
If this is the case, we only come to know our sinful state through “faith.” Is this a radical statement? We are sinful, and only through revelation do we come to know this. However, we must also believe this revelation as truth in order to truly understand our state. Then it seems that before we are able to trust in Christ by grace through faith, we must also believe that we are sinful, but it appears that this also must come by grace through faith. If this is correct, then the last remaining stronghold of self-sufficiency is finally and utterly destroyed. We accept that trust in Christ comes by grace through faith, but we must also accept that even what we thought we could do on our own (know our own sinfulness) comes also by grace through faith! Does this not mean that our entire redemption comes solely through grace? Our salvation, from start to finish, comes through grace alone. Does our fallen nature even resist and rebel against this very concept? Is this easy to embrace?
...for through the Law comes knowledge of sin...by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God (Rom 3:20, Eph 2:8).
Read: Louse, Bernhard Martin Luther's Theology: Its Historical and Systematic Development, 248-57.
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Martin Luther
November 6, 2006
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