The 5 Solas (2)

The Five Solas

Ephesians 2:1–10 ESV

1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

How valuable is the truth? How important is it that we know the truth? And does it matter if truth is hidden, or mixed with lies?

Proverbs 23:23 ESV

23 Buy truth, and do not sell it; buy wisdom, instruction, and understanding.

If it’s important that we know the truth in matters of life, in our relationships, in politics, in science - how much more so the things of God?

John 4:24 ESV

24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

Jesus commands that we must worship God in truth - not in a lackadaisical way, not in a muddle along, slap dash way, but according to truth. We are not to be unconcerned or complacent about whether our worship of God is done in truth or not; we are to seek out God’s truth and purchase it, value it, fight for it. And we are not to tolerate lies.

‘He who does not hate the false does not love the true.’ - Spurgeon

We wouldn’t tolerate lies being told about our friends or family - so why be tolerant of lies being told about God?

A dog barks when his master is attacked. I would be a coward if I saw that God's truth is attacked and yet would remain silent. - John Calvin

505 years ago, on October 31st a young Augustinian monk named Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses on the door of the castle church in Wittenburg, Germany. This one ‘little bark’ against the lies of the Roman Catholic Church set off a roaring revolution that we now know as The Protestant Reformation.

All of us here today have been impacted in some way by the Reformation; most of us without even realising it.

You have your own Bible, in your own language.

You are able to take both the bread and the wine in communion.

You aren’t obligated to confess your sins to a priest.

These are just a few things that we take for granted - but it wouldn’t be this way were it not for the reformation.

It’s a great tragedy that most Christians today in this country are taught little to nothing about it; most see it as boring and irrelevant, a few crusty old men 500 years ago splitting hairs over doctrine, yawn! And this is at least one reason the modern church in this nation is in such a state.

The Roman Catholic church at the time of the reformation was wracked with false teachings, traditions invented by men, abuse of power by the clergy and all manner of superstition - Sounds a bit like the spiritual climate in the west today! The gospel of grace had been shrouded, hidden from the people - The Reformers, under the power and conviction of the Holy Spirit began to shine a light into all that darkness. These men and women were not perfect but they risked their lives for the gospel - they understood what was at stake, the eternal destiny of souls.

English Standard Version Chapter 1

6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— 7 not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. 9 As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.

How did they do this? Well - if it’s possible to distill the heart of the reformation into an easily digestable form - it’s in the form of the 5 Solas. The word Sola is Latin - and it means ‘alone’ or ‘only’. The five solas weren’t written by the Reformers, but they are the doctrines that underpin the whole movement, and they are every bit as potent today as they were then. They are:

Sola Scriptura

Sola Gratia

Sola Fide

Solus Christus

Soli Deo Gloria

SOLA SCRIPTURA

A simple layman armed with Scripture is greater than the mightiest pope without it - Luther

The Catholic Church believes and still believes that God’s word is the absolute standard for faith and practice - but crucially, they taught that God’s word was not only found in scripture, but also in the traditions and teachings of the Church. The reformers said that God’s word was found in scripture alone - in other words, they taught that scripture was sufficient for knowing God’s word since only scripture has been God breathed:

2 Timothy 3:16–17 ESV

16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

Hence - the teachings and the traditions of the church, private revelations etc are only acceptable as far as they agree with scripture. If these revelations, traditions and teachings are at odds with the Bible, they are to be rejected, no matter how long they have been held for, no matter if the Pope himself teaches it.

Sola Scriptura doesn’t mean - that we are to only read the Bible and no other books - nor does it mean that the writings of Christian theologians throughout the years have no authority and should be ignored.

There is an echo of this misunderstanding of Sola Scriptura in the church today - it’s a ‘me, God and the Bible’ kind of individualism. Where historical church teaching, creeds and confessions are disregarded entirely and you arrive at your own personal, subjective interpretation of what the Bible says.

No matter how strongly you might feel about your own interpretation of a particular verse, if Christians for 2 millennia have taught that it means the opposite of what you think it means, you might want to take note of that!

Sola Scriptura means that the Bible is the ultimate authority for what we are to believe; and scripture is the measure of all human teachings and traditions.

“The Word of God is the anvil upon which the opinions of men are smashed.” - Spurgeon

As protestant churches have stopped teaching this doctrine, the people have once again gone looking for the word of God outside of the scriptures. Relying instead on the revelations of self professed ‘apostles’, or prophetic words, or private dreams and visions. Preachers now preach their own revelations super imposed onto scripture instead of teaching God’s word - The result, a mess inside and outside the church.

The sentiments of this doctrine are embodied in Martin Luther’s famous speech at the Diet of Worms (1521) after he was asked to recant his teachings:

Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures or by clear reason (for I do not trust either in the pope or in councils alone, since it is well known that they have often erred and contradicted themselves), I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted and my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and will not retract anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience.… May God help me.

SOLA GRATIA

Sola Gratia - Grace alone, teaches that we are saved by the grace of God alone. That this grace isn’t given to us because of something we did to earn it, since then it wouldn’t be grace, but bestowed on us by God’s good pleasure alone.

English Standard Version Chapter 9

15 For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” 16 So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.

Rome taught that you were saved by grace, yes, but crucially not grace alone.

If anyone says that men are justified either by the imputation of the righteousness of Christ alone, or by the remission of sins alone, to the exclusion of the grace and love that is poured forth in their hearts by the Holy Spirit and is inherent in them; or even that the grace by which we are justified is only the favor of God—let him be anathema. - Trent

They taught that you were justified by the imputed righteousness of Christ, and also by your own inherant righteousness which was worked in you by the holy spirit.

If anyone says that the guilt is remitted to every penitent sinner after the grace of justification has been received, and that the debt of eternal punishment is so blotted out that there remains no debt of temporal punishment to be discharged either in this world or in the next in Purgatory, before the entrance to the kingdom of heaven can be opened—let him be anathema. - Trent

Sola Gratia teaches that we are justified by God reckoning to our account Christ’s full payment for our sins, and Christ’s perfect righteousness on our behalf. So we are saved entirely and perfectly in Christ - there is no need to add to this with our works, or the works of other saints.

Ephesians 2:4–5 ESV

4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—

SOLA FIDE

Sola Fide - By faith alone - means that we are saved through faith alone, not works, and not by a mixture of faith plus works. And that faith itself is a gift of God, rather than a work that we do in and of ourselves.

If anyone says that the sinner is justified by faith alone, meaning that nothing else is required to cooperate in order to obtain the grace of justification, and that it is not in any way necessary that he be prepared and disposed by the action of his own will, let him be anathema. - Trent

Ephesians 2:8–10 ESV

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

We’re naturally averse to the idea of receiving something that we had no hand in earning. But this is what grace is - unmerited favour. The doctrine of election puts us in our place - we were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, not based on any works we would do but purely out of His good pleasure:

English Standard Version Chapter 1

4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will

We’re saved through faith alone - not faith plus works. Though as James says, a faith that has no works is dead.

Romans 4:4–6 ESV

4 Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. 5 And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, 6 just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works:

SOLUS CHRISTUS

B.B.Warfield wrote, “The saving power of faith resides thus not in itself, but in the Almighty Savior on whom it rests.”

Solus Christus - Christ Alone. Is the doctrine that says that we are saved in Christ Alone, and that Christ Alone is to the object of our faith, not Christ plus Mary, not Christ plus the saints, not Christ plus the church.

When the priest announces the tremendous words of consecration, he reaches up into the heavens, brings Christ down from His throne, and places Him upon our altar to be offered up again as the Victim for the sins of man. It is a power greater than that of saints and angels, greater than that of Seraphim and Cherubim.    Indeed it is greater even than the power of the Virgin Mary. While the Blessed Virgin was the human agency by which Christ became incarnate a single time, the priest brings Christ down from heaven, and renders Him present on our altar as the eternal Victim for the sins of mannot once but a thousand times! The priest speaks and lo! Christ, the eternal and omnipotent God, bows his head in humble obedience to the priests command.    Of what sublime dignity is the office of the Christian priest who is thus privileged to act as the ambassador and the vice-gerent of Christ on earth! He continues the essential ministry of Christ: he teaches the faithful with the authority of Christ, he pardons the penitent sinner with the power of Christ, he offers up again the same sacrifice of adoration and atonement which Christ offered on Calvary. No wonder that the name which spiritual writers are especially fond of applying to the priest is that of alter Christus. For the priest is and should be another Christ. - John O Brien - The Faith of Millions

Christ is our saviour through faith - and His sacrifice on the cross was sufficient and is once for all, and this sacrifice does not need to be repeated for us in the mass. We don’t need the ministry of priests to complete our salvation, it is complete in Christ.

Hebrews 10:10–14 NIV

10 And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. 11 Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, 13 and since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool. 14 For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.

SOLI DEO GLORIA

Soli Deo Gloria - To God Alone be the Glory. Is to say that all glory belongs to God, for the gospel, for your salvation, for every good thing.

Romans 11:36 ESV

36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

We look again at Ephesians 2 - you were dead in your trespasses and sins - following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air - that is, Satan, and living out the passions of the flesh we were by nature - children of wrath. But God! But God! He makes you alive, He makes you born again, He gives you faith in His Son. How is it we think we deserve any glory here? There is only one active party here - God.

English Standard Version Chapter 1

12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

“You never had a single thing to do with saving yourself; it was all done to you and for you while God, for a time, just let you carry on in your daydream that you had a little skin in the game of salvation.” - Chad Bird