Lutherans are protestants. Actually, we were the first protestants, and we still insist that Christ alone saves us by grace alone, received through faith alone, and made known through Scripture alone.
… But we are not radical protestants. We don’t judge Scripture by our personal feelings or private opinions, because we believe that every word of the Bible was given by the Holy Spirit for our salvation, and that everything He tells us in the Bible is absolute truth, to be trusted completely—including those loving mysteries of God, like the Sacraments, which are beyond human comprehension.
Lutherans are catholics. In fact, we are the oldest kind of catholics. We honor the ancient fathers of the Church. We still believe and confess the ancient creeds of the Church (the Apostles’, Nicene, and Athanasian Creeds), and worship with the Church’s ancient liturgies. We rejoice in Holy Baptism, practice Confession and Absolution, and receive each week the Holy Supper of the Lord, because through these gifts Jesus Himself comes to us with grace and saving power. And we are free to use the whole Church’s heritage of hymns and traditions that have proclaimed the Gospel for nearly two thousand years.
… But we are not Roman Catholics. We reject all additions to the teachings of the early Church. Most important, we deny that anything we could do, give, endure, or become would ever earn or deserve God’s love. On the contrary, we depend completely on what Christ alone has done, given, and suffered in our place, knowing that God does not save us because we’re good or good enough (we’re not) but because Jesus is Good and what He did has been good enough for all the world.
Lutherans are evangelicals (“people of the Good News”). We sinners who trust Jesus Christ are judged on His performance, not ours. Everything God’s Law requires of us, Jesus has done. Every punishment our sins deserved, Jesus has already taken. And because of what Christ did and suffered, everyone who believes in Him is found innocent by God. This Good News is all our hope and happiness, the center of our faith, and the reason for our lives. For God has promised in His Word that He will always forgive us and change us, and forgive us and care for us, and forgive us and bring us to heaven until He finally raises our bodies on the Last Day for eternity in the new creation. And it’s all by His great love for the sake of Jesus Christ, His Son. Our great joy here is to receive His gifts and tell this Good News by which God calls fellow sinners by faith to trust His call: “All is forgiven. Come Home.”
