Of all sinners who have ever lived, perhaps none understood the weight of his guilt more than Dr. Martin Luther. Early in his adult life his sins and failures tormented him to the point of misery. He himself describes that in one of his hymns. He writes, “Fast bound in Satan’s chains I lay, Death brooded darkly o’er me, Sin was my torment night and day, in sin my mother bore me; Yea, deep and deeper still I fell, Life had become a living hell, so firmly sin possessed me.” No matter how hard Martin Luther tried, he couldn’t escape his guilty conscience until he came to understand that God’s relationship with us is not based upon his personal righteousness, but rather on the righteousness which God’s Son purchased for us on the cross.

It’s not that God is blind to our sin. Nor is it that he is a kindly old grandfather who merely ignores the terrible things that we have said, the awful things we have done or the wretched things we have thought. God cannot ignore our sin and still maintain his integrity as God, any more than a judge could let a murderer go scot-free. God has to punish our sin to remain God. He can’t do otherwise. But God has a way out for us—a way of holding us accountable while still declaring us innocent. Paul points to our Lord Jesus and says, “God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice.”

That word “atonement” is a very special word in God’s courtroom. It is a word that tells us how God deals with our sin. It’s a word that describes how God can forgive us. Before he can forgive us God has to deal with our sin. He deals with it in the only way sin can be dealt with. Sin demands punishment. Sin demands blood. The writer of the Letter to the Hebrews says, “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” The blood that was shed, the punishment that was endured, was that of our Lord Jesus. St. John also points to our Lord Jesus and says, “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.” Atoning sacrifice means that our Lord Jesus is the one who turns aside God’s wrath, taking away our sin. He turns aside God’s wrath, taking that wrath upon himself. He takes away our sin by taking our sin upon himself. He takes onto himself our death penalty and dies on the cross in our place so that we might live. That’s what Paul means when he writes to the Corinthians, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.”

It’s not a matter of worthiness on our part. It is rather a matter of what our Lord Jesus has done in our place for us. No matter how our conscience might torment us, our sins are forgiven. Forgiven not because of what we have done, but because God himself has acted on our behalf in his Son. That is why our Lord comes to us as he does through the Sacrament of Holy Baptism to wash away our sins. That’s why he comes to us as he does in the Sacrament of Holy Communion with his body and blood given on the cross. That’s why the central figure in the entire Bible is our Lord Jesus. As Paul tells us, we “are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”

That simple message is the foundation upon which our Lutheran Church takes its stand. It is the basis for our confession. It is why we sing “A Mighty Fortress is our God” with such gusto.

May our Lord bless your celebration of the Lutheran Reformation!