What we receive through faith...

The forgiveness of sins and justification is received through faith. The voice of Christ testifies, "So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, 'We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty'" (Luke 17:10). The Fathers teach the same thing. Ambrose says, "It is ordained of God that he who believes in Christ is saved, freely receiving forgiveness of sins, without works, through faith alone.
~BOC, AC, VI, 2-3

God as our schoolmaster...

After God (through the Holy Spirit in Baptism) has kindled and caused a beginning of the true knowledge of God and faith, we should pray to Him without ceasing.  We should ask that through the same Spirit and His grace, by means of the daily exercise of reading and doing God's Word, He would preserve us in faith and His heavenly gifts, strengthen us from day to day, and keep us to the end. For unless God Himself is our schoolmaster, we can study and learn nothing that is acceptable to Him and helpful to ourselves and others.
~BOC, FSD, II, 16

How to think about Baptism...

We must think this way about Baptism and make it profitable for ourselves. So when our sins and conscience oppress us, we strengthen ourselves and take comfort and say, "Nevertheless, I am baptized. And if I am baptized, it is promised to me that I shall be saved and have eternal life, both in soul and body."
~BOC, LC, IV, 44

Only through the Word...

In issues related to the spoken, outward Word, we must firmly hold that God grants His Spirit or grace to no one except through or with the preceding outward Word. This protects us from enthusiasts (i.e., souls who boast that they have the Spirit without and before the Word). They judge Scripture or the spoken Word and explain and stretch it at their pleasure, as Munzer did. Many still do this today, wanting to be sharp judges between the Spirit and the letter and yet they do not know what they are saying.
~BOC, SA, III, VIII, 3

Not merely a knowledge of history...

But the faith that justifies is not merely a knowledge of history.  It is to believe in God's promise.  In this promise, for Christ's sake, forgiveness of sins and justification are freely offered.  And so that no one may suppose that this is mere knowledge, we will add further: it is to want and to receive the offered promise of forgiveness of sins and of justification.
~BOC, AP, AP, IV (II), 48

Justification comes only through the free promise, not ourselves...

Since justification is gained through the free promise, it follows that we cannot justify ourselves. Otherwise, why would there be a need to promise? Since the promise can only be received through faith, the Gospel (which is properly the promise of forgiveness of sins and of justification for Christ's sake) proclaims the righteousness of faith in Christ. The Law does not teach this, nor is this the righteousness of the Law. For the Law demands our works and our perfection. But for Christ's sake, the Gospel freely offers reconciliation to us, who have been vanquished by sin and death. This is received not by works, but by faith alone. This faith does not bring to God confidence in one's own merits, but only confidence in the promise, or the mercy promised in Christ. This special faith (by which an individual believes that for Christ's sake his sins are forgiven him, and that for Christ's sake God is reconciled and sees us favorably) gains forgiveness of sins and justifies us. In repentance, namely, in terrors, this faith comforts and encourages hearts. It regenerates us and brings the Holy Spirit so that we may be able to fulfill God's Law: to love God, truly fear God, truly be confident that God hears prayer, and obey God in all afflictions. This faith puts to death concupiscence and the like. So faith freely receives forgiveness of sins. It sets Christ, the Mediator and Atoning Sacrifice, against God's wrath. It does not present our merits or our love. This faith is the true knowledge of Christ and helps itself to the benefits of Christ. This faith regenerates hearts and comes before the fulfilling of the Law.
~BOC, AP, IV (II), 43-47

The error of believing in only a first grace...

...Christ does not stop being our Mediator after we have been renewed. They err who image that He has merited only a first grace, and that, afterward, we please God and merit eternal life by our fulfilling of the Law. Christ remains Mediator, and we should always be confident that for His sake we have a reconciled God, even though we are unworthy.
~BOC, AP, V (III), 41-42

Clothing your neighbor's weaknesses in your own honor...

Let everyone use his tongue and make it serve for the best of everyone else, to cover up his neighbor's sins and infirmities, excuse them, conceal and garnish them with his own reputation...So also among ourselves should we clothe whatever blemishes and infirmities we find in our neighbor and serve and help him to promote his honor to the best of our ability.
~BOC, LC, I, 285, 287

The Sacraments confirm the promise of the Gospel in every believer...

For this reason, Christ causes the promise of the Gospel not only to be offered in general, but He also seals it through the Sacraments. He attaches them like seals of the promise, and by them He confirms the Gospel to every believer in particular.
~BOC, FSD, XI, 37

A child and pupil of the catechism...

But for myself I [Luther] say this: I am also a doctor and preacher; yes, as a learned and experienced as all the people who have such assumptions and contentment. Yet I act as a child who is being taught the catechism. Every morning--and whenever I have the time--I read and say, word for word, the Ten Commandments, the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, the Psalms, and such. I must still read and study them daily. Yet I cannot master the catechism as I wish. but I must remain a child and pupil of the catechism, and am glad to remain so. (7-8)

God Himself is not ashamed to these these things daily. He knows nothing better to teach. He always keeps teaching the same thing and does not take up anything new or different. All the saints know nothing better or different to learn and cannot finish learning this....Can we finish learning in an hour what God Himself cannot finish teaching? He is engaged in teaching this from the beginning to the end of the world. All prophets, together with all saints, have been busy learning it, have ever remained students, and must continue to be students. (16)

~BOC, LC, LP

Through Word and Sacrament...

Therefore we constantly maintain this point:  God does not want to deal with us in any other way that through the spoken Word and through the Sacraments  Whatever is praised as from the Spirit--without the Word and Sacraments--is the devil himself.  God wanted to appear even to Moses through the bush and spoken Word. No prophet, neither Elijah nor Elisha, received the Spirit without the Ten Commandments or the spoken Word.  John the Baptist was not conceived without the word of Gabriel coming first, nor did he leap in his mother's womb without Mary's voice.  Peter says, "For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit" (2 Peter 1:21).  Without the outward Word, however, they were not holy.  Much less would the Holy Spirit have moved them to speak when they were still unholy.  They were holy, says he, since the Holy Spirit spoke through them.
~BOC, SA, III, IX, 10-13

The Sacraments are a visible Word spoken for us, given to us...

When we are baptized, when we eat the Lord's body, when we are absolved, our heart must be firmly assured that God truly forgives us for Christ's sake.  At the same time, by the Word and by the rite, God moves hearts to believe and conceive faith, just as Paul says, "Faith comes by hearing" (Rom. 10:17).  But just as the Word enters the ear in order to strike our heart, so the rite itself strikes the eye, in order to move the heart.  The effect of the Word and the rite are the same.  It has been well said by Agustine that a Sacrament is a visible Word, because the rite is received by the eyes and is, as it were, a picture of the Word, illustrating the same thing as the Word.  The result of both is the same.
~BOC, AP, XII (VII), 4-6

Our shelter and protection rest in prayer...

We need to know this: all our shelter and protection rest in prayer alone. For we are far too weak to deal with the devil and all his power and followers who set themselves against us. They might easily crush us under their feet. Therefore, we must consider and take up those weapons with which Christians must be armed in order to stand against the devil.
~BOC, LC, III, 30

Christ is always our Mediator with God...

In the third place, Christ does not stop being our Mediator after we have been renewed. They err who imagine that He has merited only a first grace, and that, afterward, we please God and merit eternal life by our fulfilling of the Law.
~BOC, AP, V (III), 41

We go precisely because of our unworthiness...

Such people must learn that it is the hightest art to know that our Sacrament [the Lord's Supper] does not depend on our worthiness. We are not baptized because we are worthy and holy. Nor do we go to Confession because we are pure and without sin. On the contrary, we go because we are poor, miserable people. We go exactly because we are unworthy.
 ~BOC, LC, V, 65

Through faith alone...

Since we receive forgiveness of sins and the Holy Spirit through faith alone, faith alone justifies. For those reconciled are counted as righteous and as God's children. This is not because of their own purity, but through mercy for Christ's sake, provided only that they receive this mercy through faith. So Scripture testifies that by faith we are accounted righteous.
~BOC, AP, IV(II), 86

God's chief works among people...

God's two chief works among people are these:  to terrify; to justify and make alive those who have been terrified.  Into these two works all Scripture has been distributed.  The one part is the Law, which shows, reproves, and condemns sins.  The other part is the Gospel, that is, the promise of grace bestowed in Christ.  This promise is constantly repeated in the whole of Scripture, first having been delivered to Adam, afterward, to the patriarchs. Then, it was still more clearly proclaimed by the prophets.  Lastly, it was preached and set forth among the Jewish people by Christ and then spread out over the entire world by the apostles.  All the saints were justified through faith in this promise, and not by their own attrition or contrition.
~BOC, AP, XII (V), 53-54

God faithfully provides all that His creation needs...

You see, in this way, God wishes to show us how He cares for us in all our need and faithfully provides for us also for our earthly support. He abundantly grants and preserves these things, even for the wicked and rogues. Yet, He wishes that we pray for these goods in order that we may recognize that we receive them from His hand and may feel His fatherly goodness toward us in them.
~BOC, LC, III, 82-83

There is but one Christ...

There is one Christ, true God and true man, who was born of the Virgin Mary, truly suffered, was crucified, died, and was buried. He did this to reconcile the Father to us and to be a sacrifice, not only for original guilt, but also for all actual sins of mankind. He descended into hell and truly rose again on the third day.
~BOC, AC, III, 2-4

We do not assign spiritual matters to free will...

Although we admit that free will has the freedom and power to perform the supreme works of the Law, we do not assign spiritual matters to free will. These are to truly fear God, believe God, be confident and hold that He care for us, hears us, and forgives us.  These are the true works of the First Table, which the heart cannot produce without the Holy Spirit, as Paul says, "The natural person [namely, a person using only natural strength] does not accept the things of the Spirit of God" (I Corinthians 2:14).  People can determine this if they consider what their hearts believe about God's will, whether they are truly confident God cares for and hears them. Even the saints find keeping this faith difficult (which is not possible in believers). But, as we have said before, it begins when terrified hearts hear the Gospel and receive comfort.
~BOC, AP, XVIII, 73-74

Law brings despair, but the Gospel brings consolation and forgiveness...

Whenever the Law alone exercises its office...there is nothing but death and hell, and one must despair, as Saul and Judas did. St. Paul says, through sin the Law kills. (See Romans 7:10.) On the other hand, the Gospel brings consolation and forgiveness. It does so not just in one way, but through the Word and Sacraments and the like, as we will discuss later. As Psalm 130:7 says against the dreadful captivity of sin, "with the Lord is plentiful redemption."
~BOC, SA, III, III, 7-8

God's Word is a true sanctuary...

God's Word is the sanctuary above all sanctuaries.
~BOC, LC, I, 91

The Gospel is incompatible with the teaching of merited grace...

The Gospel compels us to insist on the doctrine of grace and the righteousness of faith in the churches.  This cannot be understood if people think that they merit grace by observances of their own choice.
~BOC, AC, XXVI, 20

Forgiveness rests not on our sake...

Here we must know that this faith should be confident that God freely forgives us for Christ's sake, for the sake of His own promise, not for the sake of our works, contrition, confession, or satisfaction.
~BOC, AP, XII (VI), 95

The Holy Spirit carries on His Work without ceasing...

God's grace is secured through Christ, and sanctification is wrought by the Holy Spirit through God's Word in the unity of the Christian Church. Yet because of our flesh, which we bear with us, we are never without sin.   Everything, therefore, in the Christian Church is ordered toward this goal: we shall daily receive in the Church nothing but the forgiveness of sin through the Word and signs, to comfort and encourage our consciences as long as we live here. So even though we have sins, the grace of the Holy Spirit does not allow them to harm us.  For we are in the Christian Church, where there is nothing but continuous, uninterrupted forgiveness of sins....For we have already received creation. Redemption, too, is finished. But the Holy Spirit carries on His work without ceasing to the Last Day.
~BOC, LC,  II, 54-55,61

The power of the Living Word...

It helps to be occupied with God's Word, to speak it, and meditate on it, just as the first Psalm declares people blessed who meditate on God's Law day and night.  Certainly you will not release a stronger incense or other repellent against the devil than to be engaged by God's commandments and words, and speak, sing, or think them. For this is indeed the true "holy water" and "holy sign" from which the devil runs and by which he may be driven away.
~BOC, LC, LP, 10

Objective Grace brings the greatest consolation to anxious souls...

Spiritually inexperienced people despise this teaching [objective grace]. However, God-fearing and anxious consciences find by experience that it brings the greatest consolation. Consciences cannot be set at rest through any works, but only by faith, when they take the sure ground that for Christ's sake they have a gracious God.
~BOC, AC, XX, 15-16

The power, work, profit, fruit and purpose of Baptism...

Therefore, state it most simply this way:  The power, work, profit, fruit, and purpose of Baptism is this--to save.  For no one is baptized in order that he may become a prince, but, as the words say, that he "be saved."  We know that to be saved is nothing other than to be delivered from sin, death, and the devil.  It means to enter into Christ's kingdom and to live forever.
~BOC, LC, IV, 24-25

Though we still battle flesh, the entire person and works is declared righteous and holy through faith...

I do not know how to change in the least what I have previously and constantly taught about justification. Namely, that through faith, as St. Peter says, we have a new and clean heart, and God will and does account us entirely righteous and holy for the sake of Christ, our Mediator. Although sin in the flesh has not yet been completely removed or become dead yet He will not punish or remember it....The entire individual, both his person and his works, is declared to be righteous and holy from pure grace and mercy, shed upon us and spread over us in Christ.
~BOC, SA, III, XIII, 1-2

The Scriptures will never lie to you...

Therefore, if you cannot discern this, at least believe the Scriptures. They will not lie to you, and they know your flesh better than you yourself.
~BOC, LC, V, 76

The Promise of Christ's Word in the Lord's Supper...

Consider this true, almighty Lord, our Creator and Redeemer, Jesus Christ, after the Last Supper. He is just beginning His bitter suffering and death for our sins. In those sad last moments, with great consideration and solemnity, He institutes this most venerable Sacrament. It was to be used until the end of the world with great reverence and obedience. It was to be an abiding memorial of His bitter suffering and death and all His benefits. It was a sealing of the new Testament, a consolation of all distressed hearts, and a firm bond of unity for Christians with Christ, their Head, and with one another. In ordaining and instituting the Holy Supper, He spoke these words about the bread, which He blessed and gave: "Take, eat; this is My body, which is given for you," and about the cup or wine: "This is My blood of the new testament, which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins."

We, too, are simply to believe with all humility and obedience our Creator and Redeemer's plain, firm, clear, solemn words and command, without any doubt and dispute about how it agrees with our reason or it is possible. For these words were spokne by that Lord who is infinite Wisdom and Truth itself. He can do and accomplish everything He promises.
~BOC, FSD, VII, 44,47

How God works with us, calls us, and confirms the Gospel to every believer...

For we are daily reminded and encouraged that we are to learn and conclude that His will toward us is only from God's Word, through which He works with us and calls us. We should believe and not doubt what it affirms to us and promises. For this reason Christ causes the promise of the Gospel not only to be offered in general, but He also seals it through the Sacraments. He attaches them like seals of the promise, and by them He confirms the Gospel to every believer in particular.
~BOC, FSD, XI, 36-37

God does not consider prayer because of the person...

God does not consider prayer because of the person, but because of His Word and obedience to it....Let this be the first and most important point, that all our prayers must be added and rest upon obedience to God, regardless of who we are, whether we are sinners or saints, worthy or unworthy....He will not allow our prayers to be in vain or lost.  For if He did not intent to answer your prayers, He would not ask you to pray and add such a severe commandment to it.
~BOC, LC, III, 16-18

God stakes His honor, power, and might on Baptism...

Understand the difference, then.  Baptism is quite a different thing from all other water. This is not because of its natural quality but because something more noble is added here.  God Himself stakes His honor, His power, and His might on it.  Therefore, Baptism is not only natural water, but a divine, heavenly, holy, and blessed water, and whatever other terms we can find to praise it.  This all as because of the Word, which is a heavenly, holy Word, which no one can praise enough.  For it has, and is able to do, all that God is and can do.
~BOC, LC, IV, 17-18

How we know the things of God...

He has created us for this very reason, that He might redeem and sanctify us.  In addition to giving and imparting to us everything in heaven and upon earth, He has even given to us His Son and the Holy Spirit, who brings us to Himself.  For we could never grasp the knowledge of the Father's grace and favor except through the Lord Christ.  Jesus is a mirror of the fatherly heart outside of whom we see nothing but an angry and terrible Judge.  But we couldn't know anything about Christ either, unless it has been revealed by the Holy Spirit.
~BOC, LC, II, 64-65

The world has struggled with all diligence to understand God, but has not...

The whole world with all diligence has struggled to figure out what God is, and what He has in mind and does. Yet the world has never been able to grasp the knowledge and understanding of any of these things. But here we have everything in richest measure. For in all three articles God has revealed Himself and opened the deepest abyss of His fatherly heart and His pure, inexpressible love.
~BOC, LC, II, 63

The gift of the Holy Spirit bring a daily cleansing and forgiveness...

Paul testifies that he wars with the law in his members not by his own powers, but by the gift of the Holy Spirit that follows the forgiveness of sins. This gift daily cleanses and sweeps out the remaining sins and works to make a person truly pure and holy.
~BOC, SA, III (III), 40

The Word makes saints of us all...

Whenever God's Word is taught, preached, heard, read, or mediated upon, then the person, day, and work are sanctified.  This is not because of the outward work, but because of the Word, which makes saints of us all.
~BOC, LC, I, 92

The Holy Spirit reveals and preaches, illumines and enkindles...

...the Spirit has His own congregation in the world, which is the mother that conceives and bears every Christian through God's Word. Through the Word He reveals and preaches, He illumines and enkindles hearts, so that they understand, accept, cling to, and preserve in the Word. Where the Spirit does not cause the Word to be preached and roused in the heart so that is it understood, it is lost.
~BOC, LC, II, 42-43

Faith is the divine service that receives the benefits offered by God...

The difference between this faith and the righteousness of the Law can be easily discerned.  Faith is the divine service (latreia) that receives the benefits offered by God.  The righteousness of the Law is the divine service (latreia) that offers to God our merits.  God wants to be worshiped through faith so that we recieve from Him those things He promises and offers.
~BOC, AP, IV (II), 49

A blessing of a Savior who is fully God and yet fully man...

[Christians] should close the eyes of reason and bring their understanding into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and rejoice without ceasing in the fact that our flesh and blood is placed so high at the right hand of God's majesty and almighty power. In this way we will certainly find constant consolation in every difficulty and remain well guarded against deadly error.
~BOC, FSD, VIII, 96

God's voice sounding from heaven...

Our people are taught that they should highly prize the Absolution as being God's voice and pronounced by God's command. The Power of the Keys is set forth in its beauty. They are reminded what great consolation it brings to anxious consciences and that God requires faith to believe such Absolution as a voice sounding from heaven.
~BOC, AC, XXV, 3-4

The doctrine of the Creed brings pure grace...

From this you see that the Creed is a doctrine quite different from the Ten Commandments. For the Commandments teach what we ought to do. But the Creed tells us what God does for us and gives to us. Furthermore, apart from this the Ten Commandments are written in all people's hearts. However, no human wisdom can understand the Creed. It must be taught by the Holy Spirit alone. The teaching of the Ten Commandments, therefore, makes no Christian.  For God's wrath and displeasure abide upon still, because we cannot keep what God demands of us.  But the Creed brings pure grace and makes us godly and acceptable to God. For by this knowledge we have love and delight in God's commandments.  Here we see that God gives Himself to us completely.  He gives all that He has and is able to do in order to aid and direct us in keeping the Ten Commandments.  The Father gives all creatures.  The Son gives His entire work.  And the Holy Spirit bestows all His gifts.
~BOC, LC, III, 67-69

We overcome the terrors of sin and death not through love, but through faith...

From these statements we hope that it is clear both what faith is and that we are justified, reconciled, and regenerated through faith.  We are compelled to hold on to these teachings because we want to teach the righteousness of the Gospel, not the righteousness of the Law.  For those who teach that we are justified by love teach the righteousness of the Law. They do not teach us in justification to trust in Christ as Mediator.  These things are also clear.  We overcome the terrors of sin and death not through love, but through faith.  For we cannot set up our love and fulfilling of the Law against God's wrath, because Paul says, "Through [Christ] we have also obtained access [to God] by faith" (Romans 5:2).  We emphasize this sentence so that we are understood.  The sentence shows most clearly our whole argument and, when carefully considered, can teach abundantly about the whole matter.  It can console good minds.  So, it is helpful to have it against the doctrine of our adversaries.  They teach that we come to God not through faith, but through love and merits, without Christ as Mediator.  This sentence also helps us when we fear, so that we may cheer ourselves and exercise faith.  This is also clear.  We cannot keep the Law without Christ's aid.  He Himself says, "Apart from me you can do nothing (John 15:5).  So, before we keep the Law, our hearts must be born again through faith.
~BOC, AP, V (III), 192-194

God the Father daily preserves and defends us...

Further, we also confess that God the Father has not only given us all that we have and see before our eyes, but He daily preserves and defends us against all evil and misfortune. He directs all sorts of danger and disaster away from us. We confess that He does all this out of pure love and goodness, without our merit, as a kind Father.
~BOC, LC, II, 17

The Gospel is God's grace and favor for Christ's sake...

In this matter a disagreement has occurred among some theologians of the Augsburg Confession. One side asserted that the Gospel is properly not only a preaching of grace, but is, at the same time, also a preaching of repentance, which rebukes the greatest sin: unbelief. The other side held and argued that the Gospel is not properly a preaching of repentance or rebuke. That properly belongs to God's Law, which reproves all sins, including unbelief. The Gospel is properly a preaching of God's grace and favor for Christ's sake. Through the Gospel the unbelief of the converted, which previously dwelt in them, and which God's Law reproved, is pardoned and forgiven.
~BOC, FSD, V, 2

Repentance will always contend with sin remaining in the flesh...

In Christians this repentance continues until death.  For through one's entire life, repentance contends with the sin remaining in the flesh.  Paul testifies that he wars with the law in his members not by his own powers, but by the gift of the Holy Spirit that follows the forgiveness of sins.  This gift daily cleans and sweeps out the remaining sins and works to make a person truly pure and holy.
~BOC, SA, III, III, 40

God's Word is our rule and norm...

The true rule is this: God's Word shall establish the articles of faith, and no one else, not even an angel can do so.
~BOC, SA, II, 15

The entire individual is declared righteous and holy...

What is still sinful or imperfect in them will not be counted as sin or defect, for Christ's sake.  The entire individual, both his person and his works, is declared to be righteous and holy from pure grace and mercy, shed upon us and spread over us in Christ.
~BOC, SA, III, XIII, 2-3

The Sacraments are signs and testimonies of God's will toward us...

Our church teaches that the Sacraments were ordained, not only to be marks of profession among men, but even more, to be signs and testimonies of God's will toward us. They were instituted to awaken and confirm faith in those who use them. Therefore, we must use the Sacraments in such a way that faith, which believes the promises offered and set forth through the Sacraments is increased.
~BOC, AC, XIII, 1-2

Christ, by His human nature, has sympathy and is with us in all our troubles...

But Christ promised that He--He, the man who has spoken with them, who has experienced all tribulations in His received human nature, and who can therefore have sympathy with us, as with men and His brethren--He will be with us in all our troubles also according to the nature by which He is our brother and we are flesh of His flesh.
~BOC, FSD, FSD, VII, 87

The Living Word is powerful--living, creative, and the bane of the devil's work against us...

 Let me tell you this, even though you know God's Word perfectly and are already a master in all things: you are daily in the devil's kingdom. He ceases neither day nor night to sneak up on you and to kindle in your heart unbelief and wicked thoughts against these three commandments and all the commandments. Therefore, you must always have God's Word in your heart, upon your lips, and in your ears. But where the heart is idle and the Word does not make a sound, the devil breaks in and has done the damage before we are aware.  On the other hand the Word is so effective that whenever it is seriously contemplated, heard, and used, it is bound to never be without fruit. It always awakens new understanding, pleasure, and devoutness and produces a pure heart and pure thoughts.  For these words are not lazy or dead, but are creative, living words.  And even though no other interest or necessity move us, this truth ought to urge everyone to the Word, because thereby the devil is put to flight and driven away.
~BOC, LC, I, 100-102

The Holy Spirit brings us Christ's grace...

Therefore, Luther wanted to make clear how great the consequences of original sin are and how weak human beings are as a result.  So, he taught that these remnants of original sin (after Baptism) are not, by nature, unimportant, but that we need Christ's grace so that they are not counted against us as sin.  And to put them to death [mortify them], we need the Holy Spirit.
~BOC, AP, II (I), 45

Confidence in Christ versus in our works...

We are disputing whether confidence is to be placed in Christ or our works.  If it is to be placed in our works, the honor of Mediator and Atoning Sacrifice will be withdrawn from Christ.  Yet we shall find, in God's judgment, that this confidence is useless.  From this confidence, consciences rush directly into despair.  If forgiveness of sins and reconciliation do not happen freely for Christ's sake, but for the sake of our love, no one will have forgiveness of sins.  He would only have it when he fulfilled the entire Law, because the Law does not justify as long as it can accuse us.  Therefore, it is clear that we are justified through faith, since justification is reconciliation for Christ's sake.  For it is very certain that forgiveness of sins is received through faith alone.
~BOC, AP, V (III), 36-37

He has been made a victim for us...

He [Christ] has been made a victim for us and has removed that right of the Law to accuse and condemn those who believe in Him.
~AP, V (III), 58

Body AND soul are saved in Baptism...

Now since both, the water and the Word, make one Baptism, therefore body and soul must be saved and live forever. The soul lives through the Word, which believes, but the body lives because it is united with the soul and also holds on through Baptism as it is able to grasp it. We have, therefore, no greater jewel in body and soul. For by Baptism we are made holy and are saved. No other kind of life, no work upon earth, can do this.
~BOC, LC, IV, 46

Where God's Word is crosses will also be...

If we would be Christians, therefore, we must surely expect and count on having the devil with all his angels and the world as our enemies.  They will bring every possible misfortune and grief upon us. For where God's Word is preached, accepted, or believed and produces fruit, there the holy cross cannot be missing.  And let no one think that he shall have peace. He must risk whatever he has upon earth--possessions, honor, house and estate, wife and children, body and life.  Now, this hurts our flesh and the old Adam.  The test is to be steadfast and to suffer with patience in whatever way we are assaulted, and to let go whatever is taken from us.
~BOC, LC, III, 65-66

Faith in Christ obtains forgiveness...

As the second part of repentance we add faith in Christ. The Gospel, in which the forgiveness of sins is freely promised concerning Christ, should be presented to consciences in these terrors. They should believe that, for Christ's sake, their sins are freely forgiven. This faith cheers, sustains, and enlivens the contrite, according to Romans 5:1, "Since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God." This faith obtains the forgiveness of sins. It justifies before God, as the same passages testifies, "since we have been justified by faith." This faith shows the distinction between the contrition of Judas and Peter, of Saul and David. The contrition of Judas or Saul is useless because faith is not added. Faith grasps the forgiveness of sins, given as a gift for Christ's sake. So the contrition of David or Peter helps because faith, which takes hold of the forgiveness of sins granted for Christ' sake is added to it....This faith grows gradually and throughout the entire life, struggles with sin, in order to overcome sin and death. Love follows faith, as we have said above, so childlike fear can be clearly defined as anxiety that has been connected with faith, that is, where faith comforts and sustains the anxious heart. It is slavish fear when faith does not sustain the anxious heart.
~BOC, AP, XII (V), 35-38

God cannot lie or deceive...

David, on the other hand, was a despised man, hunted down and chased, so that he did not feel his life was secure anywhere.  Yet, he had to survive, in spite of Saul, and become king.  For these words of the promise had to abide and come true, since God cannot lie or deceive.  Just let not the devil and the world deceive you with their show, which indeed remains for a time, but finally is nothing.
~BOC, LC, I, 46

God is superabundantly generous in His grace...

We will now return to the Gospel, which does not give us counsel and aid against sin in only one way. God is superabundantly generous in His grace: First, through the spoken Word, by which the forgiveness of sins is preached in the whole world. This is the particular office of the Gospel. Second, through Baptism. Third, through the holy Sacrament of the Altar. Fourth through the Power of the Keys. Also through the mutual conversation and consolation of bretheran, "Where two or three are gathered" (Matthew 18:20) and other such verses (especially Romans 1:12).
~BOC, SA, III, IV

We can be certain that God forgives...

In the first place, it is certain that we do not receive forgiveness of sins through our love or for the sake of our love, but only for Christ's sake, for faith. Faith alone looks upon the promise. It knows that because of the promise, it is absolutely certain that God forgives, because Christ has not died in vain.
~BOC, AP, III, 26-27

The glorious consolation of the doctrine of predestination...

This is how much of the mystery of predestination is revealed to us in God’s Word. If we abide by this teaching and cling to it, is a very useful, saving, consoling teaching. It establishes very effectively the article that we are justified and saved without any works and merits of ours, purely out of grace alone, for Christ’s sake. Before the time of the world, before we existed, yes, even before the foundation of the world was laid--when, of course, we could do nothing good--we were chosen by grace in Christ to salvation, according to God’s purpose. Furthermore, all opinions and erroneous teachings about the powers of our natural will are overthrown by this. God in His counsel, before the time of the world, decided and ordained that He Himself would produce and work in us by His Holy Spirit’s power. Through the Word, He would do everything that belongs to our conversion.

This doctrine also provides the excellent glorious consolation that God was greatly concerned about the conversion, righteousness, and salvation of every Christian. He so faithfully provided for it that even before the foundation of the world was laid, He considered it, and in His purpose ordained how He would bring me to salvation and preserve me in salvation. He wanted to secure my salvation so well and so certainly, since through the weakness and wickedness of our flesh salvation could easily be lost from our hands or through the devil’s and the world’s craft and might it could be snatched and taken from us. Therefore He ordained in His eternal purpose what cannot fail or be overthrown. He placed salvation for safekeeping in this almighty hand of our Savior, Jesus Christ, from which no one can snatch us. Therefore, Paul asks in Romans, because we “are called according to his purpose” (8:28), who “will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord”? (8:39).

Furthermore, this doctrine provides glorious consolation under the cross and amid temptations. In other words, God in His counsel before the time of the world, determined and decreed that He would assist us in all distresses. He determined to grant patience, give consolation, nourish and encourage hope, and produce an outcome for us that would contribute to our salvation. Also, Paul teaches this in a very consoling way. He explains that God in His purpose has ordained before the time of the world by what crosses and sufferings He would conform every one of His elect to the image of His Son. His cross shall and must work together for good for everyone, because they are called according to God’s purpose. Therefore Paul has concluded that it certain and beyond doubt that neither “tribulation, or distress,” neither “death nor life,” or other such things “will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our lord.”
~BOC, FSD, XI 43-49

Knowledge of original sin illuminates the magnitude of Christ's grace...

The knowledge of original sin is absolutely necessary. The magnitude of Christ's grace cannot be understood unless our diseases are recognized.
~BOC, AP, II (I), 33

We do not assign spiritual matters to free will...

Although we admit that free will has the freedom and power to perform the extreme works of the Law; we do not assign spiritual matters to free will. These are to truly fear God, believe God, be confident and hold that He cares for us, hears us, and forgives us. These are the true works of the First Table, which the heart cannot produce without the Holy Spirit....
~BOC, AP, XVIII, 73

Faith is not merely a knowledge of history...

People are also warned that the term faith does not mean simply a knowledge of a history, such as the ungodly and devil have. Rather, it means a faith that believes, not merely the history, but also the effect of the history. In other words, it believes this article: the forgiveness of sins. We have grace, righteousness, and forgiveness of sins through Jesus Christ.
~BOC, AC, XX, 23

Christ had no need of redemption for Himself...

Let this, then, be the sum of this article: the little word Lord means simply the same as Redeemer.  It means the One who has brought us from Satan to God, from death to life, from sin to righteousness, and who preserves us in the same. But all the points that follow in this article serve no other purpose than to explain and express this redemption.  They explain how and by whom it was accomplished.  They explain how much it cost Him and what He spent and risked so that He might win us and bring us under His dominion. It explains that He became man, was conceived and born without sin, from the Holy Spirit and Mary, so that He might overcome sin. Further, it explains that He suffered, died, and was buried so that He might make satisfaction for me and pay what I owe, not with silver or gold, but with His own precious blood. And He did all this in order to become my Lord. He did none of these things for Himself, nor did He have any need for redemption.
~BOC, LC, II, 31

God deals with us through Word and Sacrament...

Therefore we must constantly maintain this point:  God does not want to deal with us in any other way than through the spoken Word and the Sacraments.  Whatever is praised as from the Spirit--without the Word and Sacraments--is the devil himself.  God wanted to appear even to Moses through the burning bush and spoken Word.  No prophet, neither Elijah nor Elisha, received the Spirit without the Ten Commandments or the spoken Word.  John the Baptist was not conceived without the word of Gabriel coming first, nor did he leap in his mother's womb without Mary's voice.  Peter says, "For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit," (2 Peter 1:21). Without the outward Word, however, they were not holy. Much less would the Holy Spirit have moved them to speak with then were sill unholy.  They were holy, says he, since the Holy Spirit spoke through them.
~BOC, SA, III, VIII, 10-13

Salvation by mercy brings certitude to believers...

It is essential to believe that we are saved by mercy so that hope may be sure, so that there may be a resulting distinction between those who obtain salvation and those who do not. When this is expressed in a way without explanation, it seems foolish.  For in civil courts and human judgment, issues about rights or debts are certain, and mercy is uncertain. But the matter is different in God's judgment. Here mercy has a clear and certain promise and command from God. The Gospel is properly the command that directs us to believe that God is reconciled to us for Christ's sake.
~BOC, AP, V (III), 224

The distinction between Law and Gospel is a brilliant light...

The distinction between the Law and the Gospel is a particularly brilliant light. It serves the purpose of rightly dividing God's Word and properly explaining and understanding the Scriptures of the holy prophets and apostles. We must guard this distinction with special care, so that these two doctrines may not be mixed with each other, or a law be made out of the Gospel. When that happens, Christ's merit is hidden and troubled consciences are robbed of comfort, which they otherwise have in the Holy Gospel when it is preached genuinely and purely. For by the Gospel they can support themselves in their most difficult trials against the Law's terror.
~BOC, FSD, V, 1

The Holy Spirit works faith in us for Christ's sake...

Through the Word and Sacraments, as through instruments, the Holy Spirit is given. He works faith, when and where it pleases God, in those who hear the good news that God justifies those who believe that they are received into grace for Christ's sake. This happens not through our own merits, but for Christ's sake.
~BOC, AC, V, 2-4

The Creed brings pure grace...

From this you see that the Creed is a doctrine quite different from the Ten Commandments. For the Ten Commandments teach what we ought to do. But the Creed tells us what God does for us and gives to us. Furthermore, apart from this, the Ten Commandments are written in all people's hearts. However, no human wisdom can understand the Creed. It must be taught by the Holy Spirit alone.  The teaching of the Commandments, therefore, makes no Christian.  For God's wrath and displeasure abide upon us still, because we cannot keep what God demands of us.  But the Creed brings pure grace and makes us godly and acceptable to God.
~BOC, LC, II,67-69

Christ's complete obedience given for us...

…He offered to His heavenly Father of us poor sinners His entire, complete obedience. This extends from His holy birth even unto death. In this way, He has covered all our disobedience, which dwells in our nature, and its thoughts, words, and works. So disobedience is not charged against us for condemnation. It is pardoned and forgiven out of pure grace alone, for Christ's sake.
~BOC, FSD, III, 58

The consolation and grace of Baptism...

It [Baptism] is, in short, so full of consolation and grace that heaven and earth cannot understand it.
~BOC, LC, IV, 39-40