Sermon - Reformation Day 2026 - John 8:31-36

The Mond Crucifixion, Raphael, 1503

True Indulgences are found in Christ

1. Indulgences in the papacy were received as a result of human merit

2. True indulgences are found in Christ alone

3. Christ sets us free through His merits 

A blessed feast of the Reformation to you, dear brothers and sisters in Christ! Today the Lutheran Church celebrates the festival of the Reformation by which we have been released from slavery to sin and death and set free through the blood of Jesus Christ; we celebrate the truth and the clarity of justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ Jesus our Lord. Also greetings to you from the saints, your brothers and sisters in the true faith, at Our Savior in Mankato, Minnesota. It is my privilege to be among you today to celebrate the grace given to Seraphina in Holy Baptism and to rejoice in our Gospel freedom restored during the Reformation.

We mark October 31st, 1517 as the beginning of the Reformation. On that day Martin Luther published the 95 Theses, not meaning to start anything huge, certainly not what came to be known as the Reformation, but meaning simply to publish these 95 statements as a document for discussion. It was common practice among the professors, and Luther was a professor, to publish documents addressing various controversies, and they did this by nailing them to the doors in Wittenburg. What Luther did was absolutely normal and common for a professor.

But what Luther criticized reached to the very heart of the problems in the church: Indulgences. Indulgences are not a biblical concept. The concept of indulgences comes from the Roman Empire’s legal system. The word indulgence means kindness or mercy, and in the Roman empire various emperors would show kindness or mercy, indulgence, to release subjects from various tax debts and penalties. In time the medieval church adopted this language theologically.

The church had begun to teach that not all sins were fully forgiven through the sacrifice of Jesus, and that there were penalties Christians had to pay before they could enter into heaven. These penalties were paid in this life through various actions a person took and through a place invented called purgatory. In order to have these penalties removed the church adopted the concept of indulgences. Through the extra good works of Christians, the church could show kindness or mercy, indulgence, to release Christians from these penalties. In order to receive an indulgence however, you would have to perform some great action, or purchase an indulgence from the church with money.

This entire system is premised on the notion that Jesus hasn’t completely forgiven sin, but that humans through their meritorious works must complete what Christ has merely started. Luther realized that none of this is found in the Bible, and that the church authorities had invented all of these things over the course of a few centuries. Remember that at this time the printing press had only just been invented. All books, including the Bible, were copied by hand and therefore extremely expensive, and almost no one had access to the Bible. So the people were entirely dependent on others to tell them what the Bible said, but even most priests didn’t know what the Bible said because they hadn’t read it either. This meant that the people were living under the lies that had been told to them, and they were convinced that unless they performed the particular works commanded them, or they had enough money to purchase an indulgence, they were going to spend thousands of years suffering in purgatory before they could enter paradise with God.

Praise be to God that He raised up Martin Luther, to be a messenger “with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth.” In reading the Bible Luther discovered Romans 1:17: “For in [the gospel] the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”” It is not by our works or the works of any man, but the righteous shall live by faith! Christ has come to set us free from our bondage to sin and death, and He sets us free through His Word. Jesus sets us free, no one else, only Jesus has the power and authority to free us from sin.

Again we read in Romans: “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. 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.”

True kindness, true mercy, true indulgence comes to us only through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. There is no salvation in my works or the works of any man, no matter how pious and holy he may be, because salvation is in Christ alone. Through His sacrifice on the cross our sins are fully paid for, through the atonement that He won for us we are completely and utterly forgiven. Our works are entirely excluded from our salvation. “For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.”

Christ has set us free. Our sins do indeed cause a debt between us and God. Because of our sins we incur God’s righteous wrath. Since God is perfectly just, we deserve punishment for our sins; we deserve death and hell. This debt must be paid, and either we pay for this debt by suffering in hell forever, or another pays the debt in our stead. Christ is He who took on our debt of sin and paid the penalty that we owed, and He did this by suffering and dying in our stead upon the cross. On the cross Jesus paid the debt and He assuaged God’s righteous anger against us, and He earned for us God’s favor. None of this is due to our own merits, works, actions, or anything. We receive all that Christ did for us through faith; through trust in Him.

That is the good news, the Gospel of Jesus Christ: the free forgiveness of sins won by our Lord and Savior Jesus upon the cross. That is the Gospel that the church at the time of Martin Luther had lost, and which he fought to restore to Christians. He never sought to start a church named after him, he only sought to proclaim the gospel. Luther, along with many others, fought for the gospel through their whole lives. They were bold and courageous in face of grave danger. The Roman Catholic church sought to stomp out this truth of the gospel by force, and in the years after Luther’s death many thousands of Lutherans gave their lives for the sake of the Gospel.

In the late 19th century many Christians likewise fled Europe for America because they were facing similar persecutions and battles over the Gospel. Some of those Lutherans travelled the world and settled here, in a time when it was not a luxurious vacation to travel the world and when living here was legitimately difficult and dangerous, and those forefathers in the faith planted this congregation so that the truth of the Gospel might continue to be proclaimed unto all generations, so that all may be set free from sin and made alive in Christ Jesus.

In the Large Catechism Luther writes about the church. “I believe that there is upon earth a little holy group and congregation of pure saints, under one head, even Christ. This group is called together by the Holy Spirit in one faith, one mind, and understanding, with many different gifts, yet agreeing in love, without sects or schisms. I am also a part and member of this same group, a sharer and joint owner of all the goods it possesses. I am brought to it and incorporated into it by the Holy Spirit through having heard and continuing to hear God’s Word, which is the beginning of entering it. In the past, before we had attained to this, we were altogether of the devil, knowing nothing about God and about Christ. So, until the Last Day, the Holy Spirit abides with the holy congregation or Christendom. Through this congregation He brings us to Christ and He teaches and preaches to us the Word. By the Word He works and promotes sanctification, causing this congregation daily to grow and to become strong in the faith and its fruit, which He produces.”

Indeed, on this Reformation Day the Lord continues to do His important work among us. Today the free Gospel of Jesus Christ has been proclaimed here in these sacred halls. Today a small child, Seraphina, has been called by the Holy Spirit, washed in the waters of Holy Baptism, adopted into God’s family of the church, and become a sharer and joint owner of all the goods the church possesses. Today we join Luther and all the faithful Reformers in their boldness to speak the truth of the Gospel to a hostile world. Away with fear and sadness and slothfulness! Away with devilish lies and deceptions! Away with Romish indulgences! Make way for the truth of the Gospel. “If you abide in My Word, you are truly My disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”