What we BELIEVE and TEACH

The Lutheran Church is part of the historical Christian Church which began on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2).  After receiving the Holy Spirit, Peter preached to those gathered declaring what God the Father, accomplished in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.  Many who heard Peter asked what they should do, to which his reply was, repent and be baptized.  The Church began and continues this day to proclaim the same message of Jesus of Nazareth   —   we preach Christ crucified and risen (First Corinthians 1:23-34)   —   and call people to be baptized.  In the baptismal event individuals receive the forgiveness of sin, the gift of the Holy Spirit, and are brought into the eternal family of God as God’s child forever.  

As part of the family of God, both individually and corporately, every person is to remember daily their baptism.  In recalling one’s baptism, a person is to seek how to reform their actions to what God has called them, His child.  

Martin Luther in the middle ages, along with other reformers called the Roman Catholic Church to repentance and to reform.  Luther never sought to create or break away from the church.  Luther did not want his reforming movement to be called by his name, for he believed always the Church was Christ’s.  Yet, Luther’s opponents named those who followed his teachings Lutheran.  Luther’s great insight and contribution was to call the church of his day back to God’s original plan of salvation in which humanity is saved by God’s grace so good works might abound.  

A simple way to remember the Biblical teaching of God’s grace is to use the formula:
    Because        Therefore
BECAUSE God has saved me and all people in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, THEREFORE I will love and serve my neighbor. 

The church in Luther’s day, and still today some churches teach, incorrectly this formula:
    If            Then
This formula not only discounts, it takes away from the work Jesus of Nazareth gives to us because this is how the phrase works: IF I love God enough, pray enough, give enough, do enough good works, THEN God will love me.  

In the first formula (Because Therefore) it is God who acts first to save me, even before I knew I needed to be saved (Romans 5:8), while in the second (If Then) one constantly needs to worry if they have done enough (whatever) to earn God’s love.  God’s love is free and unmerited to all creation.  Working hard does not make God love us more.  We work hard at loving others as a response to God’s ever present love and mercy.