Matthias Loy

“I labored sedulously and anxiously about the sense of Rom. 1:17, where St. Paul says that the righteousness of God is revealed in the Gospel. There I long sought and knocked; for the words “righteousness of God” were in my way, which was usually explained as meaning a virtue in God according to which He is just in Himself and condemns sinners. Thus all the doctors had explained it, Augustine alone excepted, saying that the righteousness of God is the wrath of God. But as often as I read this passage I wished that God had never revealed the Gospel. For who is able to love a God that is angry, judges, and condemns? Finally, by the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit I more diligently pondered the words of the Prophet Habakkuk, chap, 2, verse 4, where he says: ‘The just shall live by faith.’ From this I gathered that life must come from faith, and so referred the abstract to the concrete. Thus the whole Scriptures were opened to me, and the whole heavens also.” (On Gen. 27:38, Erl. Lat, 7:74.)”
― Martin Luther quoted by Matthias Loy