Introduction to the Five Solas (Gal 1:6-9)

Introduction

If you have your Bible, please turn it to Galatians 1:6-9.

This morning we’re starting a new series that I think will not just be informative, but will help you as you evaluate and reevaluate churches, preachers, and teachers for the rest of your life because at the core of this series is an understanding of what the Gospel is that clarifies what the Bible teaches concerning faith, belief, repentance, and salvation itself.

In fact, I would emphatically and repeatedly make the argument that the Five Solas describes salvation in a way that to deny them is a rejection of the Gospel itself, which is serious because without the Gospel there is no salvation.

With that said, I think it would help if I set the stage a little bit. The Reformation’s unofficial start date is October 31, 1517, but to fully understand why it was such a big deal, you have to get your mind into the life of the average person alive during that time period and I want to do that by means of a history lesson.

In the early 1500s in much of the world that purported to be Christian, there was a dominating force that kept the world under their control. You have to realize that for a lot of the history of the Roman Catholic Church, it wasn’t just a church, but rather, it was a political authority that had power and influence in governments and militaries—in fact, as the Holy Roman Empire, the Roman Catholic Church had its own military to wage war particularly against Islam, but also others.

By 1517 the Roman Catholic Church still had the major influence both politically and ecclesiastically even though many who held the title Vicar of Christ, also known as the pope during that time period were notoriously wicked and regularly did things that were contrary to Scripture openly. For instance:

Pope Alexander VI, who was pope from 1431-1503, faced accusations of poisoning his opposition; he had multiple mistresses with whom he had multiple children and would pay to put those children into positions within the church; and he sponsored an orgy within the Vatican in celebration of his daughter’s wedding—the last two, the multiple mistresses and the orgy in the Vatican weren’t alleged, those were true events.

During the onset of the Reformation, the pope was Leo X. Pope Leo after being elected as the Vicar of Christ, said “Let us enjoy the papacy since God has given it to us” and he lived up to that idea. He went on to wage an actual war to secure his nephew’s position as Duke of Urbino (he also planned an addition crusade, but that didn’t quite pan out for him.) Spent absurd amounts of money and really viewed the church as a money making, political scheme moreso than a church.

Really, what he is most known for is that he enacted what I would consider the nail in the coffin that kickstarted the Reformation—the practice of buying and selling indulgences.

In order to fund the renovation of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican, Pope Leo initiated this idea of purchasing an indulgence for you or a dead loved one to either (1) forgive a past sin of yours, (2) to lessen your time in purgatory, or (3) to lessen your already dead loved one’s time in purgatory; which, you could imagine, would bring in a ton of money—the idea was basically, if you want to sin, but don’t want to be punished for it, give the Roman Catholic Church money, and you won’t.

For Martin Luther, the indulgences was the last straw and so, he wrote out a list of grievances called the 95 Thesis concerning the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church and nailed it to the doors of the chapel in Wittenburg, which by the way, don’t think of that as if he was trying to make a more significant statement—that’s where you would put community announcements and Luther was attempting to get the ecclesial whose who to debate these issues—he wasn’t trying to leave the Catholic Church, he was trying to fix it.

The 95 Thesis included quite a few statements that I could show you and you would be in agreement with as Protestant Christians today. For instance:

“6. The pope cannot remit any guilt, except by declaring that it has been remitted by God and by assenting to God’s remission; though, to be sure, he may grant remission in cases reserved to his judgment. If his right to grant remission in such cases were despised, the guilt would remain entirely unforgiven.” Or, in other words—the pope cannot forgive sins, only God can; the only thing the pope can do is say, “God has forgiven you.”

“36. Every truly repentant Christian has a right to full remission of penalty and guilt, even without letters of pardon.” — you don’t need to purchase indulgences to be forgiven of sins.

“52. The assurance of salvation by letters of pardon is vain, even though the commissary, nay, even though the pope himself, were to stake his soul upon it.”

“62. The true treasure of the Church is the Most Holy Gospel of the glory and the grace of God.”

“86. Again:—’Why does not the pope, whose wealth is to-day greater than the riches of the richest, build just this one church of St. Peter with his own money, rather than with the money of poor believers?’”

You notice, most of the grievances deal with the selling of indulgences.

The Roman Catholic Church refused to repent and instead dug their heels in; and as the Roman Catholic Church continued to dig their heels in, Luther continued to study Scripture along with others who had noted the abuse of the Roman Catholic Church; and, in doing so, they made a realization—that the Roman Catholic Church had covered the Gospel under a veil of works that included things like confessing to a priest instead of directly to God, giving alms, acts of contrition, and penance—all works which were meant to help cover your sin.

Now, imagine with me, what it would be like to grow up and live in a time period like this—you live in a modest European city, most people were poor during this time period, so you probably aren’t very well off; and life is often very repetitive—every morning, you wake up when the sun comes up, you work a trade or work in the fields or whatever else it might be, and as the sun is setting, you go home.

Day and day, night after night is the same. Of course, being the time period, there is very little light at night and so when you walk home as it’s getting darker, you’re able to see a lot in the skies above you—star after star, some that appear to move (wandering stars that will eventually be called planets), and you can even make out different shapes, which will eventually be called constellations.

And as you look at all that is around you, you can’t help but to wonder how it all began, how all those stars got there, and what holds everything together.

Now, in your city is one singular building that’s much larger, much taller, and more beautiful than anything else around it and once a week, everybody gathers together for what’s called mass and the Eucharist.

Except, when you get there, the priest is so far from the congregation that you can barely hear him, the songs that are sang and the words that are spoken are in Latin, which no one speaks, and so you don’t understand what’s happening nor do you understand what the point of the mass is—but you know you should go and so, you continue to go.

Of course, you still have those questions—how did it all begin, how did the stars get there, what holds everything together and since you can’t read (as most people can’t during this time period), your only source of knowledge concerning the Divine comes from what you hear in that mass and during the Eucharist.

Except it’s all in Latin and you don’t speak Latin. And while you can ask questions to the local priests on occasion, you don’t know this, but the Roman Catholic Church had a history of corruption, sin, and debauchery that even the local priests participated in.

And your local parish has been seeped in this doctrine of purgatory, indulgences, and sin.

Or, in other words, even if everything was in a language you could understand, the system set in place by the Roman Catholic Church wasn’t the Gospel according to Scripture, but rather, the Gospel according to the Roman Catholic Church—and even though you might believe that God exists, you aren’t regularly hearing the idea that you need to repent of your sin, call on the name of the Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead—you aren’t hearing the Gospel, you aren’t saved.

That’s the world that the Reformers lived in and as they read and studied the Scriptures, they came to the realization that what was being taught wasn’t actually what Scripture taught; and they sought to fix that problem.

It’s been said then, that much of the Reformation’s work in uncovering the Gospel that was hidden under a veil of works could be summed up like this: salvation is completely by faith alone through grace alone in Christ alone according to Scripture alone for the glory of God alone—what we now call the Five Solas:

Sola Scriptura—Scripture alone

Sola Fide—Faith alone

Sola Gratia—Grace alone

Solus Christus—Christ alone

Soli Deo Gloria—Glory of God alone

The Reformation and the subsequent unveiling of the Gospel described through the Five Solas brought the true Gospel back into the light for all the people to see it, hear it, and believe it—that’s why it was so important.

In fact, the Gospel itself is so important, that Paul speaks of it to the Galatians in Galatians 1:6-9, which is our text for this morning.

In the letter to the Galatians, Paul is writing to a region of multiple local churches, which he had a hand in planting. With that said, he introduces himself and immediately jumps to his main point in vv. 6-9—his shock that they would abandon the truth for lies so quickly.

Let’s look at it:

Galatians 1:6–9 ESV

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.

As we study this passage together, we’re going to take the sermon into two parts: (1) The Galatian Desertion of the Gospel (6-7) and (2) The Warning Against False gospels and their Teachers (8-9).

Prayer for Illumination

The Galatian Desertion of God (6-7)

Paul’s Astonishment:

Let me remind you of a few details concerning Galatia and this letter.

Remember with me, the churches in Galatia were planted by the Apostle Paul and Barnabas earlier in Paul’s ministry (actually during his first missionary journey recorded in Acts 13-14, which was conservatively approximately 46-48AD).

Early in Paul’s second missionary journey, which is recorded in Acts 15-18 and occurred sometime between 49-52AD

The letter of Galatians was written (according to more conservative scholars) sometime in-between the two missionary journeys. So, sometime between 47-49AD.

This means that within 1-2 years of their planting, they’ve already gone astray—particularly in their understanding of the Gospel.

So, it’s really no wonder that Paul would write to them and immediately start in on how startled or how astonished he is that they would so quickly abandon the Gospel for something else, but notice that he doesn’t say that they’ve abandoned the gospel—he says that they’ve turned to a different one, however, he actually says that they’ve abandoned God.

Paul writes, “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ,” which might sound like a minor detail but I would actually argue it’s a rather significant detail. Here’s why:

The Gospel is such an important part of the Christian faith that without the Gospel, you don’t have salvation. Without salvation, you don’t have Jesus. Without Jesus, you don’t have access to the Father.

In turning to a different gospel, they’ve rejected God and they’ve left God.

And again, this happened rather quickly. Just think about how quickly this all panned out:

Paul and Barnabas had started these churches just a year or two before this being written—as an apostle commissioned by God, we can assume that Paul told them everything that these churches needed to know about the Gospel—at the very least, they would know that salvation is by faith alone through grace alone in Jesus Christ alone.

Paul and Barnabas, would’ve spent enough time with these churches at the onset to really help them establish and start growing.

And yet, despite Paul and Barnabas teaching these things, they’ve already turned away from truth.

With that said, it does bring two questions to the forefront that we need to answer. What is the Gospel and what was wrong with what the Galatians heard?

A Different Gospel

Illustration of money handlers in banks

What is the real Gospel (cf. Romans)?—Paul doesn’t really answer this question in Galatians.

If you read through it, you won’t find a singular part of it where he explains the Gospel clearly and simply. Rather, in Galatians, you hear a lot about what the Gospel isn’t, and you read about what gives Paul the authority or right to confront their lack of Gospel witness, but we’ll get back to that a little bit later.

Paul does answer that question (I would argue) in his letter to the Romans. I’d suggest that that question is actually answered most comprehensively in the letter to the Romans, but for sake of time, consider the passages that are used in what’s usually called the Romans Road:

Romans 3:23 sets the stage when it comes to the universal need for salvation—“23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”

Romans 6:23 explains what the consequences of sin is and contrasts that with the gracious gift of God—“23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gracious gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Romans 5:8 highlights God’s love and sacrifice for humanity by providing Jesus’ work on the cross for our salvaiton—“8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Romans 10:9 explains the response required to receive God’s gift of salvation—“9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;”

That’s the Gospel at a very basic level—you’re in sin, the consequence of that sin is death, you need a Savior, that Savior is Jesus—confess and believe.

I find it interesting that Luther during the Reformation initially came to the conclusion that the Gospel was being hidden by the Roman Catholic Church as he was preparing to teach a seminary course through the book of Romans—He encountered the real Gospel.

That Christ came as the substitutionary atonement for His people because His people, in their sin, could not redeem themselves. And thus, instead of trying to fulfill the Law ourselves, which is impossible for us to do, in God’s grace, we simply believe in the efficacy of Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross for us to atone for sin.

The real Gospel is that men and women are saved not because of their own effort or their desire to be saved but because of the work that Jesus accomplished for us on the cross before uniting us as His people to Himself.

The real Gospel is that God saves sinners not because He owes them, but because He loves them and He has chosen them to be His—thus, we repent and we believe and He saves us.

Now, the question is—in Galatia what were they hearing and believing?

Paul talks about this through the letter and what might surprise us is that the same problem that he’s confronting with the Galatians is an issue that he directly confronted Peter for (Gal 2:11-14).

The primary issue in Galatia is that rather than just believing in the efficacy of salvation through Jesus Christ and believing in Him, they started adding to the Gospel—and thus, by adding to it, they twisted it, distorted it, and changed it. You might ask what they added, it’s simple:

They added work to the Gospel—in particular, they were what is called Judaizers—and what that means is that they claimed to believe in Jesus Christ and follow Him, but they also claimed that you needed to obey the Mosaic Law in its entirety for salvation—in particular, they were claiming that Gentile believers needed to be circumcised like the Jewish people and to obey the dietary restrictions as well.

Or, in other words, instead of just saying, “repent of your sins, call on the name of the Lord, and believe”—they were saying, do this, but also do several other things as well.

It essentially turns Christianity into religion of faith into a religion of work.

Transition: And that’s what Paul’s primary issue is with the Galatians—they’ve changed the free gift of grace from God through Jesus Christ into an expensive barter with God in which if you do certain things, perhaps you can be saved. It changed from being a Gospel rooted in the idea of salvation being by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone according to Scripture alone for God’s glory alone into a gospel of salvation being by grace plus the Law, through faith plus works, in Jesus plus your own ability according to Scripture plus man’s erroneous interpretation, for God’s glory but also for the glory of those who supposedly can keep the Law.

What they were doing was essentially the opposite of the Gospel, so no wonder Paul is so astonished. He isn’t finished, however, and he keeps going with two more verses for this section. Look at vv. 8-9 with me:

Galatians 1:8–9 ESV

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.

The Warning Against False Gospels and their Teachers (8-9)

Preachers of False gospels are Damned—and I mean that very literally, so does Scripture.

Scripture has always been abundantly clear about false teachers—that they really have no place in the people of God nor in the Kingdom of God.

In fact, we’re regularly reminded that when dealing with false teachers, we are to warn them to repent from their false teachers and if they aren’t repentant, we’re to cut that relationship with them out while warning others of their false teaching.

Jesus says, Matthew 7:15–20 “15 “Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16 You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor figs from thistles, are they? 17 So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 So then, you will know them by their fruits.”

Paul states several times to watch out for false teachers and to remove them:

Titus 1:10–16 “10 For there are many rebellious people, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, 11 who must be silenced because they are upsetting whole families, teaching things they should not teach for the sake of dishonest gain. 12 One of them, a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.” 13 This testimony is true. For this reason reprimand them severely so that they may be sound in the faith, 14 not paying attention to Jewish myths and commandments of men who turn away from the truth. 15 To the pure, all things are pure; but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their mind and their conscience are defiled. 16 They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good deed.”

1 Timothy 1:3 “3 Just as I urged you upon my departure for Macedonia, to remain on at Ephesus so that you would instruct certain people not to teach strange doctrines,”

Romans 16:17 “17 Now I urge you, brothers and sisters, keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learned, and turn away from them.”

And Paul, Jude, and Peter all speak about avoiding false teachers and protecting the flock in Acts 20:28-30, Jude 16-19, and 2 Peter 2:1-3.

ii. In fact, I would be willing to state that to not call out a false teacher when you’re certain of their false teaching and when you have the capability to do it or to remain close associates with someone known for false teaching is just as sinful as being the false teacher—it’s that significant of an issue.

So, let’s think through the popular false gospels of the NT:

We’ve already talked about the Judaizers—these people who were tying work back into the Gospel, the idea that yes, you are saved by grace through faith, but you also need to keep the Mosaic Law. It wasn’t and still isn’t the true Gospel.

Another popular false gospel of the time—though this one is a little later in the 1st and 2nd centuries included that of gnosticism—the idea that there is secret knowledge available beyond just the typical Gospel proclamation. It wasn’t and still isn’t the true Gospel.

In the book of Revelation, we read about the Nicolaitans—they’re a group that essentially argued that Christian liberty and the availability of grace allows us to just continue to live in licentiousness and sin.

Let’s think through the popular false gospels of our time:

Reformation—the works-based religion of Roman Catholicism still exists. They’re still following the same sacramental system developed throughout time, systematized by Thomas, and defended to this day. In fact, the selling of indulgences is still a thing, though to a lesser extent—you can find it in the Roman Catholic Catechism in Section 2, Chapter 2, Article 4, which deals with penance and reconciliation.

Prosperity Gospel—the false belief that if you just pray hard enough or read the Bible enough or attend church enough, God will bless you to be happy, wealthy, and healthy to the extent that your faith is integrally tied to prosperity. It ends up becoming a works-based ideology—just try harder.

The opposite side of that is what we might call therapeutic deistic moralism—where your faith is tied into this idea of living a moral life, which isn’t a negative thing, but the Gospel doesn’t say, “you’re a believer only if you live a moral life.”

You have liberation theology, legalism, what might be called the “self-esteem gospel,” and several others that all purport to be the gospel, when in reality, they aren’t.

And, by the way, the popular NT false gospels still exist:

Judaizers—exist in the same form and in legalism.

Gnosticism—exists in the church of Scientology and several other cult-like and cult groups.

Nicolaitans—exists all over the place—grace as the license to sin is rampant, particularly in groups that we would consider antinomianism—opposed to the Law.

The question is, what does Paul say about the false teaching and false teachers in Galatians 1?

He says that if anyone, even an angel, were to preach anything contrary to the Gospel which had already been preached, that they are accursed.

They because of their false teaching are damned, which is a rather significant statement and sets a foundation for our application.

Transition: Consider all this in light of the Reformation and the Five Solas. The primary issue that kickstarted the Reformation was that the Gospel had been hidden under a veil of works—it changed from being a religion where salvation was freely given to anyone who believed to a religion where if you didn’t do the work, you didn’t earn salvation. It’s really no wonder that Paul would say that those who preach something contrary to the true Gospel is damned or accursed because anyone who puts their hope in a works-based system rather than in Jesus would also be damned.

Application

The same issue mentioned in Galatians 1 and the issue that kickstarted the Reformation are one and the same—a false gospel had been preached; and thus, the right thing to do is to confront the issue, call for repentance, and continue to Reform. With that said, I think there are three ideas that lay out our application:

First, you need to know the true Gospel well enough to discern between it and false gospels.

In my years of ministry regardless of church, state, or other contexts, I’ve learned that many professed Christians regardless of place—have a hard time actually stating what the Gospel is.

Usually, they’ll try and explain it in vague terms or they won’t even try to explain it whatsoever—they’ll just jump to what Jesus has done in their own life through means of testimony or whatever else it might be.

But, when you try to dig in a little bit—many professed Christians that I’ve met, can’t really define the Gospel.

The issue with that is two-fold—(1) we’re told to make disciples of every nation, you can’t make a disciple if you can’t present the Gospel and (2) if you don’t have a defined definition for the Gospel, you’re more likely to fall into the traps of all the false gospels that we’ve talked about.

Remember the illustration that I used concerning bank tellers being trained by getting really familiar with the real deal dollar?

It’s the same thing with the Gospel—the more that you’re familiar with the Gospel and how it influences every aspect of your life, the more likely you’ll be able to discern between the truth and falsehoods.

The less that you’re familiar with the Gospel and how it influences your life, the less likely you’ll be able to discern between the truth and falsehoods.

Of course, I could give you ways to get more familiar with the Gospel—like the Romans Road or various other evangelistic tools, but I think the best way to really get familiar with the Gospel is to continuously remind yourself of the overarching storyline of Scripture.

Because Scripture’s overarching storyline is the Gospel at a grand scale—what better way to soak in the Gospel than just by reading Scripture regularly?

In addition, any healthy church is going to reiterate the Gospel weekly while simultaneously helping you to live in light of the Gospel—so regularly being in a healthy church will help you to soak in the Gospel.

And regularly reflecting on how the Gospel influences your daily life will help you to recognize the true Gospel from false gospels.

You need to know the true Gospel well enough to discern between it and false gospels.

Second, you need to stop supporting false teaching when you realize that it is false.

Over the past few years especially, I’ve regularly heard from people who will openly say that they know their local church isn’t preaching the Gospel or that they know that their local church is teaching false things, but they refuse to leave it—and I’m not talking about minor things like the style of music or dress.

I’m talking about issues that are Gospel related—that are salvation related; and the reasoning for remaining isn’t usually for healthy reasons.

I grew up in this church; I’ve always attended here.

People would say bad things about me if I left.

It’s such a hassle to try and find a new church.

But by remaining, they’re supporting false teaching—and let me clarify that—you can support false teaching even if you don’t actively give financially to the false teacher.

Just by being there week in and week out, you’re supporting them—and you being there week in and week out signals to other people that they should come and be there week in and week out.

By you listening to their preaching or reading their books—you’re supporting them either through royalties or sometimes even by just telling other people that you’re listening to them or reading their books.

In supporting them, you give them the platform they need to continue proclaiming false teachings.

Paul says that those who preach another Gospel are accursed—they’re damned.

To not call them to repentance would be sinful.

To continue to support them anyways would be sinful.

To remain and platform them would be sinful.

You need to stop supporting false teaching when you realize that it is false.

Third, you need to always be Reforming your beliefs to what Scripture teaches.

What happened during the Reformation was that those within the Roman Catholic Church through reading Scripture recognized that what was officially being taught didn’t actually line up with Scripture.

They did this in an honorable way by calling attention to the problem, seeking repentance from those in leadership, and eventually—when repentance didn’t occur, they rejected false teaching and broke away.

They then spent the remaining part of their lives returning to Scripture and correcting in their church the things that were taught falsely before—they were reforming their beliefs to Scripture.

Likewise, you ought to always be in the process of reforming your beliefs to what Scripture actually teaches.

There’s this idea that you really ought not change your beliefs whatsoever—like from the moment that you’re an adult.

Some of that can be true—for instance, if you were a Christian as a teenager, more than likely as an adult, you’re still going to believe orthodox truths about the Trinity, you’ll still affirm salvation by grace alone through faith alone or whatever else it might be.

Other parts of that idea just isn’t true—if I believed the same things that I did when Jesus saved me—I would be in an independent, fundamentalist baptist church that sometimes verged a little too closely to legalism.

Your beliefs concerning certain things can change—and will probably change over time (e.g., at one time I thought the KJV was the only right translation of Scripture, now I preach primarily from the ESV; at one time, I thought that there was only one right way to structure a church’s government, now I realize that there are other suitable ways). That’s ok, it’s part of being sanctified.

The goal is that as you spiritually mature, your thoughts and beliefs should reflect more of what Scripture says.

That is, as you spiritually mature and you reform your mind and affections to Scripture, you ought to love what Jesus loves and hate what Jesus hates.

You ought to be in the process of continuous reformation; just as your local church should be in the process of continuous reformation.

You need to always be reforming your beliefs to what Scripture teaches.

Friends, as we think through the Five Solas over the next month, I hope you see just how important true teaching, right teaching is; and that you walk away with a better understanding of the Gospel—that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone through Jesus Christ alone; according to Scripture alone, for the glory of God alone—anything less than this or more than this isn’t the Gospel.

And just as the Reformers exemplified what it means to content for the Gospel, I hope and pray that you do as well.

Pastoral Prayer