The Everlasting Gospel Reforms Us

Shepherd of the Mountains Lutheran Church, Pinetop, Arizona

Rev. Michael “Mick” Mathews

Reformation Sunday– October 25, 2026

Sermon:  “The Everlasting Gospel Reforms Us”     Revelation 14:6–7; Romans 3:19–28

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

Each year, we celebrate the start of the Reformation, not just because of what God did through people and events 500 years ago, but also because of what God continues to do today.

When St. John recorded the visions God gave him in the book of Revelation, he wrote: “Then I saw another angel flying directly overhead, with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth, to every nation and tribe and language and people” (Revelation 14:6). The Gospel’s message is eternal. Its good news is forever and for everyone. The Gospel is the word of Jesus, by which we come to know the truth that sets us free (John 8:31). Throughout history, God’s truth of the Gospel has contended with lies and false teaching promoted by sinful human beings. At times, more people believed the lies than believed the truth, but the Gospel truth never completely disappeared.

Such was the case 500 years ago in the time of Martin Luther. The church of Luther’s time was not teaching the truth of the Gospel. It taught the people that although Jesus had died on the cross to pay for the eternal penalty of your sin, it was still up to you to take care of the temporal penalties by doing the good works the church told you to do: fasting, repeating prayers, going to visit shrines and relics, donating to the church, committing your life to God as a monk or nun, and so on. The church taught that if you didn’t do enough good works during your earthly life to take care of the temporal penalties of your sins, you would spend a long time suffering in purgatory before being allowed to enter heaven.

Martin Luther grew up fearful of God’s anger toward his sin. When caught outside in a severe storm, he was so afraid of dying that he promised to become a monk if he survived. But even joining the monastery gave Luther no assurance that he had done enough to escape God’s punishment. No matter how much he did to try to make up for his sin, he had the feeling that his remained. He privately began to hate God for requiring him to do something that he knew he would never be able to do.

But then Luther was assigned by his superiors to go to Wittenberg, Germany, to serve as a parish priest and as a professor at the new university there. Luther began to study the Bible for himself in preparation for teaching it to the university students. And what he found in the Bible made him begin to question what the church had been teaching. And this was especially so when he found that some of the people in the parish were living in gross sins. When Luther confronted them, they said that they had bought a document authorized by the pope, called an indulgence. It stated that they were free from all the punishments of purgatory, so they felt they could live however they wanted.

That didn’t sit right with Luther. He understood that Jesus called all people to repent of their sins, and that Jesus meant for us to keep living in repentance – to keep turning away from sin and turning toward Him. Luther wanted to have a scholarly discussion about indulgences, and he ended up writing out 95 statements, or theses, he wanted to debate. He posted his list of 95 Theses on the door of the castle church in Wittenberg, which was the equivalent of the town bulletin board.

Luther was anticipating a small discussion among local scholars. But his challenge to the teaching of the church soon spread far and wide when his 95 Theses were copied and reprinted for many people to read. As the controversy grew, Luther continued to go back to the Scriptures to learn more. And Luther finally came to understand the eternal Gospel, the truth of Jesus that sets us free.

Luther came to understand that the Gospel is not about a path that God gives us to be able to work our way out from under His punishment. As Luther understood all too well, we can never truly do enough to make up for our sins. As St. Paul puts it in his letter to the Romans, “For by works of the law no human being will be justified in [God’s] sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin” (Romans 3:20). Whenever we try to save ourselves by following God’s commandments, we just realize how much more there is to do to measure up to God’s standards. And we ultimately come to see that we just can’t do it. It’s hopeless for us to try to save ourselves in any way.

But that’s when God presents us with the beautiful truth of the Gospel. We don’t have to save ourselves. God saves us through Jesus Christ as a free gift. God’s law demands us to be righteous, but God’s Gospel gives us the righteousness of Christ to cover all our sin (Romans 3:21–22). God the Father put forward His Son Jesus to pay for all of our sin (Romans 3:24–25). The eternal Son of the Father obeyed His Father’s will and came into the world for us as a fellow human being while still remaining fully God. He kept all of God’s commandments during His earthly life, never committing any sin bur remaining perfectly righteous. Since He had no sin, He was not subject to the penalty of death for Himself, but He chose to suffer death in our place. He paid the penalty that all of us sinners deserve to ransom us from that debt. The Father then showed His pleasure toward what Jesus had done by raising Him from the dead. And God now grants the complete forgiveness of sins and the perfect righteousness that belongs to Christ to everyone who has faith in Him – to everyone who trusts in what Jesus has done for us. Nothing that we can do can add to what Jesus has already accomplished.

The eternal Gospel tells us that Jesus does everything to save us. That is the truth that sets us free. Free from guilt over our sins, because Jesus has paid every debt for us. Free from fear of God’s anger, because Jesus took the full weight of the punishment we deserved. Free from feeling that we haven’t done enough for God, because Jesus has done it all for us.

Even though the Gospel message was being drowned out by false teachings in Luther’s time, the truth was always there. It is an eternal Gospel that can never fully be taken away. We are grateful that God used Luther and others who studied the Scriptures to bring the truth back to a prominent position in the world. Although we sometimes call Luther the reformer, it was really God who reformed the church. Luther himself admitted:

I simply taught, preached, and wrote God’s Word; otherwise I did nothing. And while I slept [cf. Mark 4:26–29], or drank Wittenberg beer with my friends Philip and Amsdorf, the Word so greatly weakened the papacy that no prince or emperor ever inflicted such losses upon it. I did nothing; the Word did everything. (Luther’s Works 51:71)

God is still working to reform the church today through the power of His Word. He brings people to faith in Jesus when they hear His Word. He assures them of His forgiveness for Jesus’ sake. He changes the lives of the people who cling to that Word. They know the truth, and the truth sets them free.

So we celebrate the Reformation not only as an event from the past, but as something that is still going on today. The everlasting Gospel is reforming us today. It is changing us to be the people that God wants us to be – people who have received Christ’s righteousness as their own by God’s grace as a gift that is received by faith.

As part of that continuing Reformation, we stand on guard against any false teaching, any teaching that does not line up with God’s truth in the Bible, because any false teaching eventually leads us away from Christ. His Word alone is the truth that sets us free. Anything else leads people back into slavery to sin and death. Any notion that there is something that we must do to be saved – beyond what Christ has already done – will only lead to doubt and fear. We’ll never be confident that we have done enough or done it well enough. Only relying on Jesus alone to save us will set us free from sin, death, doubt, and fear. May God help us to hold onto this eternal good news.

And the peace of God which passes understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Revelation 14:6 Then I saw another angel flying directly overhead, with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth, to every nation and tribe and language and people. 7 And he said with a loud voice, “Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come, and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.”

Romans 3:19 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. 20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

Romans 3:21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 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.

Romans 3:27 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. 28 For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.

John 8:31 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” 33 They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?”

John 8:34 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. 35 The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”