Concordia Publishing House

Every Sunday, congregants listen to their pastor speak the Words of Institution at the celebration of the Lord's Supper. What is the connection between communion and the Word of God? Read below to see Albrecht Peters' interpretations on Luther's Catechism concerning the Verba testamenti and the Lord’s Supper.

Baptism is a wonderful gift from our good and gracious God. It is the washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit by which we are made the children of God, given the gift of faith, forgiven our sins, and claimed for all eternity. Read Luther’s insights on Baptism from Commentary on Luther’s Catechisms: Baptism and the Lord’s Supper below.

For the first time in English, a truly scholarly translation of Luther’s most famous disputation, referred to as The Antinomian Disputations, is available as part of the newest volume in the ongoing Luther’s Works, Volume 73. Read an excerpt from the introduction below about the doctrines of Law and Gospel.

Every Sunday, as a community of believers, congregations say the Lord’s Prayer out loud. Luther goes into detail about what each petition of this prayer means, giving believers an in-depth understanding of exactly what it is they’re praying for.

The Fourth Petition, “Give us this day our daily bread,” thanks God for everything that He gives His creation, including food, drink, house, money, and so on. Read an excerpt from Albrecht Peters’s Commentary on Luther’s Catechisms: Lord’s Prayer to see how God gives humanity goodness through Christ daily.

Martin Luther was a phenomenal theologian. He wrote many theses during his lifetime, and he also presided over and responded to many of the academic disputations of others in order to discuss their points and validity. A new edition of Luther’s Works, Volume 73 on disputations, dives more deeply into Luther’s arguments from December 1537 to July 1545. Read an excerpt below from the newest volume concerning arguments on Law and sin.

Luther distinguishes himself from all interpretations of the Second Petition before him, in that in the catechism he bases the kingdom of God in the Gospel of Christ, which in the First Petition he had foreshadowed under the topic of pure doctrine. The ‘Kingdom of Grace’ of the heavenly Father is here on earth only there to be found where the Gospel of our salvation through Christ’s sacrificial death is “genuinely preached throughout the world.” This is and remains Luther’s fundamental insight: How the Church is ‘creatur verbi,’ thus also God’s Kingship is governance through the Word from the cross.

“The LORD is my Shepherd; I shall not want.” Psalm 23 is one of the best-known Psalms, often a poem we turn to for refuge during times of distress or uncertainty. But why has this passage become so popular? Read from the latest Concordia Commentary, Psalms 1–50, by Timothy Saleska, answering this question below.  

Dealing with daily suffering is a sad reality of living in a fallen world. But in Romans 8:18, Paul reminds all believers that our current suffering is worth the beauty of heaven and seeing our Savior’s face after our time on this earth is done. Read commentary by Michael Middendorf on this verse from Romans 1–8, Volume 1 of the Concordia Commentary series below.

The words “passus sub Pontio Pilato, crucifixus, mortuus et sepultus” are translated by the reformer: “suffered under Pontius Pilate, crucified, dead, and buried”; admittedly, the introductory text to the Large Catechism reads: “(who) had suffered under Pontius Pilate, is crucified, dead, and buried.”

One of the themes that weaves its way through Psalm 27 is the belief that true salvation is to be found only in the presence of Yhwh. The speaker desires to dwell in the house of Yhwh so that he can see “the beauty of Yhwh” (27:4). And he knows that in His house, Yhwh will protect him from his enemies (27:4–6). When he feels threatened, he is determined to seek Yhwh’s presence, and he asks Yhwh not to hide His presence from him or to forsake him (27:8–9). And the final encouragement from the speaker is to “wait for Yhwh” (27:14).