(Devotional from pastor Johannes Frey at the ‘Echoing Wittenberg 2025’ conference)

Dear sisters and brothers, our church needs renewal. A model for this is the Reformation of Martin Luther: Luther’s rediscovery of the foundation on which God builds His church, and Luther’s fearless advocacy for the truth he recognized. Luther’s insight and Luther’s commitment are a model for us. But Luther did not possess either of these qualities on his own: Luther found both The insight and the courage to act in the word of Holy Scripture.

Today I would like to read with you the account of the first confessional struggle in church history. It is the apostles’ struggle for what was also the core concern of Luther’s struggle with the established church of his time. The struggle and the foundation of the church and the source of salvation – the struggle for “solus Christus” – Christ alone! Christ alone justifies. Christ alone saves. Christ alone reveals the one God who created the world and will bring it to completion. The dispute began with a healing; through the name of Jesus, the apostles had lifted a paralyzed man to his feet and enabled him not only to walk, but to run and jump. Then they explained the healing as being through the power of the risen Christ. This angered the church leadership, who had little faith in the resurrection. So they confronted the apostles.

Listen to what Luke reports about it in Acts four:

So they called them and charged them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. ¹⁹ But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, ²⁰ for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.” Acts 4:18-20

Through the name of Jesus, a miracle has occurred. An incurable person has been healed. This proves Jesus—the crucified one—to be the Savior. And it proves Jesus—the crucified one—to be the Living One. For a dead man cannot heal anyone. The crucified one has risen! And as the risen one, he is the Savior from death!

That was the message of the Reformation: Jesus alone! That was the message of the Confessional Movement during the Reformation awakening sixty years ago: Jesus—the crucified one—lives! And because he lives, only because he lives, he can save us. Only he can save us. This message led the apostles into conflict with their church leadership in Jerusalem. Just as Martin Luther, 1500 years later, brought the message “Jesus alone saves” into conflict with his church leadership in Rome. But why? What do the bishops and high church councils of Jerusalem in the year 33, through Rome in 1520, to Wittenberg in 2025, have against the fact that Jesus lives? What do they have against the crucified one saving us? It is the same reason why, in our congregations, people who are religious, devout, and morally discerning oppose this message.

The message of salvation through the crucified one, the one crucified for the sins of all people, but also for their own sins, condemns them. The cross declares all people guilty: That is the law! The cross declares everyone guilty by paying the price for everyone’s sins: That is the gospel! That is why the gospel is met with rejection. This is the divine paradox: The good news implies a bad news. And whoever accepts the good news for themselves thereby acknowledges the bad news about themselves.

Thus, the gospel places the hearer in a choice: Either acknowledge God’s righteousness—and be forgiven—Or: justify oneself—and be judged. Therefore, the truth of the gospel is not demonstrated by its success with the masses, not by the approval of the majority. Because the gospel places the hearers in this choice, it always evokes: acceptance and rejection, faith and unbelief, gratitude and enmity. The enmity is not directed at faith. The enmity is directed at the profession of faith. Christians can live relatively undisturbed even in Iran—if they keep their faith to themselves. The same is true here: the authorities don’t care what the apostles believe—only that they speak of it must be prevented.

For the confession poses the question of power: Who is Lord? God or man? Who has the last word? God or man? Who is most to be feared—God or man? This is what it was all about in Paradise. Adam and Eve answered this question in favor of the serpent. The consequences are well known. The apostles answered the question of power differently: “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge”. Had the apostles remained silent, they could have lived peacefully in their faith and died a natural death in peace. If they had remained silent. But that is not possible!

Whoever belongs to Jesus cannot remain silent about Jesus. For to be silent about Jesus means to separate oneself from Jesus! Without confessing Jesus, there is no access to God, no entry into heaven, no forgiveness of sins, no salvation from judgment, and no eternal life. If the apostles of Jesus had remained silent, they would have canceled their own salvation. If the apostles of Jesus had remained silent, they would have cheated people out of their salvation. If the apostles had remained silent, they would have cheated Jesus out of the fruit of his suffering and death. And if we were to remain silent about Jesus, we would cheat people out of the meaning of their lives. We would abandon them to sin, death, the devil, and eternal damnation.

If we were to remain silent about Jesus only about what causes offense, we would thereby remain silent about everything necessary for salvation. Then we would undermine the foundation of the Church. Then we would undermine the basis of eternal hope. We would deny Christ and close the heavens again that he opened on Golgotha. The crucified Christ is by nature repugnant to all people. To the Jews, he is—as to all “good” people—a stumbling block, and to the Greeks, he is—as to all “enlightened” people—foolishness. The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God!

That is why we are here. We have not come here to edify ourselves in the fellowship of like-minded people. We have not come here to confirm to one another that we are better than others—the legalists and the liberals and the modernists and syncretists. Nor have we come here to bask in the glory of the heroic deeds of our great Reformers. We have come here to join the ranks of the warriors of Jesus Christ! We have come here to pledge ourselves anew to the One who won the victory for us. We have come here to surrender ourselves anew to the One who gave Himself for us. We have come here to be sent anew into a godless world and a Christ-forgotten Church. We want to be sent with the word of the cross, which gives life to us, the world, and the Church.

For salvation is found in no one else, and there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.

To this name be praise forever!

Amen.