Reformation – 2026

But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.

Prayer: Thanks and praise be to You, heavenly Father, for the wonderful revelation of Your mercy and grace made known to us in the Gospel, God’s power unto salvation, that in Christ our Savior we have God’s own righteousness, by which our sins are fully and freely forgiven and we stand justified before you. Amen.

Dear Friends in Christ who are dearly loved by God,

You protect what you care about and what is important. God protects his teachings because he loves us. His word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. His word teaches us about the love of God and the forgiveness we have in Jesus; it gives us comfort in crisis and hope during times of upheaval. False teachings rob us of the joy we have in Christ Jesus. As Christians, we need to hold fast to the faithful word we have been taught so that this joy isn’t taken away from us. We must hold fast, because until our Lord Jesus returns, we will be attacked on the right and on the left with false teachings. Thankfully, God sends faithful teachers to point us to Christ!

This is why the Lord sent the Apostle Paul to Galatia. You see, soon after Paul had visited Galatia and preached to the people the message of Jesus—that we are saved by grace alone through faith in him—false teachers came in teaching something new. These teachers, known as the Judaizers, claimed that Paul wasn’t a true apostle and that his message was incomplete. In addition to the grace of God, they convinced the Galatians that they needed to be circumcised, keep the Sabbath, and follow the Laws of Moses to complete their salvation. The Gentiles in the Galatian Church had left the structured life of paganism and idol worship and were drawn to the structure and culture reflected in the Law of Moses and the Old Testament rites. It was natural for them to think that they needed to keep up their end of the deal to be saved. Paul writes to persuade them to grow up into the freedom Jesus has won and gives in the Gospel. Paul’s letter to the Galatians forcefully asserts that we are saved by God’s grace alone without any works of our own. Paul is emphatic—no one can change this teaching—even if an angel were to come to them teaching something different let him be accursed! Don’t let anyone take away the hope you have in Jesus.

But Paul wasn’t the first faithful preacher and by God’s grace he won’t be the last. Elijah and John the Baptizer were faithful preachers who called people to repentance and faith. Despite the consequences and how unpopular they would be with the rich and powerful, Elijah rebuked the wicked King Ahab and his wife Jezebel for their idolatry and John the Baptizer called Herod to repentance for committing adultery with his brother’s wife. Elijah had to run for his life, and John was martyred for his faithful witness. This is how it goes for God’s faithful teachers. Jesus said, “Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets” (Luke 6:26). True prophets often aren’t praised, they are persecuted.

Martin Luther was a faithful teacher and preacher of God’s word. Now, most of you are likely familiar with the history of the Reformation and how it all began, but it is a story worth retelling. Luther was not the first person to call for reform in the church. Even by the 1300’s, the church had become a place to make money. A Spanish Catholic bishop, Alvaro Pelayo, was quoted with saying, “Wolves are in control of the church and feed on the blood of the Christian flock.” Leaders in the church were rightfully criticized for their corruption and immorality. There were many movements prior to Martin Luther that tried to clean up the church of its abuses. One of the things that made Luther’s reformation different was that he realized that the main issue wasn’t the corruption and immorality. These were symptoms of the real issue that the Gospel—the good news of free salvation in Christ—had been buried in the church.  

The Medieval Catholic Church taught that if you do the best you can do, God will give you grace to do better, and by cooperating with God’s grace, you will become good enough for God. Do your best and God will do the rest. This doesn’t sound so bad at first. It sounds like a high school coach. Just do your best! But then this question starts gnawing at you—did I do my best? Have I tried as hard as I could to live the Christian life? Have there been times when I didn’t try my hardest? If this was a question for a team sport, it’s not the end of the world. But when the answer makes the difference to your eternal salvation, this is terrifying. How do you know God will show you mercy? These thoughts are what drove Luther to despair—how do I know if I have done enough? This false teaching that we are saved by grace and our works is what led to the development of purgatory in the Medieval Catholic Church. They taught that if you didn’t become good enough for God in this lifetime, you would go to purgatory when you die and would there complete the process of becoming a saint.

This is why indulgences were so popular. These were pieces of paper that would pay for people’s penance or satisfaction of sins, supposedly setting their souls free from purgatory. The German people would buy indulgences to free their trapped loved ones from purgatory. One of the well-known sales pitches for indulgences was made up by John Tetzel, “As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, a soul from purgatory springs.” They were promising people deliverance from purgatory if they bought pieces of paper! The Reformation began on October 31^st, 1517 when Luther nailed the 95 Theses to the Castle Church door in Wittenberg. In them, Luther brought up the misuse of papal indulgences.

Luther wasn’t a Lutheran when he nailed the 95 theses, but he was well on his way. He was a brilliant, devout, and budding theologian. Luther never wanted to leave the Catholic Church. In fact, he thought the Pope would appreciate his reforms. However, the Pope excommunicated Luther and he was condemned by emperor Charles V. Luther had a death sentence hanging over his head most of his life. He was an outlaw.

But what gave Luther the courage to stand up against the Pope and the emperor? What motivated him to endure such hardship? It was because he had discovered the Gospel, the true teachings of the Bible, and he wasn’t going to let anyone take that away from him. Like I mentioned before, the church at the time of Luther taught that salvation in a certain sense, depended on you. This is why so many were terrified of God. They viewed him as a harsh judge. But Luther realized through his study of the Bible, that God saves us not account of what we have done, but because of Christ alone. Luther once described this revelation:

But I, blameless monk that I was, felt that before God I was a sinner with an extremely troubled conscience. I couldn’t be sure that God was appeased by my satisfaction… I meditated night and day on those words until at last, by the mercy of God, I paid attention to their context: “The righteousness of God is revealed in it, as it is written: ‘The righteous person lives by faith.’” I began to understand that in this verse the righteousness of God is that by which the righteous person lives by a gift of God, that is by faith. I began to understand that this verse means that the righteousness of God is revealed through the Gospel, but it is a passive righteousness, i.e. that by which the merciful God justifies us by faith, as it is written: “The righteous person lives by faith.”

All at once I felt that I had been born again and entered into paradise itself through open gates.

When Luther understood the meaning of these words, it was as if he had been born again. What makes us Christians righteous is the righteousness that we receive from God as a gift. We are righteous by believing, not by our works or efforts. We are righteous on account of what Jesus did for us. Luther then started to go through the Scriptures—and he found this teaching everywhere! From Abraham to Paul! Scripture says, “Abraham believed, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” The Apostle Paul wrote Romans 5:19, “By the obedience of the one, the many will be made righteous.” 

This is the most important teaching in the world! When God declares us righteous, we are righteous because he says so. It is not pretend. It is true. The gospel tells us that we are righteous. Do you doubt this? Then look to Jesus! Is there any sin in Jesus? Did he break any of God’s commands? Was he unloving, disobedient, or jealous? Did he ever hurt, swear, lie, lust, or steal? No! Jesus was without fault. And by faith in him, so are you.

What a comfort! What a relief! Why? Because by nature you and I are sinners—dead in trespasses and sins. We haven’t lived up to the life God has called us to live. We’ve sinned against God and our neighbor. We’ve sinned. Sin brings death. We will die and we will be judged. But because Jesus gave his life for you on the cross and rose again, we do not need to be afraid. Because the judge is the Lamb of God. And nobody is afraid of a lamb! Especially, the Lamb who gave his life for you. The one who promises forgiveness and eternal life to those who believe in him. Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

This is why we celebrate the Reformation. We don’t worship Luther, but we certainly thank God for sending a faithful preacher who was willing to fight for the Gospel. Luther’s goal wasn’t to promote himself, but to point you to Jesus. One of my favorite pictures of Luther explains this well. On the left side there are people listening and on the right is Martin Luther preaching, and in the middle is Christ on the cross. As Luther preaches, he is pointing the hearers to the center—to the cross of Jesus. Here, Luther follows the example of John the Baptizer, which is an example for all preachers. Faithful preachers point people to Jesus.

Dear friends, I want you to see Jesus, and only Jesus. When you come to church, burdened by your failings and sins, I want you to see Jesus. When you are troubled, worried, and afraid, I want you to see Jesus. The one who was born, lived, crucified, died, and rose for you. The one who made you a child of God in baptism, creates faith in your heart through the word, and forgives you in the Lord’s Supper. This is why I love being a Lutheran and you should too, because we are not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ Jesus.

We believe in Grace Alone – it is only by God’s undeserved love for us in Christ that we are saved. What a joy! You can be certain of eternal life, because it depends on the perfect Son of God.

We believe in Scripture Alone – all our teachings should be drawn only from the Bible. The Galatians were tempted to add to God’s word by treating their works as necessary for salvation. The Medieval Catholic Church taught that people cooperate in their salvation through good works. This is appealing to our ego and pride. But Scripture says, “Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness” (Romans 4:4,5).

We believe in Faith Alone – it is only through faith in Christ that we have the hope of heaven. Faith is a gift of God through which we receive the promises of God. As Scripture says, “Abraham believed, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” Faith is like the beggar’s empty hand that receives the treasures of the cross. This is what Luther taught and believed. On Luther’s death bed they found a note which said, “We are beggars; this is true.”

Rejoice! God wants you to hear his true Gospel. The devil, the world, and our own flesh work against it, but the gates of hell will not prevail against it. God wants you to hear it and believe it, to be encouraged by it and saved through it. Thanks be to God! Amen!