“These blessings are offered unto us through the Holy Spirit, in the promises of the Gospel; and faith is the only medium through which we apprehend and receive them, and apply and appropriate them to ourselves. This faith is a gift of God, through which we rightly acknowledge Christ, our Redeemer, in the Word of the Gospel, and confide in him, that, namely, for the sake of his obedience alone, we have forgiveness of sins through grace, are reputed of God the Father as righteous and just, and are eternally saved. Accordingly, these propositions are equivalent, and regarded as one and the same, when Paul, Rom. 3:28, says: ‘That a man is justified by faith;’ or, Rom. 4:5, that ‘faith is counted’ unto us ‘for righteousness;’ and when he says, that ‘by the obedience of one’ mediator, Christ, ‘shall many be made righteous;’ or, that ‘by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men, unto justification of life,’ Rom. 5:18–19. For faith justifies us, not because it is a work of great value and an eminent virtue, but because it apprehends and receives the merit of Christ in the promise of the holy Gospel; for this merit must be applied and appropriated unto ourselves through faith, if we shall be justified by it. Hence that righteousness, which is imputed to faith, or to believers, before God, through grace alone, is the obedience, the sufferings, and the resurrection of Christ, by which he has rendered complete satisfaction unto the law for us, and made expiation for our sins” (Formula of Concord, Full Declaration, III, Henkel p. 632-633).

“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).

“This article concerning justification by faith is, as the Apology declares, the leading article of the whole Christian doctrine; without which a disturbed conscience can have no sure consolation, or rightly conceive the riches of the grace of Christ ; as Dr. Luther has written: ‘If this single article remain pure, the whole Christian community will also remain pure and harmonious, and without any factions; but if it remain not pure, it is impossible to resist any error or fanatical spirit.’ Vol. V. page 159, edit. Jen. Lat. Vol. III. page 397. And with respect to this article in particular, Paul, 1 Cor. 5:6 ; Gal. 5:9, says: ‘A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.’ For that reason he enforces in this article, with so much earnestness and zeal, the particulæ exclusivæ,—namely, the words, ‘without law,’ ‘without works,’ ‘by grace,’ (Rom. 3:28 ; Rom. 4:5 ; Eph. 2:8–9,) by which the works of man are excluded,—for the purpose of showing how highly necessary it is, in this article, not only to unfold the true doctrine, but also to set forth the contrary doctrines, that they may be discriminated, exposed, and rejected” (Formula of Concord, Full Declaration, III, Henkel p. 632).

“This is about the substance of the doctrine which is preached and taught in our churches, for the due instruction, Christian edification, peace of conscience, and improvement of believers. For, as we did not feel willing to place in the greatest and most imminent danger before God our own souls and consciences, by the abuse of the Divine Name and Word, or transmit to our children and descendants, and entail upon them, any other doctrine than that of the pure Divine Word and Christian truth ; and as these doctrines are clearly taught in the holy Scripture, and besides, are neither contrary nor in opposition to the universal Christian, or to the Roman church, so far as may be observed from the writings of the Fathers, we think that our adversaries cannot disagree with us in the foregoing Articles. Those therefore act altogether unkindly, hastily, and contrary to all Christian unity and love, who resolve in themselves, without any authority of divine command or of Scripture, to exclude, reject, and avoid us all as heretics. For the controversy and contention principally refer to traditions and abuses. If, then, there is no real error or deficiency in the principal articles, and if this our Confession is scriptural and Christian, even were there error among us on account of traditions, the bishops should demean themselves more gently; but we hope to assign indisputable grounds and reasons, why some traditions and abuses have been corrected among us” (Augsburg Confession, XXI, Henkel p. 119).

Psalm 51:8. To my hearing Thou wilt give joy and gladness, and the humbled bones will rejoice.

“This is the doctrine for which we bear not only the name “heresy” but punishment, namely, that we attribute everything to hearing or to the Word or to faith in the Word—these are all the same—and not to our works. Yes, in the use of the Sacraments and in confession we teach men to look mainly at the Word, so that we call everything back from our works to the Word. The hearing of gladness is in Baptism, when it is said: ‘I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit’ (Matt. 28:19); ‘He who believes and is baptized will be saved’ (Mark 16:16). The hearing of gladness is in the Lord’s Supper, when it is said, ‘This is My body, which is given for you’ (Luke 22:19). The hearing of gladness is in confession, or, to call it by its more proper name, in absolution and the use of the keys: ‘Have faith. Your sins are forgiven you through the death of Christ.’ Though we urge the people to the Sacraments and to absolution, still we do not teach anything about the worthiness of our work or that it avails by the mere performance of the work, as the papists usually teach about the Lord’s Supper, or rather about their sacrifice. We call men back to the Word so that the chief part of the whole action might be the voice of God itself and the hearing itself” (Luther’s Works, vol. 12, p.369-370).

Psalm 51:8. To my hearing Thou wilt give joy and gladness, and the humbled bones will rejoice.

“All this can be summarized as follows. When you become sad or feel divine wrath, do not look for any other medicine or accept any other solace than the Word, whether it is spoken by a brother who is present or comes from the spirit remembering a word you had heard earlier—like the passages: ‘I do not want the death of the sinner, but that he turn from his way and live’ (Ezek. 33:11); ‘Life is in His will’ (Ps. 30:5); ‘God is God of the living’ (Matt. 22:32); ‘God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life’ (John 3:16). These and similar passages bring the hearing of gladness, whether they come from the mouth of another or from the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. This, too, is hidden truth and wisdom, which inexperienced men cannot grasp. Therefore the pope’s teachers bring vastly different ways by which they want to heal troubled minds.

In addition, this verse is an outstanding testimony to the adornment of the ministry of the Word or the spoken Word. Because he asks for the hearing of gladness, he clearly shows that the Word is necessary for consoling minds, whether it is brought by a brother or whether the Spirit suggests a word that once was heard. This verse battles, first, against those who hate or neglect the external Word and are captivated by their own vain and inane speculations. Secondly, it also battles against those who do not want to accept the Word in their anguish of mind, but either are unbelievers or flee from the Word to their works, as the others do to their speculations. Both are in error—the man of thought as well as the man of action. Only if you hear will you avoid error” (Luther’s Works, vol. 12, p.368-369).

Psalm 51:8. To my hearing Thou wilt give joy and gladness, and the humbled bones will rejoice.

“All this is to be understood significantly and emphatically, for it belongs to the refutation he began earlier. By antithesis he condemns all the diverse ways which men enter when their consciences are troubled, because despite their excellent appearance they do not bring the joy that hearing brings. Troubled consciences are like geese. When the hawks pursue them, they try to escape by flying, though they could do it better by running. On the other hand, when the wolves threaten them, they try to escape by running, though they could do it safely by flying. So when their consciences are oppressed, men run first here, then there; they try first this, then that work. In this way they only heap up dangers and useless works for themselves, though the one true and sure way of healing the conscience is what David here calls “sprinkling,” by which the Word is heard and received. As far as we are concerned, the whole procedure in justification is passive. But when we are most holy, we want to be justified actively, that is, by our works. Here we ought to do nothing and undertake nothing but this, that we open our ears, as Psalm 45:10 tells us, and believe what is told us. Only this hearing is a hearing of gladness, and this is the only thing we do, through the Holy Spirit, in the matter of justification. So it was a hearing of gladness for the paralytic when Christ said (Matt. 9:2): ‘Take heart, My son; your sins are forgiven.’ So David’s gladness was to hear from Nathan (2 Sam. 12:13): ‘You shall not die.’” (Luther’s Works, vol. 12, p.368).

Psalm 51:8. To my hearing Thou wilt give joy and gladness, and the humbled bones will rejoice.

“There is good reason for my repeated statement that this psalm not only provides an example of justification in David, but also presents the true teaching about the reason and manner of justification in all men. Thus this psalm is a sort of general rule how sinners become righteous. The last two verses have set forth a part of this rule, refuting all the other ways on which men rely for cleansing from their sins and reconciliation with God, either by the works of the Law or by other works they chose for themselves. He does not only require a hidden truth against hypocrisy, but he also requires another sprinkling than the one the Law had. To make this more clearly understood, he adds: ‘To my hearing Thou wilt give joy.’ It is as though he were to say: ‘Sprinkle me in such a way that Thou wilt give joy to my hearing, that is, that I might have peace of heart through the Word of grace.’ The emphasis falls on the noun ‘hearing,’ but the Hebrew reads a little differently: ‘Make me hear joy.’ The meaning is the same in either case. He simply wants the forgiveness of sins, which alone grants joy, to come only through the Word or only through hearing. For if you tortured yourself to death, if you shed your blood, if with ready heart you underwent and bore everything that is humanly possible—all this would not help you. Only hearing brings joy. This is the only way for the heart to find peace before God. Everything else that it can undertake leaves doubt in the mind” (Luther’s Works, vol. 12, p.367-368).

“According to the above mentioned principles, all doctrines must be conformed, and that which is contrary to them, must be rejected and condemned, as being repugnant to the unanimous declaration of our faith.

In this manner the difference between the holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments and all other writings, will be preserved, and the holy Scriptures alone will remain as the sole judge, rule, and standard, according to which, as the only touchstone, all doctrines shall and must be understood and judged whether they be good or evil, right or wrong.

But the other symbols and writings mentioned above, are not authorities like the holy Scriptures; but they are only a testimony and explanation of our faith, showing the manner in which at any time the holy Scriptures were understood and explained by those who then lived, in respect to articles that had been controverted in the church of God, and also the grounds on which doctrines that were opposed to the holy Scriptures, had been rejected and condemned”  (Formula of Concord, Epitome, Rule and Standard, Henkel p. 554)

“3. But so far as it pertains to the divisions in matters of faith, which have arisen in our day, we regard as the unanimous expression and declaration of our Christian faith and confession,—particularly in opposition to the Papacy and its false methods of worship, its idolatry, and its superstition, as well as to other sects,—the symbol of our time, the original, unaltered Augsburg Confession, delivered to the Emperor Charles V. at Augsburg, in the year 1530, at the great Diet; together with the Apology of the same, and the Articles drawn up at Smalcald, in the year 1537, and subscribed by the most eminent theologians at that time.

And inasmuch as these matters also concern all laymen, and the salvation of their souls, we also acknowledge the Smaller and Larger Catechisms of Dr. Luther, in the form in which both these Catechisms occur in the writings of Luther, as a species of bible of the laity, comprising all that is treated of copiously in the holy Scriptures, and all that it is necessary for a Christian to know for his salvation” (Formula of Concord, Epitome, Rule and Standard, Henkel p. 554)