The crucial text for Martin Luther was Romans 1:17: "The righteous will live by faith." In 1519, two years after he nailed the theses to the church door and two years before he made his "Here I Stand" confession at the Diet of Worms, Luther preached on "Two Kinds of Righteousness." He said, "Just as a bridegroom possesses all that is his bride's and she all that is his ? for the two have all things in common because they are one flesh ? so Christ and the church are one spirit. Thus the blessed God and Father of mercies...granted to us very great and precious gifts in Christ....Everything that Christ has is ours, graciously bestowed on us unworthy people out of God's sheer mercy, although we have rather deserved wrath and condemnation in hell....Through faith in Christ, Christ's righteousness becomes our righteousness and all that He has becomes ours; rather, He Himself becomes ours....He who trusts in Christ exists in Christ; he is one with Christ, having the same righteousness as Christ."  

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