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Why are you a Lutheran?
Are Lutherans Christians?
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What do you say to such a question? We've heard the question before - perhaps many times. The question gets even more complicated because
there's more than on kind of Lutheran. I can't tell you what other Lutherans say, but I can tell you why I'm a Lutheran
I'm a Lutheran because I believe that Jesus Christ gives me everything I need from God. I know that I'm not perfect. I may be a nice person
and have a wonderful family, but I'm not good enough for God. I'm a sinner! Jesus came into this world to pay for all my mistakes, failures,
and sins. Because of the suffering and death of Jesus, God pronounces me innocent and holy.
That's everything I need from God. I am forgiven not because I have done some great feat of love or devotion but only beacuse of Jesus Christ.
I know that I will be in heaven with Jesus because God has washed away my sins. I'm just not good enough for heaven by myself - as a matter of
fact, I'm only good enough for hell - but Jesus has erased all that is bad in me and declared me to be holy. He has made me good enough heaven.
That's the message of the Bible. Yes, Jesus Christ is the message of the Bible from beginning to end. God took care to make sure that every word
of the BIble is true. Lutherans say that the Bible is God's inspired Word and true in all it says. Because I believe in Jesus Christ, I trust
God's Word to be true; it tells me about Jesus. The Old Testament and the New Testament announce the same message. God loved the world enough sacrifice his only Son so he could proclaim sinners holy.
God also gives me all the blessings of Jesus in a special way. Not only did God give me the truth in the Bible, he also gave me forgiveness in
Baptism and the Lord's Supper. Baptism has washed away all my sins because Jesus says so. In the Lord's Supper, I receive the body and blood
of Jesus with bread and wine in a mysterious and wonderful way. I don't understand how that can be, but I know that I receive the body and
blood of Jesus, "given and shed for me for the forgiveness of sins," because Jesus says so.
All these things I believe. The only church I know that teaches all these things is the Lutheran church where I belong. I'm a Lutheran because
I am a believer in Jesus Christ. I believe and confess the truths of the Bible.
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