I Believe
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: Mark 9:24
We confess what the Scripture teaches, and with the father of the boy with the unclean spirit, say, “I believe; help my unbelief!”
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Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions Posts
The Father Almighty
Reading the Word with Luther
Scripture Text: Matthew 7:7-11
In both law and gospel he has given good gifts to his children. As the Almighty, he commands; as our Father, he gives us his grace.
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The Father Almighty
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: Matthew 7:7-11
In both law and gospel he has given good gifts to his children. As the Almighty, he commands; as our Father, he gives us his grace.
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Maker of Heaven and Earth
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: Genesis 1:1–31
In these few, opening words of the creed, we see the Trinity expressed even before God is named as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
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In Jesus Christ
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: John 10:22–39
In the creed, we profess that it is God himself who saves us from sin and death. Our confession is that Jesus is this saving God.
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In Jesus Christ
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: John 10:22–39
In the creed, we profess that it is God himself who saves us from sin and death. Our confession is that Jesus is this saving God.
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His Only Son
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: 1 John 4:9–15
The Scriptures alone teach the incarnation, so we should believe it as an article handed over and shown to us by God himself.
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Conceived by the Holy Spirit
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: John 6:54–63
Even in the conception of Jesus in the womb of Mary, we see that human works had no play. Mary did nothing. Joseph surely did nothing. God did it all.
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The Incarnate God
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: Matthew 1:18–25
In becoming man, while also fully God, Jesus paid the price for our sin, restoring our favor with God by the blood of his sacrifice.
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Suffered Under Pontius Pilate
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: Matthew 27:11–23
Jesus did not have to suffer under Pilate's authority but for the will of his Father, he suffered that the sins of the world be covered by his sacrifice.
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Was Crucified
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: John 19:16–27
Jesus suffered in our place a literally excruciating death in order to redeem the world from its lost condition, again literally justifying humanity to God.
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Jesus Died
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: John 19:38–42
Jesus really died. He is not dead, but he once died, crucified on a Roman cross. This was no trickery or vision; the incarnate God physically died.
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He Descended into Hell
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: Ephesians 4:1–10
We celebrate the Ascension; we should observe the “Descension” too. Jesus Christ did descend into hell but it could not hold him.
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He Rose Again
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: Genesis 45:25–28
Like Jacob, who simply believed the report of his son being still alive, we confess that on the third day Christ Jesus rose from the dead and lives.
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He Ascended
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18
We need not be concerned over our future. It is secure in Christ, so we are freed and empowered to live the risen and ascended life now.
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He Will Come Again
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: 1 Peter 4:1–7
The Christian should be careful to live faithfully, yet not trust in her own righteousness but in Jesus who is coming soon to judge all who have lived.
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I Believe in the Holy Spirit
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: Ephesians 1:1–14
Christians believe that the Lord our God is one God yet three persons, or the Trinity, whom we name as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
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The Holy Catholic Church
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: Matthew 16:13–20
In the creed, we confess a catholic Church, meaning the entire communion of believers throughout time who hold to orthodox or correct doctrine.
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The Holy Catholic Church
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: Matthew 16:13–20
In the creed, we confess a catholic Church, meaning the entire communion of believers throughout time who hold to orthodox or correct doctrine.
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The Communion of Saints
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: Hebrews 11:1–12:2
Let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.
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Forgiveness of Sins
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: 1 John 1:5–10
Do not run for the bushes. Do not deny. Confess! For we have been given a Savior and so, we believe in the forgiveness of sins.
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Resurrection of the Body
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18
Resurrection is a mystery but we confess our belief that in the flash of an instant, we will be changed. We will be made otherwise, altered, glorified.
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The Life Everlasting
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: John 14:1–4
"Are we there yet?" You have heard this childlike question many times. We too, should be like little children, eager to be at our eternal home with God.
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The Life Everlasting
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: John 14:1–4
"Are we there yet?" You have heard this childlike question many times. We too, should be like little children, eager to be at our eternal home with God.
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The Nicene Creed
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: John 14:8–11
The Nicene Creed originated from a need to confront a false teaching by concisely and correctly teaching what the Scripture says about Jesus Christ.
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Things Visible and Invisible
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: 1 Corinthians 8:4–6
We confess that the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, forever one God, is the creator of all things, whether visible or unseen.
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Begotten of the Father Before All Worlds
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: John 1:1–4, 14–18
Christ was in the beginning as the creating Word. He was with God. And he was God. Christ Jesus is God, with the Father and the Holy Spirit.
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God from God
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: Philippians 2:5–11
Jesus has always been God with the Father and Holy Spirit. Together, they are one God and Jesus is God of this Triune God.
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Light of Light
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: Revelation 21:22–25
The light that is God is generated by his glory. As he is by definition, “God of God,” he is by description, “Light of Light.”
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Very God of Very God
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: John 5:15-18
There is no other God to be truer than, so “true God of true God” simply emphasizes the doctrine that Jesus is not a created being but is truly God.
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For Our Benefit
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: Matthew 10:34–39
Christ Jesus came to save us — not to make us feel better but to bring us into a corrected and eternal relationship with God.
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The Never-ending Kingdom
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: Isaiah 9:2–7
If you are in Christ who is eternal from the Father, then you are eternal from and in Christ, a citizen of his eternal, never-ending kingdom.
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Lord and Giver of Life
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: 2 Corinthians 3:12–18
The Holy Spirit is too often thought of as impersonal, a power, rather that the relational third person of the Trinity who is God.
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One Church
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: Galatians 6:11–18
We confess a Church united in its apostolic doctrines and practices, one that is orthodox, rightly teaching the Word and observing the sacraments.
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One Baptism
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: Ephesians 4:1–6
We’re you baptized into a stream, a pond, a river, a baptistery, a font? Or were you baptized into Christ. If the latter, your sins have been removed.
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Looking Forward to It
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: 1 Corinthians 15:12–19
In the creeds, we confess that Jesus really died but was also resurrected from the dead. And so, we confess that we too will be raised as he was.
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The World to Come
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: 1 John 5:10–13
We may hope to see a departed family member in heaven, but for the true believer, there is no greater longing than to be with God on earth as in heaven.
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The Athanasian Creed
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: Luke 24:44–45
The whole three Persons are coeternal together, and coequal, so that in all things, the Unity in Trinity and the Trinity in Unity is to be worshiped.
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Whole and Inviolable
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: John 20:24–29
The latest theological craze attracts the spiritually distracted like deer to headlights. The more glaring and wilder, the better.
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Trinity in Unity
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: John 14:6–13
Now this is the catholic faith: we worship one God in trinity and the Trinity in unity, neither confusing the persons nor dividing the divine being.
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Compulsion
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: Romans 11:33–36
We have been a great gift from God: the revelation of himself. Otherwise we could not comprehend the Mystery who is God, nor believe in him.
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Addressing Heresies
Reading the Word with Luther
Scripture Text: 1 Corinthians 1:18–21
"Now, that sounds believable," said no one ever about the Trinity — unless the Spirit of God is at work in her through the proclaimed Word.
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Equal and Subordinate
Reading the Word with Luther
Scripture Text: Colossians 2:8–15
When you were dead in your sins, God made you alive with him by canceling the debt that stood against you, nailing it to the cross.
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One Christ
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: 1 Corinthians 4:1–6
He is not two beings, a god and a man somehow in a kind of symbiosis, or a compound or complex organism, two beings, but no longer quite human or divine.
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Standing On Your Own Feet
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: Revelation 20:11–15
In the end, at the coming of Christ, “every one must stand on his own feet; his own personal faith is demanded, he will give an account for himself...”
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A Preface Toward Unity
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: 1 Peter 3:13-17
Christians ought to hope for unity, beginning to do so by considering how they agree on matters of the faith, for we are called to fellowship in Jesus.
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Of Original Sin
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: Galatians 3:21-27
We all need a Savior because we are all sinners from birth. Even those "innocent" little babies need the Savior. Do not hinder them coming to Jesus.
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Of the Son of God
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: John 20:30-31
Eternal God then born human also, Jesus has a dual nature, a shared existence or incarnation. He is God and man at once — God in the flesh.
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Of Justification
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: Romans 3:21-31
Romans 3:28 sounds like a sixteenth century Lutheran wrote the words but they were penned by Paul and inspired by the Holy Spirit in the first century.
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Of the Ministry
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: Romans 10:5–17
The Holy Spirit, through the Word and Sacraments, works faith in them that hear the gospel, justifying those who believe that they are received by grace for Christ's sake.
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New Obedience
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: Galatians 5:18–25
One who walks by the Spirit operates under a new obedience, doing even more than the law requires. These fruits of the Spirit do not save but flow from faith.
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Concerning the Church
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: Ephesians 5:25–27
The Church of Christ is that congregation of saints in which the gospel is correctly taught and the Sacraments are rightly administered.
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What the Church Is
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: Matthew 23:1–10
The Christian is that person who no longer seeks his salvation, his deliverance, his justification in himself, his virtues, but in Jesus Christ alone.
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About Baptism
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: 1 Peter 3:18–22
Lutherans profess that baptism is necessary for salvation, not just for adults but for children too, that God's grace, like Christ's touch, is available to the them.
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About the Lord's Supper
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: John 6:50–59
Lutherans profess with the Scripture, that "this is," Christ's real body and blood, that he is truly present, and not just a grateful memory of him.
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About Confession
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: James 5:13-20
Because one cannot enumerate all sins, Lutherans practice public confession and absolution, while encouraging private confession too.
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About Repentance
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: Colossians 1:9-14
Lutherans hold that the only way to perfectly overcome sin is to be forgiven for Christ's sake, not through any merit or satisfactions of our own.
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The Use of the Sacraments
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: 1 Corinthians 11:23–26
The gift of Christ's Body and Blood is God working through his Supper to enliven and establish our faith through continued grace, only received by faith.
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About Ecclesiastical Order
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: Ephesians 4:11-16
God puts great responsibility and privilege upon a relative few in his church so that all of his people may grow in the Word and the grace of Jesus Christ.
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Church Traditions
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: Galatians 4:8-11
The human heart must be constantly reminded that Christ is the end of the law but that there are “profitable” things we still do — yet not as obligation.
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Civic Government
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: Romans 13:1-7
Lutherans teach that the sanctification of Christians does not come from doing or not doing things, but with what Christ has done for us on the cross.
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Concerning Christ's Return for Judgment
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: 1 Corinthians 15:50-57
Jesus Christ is returning to earth on the last day of time to judge the living and the dead, sorting out believers to heaven and unbelievers to hell.
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The Cause of Sin
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: Romans 1:18-25
God did not create evil but he did create humans with the ability to be disobedient to his good will, to sin, and we call this disobedience evil.
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Concerning Good Works - Part 1
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: Matthew 5:14-16
Though Lutherans confess that God's grace alone justifies a person without adding a single virtuous act, they believe that good works flow from faith.
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Concerning Good Works - Part 2
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: John 14:1-6
Our works cannot appease God or earn forgiveness of sins, grace, and justification. We obtain this only by believing we are favored only for Christ's sake.
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Concerning Good Works - Part 3
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: Acts 15:5-11
The Lutherans, in teaching justification by faith, were not introducing a novel doctrine, as it had been taught by the Apostles and the Church Fathers.
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Concerning Good Works - Part 4
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: Romans 15:8-13
The doctrine of justification by faith alone brings the greatest consolation to the conscience since good works depends on us but faith depends on Christ.
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Concerning Good Works - Part 5
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: Philippians 3:1-11
The conscience is plagued with guilt when one relies on good works for righteousness with God, instead of relying on Christ alone through faith.
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Concerning Good Works - Part 6
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: John 3:16-17
True faith is that which trusts in the only God as a Father who loves and forgives, giving comfort and support where once there was worry and fear.
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Concerning Good Works - Part 7
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: James 2:14-22
Lutherans confess that it is necessary to do good works because it is the will of God, these works contributing nothing to salvation but being evidence of it.
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Concerning Good Works - Part 8
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: John 15:1-5
Doing good works as conditional to salvation is impossible since one cannot begin to love God or do good works until filled with the Holy Spirit.
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Concerning the Worship of Saints
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: Romans 8:31-34
Lutherans aim to imitate the lives of the saints but not venerate them, as to pray to them for help or expect such aid from any but God in Christ's Spirit.
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Conclusion of Part One
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: 1 Corinthians 1:10-13
The emphasis of the Confession remains upon Christ rather than tradition, in the authority of God instead of human invention, practices, and teachings.
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Corrected Abuses
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: 1 Corinthians 16:13-14
Corruptions had begun to creep into the church, and reform was badly needed so that people's hearts could again be comforted by the mercy of God.
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Concerning Both Kinds in the Sacrament
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: Matthew 26:26-28
When we change the plain meaning of God's Word or remove verses that offend us, we offend God and are condemned by the very words we omit.
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Concerning the Marriage of Priests
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: Genesis 2:18, 21-24
Enforced celibacy is man's answer to a human problem with sin; it is not God's answer. The Lord's answer, his intention and institution, is marriage.
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Concerning the Mass - Part 1
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: 1 Corinthians 11:27-32
It is God's will that we receive his grace through the means of Holy Communion, and do so often, as we sinners need his grace very much.
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Concerning the Mass - Part 2
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: Ephesians 2:4-7
It was taught that one could purchase a Mass to be said for himself or a dead relative as a way of earning merit with God, reducing time in Purgatory.
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Concerning the Mass - Part 3
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: Acts 8:18-23
Since the beginning of the world, nothing that God ever ordained seems to have been so abused for the sake of generating revenue as the Mass.
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Concerning the Mass - Part 4
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: Hebrews 10:8-14
As was the apostolic practice and that of the Fathers, Holy Communion belongs to the whole church, not just to those who can afford it.
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Concerning the Mass - Part 5
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: Luke 22:14-20
As was the apostolic practice and that of the Fathers, Holy Communion belongs to the whole church, not just to those who can afford it.
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Concerning the Mass - Part 6
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: 1 Corinthians 11:33-34
Holy Communion is not a potluck that feeds the belly. It is a means of grace in which people are assured that they receive the forgiveness of sins.
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Concerning Confession - Part 1
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: John 20:21-23
Lutheran churches carefully teach about faith in the absolution, reminding Christians of the great consolation it brings to anxious consciences.
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Concerning Confession - Part 2
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: Psalm 19:12–13
Praise God for his mercy instead of worrying that you have forgotten some other sin for which an imaginary, angry god would hold you accountable.
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Concerning the Distinction of Meats - Part 1
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: Romans 14:14–19
We should eschew human rituals and rules said to earn grace, as grace is not something earned but instead, the free gift of God for Christ's sake.
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Concerning the Distinction of Meats - Part 2
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: Matthew 15:1–9
Religious traditions can obscure the way of God, especially when those traditions are said to earn God's favor which is gifted by grace alone.
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Concerning the Distinction of Meats - Part 3
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: Micah 6:6–8
Will a burnt offering or performing religious rituals according to tradition bring you peace of mind, or will the grace of God believed in the heart?
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Concerning the Distinction of Meats - Part 4
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: 2 Corinthians 11:1–6
Grace and the righteousness of faith cannot be understood in the churches if people think that they earn grace by observances of their own choice.
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Concerning the Distinction of Meats - Part 5
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: Acts 16:25–31
The kingdom God is neither regulated nor guarded by religious customs, works, or laws, but by the sheer grace of God received through faith alone.
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Concerning the Distinction of Meats - Part 6
Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions
Scripture Text: 1 Corinthians 9:24–27
Discipline your body, yes, with exercise and diet, and spiritual disciplines also like fasting and vigils, but not think these are the things that save you.
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