Michael Reeves

He couldn't even cry out to God because he had no assurance of how he stood before him. And so he puts a good word in with Anne, who's the mother of Mary, hoping Anne will speak to Mary, who'll speak to Jesus, who'll speak to the Father. And he thinks that entering a monastery to earn his salvation is going to help. And that's what he did.

He couldn't even cry out to God because he had no assurance of how he stood before him. And so he puts a good word in with Anne, who's the mother of Mary, hoping Anne will speak to Mary, who'll speak to Jesus, who'll speak to the Father. And he thinks that entering a monastery to earn his salvation is going to help. And that's what he did.

He did become a monk, and for the next ten years or so, through his monkery, sought to climb what he saw as a steep, slippery ladder to heaven, and said after that, though I lived as a monk without reproach, I felt I was a sinner before God with an extremely disturbed conscience, and I could not believe that God was placated. I did not love, I hated God who punishes sinners.

He did become a monk, and for the next ten years or so, through his monkery, sought to climb what he saw as a steep, slippery ladder to heaven, and said after that, though I lived as a monk without reproach, I felt I was a sinner before God with an extremely disturbed conscience, and I could not believe that God was placated. I did not love, I hated God who punishes sinners.

And secretly, if not blasphemously, murmuring greatly, I was angry with God. Because as he saw it, God must be the sort of monstrous being who makes you earn his love. And he started wrestling with Romans chapter 1, verse 17, and particularly that phrase, the righteousness of God, that you find there in that verse. And Luther hated that phrase, the righteousness of God.

And secretly, if not blasphemously, murmuring greatly, I was angry with God. Because as he saw it, God must be the sort of monstrous being who makes you earn his love. And he started wrestling with Romans chapter 1, verse 17, and particularly that phrase, the righteousness of God, that you find there in that verse. And Luther hated that phrase, the righteousness of God.

They couldn't understand how Paul could say that the righteousness of God is gospel, good news. For he thought, how can that be good news? If God is righteous, that's not good news for me because I am unrighteous. And if he's righteous, that just means he's going to judge me. So the righteousness of God is pure bad news for me. And then, hammering away that text in his cell,

They couldn't understand how Paul could say that the righteousness of God is gospel, good news. For he thought, how can that be good news? If God is righteous, that's not good news for me because I am unrighteous. And if he's righteous, that just means he's going to judge me. So the righteousness of God is pure bad news for me. And then, hammering away that text in his cell,

He wrote, I began to understand the righteousness of God is that by which the righteous live by a gift of God, namely by faith. And in that tower experience, Luther discovered an entirely different God who relates to us in an entirely different way. A God who loves us first. Before we ever love him. He saw the righteousness of God is something he shares with us.

He wrote, I began to understand the righteousness of God is that by which the righteous live by a gift of God, namely by faith. And in that tower experience, Luther discovered an entirely different God who relates to us in an entirely different way. A God who loves us first. Before we ever love him. He saw the righteousness of God is something he shares with us.

The righteousness of God is something he shares with failures like you and me. What a discovery to explain to the world. It transformed his life and the next year or so he devoted to writing fast to explain this. And when he came to explain his discovery, it wasn't to Romans that he turned. It was to the book of Song of Songs, the story of a romance.

The righteousness of God is something he shares with failures like you and me. What a discovery to explain to the world. It transformed his life and the next year or so he devoted to writing fast to explain this. And when he came to explain his discovery, it wasn't to Romans that he turned. It was to the book of Song of Songs, the story of a romance.

For, he believed, you can best understand the gospel if you understand it like a marriage. And so Luther told the story of a king, a perfect and wealthy king, representing King Jesus. And a poor girl, in fact a prostitute, representing us. And there is nothing that girl can do to make herself the queen. For the king and his love woos her.

For, he believed, you can best understand the gospel if you understand it like a marriage. And so Luther told the story of a king, a perfect and wealthy king, representing King Jesus. And a poor girl, in fact a prostitute, representing us. And there is nothing that girl can do to make herself the queen. For the king and his love woos her.

And at their wedding day, she gets to say to him, all that I am, I give to you. And all that I have, I share with you. And so she shares with him what? Debts, shame. But he's so wealthy, he can take all her debts. And then the king turns and says to her, my darling, all that I am I give to you and all that I have I share with you. And with those words, that poor girl is the queen by status.

And at their wedding day, she gets to say to him, all that I am, I give to you. And all that I have, I share with you. And so she shares with him what? Debts, shame. But he's so wealthy, he can take all her debts. And then the king turns and says to her, my darling, all that I am I give to you and all that I have I share with you. And with those words, that poor girl is the queen by status.

All the kingdom is hers. All that I have, I share with you. And that is the great marriage swap of the gospel. Saul Luther, the joyful exchange, our great bridegroom, has taken all our sin, borne it on the cross, and drowned it in his blood. And then he has given to us all his righteousness. all his blessedness, all his status before the Father.

All the kingdom is hers. All that I have, I share with you. And that is the great marriage swap of the gospel. Saul Luther, the joyful exchange, our great bridegroom, has taken all our sin, borne it on the cross, and drowned it in his blood. And then he has given to us all his righteousness. all his blessedness, all his status before the Father.

And so, said Luther, the sinner can confidently display her sins in the face of death and hell and say, if I've sinned, my Christ in whom I believe has not sinned. And all his is mine now. No, mine, my sin is his. That girl... She'd not learned the ways of the court, how to be queenly, but she was the queen by status.

And so, said Luther, the sinner can confidently display her sins in the face of death and hell and say, if I've sinned, my Christ in whom I believe has not sinned. And all his is mine now. No, mine, my sin is his. That girl... She'd not learned the ways of the court, how to be queenly, but she was the queen by status.