By Rev. J. Leaver
peace be found—and not until then did he enter into the peace he had so long been seeking. His intense realization of this truth led to his placing so marked an em phasis upon it that Lilly in his “Renais sance Types” says, “there is nothing like it to be found in any theologian from the second to thé sixteenth century.” The question now to be considered is : Did Luther owe the marvellous power he exercised in bringing about the Reforma tion to any particular branch of Bible study ? A GRADUAL PROCESS Writers on Luther agree that the process by which he got his grip on this Protestant truth was slow and gradual. Lilly says that Luther did not fully apprehend the doctrine .of justification by faith until the year 1519, though quite fifteen years before he had reached the truth as to imputed righteous ness which is its chief foundation. There is fortunately, abundant testimony in the published accounts of Luther’s life as to the books of the Bible he studied, and the years in which he was engaged on them. When he became Professor at the University of
HILE we may be disposed to agree generally that the Bible is’ the true source of right reforming power, yet in stances of specific reforms
are far too rarely shown to have had their origin in its pages. If it can be shown that the study of a particular part of-it has produced striking results in the past, our hopes of similar results from the same source in similar needs are not likely to- be vain. It appears to me that it is demon strable that Luther’s power to carry out the great Reformation came through his appre ciation of the force of certain phases of divine truth which at first exactly met his own needs and through that means so grip ped him as to enable him to attack and overcome all that stood in the way of the revolution which we call the Reformation. His anxiety to obtain peace with God which led him to become a monk and constrained him to rigorous religious exercises was un relieved until he discovered the truth which lies at the basis of all Protestantism—that through God’s free grace alone can such
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