Luther’s Saying: “Justification Is the Article by Which the Church Stands and Falls”

In the past we’ve looked at the origins of the TULIP acronym, whether Bunyan really said the “Run, John, run” poem, and Luther’s quote about the importance of defending the smallest truth at the very point at which the Devil is attacking.

So what about the phrase attributed to Luther than justificatio est articulus stantis et cadentis ecclesiae—”justification is the article by which the church stands and falls.”

From what I’ve been able to find, the first use of this exact phrase was by Lutheran theologian Balthasar Meisner who said that it was a “proverb of Luther” (Anthropôlogia sacra disputation 24, [Wittenberg: Johannes Gormannus, 1615]). [Source: Arthur Carl Piepkorn / Jack Preus]

In 1618 Reformed theologian Johann Heinrich Alsted wrote articulus iustificationis dicitur articulus stantis et cadentis ecclesiae (in Theologia scholastica didacta [Hanover, 1618], p. 711)— “The article of justification is said to be the article by which the church stands or  falls.” [Source: Alister McGrath]

We don’t have record of Luther using the exact phrase, but very close: quia isto articulo stante stat Ecclesia, ruente ruit Ecclesia—“Because if this article [of justification] stands, the church stands; if this article collapses, the church collapses.” (WA 40/3.352.3) [Source: Alister McGrath]

Luther certainly expressed the same thought in numerous ways, but this is the closest I’ve seen to the famous quote.

(Thanks to Carl Trueman for the translations.)

 

Let Him Who Thinks He Stands…

Bernard of Clairvaux once told the story of an old man, who, whenever he heard of some professing Christian falling into sin, would say to himself, “It happened to him today, it may happen to me tomorrow.” May we never say–when we hear of someone falling into grievous sin–”I’d never do that.” “Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall” (1 Cor. 10:13). We must resist the temptation of thinking that somehow we have within our flesh the ability to abstain from sin. If the Lord allowed us to run after the evil desires of our hearts we would be ruined. We must be able to say in our hearts, “Were it not for the grace of God, there go I.” The following statement is a sobering reminder of the weakness of the flesh in believers, and the pressing need for us to take seriously the means of preventing such falls:

“Nevertheless, they [i.e. the saints] may, through the temptations of Satan and of the world, the prevalency of corruption remaining in them, and the neglect of the means of their preservation, fall into grievous sins; and, for a time, continue therein: whereby they incur God’s displeasure, and grieve His Holy Spirit, come to be deprived of some measure of their graces and comforts, have their hearts hardened, and their consciences wounded; hurt and scandalize others, and bring temporal judgments upon themselves.” (Westminster Confession of Faith, ch. 12.3)

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