5. The Law of Christ, That Is, the Holy Gospel or the New Testament

We also believe and confess that before His ascension He instituted His New Testament. Since it was to be and remain an eternal Testament, He confirmed and sealed it with His precious blood, and gave and left it to His disciples; indeed, He charged them so strictly with it that neither angel nor man may alter it, nor add to it nor take away from it. And He caused it, since it contains the whole counsel and will of His heavenly Father as far as is necessary for salvation, to be proclaimed in His name by His beloved apostles, messengers, and ministers, whom He called, chose, and sent into all the world for that purpose, among all peoples, nations, and tongues; and He caused repentance and remission of sins to be preached and testified of. And He has accordingly declared in it that all people without distinction, who through faith, as obedient children, heed, follow, and practice what it contains, are His children and lawful heirs; thus He excludes no one from the precious inheritance of eternal salvation, except the unbelieving and disobedient, the stiffnecked and obstinate, who despise it, and bring this on themselves through their own sins, thus making themselves unworthy of eternal life. Jeremiah 31, verse 31; Hebrews 9, verses 15 to 17; Matthew 26, verse 28; Galatians 1, verse 8; First Timothy 6, verse 3; John 15, verse 15; Matthew 28, verse 19; Mark 16, verse 15; Luke 24, verse 47; Romans 8, verse 17; Acts 13, verse 46.