ABSTRACT
In his Wittenberg university lectures from 1513 onwards Martin Luther began to assemble the theological principles on the basis of which he would eventually challenge the mighty authority of the Catholic Church. Indeed, in these lectures he was beginning to move towards the central theological principles of what was to become the Protestant Reformation. These were that our being accepted in God’s sight, though sinners, is brought about not by our moral striving or even by obeying God’s own law. Rather, sinners are made ‘just’—‘justified’— freely by God in recognition of the atoning merits of His son Christ’s death on a cross and subsequent resurrection. God transfers the merit of Christ’s expiating death and resurrection to the credit of those sinful men and women He has chosen, by predestination, to save from the everlasting hellfire which they would otherwise deserve as punishment for their sins. Guilt is no longer ‘imputed’ to those people. They play no active part in their being redeemed from everlasting death but respond passively, in faith, to what has been done for them. Yet, as a result, though certainly not a cause, of being justified, they may proceed to become virtuous.
