Q. 22: What then must a Christian believe?
A. 22: All that is promised us in the gospel, a summary of which is taught us in the articles of our universal and undisputed Christian faith.

Q. 23: What are these articles?
A. 23: These articles are:

- I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.

- I believe in Jesus Christ, His only-begotten Son, our Lord: who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. He descended into hell. On the third day He rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. From there He will come to judge the living and the dead.

- I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

Q. 24: How are these articles divided?
A. 24: Into three parts: God the Father and our creation; God the Son and our deliverance; and God the Holy Spirit and our sanctification.

Q. 25: Since there is only one divine being, why do you speak of three: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?
A. 25: Because that is how God has revealed Himself in His Word: these three distinct persons are one, true, eternal God.

Q. 26: What do you believe when you say, “I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth”?
A. 26: That the eternal Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who out of nothing created heaven and earth and everything in them, who still upholds and rules them by His eternal counsel and providence, is my God and Father because of Christ the Son. I trust God so much that I do not doubt He will provide whatever I need for body and soul, and will turn to my good whatever adversity He sends upon me in this sad world. God is able to do this because He is almighty God, and desires to do this because He is a faithful Father.

Q. 27: What do you understand by the providence of God?
A. 27: The almighty and ever present power of God by which God upholds, as with His hand, heaven and earth and all creatures, and so rules them that leaf and blade, rain and drought, fruitful and lean years, food and drink, health and sickness, prosperity and poverty—all things, in fact, come to us not by chance but by His fatherly hand.

Q. 28: How does the knowledge of God’s creation and providence help us?
A. 28: We can be patient when things go against us, thankful when things go well, and for the future we can have good confidence in our faithful God and Father that nothing in creation will separate us from His love. For all creatures are so completely in God’s hand that without His will they can neither move nor be moved.

Q. 29: Why is the Son of God called “Jesus,” meaning “Savior”?
A. 29: Because He saves us from our sins, and because salvation should not be sought and cannot be found in anyone else.

Q. 30: Do those who look for their salvation in saints, in themselves, or elsewhere really believe in the only Savior Jesus?
A. 30: No. Although they boast of being His, by their actions they deny the only Savior, Jesus. Either Jesus is not a perfect Savior, or those who in true faith accept this Savior have in Him all they need for their salvation.

Q. 31: Why is He called “Christ,” meaning “Anointed”?
A. 31: Because He has been ordained by God the Father and has been anointed with the Holy Spirit to be our chief prophet and teacher who fully reveals to us the secret counsel and will of God concerning our deliverance; our only high priest who has delivered us by the one sacrifice of His body, and who continually pleads our cause with the Father; and our eternal king who governs us by His Word and Spirit, and who guards us and keeps us in the freedom He has won for us.

Q. 32: But why are you called a Christian?
A. 32: Because by faith I am a member of Christ and so I share in His anointing. I am anointed to confess His name, to present myself to Him as a living sacrifice of thanks, to strive with a free conscience against sin and the devil in this life, and afterward to reign with Christ over all creation for eternity.

Q. 33: Why is He called God’s “only-begotten Son” when we also are God’s children?
A. 33: Because Christ alone is the eternal, natural Son of God. We, however, are adopted children of God—adopted by grace through Christ.

Q. 34: Why do you call Him “our Lord”?
A. 34: Because—not with gold or silver, but with His precious blood— He has set us free from sin and from the tyranny of the devil, and has bought us, body and soul, to be His very own.

Q. 35: What does it mean that He “was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary”?
A. 35: That the eternal Son of God, who is and remains true and eternal God, took to Himself, through the working of the Holy Spirit, from the flesh and blood of the virgin Mary, a truly human nature so that He might also become David’s true descendant, like His brothers and sisters in every way except for sin.

Q. 36: How does the holy conception and birth of Christ benefit you?
A. 36: He is our mediator and, in God’s sight, He covers with His innocence and perfect holiness my sinfulness in which I was conceived.

Q. 37: What do you understand by the word “suffered”?
A. 37: That during his whole life on earth, but especially at the end, Christ sustained in body and soul the wrath of God against the sin of the whole human race. This He did in order that, by His suffering as the only atoning sacrifice, He might deliver us, body and soul, from eternal condemnation, and gain for us God’s grace, righteousness, and eternal life.

Q. 38: Why did He suffer “under Pontius Pilate” as judge?
A. 38: So that He, though innocent, might be condemned by an earthly judge, and so free us from the severe judgment of God that was to fall on us.

Q. 39: Is it significant that He was “crucified” instead of dying some other way?
A. 39: Yes. By this I am convinced that He shouldered the curse which lay on me, since death by crucifixion was cursed by God.

Q. 40: Why did Christ have to suffer death?
A. 40: Because God’s justice and truth require it: nothing else could pay for our sins except the death of the Son of God.

Q. 41: Why was He “buried”?
A. 41: His burial testifies that He really died.

Q. 42: Since Christ has died for us, why do we still have to die?
A. 42: Our death does not pay the debt of our sins. Rather, it puts an end to our sinning and is our entrance into eternal life.

Q. 43: What further benefit do we receive from Christ’s sacrifice and death on the cross?
A. 43: By Christ’s power our old selves are crucified, put to death, and buried with Him, so that the evil desires of the flesh may no longer rule us, but that instead we may offer ourselves as a sacrifice of gratitude to Him.

Q. 44: Why does the creed add, “He descended into hell”?
A. 44: To assure me during attacks of deepest dread and temptation that Christ my Lord, by suffering unspeakable anguish, pain, and terror of soul, on the cross but also earlier, has delivered me from hellish anguish and torment.

Q. 45: How does Christ’s resurrection benefit us?
A. 45: First, by His resurrection He has overcome death, so that He might make us share in the righteousness He obtained for us by His death. Second, by His power we too are already raised to a new life. Third, Christ’s resurrection is a sure pledge to us of our blessed resurrection.

Q. 46: What do you mean by saying, “He ascended into heaven”?
A. 46: That Christ while His disciples watched, was taken up from the earth into heaven and remains there on our behalf until He comes again to judge the living and the dead.

Q. 47: But isn’t Christ with us until the end of the world as He promised us?
A. 47: Christ is true human and true God. In His human nature Christ is not now on earth; but in His divinity, majesty, grace, and Spirit He is never absent from us.

Q. 48: If His humanity is not present wherever His divinity is, then aren’t the two natures of Christ separated from each other?
A. 48: Certainly not. Since divinity is not limited and is present everywhere, it is evident that Christ’s divinity is surely beyond the bounds of the humanity that has been taken on, but at the same time His divinity is in and remains personally united to His humanity.

Q. 49: How does Christ’s ascension to heaven benefit us?
A. 49: First, He is our advocate in heaven in the presence of His Father. Second, we have our own flesh in heaven as a sure pledge that Christ our head will also take us, His members, up to Himself. Third, He sends His Spirit to us on earth as a corresponding pledge. By the Spirit’s power we seek not earthly things but the things above, where Christ is, sitting at God’s right hand.

Q. 50: Why the next words: “and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty”?
A. 50: Because Christ ascended to heaven to show there that He is head of His church, the one through whom the Father rules all things.

Q. 51: How does this glory of Christ our head benefit us? 
A. 51: First, through His Holy Spirit He pours out gifts from heaven upon us His members. Second, by His power He defends us and keeps us safe from all enemies.

Q. 52: How does Christ’s return “to judge the living and the dead” comfort you? 
A. 52: In all distress and persecution, with uplifted head I confidently await the very judge who has already offered Himself to the judgment of God in my place and removed the whole curse from me. Christ will cast all His enemies and mine into everlasting condemnation, but will take me and all His chosen ones to Himself into the joy and glory of heaven.

Q. 53: What do you believe concerning “the Holy Spirit”? 
A. 53: First, that the Spirit, with the Father and the Son, is eternal God. Second, that the Spirit is given also to me, so that, through true faith, He makes me share in Christ and all His benefits through true faith, comforts me, and will remain with me forever.

Q. 54: What do you believe concerning “the holy catholic Church”? 
A. 54: I believe that the Son of God through His Spirit and Word, out of the entire human race, from the beginning of the world to its end, gathers, protects, and preserves for Himself a community chosen for eternal life and united in true faith. And of this community I am and always will be a living member.

Q. 55: What do you understand by “the communion of saints”? 
A. 55: First, that believers one and all, as members of this community, share in Christ and in all His treasures and gifts. Second, that each member should consider it a duty to use these gifts readily and joyfully for the service and enrichment of the other members.

Q. 56: What do you believe concerning “the forgiveness of sins”? 
A. 56: I believe that God, because of Christ’s satisfaction, will no longer remember any of my sins or my sinful nature which I need to struggle against all my life. Rather, by grace God grants me the righteousness of Christ to free me forever from judgment.

Q. 57: How does “the resurrection of the body” comfort you? 
A. 57: Not only will my soul be taken immediately after this life to Christ its head, but also my very flesh will be raised by the power of Christ, reunited with my soul and made like Christ’s glorious body.

Q. 58: How does the article concerning “life everlasting” comfort you? 
A. 58: Even as I already now experience in my heart the beginning of eternal joy, so after this life I will have perfect blessedness such as no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no human heart has ever imagined: a blessedness in which to praise God forever.

Q. 59: What good does it do you, however, to believe all this? 
A. 59: In Christ I am righteous before God and heir to life everlasting.