What do Lutherans believe?
Christianity
To understand Lutherans you must understand at the start
that Lutherans are first and foremost Christians. Christians believe that Jesus, the very Son of God, came into
this world to be the Christ, the Messiah, the Redeemer, the one who was
promised already in the Old Testament.
We believe that the death of Jesus and His resurrection reverses the
effect of sin, which is death and eternal separation from God, and provides a
way for those who believe to spend eternity with God in heaven! That belief is called faith, which is not something that we develop in
ourselves, but is rather a gift of God.
God
God is the almighty Creator and owner of all things. He has revealed Himself in three persons,
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Together these three persons make up One God. This God who reveals Himself in three persons is often referred
to as “The Holy Trinity” or the “Triune God.”
God the Father is the Maker and Creator of all things. God the Son is Jesus. Jesus was present and participated in the
creation of all things and nothing was made without Him. He took on human flesh as a man in order to
die on the cross in payment for our sins.
Having risen from the dead on the third day, Jesus now reigns in glory,
honor, and power. God the Holy Spirit,
the third person of the Holy Trinity was also present and participated in
creation. He is our, teacher, helper,
and the source of our faith.
Grace
Grace is God’s undeserved forgiveness for all of our sins. Christians believe that through His death on
the cross, Jesus paid off our debt of sin even though we didn’t deserve
it. We call that the “Grace of God.” But God’s grace doesn’t end there. In His grace, God continually provides for
us and protects us, even though we don’t deserve it.
Faith
Faith is the Christian’s response to what God has done for
us in Christ. Jesus suffered, was
crucified and died, not because He deserved it, but because we deserved
it. Because of God’s love for us, He
allowed Himself to bear our punishment.
Because of Jesus, we can now approach God with a repentant heart and ask
for forgiveness, knowing that God will indeed forgive us. In this way, we can enter back into a
relationship with God, a relationship that was once lost because of our sin,
and be assured that we are heirs to the glory, and riches of Jesus for all
eternity. This is what is meant by faith.
Faith is not something that we can offer God on our own volition. Scripture teaches us that “No one can say ‘Jesus
is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit.” From that we learn that it is in fact
impossible for any of us to believe on our own. The faith it takes to believe comes to us from God through the
Holy Spirit. If God did not grant us
faith, we could not begin to believe the message of saving grace, the message
we call The Gospel.
The Bible
The Bible or “Holy Scriptures” is a compilation of
approximately 40 different writers who lived and wrote at different times over
a span of about 1500 years. Amazingly, there
are no conflicts or disagreements between those authors in what they wrote over
such a long period of time. Lutherans believe that this came about because God
put the words in the minds and the hearts of the authors as they wrote, an
action of God which we call inspiration.
The Bible is the inspired Word of God and thus without error and
infallible. We also believe that the
Bible is still very relevant to our lives today because the God of the Bible is
the same yesterday, today and forever..
Sacraments
Lutherans believe in two sacraments: Baptism and Holy
Communion. We define sacrament as a
sacred act, instituted by God in which God through a physical means, connected
with His word offers His people the forgiveness of sins.
Baptism
Baptism is a sacrament, ordained by God, through which
people are brought into His kingdom.
Lutherans believe that children should be baptized as infants and that
adults should be baptized once they believe and are instructed in the faith.
Lutherans believe Baptism is a gracious act of God through which God makes a
person His own and offers Him the forgiveness of sins. Because of that, Lutherans do not view
Baptism as a matter to be trifled with.
It is for all as scripture says: “Therefore go and make disciples of all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the
Holy Spirit,” Matthew 28:19 NIV
Holy Communion
Scripture tells us that “While they were eating, Jesus took
bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying,
"Take and eat; this is my body." Then he took the cup, gave thanks
and offered it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you. This is my
blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of
sins.” Matthew 26:26-28
Lutherans take Jesus’ words here as He said them. Therefore we believe that Jesus truly does
give Himself to us in this sacrament.
One way of expressing this is that we believe that in, with and under
the bread and wine we receive the body and blood of Christ. Holy Communion is another way that God
bestows His Grace on us. Because we
believe that communion is more than a symbol, Lutherans believe in close
communion, that is that we commune only those who share our faith in the Triune
God and our belief in communion as the very body and blood of Christ.
Sin
Sin consists of every action by which we as human beings
rebel against God and His will. God created man with a free-will. In that free will, the first man and woman
rebelled against God. With that, sin entered the world. Ever since then mankind has lived in
rebellion against God. All sins are
equal before God, equally condemning and equally forgivable. When individuals struggle with guilt over a
particular sin, for example homosexual tendencies, past abortions, pornography,
alcoholism or any other violation of God’s will, God longs to receive, forgive
them and empower them with victory over that sin in the future. Where people
rebel against God’s will and refuse His transforming love, the church is commanded
by God to stand firm in speaking against such sin.
Some thoughts on why bad things happen, or better yet, Why do bad things
happen to good people?
This is a question that is often asked. Tragedies occur all the time, personal
tragedies and tragedies on large scale.
A young man, good in every way, loses his life suddenly in an accident,
leaving his young family to struggle.
People lose all they own because of house fires. Tsunamis occur with little or no warning and
thousands of people lose their lives.
Homelessness, sickness, such things are everywhere. It all just doesn’t
seem fair. How can a loving God allow
such things?
God does indeed love us.
Jesus lived here as one of us and experienced all the hardships and
sorrows many of us experience every day.
God grieves over all these bad things, just as we do, if not more. We are all His children and He loves each
and every one of us. He doesn’t want
these things to happen and He surely does not cause them.
These things happen because we live in a world full of evil,
evil that has been in the world ever since Satan led mankind into sin. But that doesn’t tell us why God doesn’t
intervene and prevent these things from happening. Why doesn’t He just fix it so that evil cannot triumph any more?
The answer is that He did! He has fixed it. That’s the good news! This life will always
bring sorrow, disappointment, and suffering.
God knows that. That is why
Jesus came into this world. God wants
us to live someday with him in Heaven; a place without sorrow, a place without
pain, a place where life will be eternally perfect in every way.
How do we get there?
There are two things that have to happen before we can go to
Heaven. First, we must believe in
Jesus. The whole reason why Jesus died
on the cross was so that we could go to Heaven. Jesus is there right now getting things ready for our
arrival. But to receive this gift, one
must first receive the Spirit’s gift of faith and trust in Jesus as the only way to Heaven. The other thing we have to do is leave this
troublesome life. We have to die. Death is a process that starts the minute we
are born. It’s the result of the sin in
this world. The good news is that those
who believe in Jesus will live again someday in Heaven. You see, God didn’t just temporarily fix it
for this life, He fixed it eternally forever!
Zion Lutheran Church
139 S. High St
Akron, OH 44308
Tel: (330) 253-3136
A
Missouri Synod Lutheran Church
