Sola Fide part 1

Introduction

If you’ve been at this church for awhile, you’ve no doubt heard me talk about the importance of being able to share your personal testimony when it comes to evangelism.

Your personal testimony is your story of why you needed a Savior and why Jesus is the Savior that you need.

A personal testimony is powerful because it is extremely personal, but also because it is a testimony of what God has done in your life. It’s never about our ability to save yourself (because none of us can), but what God has done to save you.

Paul’s personal conversion story is a powerful testimony of God transforming the church’s greatest opponent into the church’s greatest evangelist.

Over the next three weeks we will see how Paul uses his personal conversion testimony to defend against those who are attacking his credibility.

And yet, as we will see, Paul isn’t defending himself but defending the message God had called him to preach: justification by faith.

Key Verse of this section:

Galatians 2:16 ESV

yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.

Justification means to be made right; specifically in the context of theology, to be made right with God.

For every other religion in world history, if man can be justified before God (or the gods), they are justified by their works.

But the Christian faith is different. True Christian faith teaches that mankind can only be justified by faith in Jesus, not by works.

Mankind struggles with this, however, and throughout history many people, even those who profess to be Christians, believed that man must have faith in Jesus, but also do various works in order to be saved.

During the Protestant Reformation, the reformers faced a time when the church at large had added to the requirements for salvation. Bucking this false theology, the reformers developed a rallying cry built around the five Solas (Sola meaning alone in Latin).

Sola Scriptura (Scripture alone is our highest authority)

Sola Gratia (Salvation is by grace alone)

Sola Fide (Salvation is through faith alone)

Solus Christus (Salvation is in Christ alone)

Soli Deo Gloria (Salvation is for God’s glory alone)

These build on the teachings of Paul throughout the NT, including right here in Galatians.

For our purposes over the next three weeks, Sola Fide, faith alone, will be the focus.

Body: Galatians 1:11-24

Paul’s Opponents:

As I mentioned last week, after Paul left the area of Galatia, a group we now call the Judaizers followed him, teaching people that Paul taught them a neutered message because he refused to make them follow the Jewish law.

In order to attack Paul’s message, they attacked Paul’s call and credentials.

The idea being, if they could succeed in attacking Paul the messenger, they would also succeed in refuting Paul’s message.

So, while we don’t have writing from them, we can glean from Paul’s defense that they likely said something like the following:

Paul doesn’t know the Law of Moses and his teaching of justification by faith goes against the Law of Moses.

Paul preaches justification by faith because he’s looking to please people. Specifically, Paul is making it too easy for the Gentiles to become followers of Christ, which is extremely risky.

Finally, Paul wasn’t with Jesus and hasn’t learned under the apostles, so he is, in essence, a rebel against the mother church in Jerusalem.

What we will see in this section is that Paul recognizes that his purpose isn’t really to defend himself. What he’s defending is the message of justification by faith.

So Paul will share aspects of his personal conversion story, but it all builds to a clear theological explanation of justification by faith (verses 15-21).

Paul’s defense of the message...

Verses 11-12

Paul’s first defense of his message is that it’s not his message at all, but a message he received from Jesus Himself.

Paul’s conversion experience was so important to him, that it’s related three times in the book of Acts (Acts 9:3-5; Acts 22:6-10; Acts 26:13-18). I pretty certain that in Paul’s time with Luke, the writer of Acts, that Paul emphasized his conversion experience (“Now, don’t forget to tell Theophilus about my experience on the road to Damascus!”)

Paul’s point being: This isn’t Paul’s Gospel, Peter’s Gospel, the Jerusalem church’s Gospel. This is God’s Gospel!

As Max Anders puts it: “No human mind apart from God’s revelation would dream up a plan of salvation wholly dependent on God’s grace and the death of his Son.”

Verses 13-14

Those who claim that Paul was ignorant about the Jewish law are ignorant themselves that before he was the Apostle Paul, he was Rabbi Saul.

Rabbi Saul was the great enemy of the church.

Not only did Rabbi Saul attempt to destroy the church, he also was a greater expert in the law than his contemporaries.

Look at what Paul says to the church in Philippi:

Philippians 3:4–6 ESV

though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.

The point being, the accusations of his opponents are without merit because his Jewish credentials were second-to-none.

Verses 15-16a

Look at Paul’s testimony of his conversion:

Paul understands that his conversion was a surprise to him, but not to God. In fact, before Paul was even born, God had a plan for his life.

Paul also understood the call as a call of God’s grace. Instead of giving Paul what he deserved, God gave Paul a special revelation and a special calling that would give his life real meaning and purpose.

Paul received an extremely rare revelation; one of Jesus Himself. Paul doesn’t take that for granted!

The calling: the preach the Gospel message of justification by faith to the Gentiles.

Because Paul was clear on his call and purpose, he would be willing to go and endure anything that God set before him.

Verses 16b-17

Instead of going right to Jerusalem to be trained by the apostles, Paul went to the Arabian desert, then to Damascus to begin to seek the Lord for a deeper understanding of justification by faith, the message Paul would preach the rest of his life.

Verses 18-24

In these verses, Paul tells of an early trip to Jerusalem where he met Peter and James, but didn’t stay there long.

Then Paul would go to Antioch to await the call of God to send him out with Barnabas on the First Missionary Journey.

More on Paul’s story, next week.

I do want to draw our attention to verse 23.

Paul’s ministry became the talk of the church. Not because of Paul, but because of the conversion power of God.

Should remind us of the words of Jesus:

Matthew 5:16 ESV

In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

So What?

The message of justification by faith is God’s plan, not man’s.

We often say, “I found the Lord.” But, in reality, we were found by God, not the other way around.

The message of justification by faith is solely the work of God.

It’s not the creation of man or the prerogative of man. It is God’s work alone.

If you hear nothing else this morning, hear this: You cannot save yourself. Regardless of what you might believe or think about yourself, you cannot save yourself.

Guy I used to work with: “God and I have an understanding...”

God and I have an understanding as well: I’m a sinner who desperately needs a Savior and cannot not save myself, no matter what.

But, where there was no way, God made a way. sola side, faith alone.

As Paul taught a jailer in Philippi:

Acts 16:29–31 ESV

And the jailer called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas. Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”

The message of justification by faith has the power to change lives.

This message of justification can take the most ardent opponent of Christ’s church and make him the greatest evangelist the church has ever known. That’s powerful.

Guess, what, that power is still at work today.

When I was working on my undergraduate degree, I took a class on counseling people with addictions...

Genuine religious conversion is the most reliable indicator that someone will not go back to their addiction.

The message of justification by faith still changes lives.

Who is too lost to be saved?

Something that annoys me: while minding my own business, trying to watch the greatest team sport mankind has ever created, football, the cameras suddenly pan to the box seats to focus on Taylor Swift. Instead of football, the announcers begin talking about Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce, two people I couldn’t care less about, particularly their love lives!

Not only are they interrupting football (an nearly unforgivable sin), but they are treated like amazingly important people, because one plays football and pushes vaccinations, and another sings pretty much the same song at different speeds wearing something that barely passes as clothing.

But then I’m reminded: could God saved them?

No one is impossible for God.

The message of justification by faith is the message of God’s people.

As the church, the message of justification by faith is our purpose. It is the message we’ve been charged to share, blessed to celebrate, and called to continually learn and live it’s implications.

We do a lot of things as the church. Good things, for the most part. But, none take precedence over the message of justification by faith alone.

Now to personalize this: Your faith story is your best argument about the power of the Gospel...

Like Paul, all of us who believe have a conversion story.

It’s not like Paul’s. It’s not like mine. It’s yours. And it’s powerful.

Two challenges:

Share it with someone this week...

Write it down for those who come after you...