Heidelberg Catechism, Lord's Day 23, question 59. What does it help thee now that thou believest all this, that I am righteous in Christ before God and an heir of eternal life? Question 60. How art thou righteous before God? Only by true faith in Jesus Christ That is, although my conscience accused me that I have grievously sinned against all the commandments of God, and have never kept any of them, and am still prone always to all evil, yet God, without any merit of mine, of mere grace, grants and imputes to me the perfect satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ, as if I had never committed nor had any sin. and had myself accomplished all the obedience which Christ has fulfilled for me, if only I accept such benefit with the believing heart. And then question 61. Why sayest thou that thou art righteous by faith only? Not that I am acceptable to God on account of the worthiness of my faith, but because only the satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ is my righteousness before God, And I can receive the same and make it my own in no other way than by faith only. Amen. Well, that is certainly one of the more glorious Lord's Days in the Heidelberg Catechism when we speak about being righteous before God, being considered as though we had never committed nor had any sin. God is not a liar. God does not pretend that we are righteous when we're not. So he found instead a way for us to truly be declared righteousness by virtue of Christ's righteousness on our behalf. Christ kept the law we had not kept, and in Him, having that righteousness reckoned to us because of our union with Him, then we can be considered and treated as though we ourselves were perfectly holy, perfectly righteous. perfectly obedient. This is the great truth of justification by faith alone. And it is a great truth where we rejoice to stand shoulder to shoulder with our Lutheran brothers and sisters. So let me read to you from one of the foundational documents of confessional Lutheranism from the Augsburg Confession where in Article 4 we read these words, it is also taught among us that we cannot obtain forgiveness of sin and righteousness before God by our own merits, works, or satisfactions, but that we receive forgiveness of sin and become righteous before God by grace, for Christ's sake, through faith, when we believe that Christ suffered for us and that for his sake our sin is forgiven and righteousness and eternal life are given to us. Well, you can see there that the Lutherans substantially confess very much what we do with regard to justification by faith. It's not our merits, it's not our faith even making us acceptable, it's our faith receiving the free gift that God gives.