Jeremiah 31:31-34
10/26/2025
SN: 0096
by Pastor Nathan Klusmeyer
On October 31st, 1517, a simple professor of theology named Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the castle church in Wittenberg. Luther had no idea that this action would shake the very foundations of the Catholic church and the political structures of his day. Luther did not set out to start a movement or form a new church. Luther simply wanted to restore the freedom of the Gospel.
As Luther had read and studied the Word of God, he gradually came to realize that the teachings of the Roman Catholic church were wrong. Their teachings on indulgences, purgatory, and the necessity of good works were robbing Christians of the joy of the Gospel. The teachings of the church were once again enslaving the hearts and minds of Christians to the requirements of the law. God was viewed as a harsh and unloving judge who needed to be appeased with acts of devotion.
Luther himself had fallen into this trap. As a young man, he was tormented by his sins. He knew that God was just and holy and demanded that we live our lives free from sin. Luther did everything in his power to try and appease God, including joining a monastery and torturing himself to earn God’s love. But the more he struggled, the more desperate he became. It wasn’t until he began reading and studying the very Word of God that he discovered the joy of the Gospel.
God was not a harsh and unrelenting judge, but a kind and compassionate God who had sent his Son into the world to free his people from sin. Luther began to understand that he was not saved by his own works or efforts. Instead, the Bible clearly taught that we are saved by faith in Christ. We don’t have to earn the forgiveness of sins because Christ earned it for us by his perfect life and death on the cross. The glorious message of the Gospel freed Luther from his burden of guilt and shame. His troubled conscience could find rest and peace by fleeing to the cross of Christ.
Each year we celebrate the Reformation not to venerate Martin Luther, but to remember the glorious message of the Gospel that he restored to the church. Luther brought to light again the beautiful truth that Christ has set us free! This is what the Prophet Jeremiah foretold when he said, “Yes, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.”
The first question we need to ask is, why did God need to make a new covenant? In the Old Testament, God made a covenant with the children of Israel at Mt. Sinai. He promised to be their God, and they would be his people, but they needed to follow all the commands, statutes, and ordinances that he decreed. God’s law was clear: be holy just as God is holy. If someone broke one of God’s commands, there were numerous rituals and sacrifices that needed to be performed to atone for the guilt of the offense.
God’s law served one main purpose: to show us just how sinful we are. All of God’s laws in the Old Testament show that, as sinful humans, we cannot go a single day without breaking at least one of God’s commands. We can never achieve the standard of perfection that God demands. For this reason, no one will be declared righteous in his sight by works of the law, for through the law we become aware of sin. But one of the truly insidious tricks of the devil is that he likes to convince us that we can follow the law and achieve salvation by our works. But unfortunately, this leads to disaster. We either find ourselves foolishly thinking that we are actually good people, who don’t need a savior (like the Pharisees), or we become so obsessed with our own sinfulness that we soon are filled with despair.
This is where Luther found himself. He tried to do everything within his power to satisfy the perfect demands of God’s law, but the more he tried, the more filled with guilt and shame he became. Luther began to despair that God could ever love someone like him. The work and effort, the pain and striving, never made the guilt and shame go away. The Old Covenant of the Law cannot save us because it was intended to be transitory and temporary. The sacrifices and commands of the Old Covenant pointed to something far better: a new covenant that would not be written on tablets of stone, but on the very hearts of God’s people. People would no longer need to approach God with fear and trembling through sacrifices that had to be offered again and again. Instead, they would be able to approach God with joy and confidence. No longer will each one teach his neighbor, or each one teach his brother, saying, “Know the Lord,” because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord, for I will forgive their guilt, and I will remember their sins no more.
This is the New Covenant that was given to us and sealed to us by the precious and holy blood of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. By his death, Christ has set us free from our slavery to sin and from the burdens of the Law. We are no longer bound by the requirements of the law because Christ has set us free. All our sins have been fully and completely paid for by the death of our Savior. We don’t need to do anything because Christ also suffered once for sins in our place, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.
This is the glorious message of the Gospel that Luther restored to all Christians. The clear message of the Gospel had been obscured by all the laws and requirements taught by the church. People foolishly believed that they needed to do good works to earn their way into heaven. They believed that by living according to the law, they could earn their salvation. But the glorious message of the Gospel revealed in its truth and purity calls out that lie. We don’t have to do anything, and in fact, we can’t do anything to earn our salvation. Christ has done it all. Christ has set us free. Luther learned and preached the glorious freedom that the Apostle Paul wrote about in Galatians, which calls out the lie of Satan that we can do anything to earn our salvation. In fact, those who rely on the works of the law are under a curse. For it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the book of the law.” Clearly, no one is declared righteous before God by the law, because “The righteous will live by faith.” The law does not say “by faith.” Instead, it says, “The one who does these things will live by them.” Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. As it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.”
This is the legacy of the Reformation that we celebrate more than 500 years later. Christ has set us free! Our Savior fulfilled all the requirements of the law when he lived a perfect life and died in our place. His blood made a new covenant with God that we receive by faith. And God gave this glorious new covenant to us as a free gift of his merciful grace. We are free, and because we are free, we no longer need to fear God’s wrath and anger, because all his wrath was poured out on Christ on the cross. Jesus died so that we can live free from slavery to sin and free from guilt and shame.
Because we are free, we no longer need to do good works in a foolish attempt to earn our salvation. Instead, we do good works out of joy and thankfulness for all that Christ has done for us. We don’t have to do good works; instead, we get to do good works as a way to show our love and devotion to our heavenly Father. The law is no longer a burden that must be fulfilled but is a guide for our lives as we seek to love God and love our neighbor.
This is the lasting legacy that Luther gave to the church. He restored the freedom we have in Christ. This is what we celebrate and remember each year. We rejoice in the glorious message of the Gospel, the new covenant that was made in the blood of our Savior, who freed us from sin and destroyed the power of death and hell once and for all. Amen.
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not allow anyone to put the yoke of slavery on you again.