“If you hold to My teaching, you are really My disciples.

Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8:31-32

 The Lutheran Church is preparing to celebrate another Reformation Day, October 31^st, the day in 1517 that Martin Luther took a public stand against the false teachings of the Church of his day.

The clear teachings of Jesus regarding our salvation that were being ignored or corrupted included: that we all are conceived and born with a sinful nature that makes us enemies of God, and because of that and our sinful deeds we are irreconcilable to God on our own.

They also ignored how God set about to take matters into His own hands regarding our reconciliation with Him. In love He sent His own dear Son Jesus – true God and true Man – to be our perfect righteousness before Him and our complete sacrifice for sins: “God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God,” Paul wrote (2 Corinthians 5:21). They ignored that in Christ we have the forgiveness before God we could never win on our own – a forgiveness full and free for all of our sins; and that in Christ we have the unconditional commitment of God Himself that He will never fail us in this life – no matter what the circumstances that we are facing may be; and that in Christ we have such a perfect salvation that it even opens the doors of heaven itself to us by amazing grace, welcoming us into the presence of God forever!

This was the truth Jesus proclaimed – “the truth (that) will set you free.” This was the truth Luther discovered, by God’s grace, as he studied the Scriptures – the truth he was even prepared to die for, if necessary.

Dear friends, this is the truth that the Lord Jesus bids us to “come to and hold to.” For it is still the only truth that will set people free! May Martin Luther’s commitment to the truth of Jesus be manifested in us as well!