The doctrine of justification, the "chief article of the Christian faith," is of paramount importance in the Christian life. This teaching was at the heart of the sixteenth century Reformation, and remains so in the contemporary church of the Augsburg Confession. When many today are seeking to downplay the importance of this teaching in the Pauline corpus and the proclamation of the church, traditional Lutheran evaluations of the great doctrine of justification are needed today more than ever. In this volume, Matthias Loy outlines the doctrine of justification in its traditional Reformation formulation. Loy writes in the traditional of Lutheran scholasticism, though his work is not dry or purely academic, but immensely practical. Loy is concerned with the faith and assurance of the average Christian. He discusses the nature of justification, the means of justification, and the effects of justification in the Christian life.