General News
2 November, 2025
In good faith
IN GOOD FAITH: Jeremiah 31:31-34 To many these days – for better or worse – 31st October is Halloween.
Jeremiah 31:31-34
To many these days – for better or worse – 31st October is Halloween.
But to Lutherans, 31st October is Reformation Day, the day on which Martin Luther kick-stated the Protestant Reformation.
Reformations aren’t new. There are reformations going right now in various churches across the world.
The prophet Jeremiah was writing about 600 years before Christ, when God’s people had reached their lowest ebb.
The Israelites had stepped outside the covenant God had made with their forefather Abraham.
God had sent them prophet after prophet to remind them that trouble would come if they abandoned Him, but the people didn’t listen, until finally, their nation was utterly destroyed by the Babylonians. And then there was a reformation.
The Israelites realised they had abandoned the God of their ancestors and had brought trouble on themselves.
They turned back to God with renewed vigour that lives on in orthodox Jews to this day.
There is an old Latin saying: ‘Ecclesia semper reformanda est’ – ‘the church is always reforming’.
There have been many reformations, some larger, some small - but they have all been for the same reason – because God’s people have forgotten about Him, and instead pursued their own agendas, enriching and perpetuating themselves. This is what was happening in Martin Luther’s time.
They say the more things change, the more they stay the same!
Today, departure from God is still departure from God.
Are not our own people going the same way as the ancient Israelites, abandoning their God wholesale?
The only way to break this cycle of collapse and reformation is to change our hearts.
History teaches us that this is something we are unable to do of our own strength, or we would have broken the cycle of reformations long ago.
Jeremiah wrote, “‘The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. …I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people …’” (Jer. 31:31-33).
Yes, a time has come when God has made a new covenant with His people – not one of works, but one of faith.
By His death, Christ has ‘removed the dividing barrier of hostility’ between us and God.
The Holy Spirit dwells in the hearts of every believer. And what is the result?
“ … I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more” (Jer. 31:34b).
This is the substance of the many reformations God’s people have undergone, the forgiveness of sins, a gift of God’s grace, through faith in Christ.
This is the treasure of the church, the Good News that our sins are forgiven in Christ, not because we’re good people, but because God loves us!
It is this, the Gospel, that changes our hearts, that makes reformations unnecessary for us.
It may be denominations do need reforming, but where there is the Gospel, then there is salvation. Forget about Halloween!
The Reformation is good news for you and me.
Because of God’s work through people like Martin Luther, the Gospel of grace shines for us as brightly as it did for the ancients, through which God gives us new hearts as His children.
By Pastor Lucas Matuschka