Lutherans view forgiveness of sins, life and salvation as the free gift of God through Jesus Christ. There is nothing we can do or need to do to earn it.
We have it when we trust and believe that this gift is ours through faith in the saving work of Christ. This faith and trust results in a life that is lived according to this trust and belief.
As the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America says in its motto: “Live in God's amazing grace.”
This view was strongly emphasized and vigorously preached by a young Roman Catholic monk and professor of theology by the name of Martin Luther during the early 1500s in eastern Germany. In the past 500 years it has filtered down through 70 million Lutherans around the globe.
If you understand gift-giving and gift-receiving, then you understand the very heart and center of the Lutheran way of perceiving the wonderful work of God through Jesus Christ.
The “classic” Lutheran way of saying this is as follows:
It is also taught among us that we cannot obtain forgiveness of sin and righteousness before God by our own merits, works, or satisfactions, but that we receive forgiveness of sin and become righteous before God by grace, for Christ's sake, through faith, when we believe that Christ suffered for us and that for his sake our sin is forgiven and righteousness and eternal life are given to us.
Augsburg Confession, Article 4
