What is a Lutheran? Part 2

Post 1 talked about Lutherans as being Christians who follow the three ecumenical creeds. There is a great deal of content in those creeds, and we could talk about each aspect of them. However, I think that is more in line with the question "What is a Christian?" I would like to draw attention to what I feel are the two fundamental declarations of the creeds.

The primary affirmation of the creeds are the historic dogmas of the Trinity (three persons, one God) and of the person of Christ (divine & human nature, one person who died and rose again). While there is certainly more than this going on in the creeds, this is their primary affirmation. These two dogmas have historically been the bedrock of Christian faith.

For Luther, and for Lutherans, there is a third dogma that is fundamental to the Christian faith: justification. The dogmas of the Trinity and the person of Christ necessarily lead to the dogma of justification, and without the dogma of justification (from a Lutheran perspective) they do not make sense.

We are saved by grace, through faith. Or, to put it another way, we are restored to a right relationship with God only by God's action, freely given to us, on account of faith.

It is repeated again and again in Lutheran history, justification is the doctrine on which the church stands or falls. How we understand the way in which we are restored to a right relationship with God will directly affect who we understand God to be, how we understand the person of Christ, how we view the Gospel, and what we believe to be the mission and purpose of the Church.

Here I stand as a Lutheran: I believe that we are saved wholly by God's grace, through faith. Further, this understanding of justification is the third great dogma of the church.