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Lutheranism: God
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The second doctrinal distinctive of Lutheranism is the doctrine of justification. According to Luther there are two kinds of righteousness, an external righteousness and an inner righteousness. External righteousness, or civil righteousness, may be acquired through just conduct or good deeds. However, inner righteousness consists of the purity and perfection of the heart. Consequently, it cannot be attained through external deeds. This righteousness is of God and comes as a gift of his fatherly grace.
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Lutheranism affirms the traditional practice of infant baptism as a sacrament in which God's grace reaches out to newborn children. For Lutherans, baptism is an act of God's unconditional love, which is independent of any intellectual, moral, or emotional achievements on the part of human beings.
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Lutheranism has persistently refused to see faith itself as a "work". Faith is receptivity, receiving Christ and all that he has done. It is not man's accomplishment that effects his justification before God. Faith is instead that which accepts God's verdict of justification: "Faith does not justify because it is so good a work and so God-pleasing a virtue, but because it lays hold on and accepts the merit of Christ in the promise of the holy Gospel" (Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration).
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The theology of Lutheranism is first a theology of the Word. Its principle of sola Scriptura affirms the Bible as the only norm of Christian doctrine. The Scripture is the causa media by which man learns to know God and his will; the Word is the one and the only source of theology. Lutheranism pledges itself "to the prophetic and apostolic writings of the Old and New Testaments as the pure and clear fountain of Israel, which is the only norm according to which all teachers and teachings are to be judged and evaluated" (Formula of Concord, Epitome).To be sure, the authority of Scripture had been emphasized prior to Luther and the Reformation. However, when Lutheranism referred to the Bible as the divine Word, brought to man through the apostles and prophets, it spoke with a new conviction regarding the primacy of the Word. Luther recognized that the authority of Scripture was valid even where it was opposed by pope, council, or tradition.
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