3. Of the Restoration of Man Through the Promise of the Coming Christ

Concerning the restoration of the first man and his descendants we confess and believe that God, despite their fall, transgression, and sin, and their complete inability, was nevertheless not willing to cast them off entirely, or to let them be lost forever; but that He called them back to Himself, comforted them, and showed them that with Him there was still a means for their reconciliation, namely, the immaculate Lamb, the Son of God, who had been foreordained to this before the foundation of the world, and was promised to them while they were still in Paradise, for comfort, redemption and salvation, for themselves as well as for their descendants; indeed, who through faith had, from that time on, been given to them as their own; for whom all the pious patriarchs, to whom this promise was often renewed, longed and inquired, and to whom, through faith, they looked forward from a distance, waiting for the fulfillment, that He by His coming would redeem, set free, and raise the fallen race of man from their sin, guilt and unrighteousness. John 1, verse 29; First Peter 1, verse 19; Genesis 3, verse 15; First John 3, verse 8; and chapter 2, verse 1; Hebrews 11, verses 13 and 39; Galatians 4, verse 4.