Martin Luther Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===Lectures on Psalms and justification by faith=== {{Main|Sola fide}} [[File:Luther at Erfurt - Justification by Faith.jpg|thumb|upright|''Luther at Erfurt'', an 1861 portrait by [[Joseph Noel Paton]] depicting Luther discovering the doctrine of ''[[sola fide]]'' (by faith alone)]] From 1510 to 1520, Luther lectured on the Psalms, and on the books of Hebrews, Romans, and Galatians. As he studied these portions of the Bible, he came to view the use of terms such as [[penance]] and [[righteousness]] by the Catholic Church in new ways. He became convinced that the church was corrupt in its ways and had lost sight of what he saw as several of the central truths of Christianity. The most important for Luther was the doctrine of [[justification (theology)|justification]]—God's act of declaring a sinner righteous—by faith alone through God's grace. He began to teach that salvation or redemption is a gift of God's [[Divine grace|grace]], attainable only through faith in Jesus as the [[Messiah]].<ref name=Wriedt>Wriedt, Markus. "Luther's Theology," in ''The Cambridge Companion to Luther''. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003, 88–94.</ref> "This one and firm rock, which we call the doctrine of justification", he writes, "is the chief article of the whole Christian doctrine, which comprehends the understanding of all godliness."<ref>Bouman, Herbert J.A. [https://web.archive.org/web/20090403013639/http://www.quodlibet.net/articles/dorman-luther.shtml "The Doctrine of Justification in the Lutheran Confessions"], ''Concordia Theological Monthly'', 26 November 1955, No. 11:801.</ref> Luther came to understand justification as entirely the work of God. This teaching by Luther was clearly expressed in his 1525 publication ''[[On the Bondage of the Will]]'', which was written in response to ''On Free Will'' by [[Erasmus|Desiderius Erasmus]] (1524). Luther based his position on [[predestination]] on St. Paul's epistle to the {{bibleverse||Ephesians|2:8–10|NKJV}}. Against the teaching of his day that the righteous acts of believers are performed in {{em|cooperation}} with God, Luther wrote that Christians receive such righteousness entirely from outside themselves; that righteousness not only comes from Christ but actually {{em|is}} the righteousness of Christ, imputed to Christians (rather than infused into them) through faith.<ref>Dorman, Ted M., "[https://web.archive.org/web/20090403013639/http://www.quodlibet.net/articles/dorman-luther.shtml Justification as Healing: The Little-Known Luther"], ''Quodlibet Journal'': Volume 2 Number 3, Summer 2000. Retrieved 13 July 2007.</ref> "That is why faith alone makes someone just and fulfills the law," he writes. "Faith is that which brings the [[Holy Spirit]] through the merits of Christ."<ref name=faith>{{Cite web|url=http://www.ProjectWittenberg.org/pub/resources/text/wittenberg/luther/luther-faith.txt|title=Luther's Definition of Faith}}</ref> Faith, for Luther, was a gift from God; the experience of being justified by faith was "as though I had been born again." His entry into Paradise, no less, was a discovery about "the righteousness of God"—a discovery that "the just person" of whom the Bible speaks (as in Romans 1:17) lives by faith.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=155|title=Justification by Faith: The Lutheran-Catholic Convergence|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100615015903/http://religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=155|archive-date=15 June 2010}}</ref> He explains his concept of "justification" in the [[Smalcald Articles]]: <blockquote> 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 ([[Gospel of John|John]] 1:29), and God has laid on Him the iniquity of us all ([[Book of Isaiah|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 ([[Gospel of Mark|Mark]] 13:31).<ref>Luther, Martin. "The Smalcald Articles," in ''Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions''. Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2005, 289, Part two, Article 1.</ref> </blockquote> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. 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