God draws the elect through His Word and Sacraments...

Furthermore, the declaration in John 6:44 is right and true, "No one can come to Me unless the Father who send Me draws him."  However, the Father will not do this without means, but has ordained His Word and Sacraments for this purpose as ordinary means and instruments.  It is not the will of the Father or of the Son that a person should not hear or should despite the preaching of His Word and with for the drawing of the Father without the Word and sacraments.  For the Father draws indeed by the power of His Holy Spirit.  However, He works according to His usual way.  He works by the hearing of His holy, divine Word, as with a net, by which the elect are plucked from the devil's jaws.  Every poor sinner should therefore attend to the Word, hear it attentively, and not doubt the Father's drawing.  For the Holy Spirit will be with His world in His power, and will work by it.  That is the Father's drawing.
~FSD, XI, 76-77

Election is founded upon Christ's merit and God's gracious will...

The Holy Spirit dwells in the elect, who have become believers, as in His temple.  He is not idle in them, but moves God's children to obey God's commands.  Therefore, believers, too, should not be idle, much less resist the work of God's Spirit.  They should practice all Christian virtues, in all godliness, modesty, temperance, patience, and brotherly love; and they should give all diligence to make their calling and election sure.  They should do this so that the more they find the Spirit's power and strength within them, they may doubt their election less. For the Spirit bears witness to the elect that they are God's children.  Sometimes they fall into temptation so terribly that they imagine they can no longer perceive the power of God's indwelling Spirit, and so they say with David, "I had said in my alarm, 'I am cut off from Your sight'" (Psalm 31:22).  Yet they should, without regard to what they experience in themselves, again say with David the words immediately following (as is written in the same place), "But You heard the voice of my pleas for mercy when I cried to You for help."

Our election to eternal life is founded not on our godliness or virtue, but on Christ's merit alone and His Father's gracious will.  He cannot deny Himself, because His is unchangeable in will and essence.  Therefore, when His children depart from obedience and stubble, He has called them to repentance again through the Word, and the Holy Spirit wants by the Word to be effective in them for conversion.  When they turn to Him again in true repentance by a right faith, He will always show His old paternal heart to all who tremble at His Word and from their heart turn again to Him, as it is written:

If a man divorces his wife and she goes from him and becomes another man's wife, will he return to her?  Would not that land be greatly polluted?  You have played the whore with many lovers; [yet returned again to Me,] declares the Lord. (Jeremiah 3:1).
~BOC, FSD, XI 73-75

All Scripture, including the doctrine of election, is written for us, not to be driven to despair, but to have hope...

This eternal election or ordination of God to eternal life must not be considered in God's secret, mysterious counsel in a simple-minded way.  It is not as though election included nothing further, or nothing more belonged to it, or nothing more were to be considered in it, that that God foresaw who and how many were to be saved and who and how many were to be damned.  Nor should we think that He only held a sort of military muster, such as, "This one shall be saved, that one shall be damned; this one shall remain steadfast in faith to the end, that one shall not remain steadfast."

From this notion many get and imagine strange, dangerous, and deadly thoughts.  These cause and strengthen either self-confidence and lack of repentance or hopelessness and despair.  So people fall into troublesome thoughts, and say, "Before the foundation of the world was laid" (Ephesians 1:4), God has foreknown His elect to salvation.  And God's foreknowledge cannot fail or be hindered or changed by anyone.  In view of this, if I am elected to salvation, nothing can hurt me, even if I perform all sorts of shameful sins without repentance, have no regard for the Word and Sacraments, concern myself neither with repentance, faith, prayer, or godliness.  I will and must still be saved, because God's foreknowledge must come to pass. If, however, I am not foreknown, nothing helps me anyway, even though I busy myself with the Word, repent, believe, and so on.  For I cannot hinder or change God's foreknowledge."

In fact, even when godly hearts have repentance, faith, and good intentions to live by God's grace in a godly way, thoughts like these arise:  "If you are not foreknown from eternity to salvation, your every effort and entire labor is no help."  This happens especially when they see their weakness and the examples of those who have not persevered, but have fallen away again.

Against this false delusion and thought we should set up the following clear argument, which is sure and cannot fail:  All Scripture is inspired by God.  It is not for self-confidence and lack of repentance, but "for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness" (2 Timothy 3:16).  Also, everything in God's Word has been written for us, not so that we should be driven to despair by it, but so that "through the encouragement of Scriptures we might have hope" (Romans 15:4).  Therefore, there is no question that lack of repentance or despair should not in any way be caused or strengthened by the sound sense or right use of this teaching about God's eternal foreknowledge.  The Scriptures teach this doctrine only to direct us to the Word to encourage repentance and godliness, and to strengthen faith and assure us of our salvation.
~BOC, FSD, XI, 9-12

Election is a cause that gains, works, helps, and promotes our salvation and what belongs to it...

God's eternal election does not just foresee and foreknow the salvation of the elect.  From God's gracious will and pleasure in Christ Jesus, election is a cause that gains, works, helps, and promotes our salvation and what belongs to it.  Our salvation is so founded on it that "the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (Matthew 16:18), as is written in John 10:28, "No one shall snatch [My sheep] out of My hand,"  And again, "as many as were appointed to eternal life believed" (Acts 13:48).
~BOC, FSD, XI, 8

The beginning and cause of evil is the wicked perverse will of the devil and of people, not God's foreknowledge...

God's foreknowledge foresees and foreknows what is evil, yet not in the sense that it is God's gracious will that evil should happen.  Everything that the perverse, wicked will of the devil and of people wants and desires to try and do, God sees and knows before it happens.  His foreknowledge sees its order also in wicked acts or works, since a time and measure is fixed by God for the evil that God does not will.  He limits how far it should go, how long it should last, and when and how He will hinder and punish it.  God the Lord rules over all of this so that it must flow to the glory of the divine name and to the salvation of His elect, and for that reason the godless must be astonished.

The beginning and cause of evil is not God's foreknowledge.  (For God does not create and do evil, neither does He help or promote it.)  The cause of this evil is the wicked, perverse will of the devil and of people, as it is written in Hosea 13:9, " He destroys you, O Israel, for you are against Me, against your helper."  Also, "For You are not a God who delights in wickedness" (Psalm 5:4).
~BOC, FSD, XI, 6-7

The distinction between God's eternal foreknowledge and the eternal election of His children to eternal salvation...

First, the distinction between God's eternal foreknowledge and the eternal election of His children to eternal salvation is to be made carefully.  Foreknowledge or prevision means that God sees and knows everything before it happens.  This is called God's foreknowledge, which extends over all creatures, good and bad.  In other words, He foresees and foreknows everything that is or will be, that is happening or will happen, whether it is good or bad.  For all things, whether they are past or future, are clear and present before God.  This is written in Matthew 10:29:

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny?  And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.

You eyes saw my unformed substance; in Your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there were none of them. (Psalm 139:16)

I know your sitting down and your going out and coming in, and your raging against Me. (Isaiah 37:28)

God's eternal election, or predestination, means God's preordaining to salvation. It does not include both the godly and the wicked, but only God's children, who were elected and ordained to eternal life before the world's foundation was laid.  As Paul says in Ephesians 1:4-5, "He chose us in Him ... He predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ."
~BOC, FSD, XI, 4-5

Adiaphora are not to deny Christian freedom, replace true worship, or interfere with the preservation of the pure doctrine...

The article about Christian freedom is at stake here. The Holy Spirit, through the holy apostle’s mouth, sincerely told His Church to preserve this article, as we have just heard. As soon as Christian freedom is weakened and human traditions are forced on the Church with coercion, as though it were wrong and a sin to omit them, the way is already prepared for idolatry. In this way, human traditions are multiplied and regarded as a divine worship, not only equal to God’s ordinances, but even placed above them.

Furthermore, idolaters are confirmed in their idolatry by such yielding and conforming in outward things, where there has not previously been Christian unity in doctrine. On the other hand, true believers are grieved, offended, and weakened in their faith. Every Christian, for the sake of his soul’s welfare and salvation, is bound to avoid both of these, as it is written:

Woe to the world for temptations to sin! (Matthew 18:7)

But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. (Matthew 18:6)

But what Christ says is to be especially remembered:

So everyone who acknowledges Me before men, I also will acknowledge before My Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 10:32)

However, this has always and everywhere been the faith and confession about such matters, by the chief teachers of the Augsburg Confession. We are following in their footsteps and we intend to persevere in their confession by God’s grace.

~BOC, FSD, X, 15-18

Adiaphora that is compelled or commanded obscures pure doctrine and true worship...

We also believe, teach, and confess that at a time of confession, when the enemies of God's Word want to suppress the pure doctrine of the Holy Gospel, God's entire church, indeed, every single Christian, but especially the ministers of the Word, as the directors of the community of God [Latin:  God's church], is bound by God's Word to confess the doctrine freely and openly.  They are bound to confess every aspect of pure religion, not only in word, but also in works and actions.  In this case, even in adiaphora, they must not yield to the adversaries or permit these adiaphora to be forced on them by their enemies, whether by violence or cunning, to the detriment of the true worship of God and the introduction and sanctions of idolatry.  For it is written:

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. (Galatians 5:1)

Yet because of false brothers secretly brought in—who slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might bring us into slavery—to them we did not yield in submission even for a moment, so that the truth of the Gospel might be preserved for you. (Galatians 2:4-5)

In this place Paul speaks about circumcision, which at that time had become an adiaphoron.  At other times circumcision was observed by Paul.  The false apostles pushed circumcision in order to establish their false doctrine that the works of the Law were necessary for righteousness and salvation.  They missed circumcision to confirm their error in people's minds.  Therefore, Paul says that he would not yield even for an hour, in order that the truth of the Gospel might continue unimpaired.

Paul yields and gives way to the weak concerning food and the observance of times or days.  But to the false apostles, who wanted to impose these on the conscience as necessary things, he will not yield even in matters that are adiaphora.  "Therefore let no one pass judgement on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath" (Colossians 2:16).  When Peter and Barnabas yielded somewhat in such an emergency, Paul openly rebuske them according to the truth of the Gospel as people who were not acting right in this matter.

This case is no longer a question about outward matters of indifference, which in their nature and essence are free. They cannot produce a command or prohibition that they must or must not be used.  The case presented by Paul is a question, in the first place, about the outstanding article of our Christian faith.  For the apostle testifies, "so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you" (Galatians 2:5).  The Gospel is obscured and perverted by such compulsion or command, because such adiaphora are publicly required for the approval of false doctrine, superstition, and idolatry, and for the suppression of pure doctrine and Christian liberty, or at least are abused for this purpose by the adversaries are and viewed this way.
~BOC, FSD, X, 10-14

Adiaphora are not worship of God, but can be used for good order, Christian discipline, and the Church's edification...

Regarding genuine adiaphora, or matters of indifference (as explained before), we believe, teach, and confess the following:  such ceremonies, in and of themselves, are not worship of God, nor any part of it.  They must be properly distinguished from ceremonies that are.  As it is written, "in vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men" (Matthew 15:9).

We believe, teach, and confess that the community of God in every place and every time has, according to its circumstances, the good right, power, and authority to change and decrease or increase ceremonies that are truly adiaphora.  They should do this thoughtfully and without giving offense, in an orderly and appropriate way, whenever it is considered most profitable, most beneficial, and best for good order, Christian discipline, and the Church's edification.  Furthermore, we can yield and give in with a good conscience to the weak in faith in such outward adiaphora.  Paul teaches this in Romans 14 and proves it by his example.
~BOC, FSD, X, 8-9

Rest in the mystery of Christ's dual nature that you might have the constant consolation of truth rather than the doubt of crafty reasoning...

Since in the Holy Scriptures Christ is called a mystery upon which all heretics dash their heads, we admonish all Christians not to arrogantly indulge their reason in crafty investigations about such mysteries.  With the beloved apostles, they should simply believe.  They should close the eyes of their 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

Christ, in both natures, is with us in all our troubles...

When such majesty is denied to Christ according to His humanity, we regard it as a deadly error.  For by this the very great consolation mentioned above is taken from Christians, which they have in the promise about the presence and dwelling with them of their Head, King, and High Priest.  He has promised them that not only His mere divinity would be with them (which to us poor sinners is like a consuming fire on dry stubble).  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, VIII, 87

The assurance and confirmation found in the Lord's Supper...

The divine and the human nature have this personal union with each other in the person of Christ and have the communion resulting from it (in deed and truth).  For this reason, there is attributed to Christ (according to the flesh) what His flesh, according to its nature and essence, cannot be by itself.  Apart from this union, His flesh cannot have these attributes:  His flesh is a truly live-giving food and His blood a truly life-giving drink.  The two hundred Fathers of the Council of Ephesus have testified that Christ's flesh is a life-giving flesh.  Therefore, this man only, and no man besides, either in heaven or on earth, can say with truth, "Where two or three are gathered in My name, there am I among them" (Matthew 18:20).  Also, "And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:20).

We do not understand these testimonies to mean that only Christ's divinity is present with us in the Christian Church and Congregation, and that such presence does not apply to Christ according to His humanity in no way whatever.  For in that way Peter, Paul, and all the saints in heaven—since divinity, which is everywhere present, dwells in them—would also be with us on earth.  However, the Holy Scriptures say this only about Christ, and no other man.  We hold that by these words the majesty of the man Christ is declared.  Christ as receive this majesty, according to His humanity, at the right hand of God's majesty and power.  So also, according to His receive human nature and with the same, He can be, and also is, present where He wants to be.  He is present especially in His Church and congregation on earth as Mediator, Head, King, and High Priest.  This presence is not a part, or only one half of Him.  Christ's entire person is present, to which both natures along, the divine and the human—not only according to His divinity, but also according to, and with, His received human nature.  He is our Brother, and we are flesh of His flesh and bone of His bone.  He has instituted His Holy Supper for the certain assurance and confirmation of this, so that He will be with us, and dwell, work, and be effective in us also according to that nature from which He has flesh and blood.
~BOC, FSD, VIII, 76-79

Christ fulfills His office in, according do, with, and through both natures...

In fulfilling Christ's office, the person does not act and work in, with, through, or according to only one nature.  It works in, according to, with, and through both natures.  As the Council of Chalcedon expresses it, one nature works in communion with the other what is a property of each.  Therefore, Christ is our Mediator, Redeemer, King, High Priest, Head, Shepherd, and so on, not according to one nature only (whether it be the divine or the human), but according to both natures.
~BOC, FSD, VIII, 46-47

The dual nature of Christ is such a grand, intimate, indescribable communion that the angels are astonished by and delighted in it...

The human nature, after the resurrection from the dead, is exalted above all creatures in heaven and on earth.  This is nothing other than that He entirely laid aside the form of a servant.  He did not lay aside His human nature, but retains it to eternity.  He has the full possession and use of the divine majesty according to His received human nature.  However, He had His majesty immediately at His conception, even in His mother's womb.  As the apostle testified, He laid it aside.  As Dr. Luther explains, He kept it concealed in the state of His humiliation and did not always use it, but only when He wanted to use it.

Now He has ascended to heaven, not merely as any other saint, but as the apostle testifies, above all heavens.  He also truly fills all things, being present everywhere, not only as God, but also as man.  He rules from sea to sea and to the ends of the earth, as the prophets predict and the apostles testify.  He did this everywhere with them and confirmed their word with signs.  This did not happen in an earthly way. As Dr. Luther explains, this happened according to the way things are done at God's right hand.  "God's right hand" is no set place in heaven, as the Sacramentarians assert without any ground in the Holy Scriptures.  It is nothing other than God's almighty power, which fills heaven and earth  Christ is installed according to His humanity (in deed and truth), without confusing or equalizing the two natures in their essence and essential properties.  By this communicated divine power, according to the words of His testament, He can be and is truly present with His body and blood in the Holy Supper.  He has pointed this out for us by His Word.  This is possible for no other man, because no man is united with the divine nature the way Jesus, the Son of Mary, is.  No man is installed in such divine almighty majesty and power through and in the personal union of the two natures in Christ.  For in Him the divine and the human nature are personally united with each other.  So in Christ "the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily" (Colossians 2:9).  In this personal union the two natures have such a grand, intimate, indescribable communion that even the angels are astonished by it.  As St. Peter testifies, they have their delight and joy in looking into it.
~BOC, FSD, VIII, 26-30

To Christ everything is possible and everything is known...

We believe, teach, and confess that the Son of Man really is exalted.  He is (in deed and truth) exalted according to His human nature to the right hand of God's almighty majesty and power.  For He was received into God when He was conceived of the Holy Spirit in His mother's womb, and His human nature was personally united with the Son of the Highest.

Christ always had this majesty according to the personal union.  Yet He abstained from using it in the state of His humiliation, and because of this He truly increased in all wisdom and favor with God and man.  Therefore, He did not always use the majesty, but only when it pleased Him.  Then, after His resurrection, He entirely laid aside the form of a servant, but not the human nature, and was established in the full use, manifestation, and declaration of the divine majesty.  In this way He entered into His glory.  So now not just as God, but also as man He knows all things and can do all things.  He is present with all creatures, and has under His feet and in His hands everything that is in heaven and on earth and under the earth, as He Himself testifies, in Matthew 28:18, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me."  And St. Paul says in Ephesians 4:10, "He ... ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things." Because He is present, He can exercise His power everywhere.  To Him everything is possible and everything is known.
~BOC, FSD, VIII, 15-16

Christ's divine and received human natures are and exist at the same time...

We believe, teach, and confess that now, since the incarnation, each nature in Christ does not exist by itself so that each is, or makes up, a separate person.  These two natures are so united that they make up one single person, in which the divine and the received human nature are and exists at the same time.  So now, since the incarnation, there belongs to the entire person of Christ personally not only His divine nature, but also His received human nature.  So without His divinity, and also without HIs humanity, the person of Christ or the incarnate Son of God is not complete.  We mean the Son of God who has received flesh and become man.  Therefore, Christ is not two distinct persons, but one single person, even though two distinct natures are found in Him, unconfused in their natural essence and properties.
~BOC, FSD, VIII, 11

The entire obedience of Christ's entire person is credited to us for righteousness...

Even if Christ had been conceived and born without sin by the Holy Spirit and had fulfilled all righteousness in His human nature alone, and yet had not been true and eternal God, this obedience and suffering of His human nature could not be credited to us for righteousness.  Also, if God's Son had not become man, the divine nature alone could not be our righteousness.  Therefore, we believe, teach, and confess that the entire obedience of Christ's entire person (which He has offered to the Father for us, even to His most humiliating death on the cross) is credited to us for righteousness.  For the human nature alone, without the divine, could not by obedience or suffering make satisfaction to eternal, almighty God for the sins of all the world.  However, the divinity alone, without the humanity, could not mediate between God and us.
~BOC, FSD, III, 56

We will not overlook error or be silent, will not speak or write anything contrary to this Confession...

Our opponents have shameless mouths that have shouted allegations throughout the whole world against our churches and teachers.  They claimed that you cannot find two preachers who agree about each and every article of the Augsburg Confession, but that they are torn apart and separated from one another to such an extent that they themselves no longer know what the Augsburg Confession is and what its proper meaning is.  Therefore, we did not present this common Confession briefly or merely by signing our names, but we wanted to make a pure, clear, distinct declaration about all the disputed articles that have been discussed and argued among the theologians of the Augsburg Confession.  We did this so that everyone may see we do not want to hide or cover up all this in a cunning way or come to agreement only in appearance.  We want to remedy the matter thoroughly, and wanted to set forth our opinion on these matters in such a way that even our adversaries themselves must confess that in all this we abide by the true, simple, natural, and proper sense of the Augsburg Confession.  We desire, by God's grace, to persevere constantly in this confession until our end.  And as long as it depends on our ministry, we will not overlook error or be silent, lest anything contrary to the genuine sense of the Augsburg Confession is introduced into our churches and schools, in which the almighty God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ has appointed us teachers [Latin: doctors] and pastors.

...

In the sight of God and of all Christendom, we want to testify to those now living and those who will come after us.  This declaration presented here about on the controverted articles mentioned and explained above--and no other--is our faith, doctrine, and confession.  By God's grace, with intrepid hearts, we are willing to appear before the judgment seat of Christ with this Confession and give an account to it.  We will not speak or write anything contrary to this Confession, either publicly or privately.  By the strength of God's grace we intend to abide by it.  Therefore, after mature deliberation, we have, in the fear of God and by calling on His name, attached our signatures with our own hands.
~BOC, FSD, XII, 3-6, 40

Worthiness to receive the Lord's Supper does not depend on the greatness or smallness, the weakness or strength of faith, but on Christ's merit...

It must be carefully explained who the unworthy guests of this Supper are.  They are those who go to this Sacrament without true repentance and sorrow for their sins, without true faith and the good intention of amending their lives.  By their unworthy oral eating of Christ's body, they load themselves with damnation (i.e., with temporal and eternal punishments) and become guilty of profaning Christ's body and blood.

Some Christians have a weak faith and are shy, troubled, and heartily terrified because of the great number of their sins.  They think that in their great impurity they are not worthy of this precious treasure and Christ's benefits. They feel their weakness of faith and lament it, and from their hearts desire that they may serve God with stronger, more joyful faith and pure obedience.  These are the true worthy guests for whom this highly venerable Sacrament has been especially instituted and appointed.  For Christ says:

Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. (Matthew 11:28)

Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. (Matthew 9:12)

[God's] power is made perfect in weakness. (2 Corinthians 12:9)

As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him; ... for God has welcomed him. (Romans 14:1-3)

Whoever believes in [the Son of God, be it with a strong or with a weak faith] may have eternal life. (John 3:15)

Worthiness does not depend on the greatness or smallness, the weakness or strength of faith.  Instead it depends on Christ's merit, which the distressed father of little faith enjoyed as well as Abraham, Paul, and others who have a joyful and strong faith.
~BOC, FSD, VII, 68-71

The words of the Holy Supper institution cannot and must not be understood other than in their usual, proper, and common meaning...

All the circumstances of the Holy Supper institution testify that these words of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ (which in themselves are simple, plain, clear, firm, and beyond doubt), cannot and must not be understood other than in their usual, proper, and common meaning.  For Christ gives this command at the table and at supper.  There is certainly no doubt that He speaks of real, natural bread and of natural wine.  Also, He speaks of oral eating and drinking, so there can be no metaphor (i.e., a change of meaning) in the word bread, as though Christ's body were a spiritual bread or a spiritual food of souls.  Christ is careful not to use metonymy either.  In other words, there is no change of meaning in the word body.  He does not speak about a sign for his body, or about the power of His body and the benefits that He has earned by the sacrifice of His body for us.  Instead, He speaks about His true, essential body (which He delivered into death for us) and about His true, essential blood (which He shed for us on the tree of the cross for the forgiveness of sins.
~BOC, FSD, VII, 48-49