“…a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ” (Galatians 2:16)
Calvin described the doctrine of justification by faith alone as ‘the principle hinge by which religion is supported’, and Luther described it as ‘the article by which the church stands or falls’. It was his conviction that ‘This article is the head and cornerstone of the Church, which alone begets, nourishes, builds, preserves and protects the Church; without it the Church of God cannot subsist one hour.’
It was this article of faith more than any other which brought the Reformers into conflict with medieval Roman Catholicism. Calvin, in his debate with Cardinal Sadoleto (1477–1547) said justification by faith was ‘the first and keenest subject of controversy between us’. Remove the knowledge of this doctrine, he argued, and ‘the glory of Christ is extinguished, religion is abolished, the church destroyed, and the hope of salvation utterly overthrown’. It was faithfulness to this article of faith that determined the outcome of the conflict.
‘At the beginning of our preaching,’ Luther said, ‘the doctrine of Faith had a most happy course, and down fell the Pope’s pardons, purgatory, vows, masses, and such like abominations, which drew with them the ruin of all Popery … And if all had continued, as they began to teach and diligently urge the article of Justification – that is to say, that we are justified neither by the righteousness of the Law, nor by our own righteousness, but only by faith in Jesus Christ – doubtless this one article, by little and little, had overthrown the whole Papacy.’
Luther correctly saw that if sinners are justified by faith alone in Christ alone, then the whole system of salvation rooted in priest-operated, church-based religious works would collapse. A new, Christ-centred, faith-based Christianity would arise from its ashes.
– Terry L. Johnson