Q20: Are all men, then, saved by Christ just as they perished through Adam?

No.

Only those are saved

who by a true faith

are grafted into Christ

and accept all his benefits.1

Q21: What is true faith?

True faith is a sure knowledge

whereby I accept as true all that God has revealed to us in his Word.1

At the same time it is a firm confidence2

that not only to others, but also to me,3 God has granted forgiveness of sins, everlasting righteousness, and salvation,4 out of mere grace, only for the sake of Christ’s merits.5

This faith the Holy Spirit works in my heart

by the gospel.6

Q22: What, then, must a Christian believe?

All that is promised us in the gospel,1

which the articles of our

catholic and undoubted Christian faith

teach us in a summary.

Q23: What are these articles?

I.

1. I believe in God the Father almighty,

Creator of heaven and earth.

II.

2. I believe in Jesus Christ,

his only-begotten Son, our Lord;

3. he was conceived by the Holy Spirit,

born of the virgin Mary;

4. suffered under Pontius Pilate,

was crucified, dead, and buried;

he descended into hell.

5. On the third day he arose from the dead;

6. he ascended into heaven,

and sits at the right hand

of God the Father almighty;

7. from there he will come to judge

the living and the dead.

III.

8. I believe in the Holy Spirit;

9. I believe a holy catholic Christian church,

the communion of saints;

10. the forgiveness of sins;

11. the resurrection of the body;

12. and the life everlasting.