Our churches teach that one holy Church is to remain forever. The Church is the congregation of saints in which the Gospel is purely taught and the Sacraments are correctly administered. For the true unity of the Church it is enough to agree about the doctrine of the Gospel and the administration of the Sacraments…. Read More ›
Do Lutherans have a problem with good works? The chief article of our faith, justification, teaches that we are saved not by works, but only by God’s grace when we believe that our sins are forgiven for Jesus’ sake: Our churches teach that people cannot be justified before God by their own strength, merits, or… Read More ›
Last month I wrote about justification. The Augsburg Confession describes it this way: Our churches 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… Read More ›
Let’s get right to the point. How are you with God? What’s your status before him? What does he think of you? Is he pleased with you? Are you guilty before him? Or is it somewhere in between? The chief article in the Augsburg Confession is the article on justification. How is it that sinful… Read More ›
Who is Jesus? There are many answers we might give to this question. We might answer by saying what Jesus means to me. “He’s my Savior. He’s my friend. He’s everything to me.” Those answers are good, but the best thing we can do is be as objective as possible. As Christians, we should be… Read More ›
What do you think about when you hear the word “sin”? Do you think about the sinful things you have done? Do you think about the sinful things other people have done? Maybe it’s the things they have done to you, or maybe it’s the sinful activities that are becoming more and more common in… Read More ›
Christians believe things. If you’ve been around Trinity for a little while, you’ve probably noticed that we are a congregation that believes things, and we take our beliefs seriously. And it’s not just me. This attitude isn’t something that a pastor sets, but then if another pastor comes along, things change. The teaching doesn’t change… Read More ›
I was scrolling a certain social media platform recently when I saw a post that said, “Jesus doesn’t care how many Bible verses you have memorized. He cares about how you treat people.” The best construction is that someone is concerned that Christians would “Be doers of the word, and not hearers only” (James 1:22)…. Read More ›