Contents
What’s a Lutheran Church?
A Lutheran church is an evangelical (“gospel“) church.
The Bible defines “the gospel” in two places:
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
Romans 1:16
Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
1 Corinthians 15:1-5
To be a Lutheran church means for this gospel to be central and of first and upmost importance. Here is how Martin Luther explained this emphasis in the Smalcald Articles, which were in many ways his last will and testament:
The first and chief article is this:
[1] Jesus Christ, our God and Lord, died for our sins and was raised again for our justification (Romans 4:24–25).
[2] He alone is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29), and God has laid upon Him the iniquities of us all (Isaiah 53:6).
[3] All have sinned and are justified freely, without their own works or merits, by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, in His blood (Romans 3:23–25).
[4] This is necessary to believe. This cannot be otherwise acquired or grasped by any work, law, or merit. Therefore, it is clear and certain that this faith alone justifies us. As St. Paul says:
For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. (Romans 3:28)
That He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. [Romans 3:26]
[5] Nothing of this article can be yielded or surrendered, even though heaven and earth and everything else falls [Mark 13:31].
For there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. (Acts 4:12)
And with His stripes we are healed. (Isaiah 53:5)
Upon this article everything that we teach and practice depends, in opposition to the pope, the devil, and the whole world. Therefore, we must be certain and not doubt this doctrine. Otherwise, all is lost, and the pope, the devil, and all adversaries win the victory and the right over us.
What do Lutherans Believe?
There are two kinds of Lutheran churches: Confessional & Liberal. Manchester Lutheran Church will be a Confessional Lutheran church.
Confessional Lutherans understand, with Luther, that everything we believe and do as Christians flows from the central and primary truth that we are justified by faith.
Faith is trust in God’s Word. God appointed an office of Ministry to preach this Word and administer his Sacraments (1 Timothy 3). The Holy Spirit works through the Word and Sacraments to create faith in us.
God has given us His Word in the Bible, and so the Bible is the only rule and norm for Christian doctrine (Revelation 22:18-19). The Bible is only rightly understood through the lens of justification by faith (2 Corinthians 3:12-18).
We therefore subscribe to the Lutheran Confessions collected in the Book of Concord (https://bookofconcord.org/), which means we believe, teach, and confess them as a faithful exposition of the Scriptures.
Within the Book of Concord, the Small Catechism is an introduction to our teaching of the faith (https://bookofconcord.org/small-catechism/).
What Does the Small Catechism Say?
Here is a short summary of the Small Catechism.
God’s Word speaks to us in two ways: Law (command) and Gospel (promise).
The Law
is summarised in the 10 commandments. They describe how we must live: We should trust and love God (1) so that we pray (2), listen to his Word (3), honour those in authority (4), not harm but help others (5), keep sexual activity purely for heterosexual marriage (6), not steal but give (7), honestly speak in the best way of others (8), and not craftily seek to get our neighbour’s house (9) or anything that is his (10).
Attached to the first commandment is God’s summary of the commandments: If we break them, he will be angry and punish us. But, if we obey them, he will be kind and bless us.
All of us break these commandments all the time. And so, without Jesus, everyone is lost and condemned.
The Gospel
is summarised in the Apostles’ Creed. The gospel is God’s pure unmerited Grace.
God the Father made us and preserves us without any merit or worthiness in us (1).
God the Son, Jesus Christ, being true God and true man, bought us with his blood, died and rose again, setting us free from sin, death and the power of the devil to live in his kingdom and serve him (2).
God the Spirit calls people by the Gospel, gives them faith, gathers them as the church, which he keeps in the faith, and on the last day will raise up all the dead and give eternal life to all who believe in Jesus (3).
The Lord’s Prayer
is how we respond to God’s Grace by speaking to him as our true Father, and so ask seven things: his Word to be taught in truth and purity (1), his Spirit to give us faith in his Word (2), we would remain steadfast in his Word and in faith (3), to give us everything we need (4), to forgive us because of his grace not because we deserve it (5), and to keep us from temptation (6) and evil (7).
Baptism
is God’s Word connected to Water [Matthew 28:19] (1), it works forgiveness of sins [Mark 16:16] (2), not because of the water but only because it is God’s Word received by faith [Titus 3:5-8] (3), and signifies a daily drowning of the old Adam in us by repentance and a daily new person rising from death [Romans 6:4] (4).
↑ back to contents ↓Q&As on Baptism
Confession
is the power of the keys given by Jesus to the church [Matthew 16:19], so that by confessing our sins the confessee receives absolution from the confessor, as from God Himself, helping us firmly believe that our sins are forgiven.
The Sacrament of the Altar
is God’s Word connected to bread and wine. It is the true body and blood of Jesus under the bread and wine [Matthew 26:26-28; Mark 14:22-24; Luke 22:19-20; 1 Corinthians 11:24-25] (1), it gives us forgiveness of sins, life and salvation (2), not because of the eating and drinking but only because it is God’s Word received by faith (3), and so is only received worthily by faith (4).
Daily Prayer in the Home
is an essential part of our Christian faith. So we use, recite, and sing God’s Word daily in our homes, and keep reminding ourselves of God’s Word to us in our Baptism by saying the Baptismal formula and crossing ourselves as a reminder this formula.
Our Vocation
Every Christian has a vocation to live out their Baptism, which is their identity in Christ. The Small Catechism ends with lists of passages from scripture summarising the duties required of us in our different vocations.
We only call bishops, pastors and preachers who are male, monogamous, godly, holding firm to the Word as taught and able to teach it. [1 Timothy 3:2-4, 6; Titus 1:9] We strive to pay our pastors a living wage [1 Corinthians 9:14; Galatians 6:6; 1 Timothy 5:17-18], and obey them [Hebrews 13:17].
We recognise that civil government has been ordained by God [Romans 13:1-4], and so pay our taxes [Matthew 22:21; Romans 13:1, 5-7], pray for the King and other civil rulers under him [1 Timothy 2:1-2], obey the law and are submissive to human institutions [Titus 3:1; 1 Peter 2:13-14].
Husbands among us strive to be gentle [1 Peter 3:7; Colossians 3:19], wives to be submissive [Ephesians 5:22; 1 Peter 3:5-6], parents to raise their children in the Christian faith [Ephesians 6:4], and children to obey their parents [Ephesians 6:1-3].
In the workplace, those of us who are employees strive to work with integrity [Ephesians 6:5-8; Colossians 3:22], and employers to be fair [Ephesians 6:9; Colossians 4:1].
Those of us who are young strive to be humble [1 Peter 5:5-6], and who are widowed to trust God in prayer [1 Timothy 5:5-6]. All of us strive to love our neighbour as ourself [Romans 13:9], and to pray for all people [1 Timothy 2:1].
