New Lutheran Quote of the Day

Now it is probably true that the words themselves do cause trouble, and that a sentence like "God justifies me" is an unusual one, a sentence often met by blank faces. But I do not believe that the idea itself is unusual or hard to explain. Public figures are continually defending themselves, their words, their actions, when others stand up in condemnation; and the common word for this defense is justify. So also, people are continually seeking justice in courts, pointing out that their actions are right and proper, and that they should be acquitted of all charges against them and declared "not guilty." This is just what justification describes—the one new idea being that God does the acquitting, the justifying. So the difficulty often seen in this terminology seems to me to be greatly exaggerated.—Henry Hamann, On Being a Christian, pp. 26, 27.