From Martin Luther’s Sermon “Two Kinds of Righteousness”

“There are two kinds of Chris­t­ian right­eous­ness, just as man’s sin is of two kinds.

“The first is alien right­eous­ness, that is the right­eous­ness of another, instilled from with­out. This is the right­eous­ness of Christ by which he jus­ti­fies through faith… This right­eous­ness, then, is given to men in bap­tism and when­ever they are truly repen­tant… Through faith in Christ, there­fore, Christ’s right­eous­ness becomes our right­eous­ness and all that he has becomes ours; rather, he him­self becomes ours…

“The sec­ond kind of right­eous­ness is our proper right­eous­ness, not because we alone work it, but because we work with that first and alien right­eous­ness. This is that man­ner of life spent prof­itably in good works, in the first place, in slay­ing the flesh and cru­ci­fy­ing the desires with respect to the self… In the sec­ond place, this right­eous­ness con­sits in love to one’s neigh­bor, and in the third place, in meek­ness and fear toward God.”

(LW 31:297–299)

Devin Rose says:
September 11, 2010 at 2:24 pm
The Catholic (and Ortho­dox) Churches agree that Christ’s right­eous­ness is some­thing given to us. Luther came up with the idea of it being imputed to us juridi­cally (or foren­si­cally). The Catholic and Ortho­dox believe that Christ infuses his right­eous­ness into us. Both Luther and Catholics/Orthodox believe that it occurs through the sacra­ment of baptism.
It’s inter­est­ing since Calvin some years later took Luther’s idea of sola Fide through imputed alien right­eous­ness but remove the “through bap­tism” part. Luther was much more sacra­men­tal than Calvin. Now the vast major­ity of Protes­tants fol­low Calvin’s ver­sion of sola Fide.
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paul sailhamer says:
September 11, 2010 at 3:49 pm
As always, Luther’s sense of order and pri­or­ity is crucial…alien right­eous­ness pre­cedes proper right­eous­ness which the believer works out with “fear and trem­bling” and “joy” for the rest of life’s jour­ney, one being root the other fruit.
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paul sailhamer says:
September 11, 2010 at 3:54 pm
On this day, Sep­tem­ber 11 (9/11), it would be inter­est­ing to think about the role of advanc­ing Islam in 16th cen­tury Euro­pean bor­der­lands in dis­tract­ing the Papacy and the Emperor from giv­ing their full atten­tion to the “Luther Prob­lem” in the Ger­man Lands.
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