By Brady Finnern
A pastor once told me, “Interpreting the Bible through the Book of Concord is like the first time you put glasses on as a child: Oh, I didn’t see that before!” Lutherans affirm the Book of Concord because it is in accord with the Word of God. It helps us to see the fullness of God’s grace in Christ throughout Scripture with clarity.
The last document in the Book of Concord, the Formula of Concord, is a treasure for us as Lutherans. After Luther’s death in 1546, the Lutheran reformers began infighting about theological topics like conversion, the real presence in the Sacrament, the necessity of good works and the third use of the Law. Yet the Lord worked through these controversies, by His Word, to help the church bring clarity to God’s people.
We invite you to join us in reading through the Formula of Concord (and related writings) in the coming year — just a few pages a week! Each 2025 print issue of LW will include an introduction to that month’s readings.
Read the Formula of Concord with us in 2025!
Note on the readings: There are two parts to the Formula of Concord. We will be primarily reading the Epitome (“Ep”), the first and shorter part. Page numbers refer to the Reader’s Edition of the Book of Concord (CPH 2006), but you can use the section and line numbers to follow along in any edition.
January Readings Introduction: Original Sin
This month, we kick off our yearlong walk through the Formula of Concord and related documents from the Lutheran Confessions. I hope you will join us as we dig in to the Confessions this year.
In January’s readings, the reformers clarify two important questions: What is our problem, and where do we find the solution?
What is our problem? That we are by nature sinful and unclean, dead in sin (Eph. 2:1–3). This corruption is not a minor one where we have a sliver of a chance to save ourselves, but a corruption that needs a resurrection (Rom. 6:11). Yet we must be careful not to say that the Lord is the author of sin. In the 1560s, a man named Matthias Flacius maintained that original sin was not an accident, but the very substance of humankind. This is like saying that if I wear a Minnesota Vikings jersey, I am now a jersey myself! No — I am still a human being, who is wearing a jersey. We are God’s creation (Psalm 110:3; Acts 17:28). God is not the author of sin, yet we are corrupt from conception (Psalm 51:5) and need a Savior.
Where do we find the solution? In the prophetic and apostolic Scriptures of the Old and New Testament (2 Tim. 3:15–17). The Epitome grounds its confession in the Word of God (Heb. 4:12): Our only solution is the Word made flesh (John 1:14), Christ, who received our human nature, but without sin, so that just as He was raised from the dead, we look forward to our final resurrection (1 Cor. 15:51–57), where there will be no more corruption.
I noted that there will be an intoduction to each month’s set readings in that month’s print edition of the Lutheran Witness. The problem with that is that I don’t get my print edition OF LW in the first week of the month. Can you please include the intro material in the online edition of LW (the one linked to from the monthly LW Newsletter). Thank you for your help.
Good idea, John! I have added the January intro to this document and will continue to add each month’s before that month begins: https://witness.lcms.org/2024/reading-plan/
Is there an index or list of podcasts from Coffee Hour to correspond with the readings. Or will each week of Coffee Hour correspond to the suggested readins?
The pagination suggested for the readings from the Reader’s Edition don’t seem to match up with the actual pages in the volume. Am I missing something?
Hi Bob, what edition of the Book of Concord are you using? These pages track with the 2006 “Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions, A Reader’s Edition of the Book of Concord” from CPH (black cover with maroon spine). If you have a different edition, you can still use this plan: Just turn to the right document in the book (there is a key to the Abbreviations at the bottom of the reading plan) and use the section (Roman numeral) and paragraph numbers to find the right place.
For example, in January Week 1, you see:
Ep “Summary” 1–8 (p. 473–474)
Ep I 1 (p. 474)
Find the Epitome of the Formula of Concord in your Table of Contents, and read the section at the beginning titled “The Summary Content…” and the first paragraph of the section “I. Original Sin.”
Stacey,
Thank you for your response.
When I first read about this reading plan, I jumped right with the Confessions of week 2 for October—the Epitome X 1-2. I turned to page 496 and I see the affirmative statements for II Free Will, numbers 3 through 6 and then the negative statements begin.
What finally dawned on me was that this copy is defective and page 496 and 497 have nothing to do with each other! I hadn’t noticed this before as I typically use the Wengert edition for my reading. I’ll have to get a new copy. My edition is dated “2005” and that may explain the problem.
Oh no!! Sorry to hear that! Yes, it sounds like that one must have gotten fixed in the 2006 reprint.
Do I have to get updated to 2006 I have the original that has the supplimental corrections. Is there a way to transpose the October sheet to work with my edition?
Valerie, the page numbers aren’t strictly necessary. If you follow the abbrevations (Ep = Epitome, etc.), you’ll be able to follow the readings. For example, Week 1 of January is the Summary from the Epitome, paragraph 1 from the first article (Original Sin) and then AC II, which is the second article of the Augsburg Confession.
I have been reading the BoC over the last 20 years. The Treasury of Daily Prayers includes a daily reading as part of the devotions and Rev. Finnern has sent a printable devotional guide the past two years that also included a daily reading from the BoC. I am looking forward to this plan as he will be commenting in each monthly issue of the LW. I always appreciate and look forward to any method of growing in the faith. Thank you Rev. Finnern for putting this together for us. In Christ.
RE: “Lutherans affirm the Book of Concord….”
When I became a communicant member of an LCMS congregation, I affirmed the teachings of Small Catechism but not the entire the entire Book of Concord. I think that my experience is typical.