Augsburg Confession III: The Son of God

Good Friday is a good time to post our third installment on the Augsburg Confession. After all, it was God the Son who suffered and died for our sins on the cross. It was not the Father nor the Spirit who suffered and died. And on to the Confession.

Also they teach that the Word, that is, the Son of God, did assume the human nature in the womb of the blessed Virgin Mary, so that there are two natures, the divine and the human, inseparably enjoined in one Person, one Christ, true God and true man, who was born of the Virgin Mary, truly suffered, was crucified, dead, and buried, that He might reconcile the Father unto us, and be a sacrifice, not only for original guilt, but also for all actual sins of men.
 
He also descended into hell, and truly rose again the third day; afterward He ascended into heaven that He might sit on the right hand of the Father, and forever reign and have dominion over all creatures, and sanctify them that believe in Him, by sending the Holy Ghost into their hearts, to rule, comfort, and quicken them, and to defend them against the devil and the power of sin.
 
The same Christ shall openly come again to judge the quick and the dead, etc., according to the Apostles' Creed.

Here our Confession of faith takes full aim at orthodox Christology. Of course, the Augsburg does not go into the minutiae of every theological detail here, but suffice it to say, it says a lot in just a couple sentences.

We affirm that there is but one Christ and that Christ is a person. His two natures are inseparably enjoined, as the Confession says. This is to say quite simply that Christ is fully God and fully man. Not only so, but He has also received His human nature from the Blessed Virgin Mary.

We affirm that He truly suffered, He really died, and was really buried in a tomb. With all the Christian Church for 2000 years, we affirm these things.

He descended into hell and proclaimed His victory over sin and death, and then rose again from the dead. He then ascended and sits at the right hand of the Father and has dominion over everyone and everything.

This section of the Augsburg was nothing more than a re-affirmation of orthodox Christology. The Lutherans were simple affirming that they are (and we are) Catholic. There was no dispute with the Papacy and the Roman Church regarding the Christ. Hence, the Roman bishops accepted this article as true in their response to the Augsburg.

Here we stand. We teach nothing new.

Grace and Peace