EXPLORING JESUS
Why does the story of Jesus Christ matter? You'd be surprised. Wet Your Feet with the basics, Tread a little deeper with articles about how Jesus speaks to us now, and then Dive Deeper into the wisdom and salvation that Jesus Christ is for to everybody.
wet your feet
Think of this as Jesus 101 for those who have heard the name but maybe not known the story.
Christians believe that God came to us in a human being named Jesus who was fully human, humble and vulnerable. Christians also believe Jesus Christ is fully divine, the Child of God. Jesus lived among us and proclaimed the good news in all he was, said, and did. The good news is the promise that God is with us, loves us and saves us by grace alone. This promise was realized when Jesus was crucified and risen. Jesus died on the cross, but God raised Jesus to new life. As a result, by the gift of grace received through faith, all people can be redeemed into new life in Christ and set free to love and serve all of God’s creation, particularly the vulnerable, just as God loves us.
Sin is a complicated thing to talk about because it comes in many forms, through actions and inactions. Sins can be individual as well as communal. In short, we believe sin is separation from God. Since God is the source of everything that is good and true, this separation from God results in harm, injustice, systemic oppression and evil that people do to each other and to the earth. All people, including Christians, sin. It’s difficult to admit our sins, even to ourselves, but we trust that God’s grace is more powerful than our sins. By grace, God redeems us, heals us, and frees us. That makes us free to love others. God’s inexhaustible love for us makes new life possible.
TREAD WATER
Many Christians think that every answer to every contemporary question is in the Bible in a literal way. The Lutheran tradition reads the Bible differently. The first step is to understand that the point of the Scriptures is to cultivate trust in God by proclaiming how much God loves us through Jesus Christ and calling us back to a right relationship with God and with each other.The second step is to read all of the Scriptures through God’s love manifested in Jesus Christ. God’s love is, therefore, the basis of ethics in this church.Below you can find some examples of how reading the Bible through the lens of God’s love influences how ELCA Lutherans answer contemporary questions through faith.
The spiritual deep-end
Welcome to the deep dive into Jesus. These resources can help you find more about Christ. You can spend days in these videos, articles, books and more, or you can just look for something that speaks to what you need the most right now.