“For the purpose, therefore, of explaining this controversy in a Christian manner, according to the analogy of the Word of God, and of deciding it by his grace, our doctrine, faith, and confession, we declare to be the following: Concerning the righteousness of faith before God, we believe, teach, and confess unanimously, according to the preceding summary of our Christian faith and confession, that poor sinful man is justified before God—that is, absolved and declared free from all his sins, and from the sentence of his well-deserved condemnation, and is adopted as a child and an heir of eternal life—without any human merit or worthiness, and without any antecedent, present, or subsequent works, out of pure grace, for the sake of the merit, the perfect obedience, the bitter sufferings and death, and the resurrection of Christ our Lord alone; whose obedience is imputed unto us for righteousness” (Formula of Concord, Full Declaration, III, Henkel p. 632).