“Though I lived as a monk without reproach, I felt that I was a sinner
before God with an extremely disturbed conscience. I could not believe
that he was placated by my satisfaction. I did not love, yes, I hated the
righteous God who punishes sinners, and secretly, if not blasphemously,
certainly murmuring greatly, I was angry with God, and said, 'As if, indeed,
it is not enough, that miserable sinners, eternally lost through original sin,
are crushed by every kind of calamity by the law of the decalogue, without
having God add pain to pain by the gospel and also by the gospel
threatening us with his righteousness and wrath!' Thus I raged with a
fierce and troubled conscience. 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, namely, 'In it the righteousness of God is revealed,
as it is written;He who through faith is righteous shall live.' There I
began to understand that the righteousness of God is that by which the
righteous lives by a gift of God, namely by faith. And this is the meaning:
the righteousness of God is revealed by the gospel, namely, the passive
righteousness with which merciful God justifies us by faith, as it is written,
‘He who through faith is righteous shall live.’ Here I felt that I was
altogether born again and had entered paradise itself through open
gates…I extolled my sweetest word with a love as great as the hatred with
which I had before hated the word ‘righteousness of God.’ Thus that place
in Paul was for me truly the gate to paradise.”
-Martin Luther, Works, 34:336-337