Brief Statement of the Doctrinal Position 
of the Missouri Synod. [Adopted 1932]
(St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, N.D.) Pt. 8 

Of Justification

17. Holy Scripture sums up all its teachings regarding the love of 
God to the world of sinners, regarding the salvation wrought by 
Christ, and regarding faith in Christ as the only way to obtain 
salvation, in the article of justification. Scripture teaches that 
God has already declared the whole world to be righteous in 
Christ, Rom. 5:19; 2 Cor. 5:18-21; Rom. 4:25; that therefore not 
for the sake of their good works, but without the works of the 
Law, by grace, for Christ's sake, He justifies, accounts as 
righteous, all those who that is, believe, accept, and rely on, 
the fact that for Christ's sake their sins are forgiven. Thus the 
Holy Ghost testifies through St. Paul: "There is no difference; 
for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, being 
justified freely by His grace, through the redemption that is in 
Christ Jesus," Rom. 3:23, 24. And again: "Therefore we conclude 
that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the Law," 
Rom. 3:28.

18. Through this doctrine alone Christ is given the honor due Him, 
namely, that through His holy life and innocent suffering and 
death He is our Savior. And through this doctrine alone can poor 
sinners have the abiding comfort that God is assuredly gracious to 
them. We reject as apostasy from the Christian religion all 
doctrines whereby man's own works and merit are mingled into the 
article of justification before God. For the Christian religion is 
the faith that we have forgiveness of sins and salvation through 
faith in Christ Jesus, Acts 10:43.

19. We reject as apostasy from the Christian religion not only the 
doctrine of the Unitarians, who promise the grace of God to men on 
the basis of their moral efforts; not only the gross work-doctrine 
of the papists, who expressly teach that good works are necessary 
to obtain justification; but also the doctrine of the synergists, 
who indeed use the terminology of the Christian Church and say 
that man is justified "by faith," "by faith alone," but again 
mix human works into the article of justification by ascribing to 
man a co-operation with God in the kindling of faith and thus 
stray into papistic territory.

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This text was converted to ascii format for Project Wittenberg by 
Rev. Robert E. Smith and is in the public domain. You may freely 
distribute, copy or print this text. Please direct any comments or 
suggestions to:

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Walther Library
Concordia Theological Seminary

E-mail: smithre@mail.ctsfw.edu

Surface Mail: 6600 N. Clinton St., Ft. Wayne, IN 46825 USA Phone: 
(260) 481-2123	Fax: (260) 481-
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(rev. 990303, iclnet)