salvation, and through which the Holy Spirit works faith in the individual sinner to receive these blessings. These Means of Grace are His Word of the Gospel, which offers us free salvation through faith in Christ; Holy Baptism, which is described in Scripture as a “washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit;” and the Lord’s Supper, in which the true body and blood of Christ are distributed to the communicants. It is the Word of God connected with the earthly elements which makes Holy Baptism and the Lord’s Supper effective means through which forgiveness, life and salvation are truly offered to those who receive these sacraments. The Gospel of Jesus Christ, in written, spoken and sacramental form, is able to do all this because it is the power of God Himself.
Holy Baptism has the power to work the new life of faith in the hearts of sinners. This regenerative washing “with water through the Word” is intended for all people, since all – including infants and children – are members of a sinful human race and are in need of God’s grace and forgiveness. Jesus has also commanded that “all nations” be baptized. Confession of sins and Absolution are a return to, and a renewal of, one’s Baptism. Holy Absolution, a Means of Grace, is the declaration of forgiveness to penitent sinners in the stead of Christ and by His command. It is not merely a wish that sin be forgiven, but it is a powerful impartation of forgiveness.
According to Christ’s Word and institution, His body and blood are truly present, distributed and received in the Lord’s Supper, under the forms of bread and wine. This Supper is intended for Christians who know and adhere to the teachings of God’s Word, who are able to examine themselves on the basis of that Word, and who repent of their sins and look to Christ alone for forgiveness. The body and blood of Christ are offered and received in the Sacrament for the remission of sins and for the strengthening of faith. The forgiveness of sins which is offered by God through the Means of Grace can be rejected by an unbelieving heart, but it is received for salvation by all who believe in Christ. See Mark 16:15, Luke 24:47, John 15:3, Matt. 28:19, John 3:5, Eph. 5:26, Titus 3:5, Acts 2:38-39, 1 Cor. 10:16-17, 11:23-29, Matt. 26:28, Rom. 1:16, John 20:21, Mark 16:16, Rom. 3:28 and 4,5.
VI. CONVERSION,
GOOD WORKS, AND PRAYER
We confess that a person’s conversion to faith in Christ is accomplished entirely by the Holy Spirit, working through the Gospel. Because of the effects of original sin, the unregenerate soul does not and cannot cooperate in its conversion from spiritual death and unbelief to spiritual life in Christ. See Eph. 2:4-9, Rom. 10:14-17, 1 Cor. 2:14 and 12:3.
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