Christian History Home > Issue 34 > The Breakthrough
The Breakthrough
When, where, and how did Luther make his astounding discovery of justification by faith?
Dr. James M. Kittelson is professor of history at The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, and author of Luther the Reformer (Augsburg, 1986). | posted 4/01/1992 12:00AM
I was seized with the conviction that I must understand [Paul’s] letter to the Romans ... but to that moment one phrase in chapter
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stood in my way. I hated the idea, “in it the righteousness of God is revealed.” ... I hated the righteous God who punishes sinners ...
At last, meditating day and night and by the mercy of God, I ... began to understand that the righteousness of God is that through which the righteous live by a gift of God, namely by faith. ... Here I felt as if I were entirely born again and had entered paradise itself through gates that had been flung open. —Martin Luther
Martin Luther turned the preface to his collected Latin works, written the year before he died, into an extended autobiographical comment. Almost in passing he included a now-famous remark: “I felt as if I were entirely born again and had entered paradise itself through gates that had been flung open.”
Historians have come to call this event “the tower experience” or the “evangelical breakthrough,” and ... To view this item, you must be a member of ChristianHistory.net.
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