Romans 5:8-10
175th Anniversary Series
Pastor Nathan P. Kassulke Sunday, October 12, 2025
“Christ For Us”
One hundred seventy-five years, four months, and 17 days ago, five pastors met together to adopt a constitution for the new organization they were founding. This was the First German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Wisconsin. It wouldn’t be called the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod until 1959. By that time, a lot had changed. The Wisconsin Synod was no longer a German synod, though that language was spoken at times. The synod had merged with other synods and expanded beyond Wisconsin to Minnesota, Michigan, and Nebraska. It had started mission work among the Apaches in Arizona, from there branching out to other opportunities in our state. From those few midwestern states, it had also reached out to neighbors. In fact, by 1959, the synod had churches in 19 out of the 50 states. The synod also was working in two overseas mission fields. More missions and more states were added after that. In fact, the synod reached all 50 states by 1983.
Today, our Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod includes over 1200 congregations and around 330,000 members. A lot has changed since the first, quiet meetings of over 175 years ago.
In an anniversary year like this one, it makes sense that we would think about the history of this organization. It makes sense that we would celebrate God’s grace in allowing us to grow as we have and in allowing us to hold to the truths of Scripture for so long. The dedication of our synod to the truth of God’s Word is also reflected in our holding to the Lutheran Confessions because they are accurate descriptions of what the Bible teaches.
But how exactly do you celebrate all that? What stories from history do you focus on? What names and places do you recount? What events and milestones do you share? What challenges of the past, maybe embarrassing parts of our history, do you have to trudge out to make sure you are not misrepresenting our church body? Those are all good questions. A century and three quarters of stories, events, and activities can’t be neatly summarized in a sermon or a bible study or a presentation without leaving many details out.
As a synod, and with much work done by committees and leaders, we have decided to use the theme “Christ Through Us” to celebrate this milestone. As a congregation, Grace, like many in our synod, is using three particular Sundays to put a little extra emphasis on this celebration. But what do you say in three sermons if you want to truly celebrate what God has accomplished in and through the Wisconsin Synod for 175 years? Where do you start?
I personally believe that our sermon text for today from Romans 5 is an excellent place to start. It’s not going to allow us to put too much focus on any individual from the last two centuries. It’s not going to allow us to put too much emphasis on any particular event or story from that timeframe. It is going to force us to keep the focus where the focus always needs to be: on the person of Jesus Christ and on the events of his life, death, and resurrection. You see, we can say a lot about the things that Christ does through us and through our church body, and we will. We can say a lot about the fact that Christ goes with us as a synod and as a congregation and as individuals, and we will. But none of that really matters until we establish the starting point and the foundation: Christ for us.
Christ for us is clearly the emphasis in the verses of Romans 5 that we read earlier. The letter from Paul that we call the book of Romans was sent ahead of him to the Christians at Rome. He hoped to see them. He had not had a chance. Unlike so many of his letters which came after Paul visited a location and knew many of the Christians there, Romans went ahead of him. And this letter lays out clearly and in an orderly way the basic messages of people’s sin and God’s grace. And the few verses before us provide a fine example of that.
When we were sinners, with nothing to offer to God, nothing to convince someone that we were worth dying for, Christ died for us. This is the heart of God’s message to people. Adam and Eve, the entire human race at the time, gave in to Satan’s temptation, disobeyed—rebelled against—God, and faced the consequences. They were no longer in harmony with God and with one another. They were separated from him and dependent on him to restore their relationship. And God not only promised, but also delivered on his promise to do exactly that.
Paul reminded people of that truth as he wrote to Roman Christians about God’s great love. While someone could conceive of dying for a good person, God’s love is so much greater. Christ died for us when we were sinners. We were enemies. It was true for every one of the Romans, just as it had been true of Adam and Eve in those moments before God came with his promise. It is true of every one of us that we begin our lives as sinners, as enemies of and rebels against God. That is true of everyone who is called to faith in Christ, including all who fit that description in the blessed history of our dear synod.
There is a beautiful logic that Paul presents to share with us the applications and implications of this truth. Since Jesus justified us, declared us not guilty by his blood, we do not need to fear God’s wrath. He is not angry over our sins because Jesus took our sins away. He is not looking to punish us because he already punished Jesus for every single wrong.
If God reconciled us to himself even though we were enemies, he will also give us eternal life. Christ’s death brought reconciliation. It removed the sin that separated us. His life and resurrection assure us of our resurrection to life, our eternity with our Lord.
That was the basis for every church Paul founded on his missionary journeys. That was the basis for the Roman church that had yet to meet Paul but was being introduced to him as Christ’s apostle. And that is the basis for every Christian and every Christian church since. Which means that it is the basis for our church body as we celebrate 175 years.
And, under God’s blessing for so many of those years, that message of sin and grace has been the heart of our synod’s confession. As history watched, many churches, including some that call themselves Lutheran, have gradually moved away from the teachings of Scripture. They have instead taught such things as prosperity gospel: that God wants most for you to have success and happiness right now. They have taught the changing whims and feelings of society instead of the changeless truths of God’s Word.
For about the first ten years of our synod’s existence, it may have been headed down a similar path. Questions of the differences between Reformed Christians and Lutheran Christians did not much trouble the first pastors of the Wisconsin Synod. Perhaps the easiest way to see the difference between these two confessions is to look at their belief concerning Holy Communion. True Lutherans teach with the Scriptures that in the sacrament Jesus Christ gives us his own body and blood for forgiveness. This is a miraculous meal. It is Christ for us. Reformed teachings hold to it as a representative meal, a reminder. They think of it as less than what God has promised it to be. They teach differently about it than Scripture does.
God allowed our synod to move in a direction of recognizing the importance of pure doctrine. And God has allowed us to remain committed to it. This theme, Christ for us, really emphasizes why pure doctrine is so important. Whenever a Christian, a congregation, or a church body moves away from the truths of Scripture, the false teachings obscure the truth of Christ for us. Some false teachings minimize the seriousness of sin. They suggest that some people aren’t or weren’t as bad as others—that’s why God loved them. But Christ for us says we have nothing to offer and receive everything from God’s grace. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Some false teachings suggest that there is more that needs to be done. Christ is important and valuable, but you need to add certain good works or prayers or other forms of penance to somehow complete the process. Again, if you could do something to help yourself, why would you need Jesus? If you could contribute, why did Jesus need to die? When the Bible teaches Christ for us, it teaches that as an absolute. Nothing is left to be done or added or assisted. He gets the credit. He did it all. For you. For us.
That’s worth celebrating.
It’s worth celebrating it in our own lives, in our congregation, and in our synod. One hundred seventy-five years, four months, and seventeen days ago came the event most credited with the start of the synod. The men who met that day wanted to organize because they knew what Christ had done for them. They wanted to tell others. They knew Christ with us. They celebrated Christ through us, and they understood that nothing mattered without Christ for us. May God keep us and our synod in that confidence.
The Text: Romans 5:8–10 (EHV)
8But God shows his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
9Therefore, since we have now been justified by his blood, it is even more certain that we will be saved from God’s wrath through him. 10For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, it is even more certain that, since we have been reconciled, we will be saved by his life.