Martin Luther was an Augustinian monk, schooled in the thought of the great Christian teacher, St. Augustine of Hippo. However, Augustine’s description of justification negatively affected what Luther initially believed about justification and righteousness before God.
The two parts of the word “justification” illustrate the point. The latter part comes from the Latin facio from which we get the English word “factory.” It is a place where you “make” or “do” things. Thus, the Latin term literally means “make just.” Augustine’s view, called “sanitive justification,” conveys a process by which
God works progressively to cleanse or purify believers in order to make them just.
Only when God has completed this work can a person stand before him as righteous (Saarnivaara, Luther Discovers the Gospel, CPH, 2005, pp. 6-9). Luther took God’s Law seriously and realized his human nature had not yet been made righteous. Far from it! He wrote,
“I felt that I was a sinner before God with an extremely disturbed conscience. I could not believe that [God] was placated by my satisfaction. I did not love, yes, I hated the righteous God who punished sinners.”
When Luther uncovered the legal or forensic nature of the Greek words used in the New Testament, the essence of the Gospel was revealed to him. The words stem from the courtroom and convey the declaration of a judge. St. Paul’s prominent use teaches that justification or righteousness before God comes from outside of us. It is not based upon who we are or even how righteous we might become; indeed,
in this world we will always fall short. Instead, we are what God declares us to be – righteous and holy before him.
This is true only because Christ himself is our “righteousness, sanctification and redemption” (1 Cor. 1:30; cf. 6:11).
What a difference this made in Luther’s understanding! He states:
“I began to understand that the righteousness of God is that by which the righteous lives by a gift of God, namely by faith. And this is the meaning: the righteousness of God is revealed by the gospel, namely the passive righteousness with which merciful God justifies us by faith” (citing Romans 1:17; Luther’s Works 34:336-37).
A hymn eloquently summarizes this by praising God, because: “Thy strong Word bespeaks us righteous” (LSB 578, v. 3).
God is always reforming each Christian as, daily, He declares us righteous for Christ’s sake.
-mm