{"id":957,"date":"2014-10-31T21:14:57","date_gmt":"2014-11-01T02:14:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/?p=957"},"modified":"2020-10-31T23:38:48","modified_gmt":"2020-11-01T04:38:48","slug":"unknowingly-righteous","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/2014\/10\/31\/unknowingly-righteous\/","title":{"rendered":"Unknowingly Righteous"},"content":{"rendered":"

“For inasmuch as the saints are always aware of their sin and seek righteousness from God in accord with His mercy, for this very reason they are always also regarded as righteous by God.\u00a0 Thus in their own sight and in truth they are unrighteous, but before God they are righteous because He reckons them so because of their confession of sin.\u00a0 They are actually sinners, but they are righteous by the imputation of a merciful God.\u00a0 They are unknowingly righteous<\/em> <\/strong>and knowingly unrighteous<\/em><\/strong>; they are sinners in fact but righteous in hope.\u00a0 And this is what he is saying here: ‘Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.’ (Ps. 32:1)” Martin Luther, Lectures on Romans<\/em>, in\u00a0Luther’s Works, <\/em>vol.\u00a025, p.\u00a0258. [Emphasis added]<\/p>\n

This astounding quote\u00a0reveals\u00a0Dr. Luther’s true Reformation discovery.\u00a0 Nailing academic\u00a0theses to\u00a0a church door is tangential to Luther’s (re)discovery of the proper understanding of the doctrine of justification.\u00a0 Here Luther was lecturing on Romans 4:7 (which quotes Ps. 32:1) in the winter of 1515\/1516.\u00a0 While he\u00a0did not apply this teaching to all ecclesiastical practices yet, the\u00a0core of Luther’s insight appeared\u00a0the in these lectures on Romans.<\/p>\n

Later in the same section Luther declared:\u00a0“…the mistake lies in thinking that this evil can be cured through works, since experience bears witness that whatever good work we perform, this concupiscence toward evil remains, and no one is ever cleansed of it, not even the one-day-old infant.\u00a0 But the mercy of God is that this does remain and yet is not imputed as sin to those who call\u00a0upon Him and cry out for His deliverance. For such people easily avoid also the error of works, because they so zealously seek to be justified.\u00a0 Thus in ourselves we are sinners, and yet through\u00a0faith we are righteous by God’s imputation.” Ibid., pp. 259-60.<\/p>\n

Luther then compared the sinner to a sick man who trusted a doctor’s promise of healing in the future.\u00a0 Christ, like the Good Samaritan, has brought the half-dead sinner into the inn for healing.\u00a0 He does not impute sins, that is, wicked desires, against the sick man.\u00a0 Luther asked rhetorically if this sick sinner was perfectly righteous.\u00a0 Dr. Luther\u00a0answered with this well known statement: “No, for he is at the same time both a sinner and righteous man; a sinner in fact, but a righteous man by sure imputation and promise of God that He will continue to deliver him from sin until He completely cured him.” Ibid., p. 260.<\/p>\n

After Luther published the Ninety-Five Theses<\/em> <\/strong>in late 1517, the Indulgence Controversy made Luther famous (or infamous) throughout Western Europe.\u00a0 By April 7,\u00a01521 Martin\u00a0Luther was on his way to the diet of\u00a0Worms\u00a0to face Emperor Charles V’s justice.\u00a0 On that day Luther preached at Erfurt\u00a0before a large congregation.\u00a0 In that sermon he proclaimed:\u00a0“Our Lord Christ says: I am your justification.\u00a0 I have destroyed the sins you have upon you.\u00a0 Therefore only believe in me; believe that I am he who has done this; then you will be justified.\u00a0 For it is written, Justicia est fides<\/em>, righteousness is identical with faith and comes through faith.” Martin Luther, “Sermon Preached at Erfurt on the Journey to Worms,” Luther’s Works<\/em>, vol. 51, p. 63.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“For inasmuch as the saints are always aware of their sin and seek righteousness from God in accord with His mercy, for this very reason they are always also regarded as righteous by God.\u00a0 Thus in their own sight and … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,1,129,80],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gospel","category-martin-luther-history","category-reformation","category-theology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=957"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/957\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":966,"href":"https:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/957\/revisions\/966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.cune.edu\/matthewphillips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}