The Happy Fault

Luther assented to the happy fault only occasionally. The best is from a table-talk: "If God should be asked at the last judgment, 'Why did you permit Adam to fall?' And [God] answered, 'In order that my goodness toward the human race might be understood when I gave my Son for the salvation of the world" (Luther's Works, vol. 54, pp. 385-66; trans. altered).