Archive for April 16th, 2010
We are also taught by this same name of Jesus that he, who in this manner was conceived and born of the virgin mother by Divine power, is truly that which is proclaimed, namely, the true and all sufficient savior of the entire world, except where someone would voluntarily despise him and his benefits through an obstinate and absolutely rebellious impiety, and thus, drive him from himself. To this, indeed, all Angels, Prophets, and Apostles unanimously testify (Mt. 1; Acts 1; Isa. 53). Thus, they, who establish or look for other saviors of some kind or patrons of their salvation, apart from this Jesus, the son of the virgin Mary, or along with him, do not really know the name of Jesus in that Ecclesiastical faith. There is, indeed, no other name under heaven, in which we must be saved (Acts 4). . . .
The Church of Christ is the assembly of those men along with their offspring who were called and are yet to be called from the remaining multitude of men in the entire earth. They have been called from our first parent Adam and will so continue to be called by the voice of God, delivered through Angels, Prophets, Christ, and his Apostles. until the consummation of the world. They believe and profess either publicly or privately, by mouth, by the observance of ceremonies instituted by Christ. and by the performance of duties as each calling requires, that Jesus is truly the son of that Virgin Mary, that is man from man, namely from the virgin mother; that he was conceived and born by the action of the Holy Spirit as our brother in the flesh and, thus, was precisely able to die in our place for our sins, and to be now in the society of our flesh the all sufficient savior of the entire world; that he is also equally God, and that none is savior except God himself. Next, they believe and also profess that this Jesus is that true Christ who was continuously foretold by Angels and Prophetic teachers from the beginning of the world itself; that he is that one, supreme and eternal King, Prophet, and High Priest for the entire world, who shall have dispelled and utterly abolished all types of carnal law by the light of his advent. Finally, they believe and profess that same Jesus Christ to be true, natural, and only begotten Son of God the Father, begotten from God the Father himself in the same existence of his Divinity, just as the man consented to be conceived and born from man, namely from the virgin mother, that he might be and atone for the sin of the entire world; he is to be praised along with the Father and Holy Spirit, the one true God in heaven. Amen.
John à Lasco, “The Compendium of Doctrine Of the One True Church of God and Christ,” in Reformed Confessions of the 16th and 17th Centuries in English Translation, ed. James T. Dennison, (Grand Rapids Michigan: Reformation Heritage Books, 2008), 1:563 and 576-577. [underlining mine.]