Martin Luther Feared This Great Truth Would Become Defaced

The fear that the doctrine of justification by faith-so dear to his heart and through which the great Reformation was brought about-would be lost sight of, seems to have been dominant in the mind of Luther as he caught a vision of future events to occur in the world. We read:COR 90.3

“If the article of justification be once lost, then is all true Christian doctrine lost.... He then that strayeth from this ‘Christian righteousness,’ must needs fall into the ‘righteousness of the law;’ that is to say, when he hath lost Christ, he must fall into the confidence of his own works.” “For if we neglect the article of justification, we lose it altogether. Therefore most necessary it is, chiefly, and above all things, that we teach and repeat this article continually.” “Yea, though we learn it and understand it well, yet is there none that taketh hold of it perfectly, or believeth it with his heart.” “Therefore I fear lest this doctrine will be defaced and darkened again, when we are dead. For the world must be replenished with horrible darkness and errors, before the latter day come.”—Luther on Galatians, pp. 136, 148, 149, 402.COR 90.4

As God called Luther from the midnight darkness of the sixteenth century, and placed in his hands this torch of truth-“The just shall live by faith,” so will God ever have His standard-bearers to uphold this fundamental basis of salvation in connection with “present truth” in the various stages of the proclamation of the last gospel message in all the world. It is therefore timely that we, today, give this vital truth most earnest, thorough study. It should be just as clearly understood as to how a sinner may be transformed into a saint, as we have been taught to understand how Adam, a sinless man, became a sinner. Justification by faith should be as clear to our minds as the teaching regarding the law, the Sabbath, the coming of the Lord, and every other doctrine revealed in the Scriptures. But it is not so understood by many; and because it is neither appreciated nor experienced as it should be, there is failure on the part of such to present it in their teaching. This failure was recognized and clearly pointed out back in 1889, for we read:COR 91.1

“The ministers have not presented Christ in His fullness to the people, either in the churches or in new fields, and the people have not an intelligent faith. They have not been instructed as they should have been, that Christ is unto them both salvation and righteousness.”-The Review and Herald, September 3, 1889.COR 92.1