Martin Luther on Limited Atonement

"But if you ask where faith and confidence may be found or whence they come, it is certainly the most necessary thing to know. First, without any doubt it does not come from your works or from your merits, but only from Jesus Christ, freely promised and freely given. As St. Paul writes in Romans 5[:8], 'God shows his love toward us as exceedingly sweet and kind in that Christ died for us while we were yet sinners.' This is as if Paul said, 'Ought this not give us a strong, in...vincible confidence in that before we prayed about it or cared about it, yes, while we still continually walked in sin, Christ died for our sins?' [Paul] goes on, 'if then Christ has died for us while we were yet sinners, how much more shall we be saved through him, being justified by his blood. And if, while we were still enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, how much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be preserved through his life' [Rom. 5:8-11]." - Martin Luther, Treatise on Good works.