Martin Luther Justification

MARTIN LUTHER AND JUSTIFICATION

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A Paper

Presented to

Dr. Dongsun Cho

Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary

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In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for SYSTH 3013 B

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by

Yu Park

April 21, 2009

Martin Luther and new perspective justification

Introduction

                Justification means that God declares us righteous by his grace.[1] Historically, this issue was started when Martin Luther separated from the Roman Catholic Church.[2] Martin Luther's understanding of justification was one of the main dividing points in the record of Christian theology. In his production of the German New Testament in 1521 his translation of Romans 3:28 was, “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith alone without the deeds of the law.”[3] This interpretation and the emphasis on the word “alone” was to cause a conflict with Catholic doctrinal views on the issue and an essential rift in doctrine. The reaction to the doctrine of “faith alone” or Sola fide from the Catholic Church was in the extreme. “Great abuse was piled upon both Luther and his doctrine because of this single word, alone. He was accused of falsifying the Scriptures, of adding to the Bible, and of destroying the historic faith of the Catholic Church. For Rome and its authoritative magisterium this settled it—Martin Luther was a heretic! He plainly added to the dogma of Christ!”[4]

The different views on Justification

              Roland Bainton in his writings Here I Stand, states that, “One might take the date June 25, 1530, the day when the Augsburg Confession was publicly read, as the death day of the Holy Roman Empire. From this day forward the two confessions stood over against each other, poised for conflict.”[5]
                There were to be following attempts at peace between the two views and a preliminary agreement was reached in 1541 on different articles of faith. However, at... [continues]

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