Our Churches, with common consent, do teach that the decree of the Council of Nicaea concerning the Unity of the Divine Essence and concerning the Three Persons, is true and to be believed without any doubting; that is to say, there is one Divine Essence which is called and which is God: eternal, without body, without parts, of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness, the Maker and Preserver of all things, visible and invisible; and yet there are three Persons, of the same essence and power, who also are coeternal, the Father the Son, and the Holy Ghost. And the term “person” they use as the Fathers have used it, to signify, not a part or quality in another, but that which subsists of itself.

Also they teach that since the fall of Adam all men begotten in the natural way are born with sin, that is, without the fear of God, without trust in God...and that this disease, or vice of origin, is truly sin, even now condemning and bringing eternal death upon those not born again through Baptism and the Holy Ghost.

Also they teach that the Word, that is, the Son of God, did assume the human nature in the womb of the blessed Virgin Mary, so that there are two natures, the divine and the human, inseparably enjoined in one Person, one Christ, true God and true man, who was born of the Virgin Mary, truly suffered, was crucified, dead, and buried, that He might reconcile the Father unto us, and be a sacrifice, not only for original guilt, but also for all actual sins of men. He also descended into hell, and truly rose again the third day; afterward He ascended into heaven that He might sit on the right hand of the Father, and forever reign and have dominion over all creatures, and sanctify them that believe in Him, by sending the Holy Ghost into their hearts, to rule, comfort, and quicken them, and to defend them against the devil and the power of sin. The same Christ shall openly come again to judge the quick and the dead, etc., according to the Apostles’ Creed.

Also they teach that men cannot be justified before God by their own strength, merits, or works, but are freely justified for Christ’s sake, through faith, when they believe that they are received into favor, and that their sins are forgiven for Christ’s sake, who, by His death, has made satisfaction for our sins. This faith God imputes for righteousness in His sight.

There is a God, whom we rightly call God, one in essence, three in persons. He created man, Adam and Eve, who soon fell into sin, which sin we are all born with naturally; this original sin is truly sin, which condemns and brings death to all who are not regenerated by the Holy Ghost. The Son of God assumed a human nature in the womb of the blessed Virgin Mary, who “suffered, was crucified, dead, and buried, that He might reconcile the Father unto us.” He was the sacrifice not only for original sin, “but also for all actual sins of men.” Being the lost and condemned creature that he is, man cannot be justified before God by his own strength, merits, or works; however, justification is granted freely for Christ’s sake, through faith, when men “believe that they are received into favor, and that their sins are forgiven for Christ’s sake, who, by His death, has made satisfaction for our sins.

On this day on which we observe the Presentation of the Augsburg Confession, you just had read for you most of the first 4 of the 28 articles of the Confession. You can hear the expression the famous solas in these articles, some more than others: Sola gratia, Sola fide, Solus Christus, Sola scriptura, Soli Deo gloria—grace alone, faith alone, Christ alone, Scripture alone, glory to God alone. We are saved by grace alone, received by faith alone, worked by Christ alone, revealed by Scripture alone, to, for, and by which God alone receives all glory.

There is a nice progression in these first 4 articles—in all 28, honestly—which we can treat, individually. Each of these articles relies on the previous and leads into the next, a fact which I again encourage you to discover in your own reading of the Confession (and if you have any questions, you know how to get a hold of me).

The First Article deals with God. It’s a great place to start as He was there before the beginning, and by Him were all things made. He spoke, and things happened: “Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light.” (Genesis 1:3) He still operates that way; He speaks and things happen: “So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:11) He calls the world sinful, and all men sinners; and that they are. He tells you through the mouth of His mouthpiece that you are forgiven, and that you are. He calls bread the body of His Son and wine His blood, and that it is. The Word accomplishes what He pleases and prospers in the thing for which it is sent.

However, there are those who say that there is no God. And still others who say that the god of Article I is not the true god. Atheists and Agnostics, Mormons, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Shintoists, Taoists, and many, many others would all deny the First Article of our Confession on one ground or another. Right off the bat, we can differentiate between true and false religions. Also condemned in this article are heresies that have arisen within Christianity, such as the Manichaeans and Arians; and listed among them also are the Mohammedans, or Muslims.

All of these deny the one true God or His essence of Unity in Trinity and Trinity in Unity, simply because they have no fear or trust in God, which is the topic of the Second Article. Man conceived naturally since the fall of Adam is born with sin. There is no escaping it...if you have been conceived and born, you have sin. This original sin, which the article also calls concupiscence, or strong desire to commit sins, is a disease which has corrupted the perfect human nature that God created in the beginning.

For those who deny the First Article, there is most likely a denial of the Second; there may be an acknowledgment of wrong-doing or mistakes, and some may even call these things sin, but more often than not, there is the denial that they are sins because God calls them so, only because there is no fear and trust in the true God. There’s also the other side of the coin: those who would confess the First Article, but deny the second; there is a God—one-in-three—but there is no sinful condition, or though I make mistakes, I also have the ability to correct them or keep from committing them.

Naturally, if there is a denial of the Second Article, then there is no perceived need for a savior. If we say we have no sin, or the ability to make amends for our sins, or to keep from committing them, then no one else or nothing else need come to atone for them. However, since there is original sin and actual sins, there is a need for a savior, who is the topic of the Third Article. This Savior is the Son of God who took on human flesh, was born of Mary, took our sin and sins into His flesh, and died on the cross and was buried with them. They stayed in the grave—the wages of sin is death (cf. Romans 6:23)—yet He rose triumphantly on the third day.

Again, there are those who deny the Third Article. As mentioned, there are some who would say that there is a God, and there is sin, but there is no Savior. Oh, they’ll confess that Jesus existed, even call Him the Christ, but for them, Christ does not mean Redeemer or Savior. For them, He came merely as an example; He taught the way to live a good life and atone for one’s sins, and His crucifixion is the means by which we are enabled to follow His example. Furthermore, there are some who completely deny the Savior, who would say that, if anything, Jesus was simply a man—a radical insurrectionist—who gathered a following who would later remove his body from the grave following his execution and claim that he rose from the dead. These are the kind who would deny that there is a god and sin.

We, however, confess that there is a God, whom we call God, that there is sin, original and actual, and therefore, that there is a Savior, who is the Son of God, Jesus the Christ. The Savior, alone, is the only one who has worked the salvation of men. This is the Fourth Article, the article upon which the Church stands or falls: the article on justification. How are we justified before God? If you hold to this article, then you confess with the church catholic that man is saved by grace alone through faith alone, apart from any work or merit in man.

So it is a bit ironic that though the church catholic confesses these two solas in word and deed, the Catholic church will go only so far as to confess it in word, yet still profess that there are works that need to be added to God’s grace in order to be saved. Sadly, they are not alone in adding works to God’s grace, in one form or another. We do not deny that there are faithful Christians in these bodies that confess that Christ alone is their Savior, and they are joyfully a part of the Church, but, as another article of the Confession states, “The Church is the congregation of saints, in which the Gospel is rightly taught and the Sacraments are rightly administered.” If the Gospel is not rightly taught—if salvation is not proclaimed as being by grace alone through faith alone—then the Church falls.

The sad fact is that we all struggle with these 4 articles—in fact, with all 28—at one time or another, in one way or another. As we live our temporal lives, we struggle against the devil, the world, and our sinful flesh. By grace, grace alone, we overcome these, but it is a struggle, which by definition means that there are times when we deny or doubt the existence of God, when we claim to be without sin or believe we can make up for at least the smaller ones, when we doubt the incarnation of the Son of God and His work for our salvation, and when we believe that we can somehow please God with our good works. These are contrary to the Word of God as espoused by the Augsburg Confession, and when we run contrary to the Word of God, then we call Him a liar and the truth is not with us. (cf. 1 John 1:8-10, et al)

Thank God, therefore, that we are branches on the Vine. Thank God that He prunes branches on the Vine that they continue to bear more fruit. This is the work of God on us, dear branches. By grace, He brings us to repentance and gives to us the forgiveness of our sins, which flows to us through Christ the True Vine. Our sins are removed from us and burned like the withered branches, even as our sins were taken from us by the Christ to the grave and left there to be dead and burned. By the grace of God we die to ourselves, to the devil, the world, and our sinful flesh, and made to believe these 4 Articles and the 24 others as a right and true exposition of Scripture. Therefore, as a branch on the Vine, you are delighted to hear these words, which are yours by grace alone, which you receive by faith alone, given to you from Christ alone, revealed to you in Scripture alone, for which God alone receives all glory: you are forgiven for all of your sins for Christ’s sake.