Reformation

Good Shepherd

2004 Pass Rd, Biloxi, MS 39531

Draft Rev 14:6–7; Rom 3:19–28; Jn 8:31–36; Ps 46; antiphon: v. 7   –     10/26/25

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father, and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

CFW Walther says, If ever there was a day when we Lutherans should celebrate, it is October 31st. On that day, “the homes of all Lutherans should from morning until evening be homes of joy. Lutherans should let nothing hinder them from hurrying into the house of the Lord; all, young and old, rich and poor, should appear there in order to praise God with loud voice.” (2.248–249)

On that day in 1517, “Dr. Martin Luther, preacher and professor in Wittenberg, Saxony, nailed Ninety-five Theses against papal indulgences on the door of the Castle Church. All great works of God begin insignificantly and simply in the eyes of men, and it did also then. Without Luther suspecting it, those hammer blows with which he nailed his Ninety-five Theses on that church door were, according to the counsel of God, the peals of the bell which announced the beginnings of a new, better time for the kingdom of God on earth. With those hammer blows, the rubbish under which the Church had lain buried for almost one thousand years was suddenly being carried away. With those hammer blows, the dense clouds that for centuries hid the Gospel of Christ from view suddenly began to scatter. Radiant as the sun, the Gospel rose again over surprised and happy Christendom. With those hammer blows, all the prophets suddenly began to rise from their graves in their writings; the choked up springs of the full Gospel comfort began to flow again; the long closed doors to the larder of divine grace began to open in the pure Word and unadulterated Sacraments. With those hammer blows, the throne of the Antichrist, who had established himself in the temple of God by cunning, deceit, and bloody force, began to totter; the mightiest pillars of his almost one thousand years of building effort began to crumble into dust.

“Oh blessed day! Since the first Pentecost, no more blessed day has dawned in Christendom. Since the days of the apostles, no more wonderful time of gracious visitation has come. Great were the blessings which the Church of the Old Covenant celebrated on the anniversary of its deliverance from the bondage of Egypt; even greater are the benefits which the Church of the New Covenant celebrates today, the blessings of a true Reformation. Above all, it is we Lutherans who enjoy it in its fullness.” (249)

Walther calls it a “new, better time for the kingdom of God on earth”; ‘renewing the better times of the Kingdom of God on earth’ would perhaps have been a more accurate way of putting it. Luther did not create anything new, but rather restored what was original to the Church, the original which had been so overburdened and covered with manmade pieties, rites, and rubbish that it had been all but forgotten and lost. What was it that was lost in the early medieval ages? What St. Paul wrote for us today in Romans 3: the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe…. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. Through the long years of poor teaching turning into false doctrine, otherwise good practice done in liberty changing into strict demands, and especially the twisting of charity to feed the growth of greed, Christendom had forgotten that Jesus saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life (Titus 3:5–7).

Something so simple and encouraging which the Apostles has passed on was forgotten and replaced with indulgences, pilgrimages, tithes, Hail Marys, and the like; much like the works of the Jews: sabbaths, new moons, circumcision, etc. none of which make a man righteous in God’s eyes. The burden of the Law on the Jews had become a new burden of the Law upon all of Christendom. Just as the Jews became proud in their empty keeping of their own made up laws, while ignoring the Messiah to whom the Law and the Prophets pointed; so Christendom became proud in its empty keeping of its own made up laws, while ignoring Christ’s work on the cross to free men from the condemnation of God’s Law. Both false systems led to nothing but to pride or the despair of the common man and woman. But Christ came and took away the chains of manmade rites, fulfilled the whole Law, and freely gave forgiveness, life, and salvation to all who believe in Him. The free gift of God’s righteousness, not an earned gift.

St. Paul says, Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. The point of the Old Testament Law was to curb and punish sin, yes, but all men are descended from sinful Adam and are therefore sinners themselves. We are by nature sinful and unclean, as St. Paul says in Ephesians, we are by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind (2:3). Jesus Himself notes that What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person (Mk 7:20–23). We cannot keep the Law of God; when it speaks to us all the Law does then is show our sin and condemn. Some convince themselves that they have kept the Law, and thus become proud like the Pharisees, but in saying they had no sin they deceive themselves and the truth is not in such proud men (1 Jn 1:8). All those who are proud, who are justified in their own eyes, are condemned. This was the state of the church in Luther’s day: proud in its pomp and circumstance, but really nothing more than a white washed tomb (Mt 23:27). Meanwhile the common man trudged on in despair, the Law speaking nothing but death.

St. Paul continues, But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. Jesus did not come to found a new set of laws by which humanity must live in order to be saved, but He came to fulfilled the Law in our place and give to humanity God’s gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation through means other than the Law. Consider what the epistle to the Hebrews says, when Christ came into the world, he said, ‘Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure.’… When he said above, “You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings…” (these are offered according to the law), then he added, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He does away with the first in order to establish the second. And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all (10:5–6, 8–10). God does not require our own works in order to justify us, because God knows we cannot keep His Law perfectly or meet His righteousness. Rather, He sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins (1 Jn 2:2), that is, to keep the Law perfectly in our place, to pay our debt for being sinners since we cannot, and give us God’s righteousness. That is why God said He does not want sacrifices and offerings, which are works of the Law, for He has already received that from Christ. What God wants is for all to believe in the death, burial, and resurrection of His Son.

Thus St. Paul says, For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. That is the good news the Apostles and the Early Church preached, and sadly which the Medieval Church forgot, but which God restored to Christendom through Luther.

The Pope placed all of Christendom under the burden of works in order to earn, merit salvation. It is for this reason that Walther calls the papacy Antichrist: one man took to himself the authority of God, bound everyone in their sins and denied to them the comfort of God’s Word that in Christ all are forgiven their sins, that in Christ God declares all who believe righteous. The pope placed the burden of the Law, and therefore the guilt for sin, back on God’s people and thus he stood against what Christ had done to save humanity. He opposed Christ’s saving work on our behalf. God said that forgiveness is a free gift; the pope said you must earn it through tithing, charity, pilgrimages, keeping festivals, fasting, Hail Marys, and the like. God said, My Son has done all this for you; the pope taught, You must do all this for God.

You may be asking, then, what of what Jesus said in the Gospel reading, If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples? Isn’t that Jesus requiring that we keep the Law just in the way the pope and his monks taught? No. What is the rest of that sentence? If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. Abiding in Christ’s words is not slavish keeping of all of the Laws but rather what Mary the sister of Lazarus did, dwelling at Jesus’ feet to hear all that He teaches. It is hearing, reading, and memorizing God’s Word; not as a pious work which earns brownie points with God but rather learning all that God has done for and given to you. It is hearing the good news that you are saved by grace, through faith in Jesus (Eph 2:8; cf. Rom 5:2). To abide in Jesus’ word is to believe what He has said.

If we do so, then we learn also from St. Paul the reason why God sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins by His blood, to be received by faith: This was to show God’s righteousness, .… It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. What is the point of St. Paul saying this? A Man would rather his future were in his own hands. A man would rather think he was able to save himself, and so be proud of (as he thought) effecting his own salvation, as the Jews became proud, and as all of Christendom became proud. But God does not share the glory for salvation or work for justification; All who thought they had justified themselves were mocking God and stealing His glory. Only in Christ is there justification from sin.

Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. Christ already accomplished all the works of the Law which were necessary. He then gives the justification which He earned to you freely. You need do nothing to receive it. That is the good news that Luther and the reformers unburied: You are justified, i.e., God declares you righteous, by grace through faith in Jesus. Boast in what Jesus has done.

After that what did Luther teach? a libertine life free from any human law since we have been forgiven in Christ? Or as St. Paul asked: Are we to continue in sin? No. Rather, Luther taught as the Apostles also taught, Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law (Rm 8:31). That is, you are justified in Christ, therefore before men’s eyes be pure as your Father in heaven is pure, keeping every human law not under compulsion but in love for God and love for neighbor. The work of saving you God has  done. In response we should love our neighbors as God loved us. Amen.