LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2013, Page 199

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Theology and Church Relations
indications in the Old Testament of three distinct persons in the
Godhead. The Trinity is not a doctrine which was fabricated by
the Early Church, but it is a divinely revealed truth.29
C. JESUS CHRIST
The essential, absolute, eternal Deity, and the real proper, but
sinless, humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ is true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the Virgin Mary. The Scriptures ascribe to Christ divine names;30 divine attributes;31 divine
works;32 and divine honor and glory.33
The divine and the human natures are united in Christ, both
natures together forming one undivided and indivisible person.34
It was necessary for our Savior to be true God35 that His
fulfilling of the Law might be sufficient for all men;36 that His
life and redemption might be sufficient ransom for our redemption;37 and that He might be able to overcome death and the
devil for us.38
The facts that Jesus prayed to the Father, that he said only the
Father knew when Judgment Day would come, or that He died
do not prove that He was not God in the fullest sense of the term.
Christ’s state of humiliation consisted in this, that according to
His human nature, Christ did not always and fully use the divine
attributes communicated to His human nature.39
Jesus was not made a god at His Baptism or at His resurrection, nor was He subsequently deified by His followers who
believed Him to be God while He Himself never made such a
claim. Jesus Christ existed with the Father from the very beginning, as the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, equal with the
Father in every sense. Even after he took on Himself human
flesh, He was, still is, and ever will be, the true God.40
Any doctrine of “justification” or “salvation” that is not
based on the doctrine that Jesus Christ is true God, the Second
Person of the Holy Trinity, is not Christian and of no value.41
D. THE VIRGIN BIRTH OF CHRIST
His birth of the Virgin Mary.
The Bible teaches the doctrine of Christ’s virgin birth.42 The
prophet Isaiah 700 years before Christ was born of the Virgin
Mary predicted: “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a
sign: Look, the virgin will conceive and have a Son, and His
name will be Immanuel!”23 Almah, the Hebrew word Isaiah by
the inspiration of God the Holy Spirit used for “virgin,” can only
be translated “virgin.” Nowhere in the Bible or in any Hebrew
or Semitic literature does Almah mean anything different from
virgin.43
There has been only one virgin birth in all history. When
Isaiah wrote that an Almah (virgin) would conceive and have a
Son, Isaiah was not first referring to some woman living during
his time but only to the Virgin Mary.44
Quoting Isaiah 7:14, Matthew 1:23 says: “The virgin will
conceive and have a Son, and He will be called Immanuel,”
which means “God with us.”
E. THE VICARIOUS SATISFACTION OF CHRIST
Christ’s death is substitutionary and propitiatory in that He
gave His life “a ransom for many.”
The Bible teaches that Christ is not only the victor over sin
but that He fully appeased God’s wrath for sin and satisfied the
demands of divine justice. Christ “gave Himself a ransom for
all.”45 John wrote that Christ “has paid for our sin, and not for

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ours only but for the whole world.” Isaiah wrote that “He was
wounded for our transgressions.”47
46

F. RESURRECTION AND JUDGMENT
Christ rose from among the dead in the same body in which
He was crucified, and at the second coming will be this same
Jesus in power and great glory. Christ rose physically from the
dead. The resurrection was a “resuscitation” of the same body
which was placed in the tomb. The tomb was empty on that
first Easter morning. His disciples did not steal his body. They
proclaimed the truth of Christ’s resurrection, even though they
understood it might cost their own lives, because they knew that
they were telling the truth. They saw the empty tomb. Jesus appeared to them on various occasions. There are no contradiction in the various accounts in the New Testament of Christ’s
resurrection. It is an event which took place in real history, not
something which the disciples and Early Church fabricated.48
Jesus knew that He was the Messiah promised in the Old
Testament and that He would rise again from the dead to save
all men from their sins.49
Christ will return visibly and in glory.50 He will then judge
the world in righteousness.51 He will come on the Last Day,
which is appointed by God, but unknown to man.52
G. ORIGINAL SIN
Original sin is the total depravity of man through the fall.
Evil or sin originated from the free choice of free moral
agents, and since the fall—a real, historical event described in
Genesis 3—all men are by nature spiritually blind, dead, and
therefore helpless (Eph. 2:1–2).53
We reject the idea that the human soul, after the fall and before conversion, has any spiritual life or powers whatever.
Sin was brought into the world by the devil, who was once a
holy angel but fell away from God, and by man, who of his own
free will yielded to the temptation of the devil.54 Sin is breaking
the Law.55 Sin pays off with death.56
On account of original sin, man is by nature lost and condemned, ruined in body and soul. All men have sinned, including every Christian and the greatest of “saints.”57
H. SALVATION
Salvation, the effect of regeneration by the Spirit and the
Word, not by works but by grace through faith.
We firmly maintain the doctrine of justification by grace for
Christ’s sake because it is the chief doctrine of the Christian
religion;58 it distinguishes the Christian religion from false religions, all of which teach salvation by works;59 this doctrine
gives enduring comfort to penitent sinners;60 and this doctrine
gives all glory to God.61
Both the Old and New Testament teach that a man is justified by faith alone. True believers in the Old Testament were
not saved because of their words, but only because they trusted
in the promised Messiah. Moses wrote that Abraham “believed
in the Lord; and He counted it to him for righteousness.”62 Paul
elaborates upon this statement in Romans 4 and Galatians 3 and
explains that even the Old Testament men were saved through
faith alone. Today, only true Christians, and not Muslims, Jews
and other non-Christians, worship the God of Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob—the only God who exists and grants eternal salvation to those who believe in Him. Many of the Psalms emphasize that salvation is completely in God’s hands. David wrote
that “Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniq2013 Convention Workbook