Read in sequence, the twenty five articles move from the most abstract claims toward the most practical. The opening articles state the Trinity, the incarnation, death and resurrection of Christ, and the person of the Holy Ghost, before turning to the authority of scripture itself: the Old and New Testaments are named sufficient for salvation, and nothing beyond them may be required as an article of faith. From there the articles turn to human nature and salvation, original sin, the limits of free will apart from grace, and justification by faith rather than by good works, though good works are affirmed as the necessary fruit of a genuine faith rather than dismissed.
The later articles are the most visibly Reformation era in character. The visible church is defined, and only two sacraments, baptism and the Lord's Supper, are recognized, a deliberate narrowing against the seven of the church the document was written against. Purgatory, the veneration of relics and images, and the invocation of saints are named and rejected outright, alongside a specific denial of transubstantiation. Practical articles follow: ministers may marry, oaths are permitted under proper circumstance, private property and charitable giving are affirmed, and civil government is recognized as owed obedience in matters not contrary to the word of God.