Reformation Sunday 2025 AD
Every year on the last Sunday of October, Reformation Sunday, the Church recognizes and commemorates Martin Luther’s nailing the 95 ThesesA on the door to the All Saints’ Church in Wittenberg, Germany in 1517. But it’s more than celebrating the day which effectively sparked the Protestant Reformation. We will be celebrating what that Reformation was actually all about – the proclamation of the Good News of Jesus Christ: that we are saved by grace through faith in Him.
That’s what the Christian Church has always been built upon-the grace of God shared with us through Jesus Christ. After Peter confessed Jesus to be “the Christ, the Son of the living God,” Jesus said to him, “On this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18). Through Jesus we have the forgiveness of our sins and the gift of eternal life. No power on earth, nor even the power of the devil himself, can prevail against this gift which we’ve been given.
The Church in the 1500’s lost sight of that fact in many ways. So God used Martin Luther and the subsequent Reformation and other Reformers to remind the Christian Church of the importance of the Gospel. The light of Jesus Christ may have seemed dim, but God was faithful to His promise: His Church will always exist and always prevail. And soon after because of what God had done in their time, the saving light of Christ was seen brightly shining again.
There are days, maybe even some of our current challenging days, when we wonder how bright the light of Christ is shining. Is the Church in decline? What is the future of Christianity? And while we don’t know what the future holds, we can hold fast to the same promise which Jesus made to Peter: that we are built upon the rock of Jesus Christ, and that nothing in this world will ever prevail against it.
God has made our eternal lives completely secure through Christ.
He makes our earthly lives completely secure in Him, as well!
This Reformation Sunday (October 26, 2025 AD), let’s take great comfort in the Good News of Jesus Christ, that we are part of His Church which will always exist and always prevail, and that we will live with our God for all eternity, and rejoice!
“A mighty fortress is our God …
On earth He has no equal.” (LSB 657)