Why Being Lutheran Matters
Reformation Sunday| Romans 3:19-28| Pastor James Preus| October 26, 2025
Is it important to be Lutheran? Should we celebrate the Lutheran Reformation? When we talk about the importance of the Lutheran Reformation and being Lutheran, many mock and say that not only Lutherans will be in heaven. Of course, Lutherans have never taught that only Lutherans go to heaven. Rather, we confess what Jesus says, “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved.” (Mark 16:16) And there are many who hold to numerous errors, but trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for their salvation and will certainly be saved. Yet, others respond that it doesn’t really matter then whether you are Lutheran or not, just so long as you are Christian or even just a good person. Yet, such a response comes from an unwillingness to study God’s Word and pursue pure doctrine as Scripture teaches us to do (Titus 2:1). We can say that non-Lutherans will go to heaven, while also arguing for the importance of Lutheran teaching, because we believe that Lutheran teaching is simply the teaching of the Bible. And of course, many in the Roman Church say that the Lutheran Reformation is nothing to celebrate, because it marks the division of the Church, which is a tragic event.
It is true that the division of the Church is a tragedy come about by Satan and many false and divisive teachings. Yet, Christ promises us that His Church is never truly divided, because it is built upon Christ and His Word. Besides that, the Church visible was divided long before the Lutheran Reformation, when Constantinople separated from Rome. And even if we were to put all our differences aside and all Christian denominations would agree to unite under one denomination for unity’s sake, that would not bring true unity if everyone still teaches different and contrary doctrines.
But being Lutheran does matter. And we should celebrate the Lutheran Reformation. Being Lutheran means that we hold to Scripture as the Word of God and the only source of Christian teaching, and that the chief teaching of the Bible is that a sinner is justified by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone apart from works of the Law (Romans 3:23-28). To celebrate the Lutheran Reformation means to celebrate the pure preaching of the Gospel and to stand on God’s Word above any word of man. The Gospel is worth celebrating and defending, because it alone gives us certainty of our salvation.
Many people thought Martin Luther was crazy. He seemed obsessed with his sins and trying to get right with God. He was a monk, who would whip himself, starve himself, spend hours in confession, and spend sleepless nights in prayer. He wanted to earn his way to heaven. You see, when Luther was a monk, the most popular teaching regarding salvation and grace was, “If you do what in you lies, God will not deny grace.” That is, if you do your very best, God will be gracious to you. But even their understanding of grace is not what we Lutherans think. Grace was taught as a habit, that the Holy Spirit infuses into you, so that you may do good works. And God would graciously accept your good works, even if they weren’t perfect, if you did what was in you. But this did not comfort Luther at all, because he was never sure if he had done what was in him. He never knew if he had done his best. And so, Luther tortured himself, trying to do his best, so that he could receive God’s grace.
Yet, the harder he worked, the further from grace Luther seemed to be. Now, perhaps you think he was crazy. But he wasn’t. Rather, Luther was saner than most, because he recognized how serious a matter this was. He was dealing with eternal salvation or eternal damnation. And he could not have peace if he were in doubt about whether he were saved. But the grace taught in the Catholic Church left him in doubt, because it taught him to look to himself and try his best. But Luther could never be sure that he had received this grace from God nor whether God would accept his good works.
And how could he? He was trying to get God’s grace from works of the Law! But what does Scripture say about the Law? St. Paul writes in Romans 3, “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.” (Romans 3:19-20) To be justified means to be declared righteous by God. You must be declared righteous by God to be saved. You cannot be declared righteous by God through the Law, because the Law only shows you that you are a sinner. The more Luther pursued God’s righteousness through the Law, the more he saw his sins. It is as St. Paul says in Romans 7, “I was once alive apart from the Law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died.” (vs. 9)
The Law cannot save you. It only condemns you for your sin. The reason Luther was so miserable was because he was trying to find God’s grace where only God’s wrath against sin is found. It is a false doctrine to teach that you can be saved by your works. Trying to save yourself by your works will either lead you into false security, like all those who think they’ve done enough to be saved. Or it will leave you in despair, like Judas, who hanged himself and went to hell. Teaching that a person can be justified by works of the Law also dishonors Christ Jesus, because it gives credit to sinners what only belongs to Christ.
And this is why we celebrate the Lutheran Reformation. What brought Luther out of his madness, fighting with God and His Law? It was the Gospel! It is the text we consider today, “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 through faith!” When Luther stopped listening to these false teachers in the Church, who told him to do what was in him, so God would not deny grace, and when he started reading what God says in Holy Scripture, Luther learned that God’s grace is not found in himself. You do not find God’s grace by trying your best. God’s grace is found in God! Specifically, God’s grace is found in Jesus Christ, our Redeemer, who has made atonement for our sins by His blood!
This is so important to understand. Because this means that God’s grace is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And your sins do not change God’s grace or diminish them, but rather, as St. Paul writes in Romans 5, “Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more!” (vs. 20) Luther looked at his own works and saw sin and failure to obtain God’s grace. Yet, when he looked at Jesus, he found that same grace of God, that gift of salvation, which remains the same forever. Grace is not a quality found in us, which we find by our own works. Grace is a quality found in God and revealed to us in the Gospel.
This is also why we Lutherans hold firm to the teaching that Baptism is God’s Work, which grants salvation to all who believe, both infants and adults. Scripture teaches that Baptism saves (Mark 16:16; 1 Peter 3:21), not because it is a good work we do, but because it promises to us the forgiveness and merits of Christ Jesus. This is why we hold firmly that the Lord’s Supper is Christ’s true body and blood, regardless of what human reason says, because Christ promises that in this Sacrament we receive forgiveness, life, and salvation. This is why we value so highly the preaching of the Gospel, because in it, God’s grace is revealed to us, powerful to save. These are called means of grace, because they reveal to us God’s grace in Jesus Christ to be received through faith.
The heart of the Lutheran Reformation is this: “Our churches also teach that men cannot be justified before God by their own strength, merits, or works, but are freely justified for Christ’s sake through faith, when they believe that they are received into favor and that their sins are forgiven on account of Christ, who by His death made satisfaction for our sins. This faith God imputes (or reckons) as righteousness in His sight. (AC IV)
Faith alone justifies a sinner, because faith alone receives Christ’s gift of salvation. St. Paul says that we are justified by grace through faith. Grace means that it is a gift earned by Jesus Christ and given by the Holy Spirit. Faith receives the gift. That means that faith holds on to Jesus, to His merits, His suffering and death, His resurrection, His conquest over sin, death, hell, and Satan. Faith saves, because Jesus saves. And faith justifies, because it holds on to Jesus Christ, who is our righteousness before God.
Luther was criticized, because in his translation of the Bible, he added the word “alone” to Romans 3:28, which says, “We hold that one is justified by faith alone, apart from works of the law.” The Catholics said that the word alone does not belong there. But if you remove the word alone, the sentence says the same thing. Faith justifies apart from works of the Law. That is, without works of the law. Therefore, faith is alone. Faith is alone, because Christ is alone. Christ Jesus does not need your works to justify you. He justifies you by Himself. That is grace. It is received by faith alone, so that it may rest on grace alone (Romans 4:16), because Christ alone is our righteousness.
The Lutheran Reformation is about standing on God’s Word in Holy Scripture, so that we may rest on Christ and be saved by grace through faith alone. Yet, does this mean that we do not need to do good works? Does it mean that we can continue in sin, since grace abounds all the more? Certainly not! God saved us by grace, so that we would do good works, as Ephesians 2 states, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (vss. 8-10) And St. Paul answers the question, “Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?” by saying, “By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with Him by Baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” (Romans 6:1-4)
Lutherans are not opposed to good works. Quite the opposite. Rather, when a person tries to do good works apart from faith in Christ Jesus, his works only displease God. Yet, when you are freed from your sins through faith in Christ Jesus and you know that you have a loving God, then you are also free to love God and your neighbor. Lutherans should be eager to do good works, not because they save us, but because that is what God has created us to do. They honor God, help our neighbor, and give evidence of our faith in Christ.
Being Lutheran matters, because God’s Word matters and the Gospel matters. We celebrate being Lutheran, because we celebrate that God has revealed His salvation for us through Christ Jesus in Scripture alone, so that we may be saved by grace alone through faith in Christ Jesus alone. Amen.