Dear Christian friends:

We are gathered here today to praise God for the blessings He gave His Church through the Protestant Reformation, particularly through His servant Martin Luther and his contemporaries. (fellow reformers)

Yet we need to do more than thank God for a reformation that began 483 years ago. We need, also, to have a current reformation. The false teachings which Luther confronted are still with us, in the churches, and lurking within our own hearts and minds. In order to have a current reformation, I propose that we ask ourselves this searching question this morning:

Do I really believe the gospel which Luther discovered? Our text, which summarizes the chief teachings which the Reformation emphasized, will help us to answer this searching question.

I. The first teaching which Luther emphasized and brought to light out of Scripture is this: that no one can be justified by observing the Law.

A. Paul writes, "Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced, and the whole world become guilty before God. Therefore no person can become righteous before God by following the law." (vv. 19-20)

B. Its not that the law is bad. It is fine and good. It comes from God who ever seeks mankind's welfare. It is man who is bad, corrupt and basically unable to keep this good law and so cannot be justified by it through his own efforts.

1. Paul's Epistle to the Romans aims at supplying plenty evidence that there is something radically wrong with us. It is not just social conditioning that causes so much rottenness in the world. Nor is it just ignorance and laziness.

2. The image of God, in which our first parents were created, has been grossly distorted. I'm sure that most of us have been to an amusement park and walked through a house of mirrors. The mirrors humorously distort our physical image. One makes us look giraffe-like, another squat as a bug, all face and hands. Suppose we really looked like that! The horrible truth is that we do on the inside, spiritually because of our lost image of God. Once created in His holy image, we are now distorted beyond recognition. There is no way that we can ever right ourselves by our own efforts. There is no way anyone can become right by following the law. Our own good deeds are mixed with bad motives. Only God can right us! And praise His grace, He has!

C. He begins by using this very same law to convince us that we are poor sinners.

1. In our text Paul says, "Through the law we become aware of sin." (v. 20c) The law, the Ten Commandments, serve as a mirror, and this mirror of the law is not distorted like those in the fun house at the amusement park. God's mirror is 100% true and tells it like it is. Paul says, "I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet."(v. 7:7) Not only our deeds, but our desires and thoughts too, can be sinful and damning.

2. Do you agree with this? You answer, "Yes, wholeheartedly." Then I ask you: Why are we so reluctant to confess our faults and sins to one another. Why are we so proud and self-righteous and stubborn in defending and rationalizing our sins and iniquities? Why can't we simply say, "I was wrong! I'm sorry!" Am I a true, blue Lutheran?

II. The second great teaching which the Reformation emphasizes is this: We are justified freely by God's grace in Christ through faith.

Do we agree with this? In theory, yes! But in real life and practice our actions and decisions do not always show this.

Here's a case in point: An active member of a Christian congregation lay dying of cancer in a hospital. When his pastor came to visit he said, "God must have a lousy memory. I'm the guy who never missed a worship service, always tithed and did my bit for social justice. Why is happening to me?"

Do we really believe that we are justified freely by God's grace in Christ through faith or do we believe, like this misguided fellow, that we are also justified by our own good deeds? Am I a true child of the reformation?

III. The third great teaching that the Reformation emphasized is this: that those who are justified by grace through faith can truly please God and live a holy life.

A. Some might think that since we are justified by grace, through faith without good works we need not be concerned about the law and the good works which it demands. Lutherans have been accused of teaching this by those churches who still believe in justification by works or by a combination of justification by faith and works.

St. Paul anticipated this sort of error. In a verse following our text he asks: "Do we, then, make the Law worthless through this faith? No! Never!, we uphold the law." (v. 31)

B. This God given faith that justifies the sinner is not a dead thing. It is a living, powerful thing, the power of Christ's resurrection, that changes the sinner into a saint.

1. It changed St. Paul. After he was forgiven by Jesus on the road to Damascus, he asked Jesus, "Lord, what do you want me to do? Jesus told him, "I have chosen you, My messenger, to bring My name before the Gentiles, and kings and the children of Israel. For I will show you what great things you must suffer for my names sake." (Acts 9) Paul accepted that responsibility and work. Paul traveled to the ends of the earth to preach, Jesus, and endured many hardships, finally even execution at Rome.

2. This powerful living faith changed Martin Luther who said that he felt that he had been reborn. Out of deep love and gratitude to his precious Savior Luther risked his reputation, wealth and very life to witness to the pure Gospel before Charles the V and the emissaries of Pop Leo, the X at the Diet of Worms. For the remainder of his life although he had been declared "outlaw", which meant that anyone could kill him and not be prosecuted, Luther continued to preach, lecture, debate and write of this salvation by grace through faith. His written works, which are still published today fill fifty-three volumes!

3. Here's another case in point: A young man borrowed the family care without permission, knowing he could have it home safely in the garage before his father found out. However, he hadn't reckoned on getting rear-ended at the second intersection to which he came. Seeing no way to conceal the damage, he parked the car in the garage and closed the door. Then spent the even agonizing over how to deal with his father when he would arrive home. When his dad walked in, the young man's faced flashed a look of terror. He told his father everything, complete with profuse apology. The father walked with his son to the garage and looked long and hard and silently at the damage. Then he said, "The insurance will cover (fix) it. It wouldn't have covered (fixed) the broken trust between you and me. However, fortunately, your apology took care of that." "Can you ever forgive me, Dad?" "I have already. You have learned your lesson. Forget about it!"

A week later the son, still guilt ridden, came to his father and said, "Dad, in case they raise our insurance rates because of the accident, I'm willing to earn the money to pay the difference in premiums." His father didn't even look up from his newspaper as he asked, "What accident?"

Do you think that this son will ever forget his father's grace and forgiveness. Is there anything that he would not do for such a dad? So it is with us and our gracious heavenly Father who says, that He will not remember our sins, who has freely justified us by His grace through the redemption that is in His beloved Son Jesus Christ.

Has God's grace and mercy changed you? Has it caused you to love Him wholeheartedly so that you want to please Him by obeying His Commandments, and not hurt Him by disobeying then? Does His grace and mercy cause you to be contrite and repent when you fail to do this? If so, you are a true child of the Reformation.

Conclusion: May God be gracious to us, and by continual, faithful use of the Word and Sacraments give us His Spirit and cause us to be and remain true sons and daughters of the Reformation.

Amen