Deliverance

No.¹ I have a natural tendency to hate God and my neighbor.²

No. God created them good¹ and in his own image,² that is, in true righteousness and holiness,³ so that they might truly know God their creator,⁴ love him with all their heart, and live with God in eternal happiness, to praise and glorify him.⁵

The fall and disobedience of our first parents, Adam and Eve, in Paradise.¹ This fall has so poisoned our nature² that we are all conceived and born in a sinful condition.³

Yes,¹ unless we are born again by the Spirit of God.²

No, God created human beings with the ability to keep the law.¹ They, however, provoked by the devil,² in willful disobedience,³ robbed themselves and all their descendants of these gifts.⁴

Certainly not. God is terribly angry with the sin we are born with as well as the sins we personally commit.

As a just judge, God will punish them both now and in eternity,¹ having declared: "Cursed is everyone who does not observe and obey all the things written in the book of the law."²

God is certainly merciful,¹ but also just.² God's justice demands that sin, committed against his supreme majesty, be punished with the supreme penalty—eternal punishment of body and soul.³

God requires that his justice be satisfied.¹ Therefore the claims of this justice must be paid in full, either by ourselves or by another.²

Certainly not. Actually, we increase our debt every day.¹

No. To begin with, God will not punish any other creature for what a human is guilty of.¹ Furthermore, no mere creature can bear the weight of God's eternal wrath against sin and deliver others from it.²

One who is a true¹ and righteous² human, yet more powerful than all creatures, that is, one who is also true God.³

God's justice demands that human nature, which has sinned, must pay for sin;¹ but a sinful human could never pay for others.²

So that the mediator, by the power of his divinity, might bear the weight of God's wrath in his humanity and earn for us and restore to us righteousness and life.¹

Our Lord Jesus Christ,¹ who was given to us to completely deliver us and make us right with God.²

The holy gospel tells me. God began to reveal the gospel already in Paradise;¹ later God proclaimed it by the holy patriarchs² and prophets³ and foreshadowed it by the sacrifices and other ceremonies of the law;⁴ and finally God fulfilled it through his own beloved Son.⁵

No. Only those are saved who through true faith are grafted into Christ and accept all his benefits.¹

True faith is not only a sure knowledge by which I hold as true all that God has revealed to us in Scripture;¹ it is also a wholehearted trust,² which the Holy Spirit creates in me³ by the gospel,⁴ that God has freely granted, not only to others but to me also,⁵ forgiveness of sins, eternal righteousness, and salvation.⁶

These are gifts of sheer grace, granted solely by Christ's merit.⁷

All that is promised us in the gospel,¹ a summary of which is taught us in the articles of our universal and undisputed Christian faith.

I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended to hell. The third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended to heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty. From there he will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

Into three parts: God the Father and our creation; God the Son and our deliverance; and God the Holy Spirit and our sanctification.

Because that is how God has revealed himself in his Word:² these three distinct persons are one, true, eternal God.

That the eternal Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who out of nothing created heaven and earth and everything in them,¹ who still upholds and rules them by his eternal counsel and providence,² is my God and Father because of Christ the Son.³

I trust God so much that I do not doubt he will provide whatever I need for body and soul,⁴ and will turn to my good whatever adversity he sends upon me in this sad world.⁵

God is able to do this because he is almighty God⁶ and desires to do this because he is a faithful Father.⁷

The almighty and ever present power of God¹ by which God upholds, as with his hand, heaven and earth and all creatures,² and so rules them that leaf and blade, rain and drought, fruitful and lean years, food and drink, health and sickness, prosperity and poverty—³ all things, in fact, come to us not by chance⁴ but by his fatherly hand.⁵

We can be patient when things go against us,¹ thankful when things go well,² and for the future we can have good confidence in our faithful God and Father that nothing in creation will separate us from his love.³ For all creatures are so completely in God's hand that without his will they can neither move nor be moved.⁴

Because he saves us from our sins,¹ and because salvation should not be sought and cannot be found in anyone else.²

No. Although they boast of being his, by their actions they deny the only savior, Jesus.¹

Either Jesus is not a perfect savior, or those who in true faith accept this savior have in him all they need for their salvation.²

Because he has been ordained by God the Father and has been anointed with the Holy Spirit¹ to be our chief prophet and teacher² who fully reveals to us the secret counsel and will of God concerning our deliverance;³ our only high priest⁴ who has delivered us by the one sacrifice of his body,⁵ and who continually pleads our cause with the Father;⁶ and our eternal king⁷ who governs us by his Word and Spirit, and who guards us and keeps us in the freedom he has won for us.⁸