Lessons in the Lutheran Confessions

Scripture Text: 1 Peter 1:3-9

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1 Peter 1:3-9

From the Confessions: The Defense of the Augsburg Confession

Concerning Love and the Fulfilling of the Law 

Just as justification pertains to faith, so eternal life also pertains to faith. Peter says, “As the outcome of your faith you obtain the salvation of your souls” (1 Pet 1:9). Our adversaries confess that the justified are children of God and fellow heirs with Christ.

Pulling It Together: Faith is the means of justification, righteousness, and salvation. Only faith keeps our souls at peace before God. Our good deeds will never give us rest. If peace of mind were left to our works and religious ceremony, we would always be scrambling to the next deed and ritual. The things we do never provide confident assurance of rightness with God. However, because of faith, we may sit at the feet of Jesus, assured that we have a justified God in this life.

Faith is also the means by which our salvation is maintained “forever and ever.” We do nothing to eternally preserve our lives. What could we possibly do to attain such a feat? Yet just as we have faith in God to justify in this earthly life, we have faith in him to preserve us to life eternal. This living hope in resurrection and of an inheritance of all that heaven offers also strengthens and sustains faith when we face trials that test our faith in this life.

Prayer: Thank you, Lord Jesus, for giving me the hope of everlasting life with you. Amen. 

The Spiritual Realms is a nine-session Bible Study series on Heaven and Hell and places beyond this world. Specifically, the study looks at the many “place names” that are found throughout Scripture, referring to spiritual realms of existence that underlie and comprise the universe God created. This Bible Study series is a challenging one, in that it explores realities of existence beyond what we know and experience everyday.

The study not only addresses matters of life, death, heaven and hell, it steadfastly affirms that Jesus Christ is at the center of all these things. Our ultimate faith and hope rest in Christ’s death and resurrection for our sake. We live in faith by the biblical promise that: “God raised the Lord, and will also raise us up by his power” (1 Cor 6:14).


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