Pastor's Sermon - October 25th, 2026 - Reformation Sunday
Romans 3:19-28
A simple query to Google. What are things found to be the most commonly terrifying across the globe? Answer: Darkness. Enormous Things. Overwhelming Spaces. Isolation. Dolls. Clowns. Inexplainable Noises In The Night. Intruders. Being Buried Alive. Strangers. Being Watched. Being Hunted. Ghosts. Alien Life. Public Speaking. Death. Total Silence. Spiders.
While many of us can probably grab on to at least one of these concepts and agree that such a thing would be terrifying. After all, who among us would say they like the idea of being buried alive or hearing an inexplainable noise downstairs in the middle of the night? Yet, of these things, when we really gather our wits about us, which is practically scary? Yes, being buried alive is a bad deal, but what are the chances of it happening? Is it really something to be scared of?
Of the list, there are a few things you’re more guaranteed to encounter. Dolls? Well, to each their own fear, I suppose. Spiders? I hate them, who in the congregation can I call when I find a spider in my house? Practically? They won’t hurt me and I know it. I’ll manage. Clowns? Avoidable. Death? Yes. We’ll all face that. Is it scary? I guess that deserves some discussion.
But do you know what’s missing from this prompted list? I would say one thing that none of us can avoid and which can, if not freed from it, should be the most terrifying thing we can encounter each day.
The Law of God.
Hear what the Law of God is from God’s own Word.
James 2-- For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. (This is to say that none of us can claim any degree of innocence.)
Galatians 3-- Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. (Cursed by God is not a good thing.)
Matthew 5:48-- Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. (An impossible demand.)
Ezekiel 18:4-- The soul that sinneth, it shall die. (Everyone, it sounds like we’re doomed.)
Romans 6:23-- For the wages of sin is death….
The Law of God stands over us like a judge demanding from us absolute perfection. Perfection in thought. Perfection in deed. Perfection in speech. And even perfection in conception and nature.
It is unavoidable. It cannot be deceived. It cannot be bribed. By us, it cannot be satisfied. I can manage spiders. I can deal with dolls. In fact, even being buried alive or dying is more easily dealt with than the Law of God, because the suffering inflicted by being buried alive or dying is temporal. Certainly, they lead to eternal realities, but they themselves are temporal things.
The Law of God accuses us with eternal judgment. And the Word of God is clear, and I only listed a few verses from Scripture—there’s many more—and they all agree on one thing. For the person who breaks the Law of God, death, doom, cursedness, and damnation are the sure consequence.
Paul tells us in our Romans text today that the whole world is held accountable to God by His Law. To our demise, there is no human being that can be justified by the Law or by adherence to the Law. The only thing that mankind gains from the Law is the knowledge of sin which reveals to us our sinfulness and our deserved destruction.
Martin Luther was a terrified man. Maybe of spiders and dolls, of that I’m not sure. But what we do know is that he was terrified of the Law of God. Luther was so afraid of God’s Law that he wrote himself, “I hated the word ‘righteousness of God’” and he goes on later, “I felt that I was a sinner before God with an extremely troubled conscience.” And even more, “I did not love, no, rather I hated the just God who punishes sinners.” He felt this way because Martin Luther recognized the inescapable and the insatiable demands and punishments of God’s perfect Law.
Luther became overwhelmed by terror of God’s Law so much so that he spent nights flogging himself and begging God to be satisfied by his faithfulness that the Law would not utterly destroy him. So afraid was he that when he first went to administer the Sacrament of the Altar he could barely do it. With shaking hands and a trembling voice he muddled through the blessed moment. He recognized correctly that he was not fit to serve the Lord in such a manner.
We’re no different than Luther. In fact, if we had to list a ranking of people from good and bad, I daresay that I would place Luther well above myself. If Luther could not see himself as good before the Law of God, then what chance do I have? Indeed, the Law of God should terrify each of us much more than any slasher or spider. More than any darkness or inexplainable noise. The Law of God, when we are left to stand alone, is absolute and sure eternal destruction.
So, is the Law of God evil? Is it mean? Is it bad?
No. In fact, the opposite is true. The Law of God is good and perfect. We only fear it because we are not good or perfect. The Law is only terrifying to those who break it. And my dear friends, we break it constantly. Each one of us can line ourselves up with Paul and confess ourselves to be chiefs of sinners. Our sin is great and our unfaithfulness is persistent.
Okay. This is the point where we should all become very afraid and panic. Run around and scream. The Law of God is upon us!
Yet, Christ doesn’t urge us to run or flee. Paul doesn’t urge us to scream and panic. Not even Martin Luther, the once-terrified priest, tells us to cower or hide. Quite the opposite. Christ and those who speak His Word faithfully encourage us to stand boldly before the Lord. We all know that Luther famously said that if you are to sin, then sin boldly. Well, doesn’t such a statement fly in the face of the Law of God’s deathly reality?
First, Luther was not actually encouraging people to sin. He was making a point. A point that St. Paul makes as well. Paul says, “Now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the Law…through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.” No longer is it the Law that can make us righteous. Since the Fall, the Law never could. Rather, Paul continues, “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.” Therefore, sin is forgiven. Even the “sin boldly” sins.
Paul likely knew it and wrote it with this intent, but let’s allow those words to settle upon us for a moment. We, who were once breakers of the Law and rightly terrified of God and His damning judgment, are no longer to be afraid at all. Why? “sinners are justified by His grace through Jesus Christ.”
That changes everything.
See the change historically in Martin Luther. He went from a terrified monk and priest to a reformer and pastor who preached so unapologetically the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He became an indomitable and titanic voice for the Gospel—forgiveness of sins and salvation as a gift of grace alone.
The Law of God has had all that would make it terrifying to us removed! Not because it itself has been removed. Christ did not come to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it. And that’s the catch! The Law of God has always been good, but we were not. But Christ did not fulfill the Law for His own sake. He didn’t need to because He actually was perfect. He fulfilled the Law for our sake. Now, as the Law of God is weighed against us, we are upheld by the righteousness of Christ which we have received solely as a gift of grace. This is where Luther’s pillars become so apparent. Faith Alone. Grace Alone. Scripture Alone. Christ Alone. These pillars are why we can stand up to the Law without fear. We stand knowing that we are no longer counted as sinners in any way. We are no longer the faithless or the damned. We are the righteous. Not by our merits. But by Christ. It is His death and resurrection that has provided this for us. Nothing else.
Luther was a blessed instrument that brought this Gospel—this message of peace and salvation—back to the Church. We can see the Gospel’s work in Martin Luther’s life by his writings. He went from being a terrified man to being a bold preacher of the Gospel. And this same Gospel works in our lives. We have been transformed from terrified sinners into serene saints that fear not the Law but revel and grasp the Gospel.
This is the Word God has given to His Church. We are blessed to have received it and to confess it. Following in Paul’s and Luther’s examples, then let us continue to preach this Gospel and live this Gospel in a world that needs reformed. A world that needs the forgiveness of sins.
And we do so without fear. Not of spiders or clowns. Not of harm or even death. And not even the righteous Law of God. Because we have God’s amazing promises of grace and salvation through Christ. We have His divine righteousness. Our hearts are reformed. Our lives are redeemed. Our souls are saved.
To quote Paul again, and this time, to give him fairness by quoting him in his entirety, Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
In Christ, Amen.