page_title: Theology of Martin Luther
section_title: Justification by Faith
hierarchical_section_title: Theology of Martin Luther / Justification by Faith
caption_attribution_description: Text top left: RO: I PALAM [FIT] IRA DEI DE COELO [A]DVERSUS OMNEM IMPIETATEM ET IVSTITIAM[1] HOMINUM. Text top center: ESAIAE VII DOMINVS IPSE DABIT VOBIS SIGNVM ECCE VIRGO CONCIPIET ET PARIET FILIVM in the text block at the bottom edge of the painting, in six columns: OMNES ENIM PECCAVERVNT AC DESTITVVNTV[R] GLORIA DEI ROM: III ACVLEVS AVTEM MORTIS PECCATVM POTENTIA VERO PECCATI LEX I COR: XV LEX IRAM OPERATVR ROM: IIII PER LEGEM AGNITIO PEC CATI ROM: III OMNES PROPHETAE ET IPSA LEX VSQUE AD IOANNEM PROPHETAVERVNT MATTHAEI XI NAM IN CHRISTO IESV NEQ: CIRCVMCISIO QVIDQ VALET NEQ: PREPVTIVM SED FIDES OPERANS P DILECTIONEM AD GAL: V ECCE AGNVS ILLE DEI QVI TOLLIT PECCATA MVNDI IO: I PER SANCTIFICATIONEM SPIRITVS IN OBEDIENTIAM ET ASPERSIONEM SANGVINIS [][?] I] ABSORPTA EST MORS IN VICTORIAM VBI TVVS MORS ACVLEVS VBI TVA INFERNE VICTORIA SED DEO GRATIA QVI DEDIT NOBIS VICTORIA[M] PER DOMINVM NOSTR[][?] ↑ Die Wortlaut des Römerbriefs in der Vulgata: "INIVSTITIAM HOMINUM"
context_page_description: The theology of Martin Luther was instrumental in influencing the Protestant Reformation, specifically topics dealing with Justification by Faith, the relationship between the Law and the Gospel, and various other theological ideas. Although Luther never wrote a "systematic theology" or a "summa" in the style of St. Thomas Aquinas, many of his ideas were systematized in the Lutheran Confessions.
context_section_description: "This one and firm rock, which we call the doctrine of justification," insisted Luther, "is the chief article of the whole Christian doctrine, which comprehends the understanding of all godliness." Lutherans tend to follow Luther in this matter. For the Lutheran tradition, the doctrine of salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone is the material principle upon which all other teachings rest.
  Luther came to understand justification as being entirely the work of God. Against the teaching of his day that the believers are made righteous through the infusion of God's grace into the soul, Luther asserted that Christians receive that righteousness entirely from outside themselves; that righteousness not only comes from Christ, it actually is the righteousness of Christ, and remains outside of us but is merely imputed to us (rather than infused into us) through faith. "That is why faith alone makes someone just and fulfills the law," said Luther. "Faith is that which brings the Holy Spirit through the merits of Christ". Thus faith, for Luther, is a gift from God, and ". . .a living, bold trust in God's grace, so certain of God's favor that it would risk death a thousand times trusting in it." This faith grasps Christ's righteousness and appropriates it for itself in the believer's heart.
  Luther's study and research led him to question the contemporary usage of terms such as penance and righteousness in the Roman Catholic Church. He became convinced that the church had lost sight of what he saw as several of the central truths of Christianity — the most important being the doctrine of justification by faith alone. He began to teach that salvation is a gift of God's grace through Christ received by faith alone. As a result of his lectures on the Psalms and Paul's letter to the Romans, from 1513–1516, Luther "achieved an exegetical breakthrough, an insight into the all-encompassing grace of God and all-sufficient merit of Christ." It was particularly in connection with Romans 1:17 "For therein is the righteousness of God is revealed from faith, to faith: as it is written: 'The just shall live by faith.'" Luther came to one of his most important understandings, that the "righteousness of God" was not God's active, harsh, punishing wrath demanding that a person keep God's law perfectly in order to be saved, but rather Luther came to believe that God's righteousness is something that God gives to a person as a gift, freely, through Christ. "Luther emerged from his tremendous struggle with a firmer trust in God and love for him. The doctrine of salvation by God's grace alone, received as a gift through faith and without dependence on human merit, was the measure by which he judged the religious practices and official teachings of the church of his day and found them wanting."
  Luther explained justification this way in his Smalcald Articles:  	 
  The first and chief article is this: Jesus Christ, our God and Lord, died for our sins and was raised again for our justification (Romans 3:24-25). He alone is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29), and God has laid on Him the iniquity of us all (Isaiah 53:6). All have sinned and are justified freely, without their own works and merits, by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, in His blood (Romans 3:23-25). This is necessary to believe. This cannot be otherwise acquired or grasped by any work, law, or merit. Therefore, it is clear and certain that this faith alone justifies us...Nothing of this article can be yielded or surrendered, even though heaven and earth and everything else falls (Mark 13:31).
  See also: Theology of the Cross
caption: A painting by Lucas Cranach on Lutheran teachings, Lutherhaus
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