But though he won the reputation of a saint, he could not free himself from the desires of the flesh.

He was helpless; he could do nothing.

Then he read in Augustine that virtue without grace is but a specious vice; that God damns and saves utterly without regard to man's work.

He read in Tauler and the other mystics that the only true salvation is union with God, and that if a man were willing to be damned for God's glory he would find heaven even in hell.

He read in Lefevre d'Etaples that a man is not saved by doing good, but by faith, like the thief on the cross.
In May, 1515, he began to lecture on Paul's Epistles to the Romans, and pondered the verse (i, 17) "The just shall live by his faith." [Sidenote: Justification by faith only] All at once, so forcibly that he believed it a revelation of the Holy Ghost, the thought dawned upon him that whereas man was impotent to do or be good, God was able freely to make him so.