ABSTRACT
Philip Melanchton was a close collaborator of Martin Luther and one of the leading Lutheran theologians of the Reformation. He played a determining role in the elaboration in 1530 of the Augsburg Confession: the primary confession of faith of the Lutheran Church in which the key beliefs of the movement were set out in 28 articles. When the papacy refuted the articles of the Augsburg Confession, Melanchton wrote an Apology to rebut Papal objections, including claims that the Lutherans’ theology of justification by faith alone meant that they did not assign any value to good works. In the Apology, Melanchton devotes an article to the role played by love in the “fulfilment of the Law” (i.e. how an individual merits grace and Salvation). Melanchton took issue with the notion that individuals could become righteous through love of God that God has infused in them. For Melancthon, love of God is essential to faith and those who possess it will obey the law of God and be ‘justified’ (i.e. righteous in the sight of God).
