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