Turning Point

But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God (John 1:12, NKJV)

On May 24, 1738, a discouraged missionary went “very unwillingly” to a religious meeting in London. There a miracle took place. “About a quarter before nine,” he wrote in his journal, “I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.”

That missionary was John Wesley. The message he heard that evening was from Martin Luther’s commentary on Romans. The gospel is still transforming people’s lives, just the way it transformed Martin Luther and John Wesley. The one scripture above all others that brought Luther out of mere religion into the joy of salvation by grace, through faith, was Romans 1.17 “The righteous will live by faith.” The Protestant Reformation and the Wesleyan revival were both the fruit of this wonderful letter.