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Luther began to see something that he never saw before. He began to see the doctrine of imputation—that we are declared right before God not by our own righteousness, but by the righteousness of another. He began to understand that the righteousness of God that was such a terror to him as a priest (because it told him that he was unholy and unworthy), was actually the righteousness from God that told him he was holy and worthy. God gives this right standing by faith alone. It is a righteousness that is received as a gift and not earned. 3. Galatians It wasn’t until Luther started lecturing through Galatians that he began to realize that faith does not justify us before God. Faith is merely an instrument that God uses. Faith is a tool by which we embrace Jesus Christ as he is offered to us in the gospel. Faith is, as John Murry once said, “extrospective.” It looks outward—not inward—to embrace the God who gives himself. In other words, faith is only an empty hand. It justifies because it grabs hold of the Jesus who justifies (Rom. 3:26).

That was an amazing insight Luther received. Though I believe that this was the gist of the gospel understood by the Apostles and passed down through them to their disciples, it got lost somewhere along the way. Man's merit and his personal righteousness established through his good works, avoidance of sin, reception of grace-infusing sacraments and his fidelity to the "church" became the way man could grab hold of the grace of God that brings salvation. It was this false gospel - this accursed gospel - that God exposed through Luther and the other Reformers before and after him. It truly is a wondrous thing to contemplate the grace of God - it takes more than a lifetime to ever grasp it all. Grace is undeserved, unmerited, unearned and NEVER based on what we do for God. It is the very reason why NO ONE can boast.

Galatians It wasn’t until Luther started lecturing through Galatians that he began to realize that faith does not justify us before God. Faith is merely an instrument that God uses.

HMMMmmm...

Romans 5:1-2
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.