“By Grace, You Have Been Saved, Through Faith”
There’s a lot that goes into explaining God’s teachings and how we adhere to them, you can find a full write-up on the “We Believe, Teach and Confess” page on our Evangelical Lutheran Synod’s website. We also have adult classes to walk through God’s teachings and explain what they mean. We believe the following.
• Why We Need Grace
We need grace because we have fallen out of favor with God. One way we know we have fallen out of favor with God is our conscience. It bothers us when we do wrong. We feel guilt. We feel shame. We feel disfavor. We do because deep down we know that we are answerable to someone “bigger” than us. That “someone” is God.
• Grace Saves
When our conscience bothers us we may think we can earn God’s favor by making it up to God for our wrongs, but no one can. We can try hard to earn God’s favor, but we will never be certain that we have. We will always remain in doubt. So we have to look outside of ourselves for that certainty. We look to God. God did for us what we cannot do. God became man in the person of Jesus. Jesus earned God’s favor for us by his perfect life, death, and resurrection. God pours out favor on us undeserving sinners by means of His Word. That is grace. Grace alone saves.
• Know God’s Grace!
It is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works so that no one can boast. Ephesians 2:8-9