The Five Sola's of the Reformation

I want you to imagine that you live in a town with only one church. Everything in this town revolves around the church and the leadership of the church is the authority over what you learn. You have to rely solely on what the church leaders tell you because you don’t have a Bible in a language you can read. Not only that you are also told by the leadership you can’t understand the Bible anyway without their explanation of it. Now on top of all this the leadership also are the ones who tell you what you need to do to get to heaven and what they tell you is you have to work for a way into heaven. You have to earn forgiveness on a merit system. Now imagine this is the only religion it is the national religion. Imagine not having any assurance of your sins being forgiven always working toward forgiveness and never knowing if you would ever get to heaven. Is that a religion that offers hope, is that a religion that brings joy, is that a religion that exalts God. This isn’t made up this is real and it actually happened and believe it or not it wasn’t 2000 years ago in Isreal, this happened 500 years ago across Europe. This is what the Universal Church, the Catholic Church did. Today is the day we commemorate or I prefer to say celebrate the dawning of a new era on the church which began on October 31, 1517. It was the day a young Augustinian monk nailed what is called the 95 thesis to the church door at Wittenburg Germany. These were 95 articles which the monk wanted to debate with the church hierarchy which were derived from Scripture. This monks name is Martin Luther and he did change the scope and the direction of the church forever.

The reformation was not so much an attack on the Catholic church it was a means of reforming the church of bringing back to what the Scripture had intended the church to be. Taking it from man’s hands and putting it back in God’s hands where it belongs. The Reformation brought about some powerful tenants and there are five of those we want to look at this morning because these five tenants are what helped shape the church and these five tenants have been lost in the last 500 years and we need to be reminded of these tenants. The are the Five Sola’s of the Reformation and we will learn these five sola’s this morning.

Let me give you a brief overview of the five and then we will dig into what they are and why they are important even today.

The Five Sola’s of the Reformation

The first of the five Sola’s we will look at is sola Fide, through faith alone.

We are going to take a look at a text that brings out all of these Sola’s. Let’s look at Romans 3:21-31;

Romans 3:21–31 NASB95

But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law. Or is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since indeed God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith is one. Do we then nullify the Law through faith? May it never be! On the contrary, we establish the Law.

Verse 21-22 bring out our first Sola, Sola Fide-Trough Faith Alone.

Sola Fide-Through Faith Alone

What we see in verse 21-22 is the idea of a person being made righteous through faith alone. Now we seen this quite a bit. Faith is preached from the pulpit here and many other church will preach this as well. But in 1517 there was a decline from the study of the Word of God and there was very little preaching going on. The church service was in a language people didn’t understand and they were at the mercy of what the church leadership would teach and say. The service was also mostly made up of ceremony and tradition. There was no preaching on faith and there was also no hope given to the people in the dark ages. All the people knew was that they were sinners and that they sinned and they had to work for forgiveness.

Martin Luther who was a monk within the Catholic Church who lived in Germany. Being Catholic he worked very hard at being good. That's what the Catholic's would do they work off their sin. Within the Catholic church they teach that at baptism, infant baptism, original sin is washed away and as you grow older you commit sin so in order to counteract the sins you commit you have to acquire merits, grace. It is kind of like doing good works and those good works would be credited to your account and pay off your sin. Martin Luther believed this too. He worked hard at being good he also grew very frustrated with this and he grew frustrated with the corruption in the church. This was until one day he was reading Paul's letter to the Romans and he came across Romans 1:16-17. Verse 17 in particular.

Romans 1:16–17 NASB95

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “But the righteous man shall live by faith.”

So as Martin Luther reads these verse in the original languages mind you, he reads what the apostle Paul has written. Paul tells the Roman church that he is not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. The gospel is not something to be ashamed of, Paul and the other apostles put their lives on the line for the gospel and Martin Luther and his contemporaries do the same. This is an enlightening moment for Martin Luther because he sees here that salvation is in accordance to the power of God not and it is for anyone who believes. Luther is looking here at faith and the basis of faith in God and God’s salvation. He is beginning to see salvation is not something you can earn or buy. This is further realized when Luther comes to verse 17.

Luther reads, “For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “But the Righteous man shall live by faith.” Luther as he looks at this verse, as he is studying it and looking at the word righteousness at is as if a light when on in his head. Luther is looking at a legal term, one that says a person is made right or is made just. This righteousness is not something a person earns it is not something you work up to, it is something that as the text says, is revealed to whom, the one who believes, the one who has faith and it is faith that comes out of faith. This righteousness, that Luther is reading about is not a righteousness that is given to people. Not by any kind of work but by faith and faith alone. Sola fide.

One commentator writes this in respect to Luther’s study of this verse;

The Interpretation of St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans The Righteousness of God Revealed from Faith to Faith

It was the happiest day in Luther’s life when he discovered that “God’s righteousness” as used in Romans means God’s verdict of righteousness upon the believer. He says that it was like opening Paradise to him, that he at once ran through the Scripture with ecstasy, seeing everywhere how this righteousness opened salvation and heaven to him. This joy is ours today. Δικαιοσύνη Θεοῦ is the status of righteousness into which faith and the believer are placed by the judicial verdict of God. It is the doctrine of justification by faith alone.

For the first time in centuries a man is looking at the gospel and understanding what it means. This is a man who has been watching the corruption of the church multiply and who has worked for his salvation. Knowing there was more to being saved then the works he was performing. Here he sees it is by faith alone in God’s work that brings salvation. God has revealed this truth to Luther that Luther has been made just before God. This justification is not be anything Luther has done but is come solely from believing, trusting that God has made him just. Faith in this truth is all you need. This has brought hope to Luther. He has believed in this truth that it is not what we do that makes us right before God, it is believing in God promise and trust in God power that brings righteousness on us. Faith is all a person needs and this

This faith is not in the leadership of the church, this faith is not laid up in traditions and ceremonies. This faith that brings on righteousness, this faith that brings on salvation and is the only way to heaven comes from believing in Jesus Christ.

Philippians spells this out for us a little fuller;

Philippians 3:8–9 NASB95

More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith,

Faith in Jesus not the law is what brings about righteousness, and this righteousness is not our own righteousness but a righteousness that is imputed or placed in us. It is a righteousness we can’t earn in any way it is a righteousness that doesn’t even belong to us but belongs to Jesus and when we by faith believe He is the righteous One then His righteousness is revealed in us. It is passive and can only come by faith.

Sola Fide, by faith alone is one important tenant of the reformation, that comes straight from Scripture. The second tenant of the Reformation that comes straight from Scripture is Sola Gratia by Grace Alone;

Sola Gratia-By Grace Alone

Luther didn’t stop at Romans 1:17 he continued and he continued to study the original sources and he read this same passage here that continues to explain the idea of faith alone and now as he continues reading as we see here to it is through faith alone a person is saved and our works are meaningless. In verse 23-24 we read “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus;”

We are all sinners we all fall short of the glory of God. We can’t come into God’s presence, which the church understood but what the church didn’t understand was how to come into God’s presence. They would work for it. They would go and do penance which is looking for absolution or forgiveness of sins. The sinner would have to go to the priest and confess his or her sins and then the priest would tell them what they would have to do to receive forgiveness but had to be done with a sincere heart or you wouldn’t have your sins purged in this life. So even with all the works you do you still have no hope of entering into the glory of God.

The church in Luther’s day had one thing right, we are all sinners and we all fall short of God’s glory. The problem is they were working toward grace, they were working to build up merit. They knew there is a debt to pay so what do they do they work off their debt. That is exactly what they are doing, working it off. Do you know what is sad about this they were working to have not Jesus’ righteousness put in them but so that the goodness of the saints would be given to them. They were working toward other peoples, other human beings merits. Luther reads about justification by faith alone and then in this passage here we find it is not just through faith alone but it is by grace.

Grace is a free gift, Paul writes this in verse 24 “being justified as a free gift by His grace” It is God’s grace and it is free. Listen if you are working toward grace then it isn’t grace. If you have to work for Salvation then it is not given by God and it is not passive. It becomes a work and you are the one doing it. Paul continues to argues against this in this chapter and in the next. He says in verse 27, Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? no, but by a law of faith. See faith in the fact that God has by grace saved people through Jesus Christ. Grace is free and this means we don’t have to work for our salvation. We don’t need to build up an account to pay off our debt. No in fact because of faith and because of our justification in Christ Jesus He has paid the debt for us.

Ephesians 2:8-9 reinforces this;

Ephesians 2:8–9 NASB95

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.

It is only through grace that we are saved if it is by works then we have the right to boast don’t we. We can work our way to heaven. If we do the work then we can have pride in what we do. So then when we stand before Christ at the judgment seat and he asks why should I let you into heaven. We can just say, oh well I gave money to the poor, I sent shoeboxes to needy children. I made sure I always smiled at everyone and never said anything mean to anyone. I never stole anything, or lied, or had any bad thoughts. Oh and when I did I made sure to go to the priest and confess and to him and followed his instruction to the tee so I’m good. That won’t get you into heaven. God’s has provided the free gift of grace to mankind, why would anyone want to work for. If I had a gift for you, let’s just say, I had a bank account with $1,000,000 in it. On this piece of paper is the account number and the routing number and I give this piece of paper to my accountant and say I want you to give it to give it to anyone who trust all things will be paid for. Now my accountant instead of just giving you the piece of paper tells you. I have this paper here with an account number and routing number with an endless supply of money for you this man is showing grace but you have to work for it and earn his grace. If that were me I would walk away from that offer because that not grace. God is the one with a piece of paper saying He has an everlasting supply of Grace and the priests are the accountants who are telling people they have to work for it. Grace is receiving the account number and routing number and never having to work for it, and not deserving it at all.

Salvation is through faith alone and by grace alone. And the reason why we can have our account credited for us comes through the next sola, Solus Christus-In Christ Alone

Solus Christus-In Christ Alone

Salvation is in Christ alone the faith we have is God’ gift of justification making us right before Him by grace with out having to work for it because it is in Jesus Christ alone that the penalty has been paid for. Look again at Romans 24-25, “being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicaly as a propitiation in HIs blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; forth demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”

God displayed His only Son, Jesus Christ, as a propitiation for our sins. Jesus was a sacrifice on our behalf. All of God’s wrath, all the wrath we deserve for our sin, our disobedience our dishonoring God all of that. Ever evil thought, every evil deed, all of it was poured out on Jesus shoulders. He is the only one who can take the punishment for the entire world. It is in His person, being 100% man and 100% God that He was able to die and pay the penalty for the sins of all mankind. He did it not us.

He reinforces this idea with Romans 4.

So we have found that Salvation is by faith alone, through grace alone and in Christ alone. The fourth Sola deals with the method in which Luther came to this realization. Sola Scriptura- By Scripture Alone

Sola Scriptura-By Scripture Alone

Luther was very important to all the reformers because Luther saw all of these truths of Salvation when he began to examine the Scriptures for himself and when he began looking at the original sources. The church at the time and even the catholic church today holds to three pieces of authority. They will say that the Scripture has authority, but then they would also add to it tradition and even the pope. If tradition and scripture contradict, tradition is right, if tradition. They have a religion and a practice that holds everything up equal or greater then the Scripture.

This was the heart of Ezra 7:10

Ezra 7:10 NASB95

For Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the Lord and to practice it, and to teach His statutes and ordinances in Israel.

And Paul says this in Colossian 1:25-28

Colossians 1:25–28 NASB95

Of this church I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit, so that I might fully carry out the preaching of the word of God, that is, the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to His saints, to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ.

The final sola is in light of all this it is how we should live. Soli Deo Gloria-Glory to God Alone.

Soli Deo Gloria-Glory to God alone

Our Salvation is not for us but it is for God’s glory. We benefit from God’s glory by faith, through grace in Christ and by authority of Scripture. All of this is so we can come into God’s glory and all of this is for God’s glory.

Romans 11:36 NASB95

For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.