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→Luther's Theology of Grace
The demanding discipline of earning academic and theological degrees and preparing lectures drove Martin Luther to study the Scriptures in depth. Influenced by [[Humanism]]'s call ''ad fontes'' ("to the sources"), he immersed himself in the study of the Bible and the early Church. Soon terms like [[penance]] and [[righteousness]] took on new meaning for Luther, and he became convinced that the Church had lost sight of several of the central truths of Christianity taught in Scripture—the most important of them being the doctrine of [[justification]] by faith alone. Luther began to teach that [[salvation]] is completely a gift of God's [[Divine grace|grace]] through [[Christ]] received by [[faith]].
Later, Luther defined and reintroduced the principle of the proper distinction between [[Law and Gospel]] that undergirded his theology of grace. Overall, Luther believed that this principle of interpretation was an essential starting point in the study of the Scriptures. Luther saw failure to distinguish [[Law and Gospel]] properly as the cause of the obstruction of the [[Gospel]] of [[Jesus]] in the Church of his day, which, he believed, gave rise to many fundamental theological errors in turn.[[Image:Luther.jpg|left]]
==The Indulgence Controversy==