Luther Discovers Authorial Intent: Changes the World
A single word in [Romans 1:17], "In it the righteousness of God is revealed"...had stood in my way. For I hated that word "righteousness of God," which...I had been taught to understand philosophically regarding teh formal or active righteousness, as they called it, with which God is righteous and punishes the unrighteous sinner...Nevertheless, I beat importunately upon Paul at that place, most ardently desiring to know what St. Paul wanted.
At last, by the mercy of God, meditating day and night, I gave heed to the context of the words...There I began to understand [that] the righteousness of God is that by which the righteous lives by a gift of God, namely faith... "He who through faith is righteous shall live." Here I felt that i was altogether born again and had entered paradise iteself through open gates.
Martin Luther: Selections from His
Writings, 11-12
Cited in Piper, Pleasures of God,
294.