The “Lutheran Gospel in a Nutshell”

“I forgive you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
We have all heard of the phrase, “The Gospel in a nutshell.” The origin of the phrase is uncertain, but Christians have been using it in reference to John 3:16 for many years.
However, years before, Martin Luther summed up the Gospel in perhaps the most succinct axiom in the history of the Christian Church: “Where there is forgiveness, there is life and salvation.” These few words stand in the context of the Sixth Chief part of our Lutheran Catechism—the Lord’s Supper (ELS Catechism, pg. 201).
While Martin Luther attached his Gospel axiom in the Catechism specifically to the Lord’s Supper, this same axiom remains true in whatever form the Gospel is administered, such as Baptism and Holy Absolution.
Interestingly, the Lutheran “Gospel in a nutshell” is quite unique to Christendom. Many other churches and denominations teach a “gospel” that shifts the words of Luther’s axiom around, thus muting and destroying the true Gospel. For example, the call for a “decision for Christ” from poor, troubled sinners turns Luther’s axiom (and the Gospel) around so that it must then state, “Where there is life, there is also forgiveness and salvation.” Do you see how subtly the thought has shifted—from God’s forgiveness to one’s life? That is a formula for despair. How can we be certain that our life is up to God’s standards so that we can have forgiveness?
In contrast, Luther’s axiom comforts us with the fact that forgiveness has already been accomplished by the bloody sacrifice of Christ on the cross and sealed with the words of our Savior, “It is finished.” The writers of the Formula of Concord stated the axiom of Luther like this:
A poor sinner is justified before God with-out any merit or worthiness on our part, and without any preceding, present, or subsequent works. (FC, SD, Art. III:9)
For 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 merits of Christ in the promise of the Holy Gospel. (FC, SD, Art III;11, 13)
Luther’s axiom is not only unique in the milieu of much of the Christian world today. It also is of the greatest comfort to the troubled sinner in the hour of temptation and sin. When your conscience grieves you, your Lutheran pastor will not call for a “decision” from you, making you “prove” your faith before he pronounces forgiveness. Instead, he will speak to you the words of forgiveness: “I forgive you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” These words also direct you to your baptism, where the Triune God vowed to forgive all your sin for eternity. In addition, your pastor will invite you to come to the Lord’s Supper because he knows and believes, as Luther did, about this holy meal: “Where there is forgiveness of sins, there is life and salvation.”
This phrase is the “Lutheran Gospel in a nutshell.”
Joseph Burkardt is pastor of Ascension Lutheran Church in St. Helens, Oregon.