The Just Shall Live By Faith Trivia Quiz

Answer:

When the copy of Luther's 95 theses was circulated in Wittenberg, Germany in 1517, this was a fairly common practise of that time. An academic's thoughts were offered for discussion by other academics, clerics and the general public - any one who had a viewpoint. People would read the paper and offer their opinions. This truly academic discourse eventually led to the introduction of what became known as the Protestant tradition.

In this theses, Luther contended that the Bible is the ultimate authority for Christians, and that we get to heaven not by doing good deeds, but only through faith in God. Any good deeds we do are an outworking of that faith. The first of the theses refers to the repentance to which the Lord Jesus calls sinners (Luke 5:32 - "I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." (NIV)). The second thesis has the idea that repentance is a personal action, and cannot be conferred by priests. Luther's third thesis shows he believed that while repentance is essential for salvation, true repentance is accompanied by good works.

At the time when Luther published his pamphlet, he was a Bible scholar and taught theology at Wittenberg University. He was a deep thinker, and that habit led him to question a lot of the common practices of the Catholic Church, then the prevailing denomination. He had been a monk for some period of time but later reflected that if he had stayed a monk, he would "have killed (himself) with vigils, prayers, reading, and other work." This experience was part of his life's search that contributed to his eventual conclusion that even by all this good work, and confession of his sins, he would never be able to recall the extent of his sins (in order to confess them) and thereby gain forgiveness and entrance to heaven.

While still a monk, in 1515, he started lecturing on Romans. After reading Romans 1:16-17 (NKJV): "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, 'The just shall live by faith'", he came to understand that the righteousness of God was not God seeking constantly to punish, but the provision of a way of escape (justification) through the work of Christ on the Cross.

He concluded that if a sinner's faith is in Jesus Christ, he is justified; he appears before God just as if he never sinned. Luther said of that moment "Thereupon I felt myself to be reborn and to have gone through open doors into paradise. The whole of Scripture took on a new meaning, and whereas before the 'justice of God' had filled me with hate, now it became to me inexpressibly sweet in greater love."