Revelation 14:6-7; Romans 3:19-28; John 8:31-36

It is easy to underestimate the darkness of that time prior to the Reformation. It is just as easy to underestimate the darkness in our own day. On this day, we do not simply recall an event but the work of God recalling His Church to the eternal Gospel. We proclaim with clarity that justification by grace through faith is not some Lutheran quirk but is the message of Christ, affirmed by Paul and kept in trust by the Church down through the centuries as our greatest treasure. Just as the world long ago needed to hear the Church proclaim in an unwavering voice Jesus Christ and His payment for our sin, so does our world long for the true freedom bestowed by grace and grasped by faith.