“‘Save me in Thy righteousness.' What does that mean?" said the anxious Luther. "I can understand how God can condemn me in His righteousness, but how can He save me in His righteousness?”
Staupitz, vicar-general of the Augustine monks of Germany, who was deeply interested in Luther and was watching the conflict going on in his soul, pointed him to Christ dying for him on the cross.
"But how can I come to Christ until I am a better man?"
"A better man!" exclaimed Staupitz; "it is sinners, not just men, that Jesus came to call.”
A poor brother-monk came to Luther's bedside one day, and began reciting with great earnestness the Apostle's greed. Luther then repeated after him in feeble accents, "I believe in the forgiveness of sins.”
"You must not believe," said the monk, "that David's or Peter's sins are forgiven; the devils believe and tremble. The commandment of God is that we believe in the forgiveness of our own sins.”
The decisive word was spoken. The monk's simple words brought to Luther's soul such a flood of light as to the plan of salvation that he exclaimed, "O God, I see it all now: it is not payment, but forgiveness.”
What he had been trying to do, and vainly supposing that he could do, he discovered was already done by Another, and that he had simply by faith to come into the present and eternal benefits of that work. He now understood the meaning of those words that came to him as he was doing penance at Rome: "The just shall live by faith," and the words, "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ," had a new and blessed meaning for his soul.
It was not works of law, penance, vigils and the like that saved, but the grace of God, reaching him, a poor sinner, through the death of God's Son. It was salvation by grace through faith, not of works. God had opened his eyes to see Christ as the One who had died for him, and, believing in the forgiveness of his own sins, he now could see how God, who is infinitely holy, could save him in His righteousness. Blessed transition from darkness to light!