The previous article of faith was on Justification. How can Christ's justifying work that took place nearly two thousand years ago ~ through His life, death, and resurrection ~ become a blessing to us today? It is through the office of the Holy Ministry, summed up here:

So that we may obtain this faith, the ministry of teaching the Gospel and administering the sacraments was instituted. Through the Word and Sacraments, as through instruments, the Holy Spirit is given (John 20:22). He works faith, when and where it pleases God (John 3:8), in those who hear the good news that God justifies those who believe that they are received into grace for Christ’s sake. This happens not through our own merits, but for Christ’s sake.

God established the Office of the Holy Ministry precisely to distribute Christ's good gifts. He sends shepherds, whom we refer to today using the Latin term 'pastors', whom the Holy Spirit appoints as overseers, to care for His flock. Some of the main duties of pastors is the preaching and the teaching of God's Sacred Word. A pastor is called to preach sermons and to teach solely based on the Sacred Word of God. In other words, not adding to or taking away from what God has revealed through Holy Scriptures.

In addition, an under-shepherd is to be like John the Baptist and to point one to Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. At times, a pastor applies the demands of a loving God found in the Law to those who are content in their sin. At other times, he applies the comforting good news to those who are troubled by their sin and seek God's mercy and forgiveness. 

--Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,
 

This article of faith is the very heart of the Gospel and the most important teaching in the Holy Scriptures. To justify means “to be declared righteous” or ‘not guilty’. God’s sure and certain declaration that we are righteous in His eyes is possible only because of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Through His life, Jesus satisfied God’s demand for perfect obedience. Through His sacrificial death, Jesus endured God’s just wrath and atoned for the sins of the world.

In sum:

Our Lutheran churches also teach that people cannot be justified before God by their own strength, merits, or works. People are freely justified for Christ’s sake, through faith when they believe that they are received into favor and that their sins are forgiven for Christ’s sake. By His death, Christ made satisfaction for our sins.  God counts this faith for righteousness in His sight (Romans 3:21-26; 4:5).

Praise God for His mercy and grace! The Holy Spirit, through the means of grace, Word and Sacraments, works in us saving faith, which personally receives what Christ has done for us. Our justification before God, therefore, is brought about by the One who lived, suffered, and died for our salvation. We cannot merit God's favor through our obedience; we cannot offer sacrifices to pay for our sins. But what we cannot do for ourselves, Christ has done for us. He is the solid Rock on which God builds His Church. On Him, and Him alone, we stand forgiven.

--Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

Our Lutheran churches teach that the Word, that is, [Jesus] the Son of God (John 1:14),  assumed the human nature in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary. 2 So there are two natures — the divine and the human — inseparably joined in one person. There is one Christ, true God and true man, who was born of the Virgin Mary, truly suffered, was crucified, died, and was buried. 3 He did this to reconcile the Father to us and be a sacrifice, not only for original guilt, but also for all actual sins of mankind (John 1:29). 4 He also descended into hell, and truly rose again on the third day. Afterward, He ascended into heaven to sit on the right hand of the Father. There He forever reigns and has dominion over all creatures. He sanctifies those who believe in Him, by sending the Holy Spirit into their hearts 5 to rule, comfort, and make alive. He defends them against the devil and the power of sin. 6 The same Christ will openly come again to judge the living and the dead, and so forth, according to the Apostles’ Creed.

On our altars, in Lutheran churches, we have two candles. They represent that Jesus Christ is both true God, begotten of His Father before all worlds, and also true man, born of the Virgin Mary by the Holy Spirit.  Christ, a title of Jesus that means ‘Anointed One’, suffered and died to reconcile us born rebels to God the Father.

Jesus is, and remains, for all eternity the God-man, the One who appeased God’s wrath against our sin and won for us everlasting life. Without Jesus, you would have no way to be reconciled with your Creator. You would remain lost and overwhelmed by your sin, original sin as we learned yesterday ~ that we inherited all the way back to Adam and Eve. 

--Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,
 

Before we get to original sin, let us first define ‘sin.’ Sin is any action that goes against the will of God.

I defined God as revealed in the Bible yesterday. namely God: the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, The One God, three persons. God who is our Creator. Sin is any action that goes against the will of God, active or passive failure to do the will of God. An example of active sin would be to throw someone into floodwaters, an example of passive sin would be to not reach out to someone who is within reach and drowning.

Now, what is original sin?

Our Lutheran churches teach that since the fall of Adam (Romans 5:12), all who are naturally born are born with sin (Psalm 51:3), that is, they are without fear of God, without trust in God, and with the inclination to sin, called concupiscence. 2 Concupiscence is a disease and original vice that is truly sin. It damns and brings eternal death on those who are not born anew through Baptism and the Holy Spirit (John 3:5).

The Scriptures teach that original sin is the absence of original righteousness and the root cause of all sinful thoughts, words, and deeds. The wages of sin, according to the Sacred Word of God, is death. The apostle Paul put it this way: “I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members” (Romans 7:23). Sin corrupts the whole of a person and has not only temporal consequences, but it also has what is referred to as a second death consequences, total, complete and everlasting separation from God and His love. 

This is horrible news, the good news comes tomorrow with the article of faith regarding the Son of God. In Jesus Christ, God removes the condemnation of all sin, including the inclination to sin. Praise God for Jesus our Savior!

Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

In America, more and more people are claiming to be atheists. In other words, they believe that there is no god. To be honest with themselves they are really placing their faith in themselves.  In other words, they have created god in their own image.

In America, some consider themselves agnostics when it comes to understanding ‘God.’ An agnostic believes that there is a ‘god,’ however, they have no idea who he/she/it is.

Then there are those of countless different faiths who believe in a so-called ‘god’ that has been created in the minds of man. These different faiths deny the God that has been revealed in Sacred Scriptures, a.k.a. the Bible.

So what do Lutheran believe or what does the Sacred Word of God teach?

Our Lutheran churches teach with common consent that the decree of the Council of Nicaea about the unity of the divine essence and concerning the three persons is true. It is to be believed without any doubt. God is one divine essence who is eternal, without a body, without parts, of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness. He is the maker and preserver of all things, visible and invisible (Nehemiah 9:6). 3 Yet there are three persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19). These three persons are of the same essence and power.
 

In short, we believe, teach, and confess that God, as He revealed Himself in the Bible, is one, yet three distinct persons. So we baptize people of all ages in the name of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. As Jesus said that if you deny that He is God, then you deny the One who sent Him, namely God the Father. In rejecting Jesus as God, you reject His saving work in paying for your sin when He shed His blood on the cross. Furthermore, it is the Holy Spirit who brings and keeps one in true faith in God. 

Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

Jesus breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” John 20:22

God, who formed us from the dust of the ground, breathed into our nostrils the breath of life (Genesis 2:7). Jesus now begins a new creation, breathing on his disciples, giving them the breath of life in the Holy Spirit. The word for “spirit” in Greek, pneuma, also means “breath.” As the disciples are now charged with sharing forgiveness, mercy, love and hope for the world, they go out on the strength of their own breath, but in the power and inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus had said earlier to his disciples, “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth” (John 16:13). The Spirit is with us always to guide us in the truth of Jesus and his promise for us. We have this Breath of new life in us, and through the Spirit, we breath this breath of life for the whole world. The last day of Easter is Pentecost, when the Spirit came upon the disciples, and they began to witness to the whole world “God’s deeds of power” (Acts 2:11). That witness is going

on still in each of us, inspired by the Breath of the wounded Healer.

--Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them. John 20:23

As Jesus was the Message of love and forgiveness for the world, so he calls his disciples to be representatives, re-presenting that same Message for the world. To be sure, they may encounter some who will not be receptive to that Message, even as Jesus did. But the mission is still the

same, even for those who are enemies to the cross of Christ: love and mercy shall prevail!

When Peter had made his confession of faith that Jesus was the Christ of God, Jesus conveyed on him the keys to the kingdom (Matthew 16:16, 19). Keys can, of course, lock doors. But they are primarily meant here to be used to unlock a world trapped in darkness and sin. We extend love and mercy to the world with Jesus’ authority. And even “the gates of Hades will not prevail against” (verse 18) this Message and its faithful mission for the world. Love and mercy shall prevail!

--Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,