Daily Devotional Thought--From the Confessions

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

I wrote on November 20th that we would start a series on the Augsburg Confession, and began that day with a discussion of Article I -- God. But then the schedule of Advent jumped up and bit me, and there hasn't been a Friday devotional thought posted since.

So...today we receive a nice introduction to Article II -- Original Sin, and then the text of the article. I hope this will prove to be helpful.

From Concordia: A Reader's Edition of the Book of Concord:
Sin is much more than thinking, saying, and doing things that are wrong. It is a terminal disease. We are all conceived and born in sin; we inherit it from our first parents, Adam and Eve. The disease of sin can be overcome, but only by one medicine: the cleansing, healing, and forgiving blood of God's own Son. By rejecting Pelagian errors in Article II, the Augsburg Confession subtly refers to the Roman view of sin. The Roman Church taught and still teaches that concupiscence (the inborn inclination to sin) is not actually sin. By misdiagnosing our fatal illness, Rome leads people to beleive they are able to cooperate with God's grace for salvation. Lutheranism rejects all teachings that imply we are responsible for or contribute to our salvation. (See also Ap II; SA III, I; FC Ep I and SD I.)

And here is the actual text of the article:

Article II: Of Original Sin.
1] Also they teach that since the fall of Adam all men begotten in the natural way are born with sin, that is, without the fear of God, without trust in God, and with 2] concupiscence; and that this disease, or vice of origin, is truly sin, even now condemning and bringing eternal death upon those not born again through Baptism and the Holy Ghost.
3] They condemn the Pelagians and others who deny that original depravity is sin, and who, to obscure the glory of Christ's merit and benefits, argue that man can be justified before God by his own strength and reason.

May we see that still today, this truth is need of teaching and preaching, and confessing. Amen.