What happened in the life of Martin Luther, nearly 500 years ago, was a personal discovery of the meaning of faith that had been lost in the Medieval Church, a discovery so powerful that it began a re-formation of the Church of Christ.

Luther grew up in the church, studied church doctrine, committed his life to serve God as a priest, confessed his sins regularly, and did many works of penance to show God how sorry he was for his sins. He longed for the righteousness that our holy God requires, but he was unable to find in his life a standard of righteousness sufficient to give him peace with God.

The teaching of the Roman Catholic Church was that, through the sacrament of baptism, a sinner is “justified,” or delivered from a state of sin into a state of righteousness. That justified sinner, by exercising his faith and love, might increase his righteousness or, by falling into sinful behavior, might fall from grace. In that case, he must recover his justification and righteousness through the sacrament of penance.

Luther had been taught that justification is a process in which a sinner is made righteous. Faith had to be understood as the beginning of human salvation, the foundation and root of all justification. Faith justifies as it is animated by love; therefore, its own virtues merit some degree of divine acceptance. Luther’s faith could not be separated from his works. Year after year, he attempted to be ever more faithful, more righteous, more acceptable to God his Savior, but with no assurance that his faith, works, and observance of the sacraments of the church merited him ultimate salvation.

At age 31, while a member of the theology faculty of the University of Wittenberg, Luther began a year of lectures on the Epistle to the Romans. During his intensive study of Romans, Luther came to a new understanding of the righteousness of God, and of faith, that revolutionized his life.

At age 62, looking back over his years, he wrote an account of his own conversion that seems to date it at age 35. This was two years after he posted his 95 theses on the door of the Wittenberg Castle Church, which began the public disputations and writings that resulted in his excommunication by Pope Leo X in 1520, at age 36. Here is his own account of his conversion:

Meanwhile, I had already during that year returned to interpret the Psalter anew. I had confidence in the fact that I was more skilful, after I had lectured in the university on St. Paul’s Epistles to the Romans, to the Galatians, and the one to the Hebrews. I had indeed been captivated with an extraordinary ardor for understanding Paul in the Epistle to the Romans. But up till then it was not the cold blood about the heart, but a single word in Chapter 1, “In it the righteousness of God is revealed,” that had stood in my way. For I hated that word “righteousness of God,” which, according to the use and custom of all the teachers, I had been taught to understand philosophically regarding the formal or active righteousness, as they call it, with which God is righteous and punishes the unrighteous sinner.

Though I lived as a monk without reproach, I felt that I was a sinner before God with an extremely disturbed conscience. I could not believe that he was placated by my satisfaction. I did not love, yes, I hated the righteous God who punishes sinners, and secretly, if not blasphemously, certainly murmuring greatly, I was angry with God, and said, “As if, indeed, it is not enough, that miserable sinners, eternally lost through original sin, are crushed by every kind of calamity by the law of the decalogue, without having God add pain to pain by the gospel and also by the gospel threatening us with his righteousness and wrath!” Thus I raged with a fierce and troubled conscience. Nevertheless, I beat importunately upon Paul at that place, most ardently desiring to know what St. Paul wanted.

At last, by the mercy of God, meditating day and night, I gave heed to the context of the words, namely, “In it the righteousness of God is revealed, as it is written, ‘He who through faith is righteous shall live.’” There I began to understand that the righteousness of God is that by which the righteous lives by a gift of God, namely by faith. And this is the meaning: the righteousness of God is revealed by the gospel, namely, the passive righteousness with which merciful God justifies us by faith, as it is written, “He who through faith is righteous shall live.” Here I felt that I was altogether born again and had entered paradise itself through open gates. There a totally other face of the entire Scripture showed itself to me. Thereupon I ran through the Scripture from memory. I also found in other terms an analogy, as, the work of God, that is what God does in us, the power of God, with which he makes us wise, the strength of God, the salvation of God, the glory of God.

And I extolled my sweetest word with a love as great as the hatred with which I had before hated the word “righteousness of God.” Thus that place in Paul was for me truly the gate to paradise. Later I read Augustine’s The Spirit and the Letter, where contrary to hope I found that he, too, interpreted God’s righteousness in a similar way, as the righteousness with which God clothes us when he justifies us.

Have you always understood faith as a gift of God? I grew up in a church that taught that we are saved by faith and works. I was told that everybody has faith. When you get on a street car, you have faith in the conductor to get you where you want to go. When you place your faith in Christ, God will save you, and then you must obey Christ and follow Him or you will be lost. I received Christ as Savior at age 12 and was baptized into the church. But for several years I had no assurance of salvation, because I tested my faith by my works and found that I still was a sinner. I repented over and over again, and asked forgiveness for all my sins. But my church had not profited from the Protestant Reformation; it did not preach justification by faith alone, in the work of Christ alone, by grace alone.

In Luther’s case, tradition had superseded the teaching of the Bible; in my case, human reasoning had interpreted the Bible to say what it did not say. We can read the Bible and see how clearly justification by faith alone is presented in such places as Romans 3:21-28, Galatians 2:16, Ephesians 2:8-9, and Philippians 3:8-9. The righteousness we receive by faith is not an imperfect, growing righteousness, but a perfect righteousness, the very righteousness of the Son of God. He came to earth to earn redemption from sin by first living an absolutely sinless life, and also by paying the full penalty for all the sins that His chosen people owed to God. That penalty was His suffering under the wrath of God. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him (2 Cor. 5:21).

It is impossible to conceive a greater gift than this to redeemed sinners. And the Holy Spirit has to give the dead sinner regeneration and faith in order for the sinner to receive it. With the new life comes faith, the faith of a new creature in Christ Jesus. Salvation from beginning to end is all a gift of grace. The redeemed can take no credit for it. God the Father planned the redemption of His elect in eternity, already knew them all by name (2 Tim. 1:9; Rev. 13:8); and calls each one into eternal union with His Son (1 Cor. 1:9).

God the Son accomplished our redemption in time (Isa. 53:4-6; John 19:30). And God the Holy Spirit effectually applies that redemption to every sinner for whom Christ died (John 10:27-29; 16:8; Eph. 1:13-14).

Confusion arises whenever the work of God to sanctify His saints is confused with His work to justify them. In justification, the perfect righteousness of God is imputed to them, so that God justly declares them righteous. But in sanctification, the regenerating, indwelling Holy Spirit unites the believer with Christ in a union that dethrones sin and its former dominion (Rom. 6:14). Giving us love and fear of God, we respond to the Word and Spirit of God by being renewed after the image of Christ in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness (Eph. 4:24; Col. 3:10). And Philippians 1:6 assures us that “the One who began a good work in you will go on completing it until the Day of Jesus Christ comes.”

We must have a biblical understanding of faith if we would grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ, and in the joy of our salvation. The relationship of faith to the other teachings of the Bible is beautifully set forth in the book by Douglas Vickers, The Fracture of Faith (see review). The last chapter of this short book is titled, “The Life and Walk of Faith.”

By virtue of our Father’s call to faith, our union with Christ, and the transforming work of His Spirit in us, our “faculties have been endowed with new abilities and capacities,” we have “new aspirations for conformity to the pattern of holiness that God has set forth” (Vickers, p. 221).

Vickers powerfully defines the gospel and relates it to the Christian’s knowledge of truth, or worldview, which is the foundation on which we live ethical lives, pleasing to God and helpful to men.

Be sure that you understand how to live and walk by faith. Measure your life by God’s standards, so clearly presented in His Word. By faith we know God and His purposes for us. By faith we grow more and more into the Christ like person we shall be when He appears (1 John 3:2). By faith, working through love, our lives bear the fruit of God’s Spirit in us (Gal. 5:22). Let us point our neighbors to faith in Christ alone that they too may have this “abundant life”(John 10:10).