articulus stantis et cadentis ecclesiae, the article upon which the church stands or falls. It is the being of the world and its relation to God that hinge upon justification. Creatio ex nihilo (creation out of nothing), the basis of the Jewish and Christian doctrine of creation, is to be understood in terms of the theology of justification—and vice versa. God is obliged neither to create and preserve the world nor to forgive sin. Everything that exists is the result of pure goodness, “and all this