Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions

Scripture Text: Isaiah 53:6

These false teachings come about by not understanding the principal teaching of the New Testament, the one from which all good doctrine springs, and the central tenet of the Lutherans. That principal belief is that we are saved by God.

Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions

Scripture Text: Psalm 51:17

Those who enjoy their ease and indolence, without the benefit of the Word of God, and having no regard for it, live their lives without worry or guilt. These conditions brought the most debauched lifestyles upon the Church, just as they do in our times.

Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions

Scripture Text: Acts 15:8–10

We neither require nor need any acts of purification. For it is God alone who cleanses hearts. King David knew this to be true. What work of cleansing did he do after his sin with Bathsheba?

Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions

Scripture Text: 1 Corinthians 1:30–31

The ceremonial code in the law of Moses, those things concerning what is clean or unclean, do not pertain to Christians. Christians are freed from all the ceremonies of Moses, not only from the laws concerning uncleanness.

Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions

Scripture Text: 2 Timothy 1:9

Whether or not we concur with the rhetorical comparisons used by Melancthon, we may understand his point. That is, we cannot earn the favor of God. Rather, because of Christ’s work, those who believe are regarded as righteous by God.

Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions

Scripture Text: Romans 5:1

Whenever some religious notion enters our heads, making us imagine that we must do one thing or another in order to earn God’s grace, we may confidently declare that thing to be false.

Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions

Scripture Text: Matthew 15:16–20

It is the heart that must be changed, not necessarily one’s vocation or position in life. One may think that he must become a pastor in order to be on heaven’s path.

Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions

Scripture Text: Titus 1:15

Nothing is pure, if it is done outside of faith and God’s Word. An unbeliever may practice the most ascetic spiritual disciplines. He may fast, study, meditate, remain celibate, and feed the poor, but none of this is pure if it is exercised without faith.

Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions

Scripture Text: 1 Timothy 1:14

If ever there were a single word that summed up the Lutheran Confessions, it is the word faith. Everything depends upon faith in God, and that depends upon God’s grace.

Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions

Scripture Text: 1 Corinthians 7:12–14

But the main point here is that marriage remains a holy estate even if one person is not a believer—not because of the beliefs of the person, but because of the God who ordains marriage.

Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions

Scripture Text: Proverbs 18:22

Before going on with arguments, let us acknowledge that the Holy Scriptures of both the Old and New Testaments declare marriage a holy matter, something that God has ordained.

Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions

Scripture Text: 1 Peter 2:4–5

Is a pastor purer to God if unmarried? Is this what makes people pure under the New Testament? Is it the New Testament in human purity or the New Testament in Christ’s blood?


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