LUTHER’S ENCOUNTER WITH GOD’S HOLINESS

ROMANS 1:16–17

For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written, “The righteous will live by faith”

(Romans 1:17).

As a young monk, Martin Luther was overwhelmed by his sins. He would spend hours confessing his sins to a priest. Luther revealed later that he would leave the confessional after a three or four hour marathon, having heard the priest say “your sins are forgiven,” and would return to his cell joyous and lighthearted—until he remembered some sin that he had failed to confess. Then all the joy and peace would vanish.

Luther’s conversion

Before Luther ever studied theology, he had already distinguished himself as a student of law. Thus, he would take his sharply trained legal mind and focus it upon God’s law. He continually evaluated himself not by a comparison to other people, but by a comparison to the righteousness of God as revealed in the Bible. He saw himself and his sins as so awful before God that he began to hate any mention of God’s righteousness.

Then one night, as he was preparing lectures on Romans 1, guided by the writings of St. Augustine, he read verse 17 in a new light. Suddenly it burst upon his mind that this verse is not describing the righteousness of God by which He Himself is holy, but is instead describing the righteousness of God that He gives to any who put their trust in Him.

The gospel

Once Luther had seen this clearly, he never forsook it. From that day he proclaimed: “The just shall live by faith. If God is holy and I am not, then justification by faith alone is the article on which the church stands or falls. I can negotiate it with no one, because it is the gospel.”

In the presence of a holy God, we who are unjust can be justified. This is because God in His holiness, but without compromising His holiness, has offered us the holiness of His Son as a covering for our sin, that whoever believes on Him might not perish but have everlasting life.

CORAM DEO

Martin Luther had seen what Isaiah had seen, that he could not stand before God’s holiness. But he had also seen that in the gospel, God justified those who trusted in His righteousness and not their own. Can you recall the moment when you, like Isaiah and Luther, placed your trust in God’s righteousness?

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