The Five Solas (Week 1) - Overview & Definitions

Sermon Introduction:

We are going to start a new series tonight that I am really hoping will be of interest and personal application to many of you.

We are going to look directly at Roman Catholicism and the historical teaching of the Roman Catholic church. I will cite from the official teachings documents of Rome, like the Roman Catholic Catechism and from various councils, teachings of Popes throughout the years, etc.

But what we are going to aim to do is gain an understanding of what Rome teaches and what we believe as Evangelical, Protestant Christians. This type of study is apologetic, meaning we are looking at a belief set different from our own and learn what not only they believe but what we believe. The goal is that as you come to understand these things better, we can have better conversations, more clear understandings and engagement, with our friends or family who may be Roman Catholic.

So the approach I want to take is that we would focus on the "Five Solas" of the Reformation. These are the affirmations, summaries of the teachings, of the reformers and all of their heirs who are in the vast Protestant movement today. These affirmations, and their corresponding denials, are at the core of what it means to be a Protestant. As we may see throughout this study though, some of the core aspects of these beliefs have been skewed or in some cases lost all together in churches that trace our lineage back to the Reformation.

This series will look specifically at the Sola affirmations and contrast them to the false teachings of the established church in that day, the Roman Catholic church. We will see where Rome erred, and in the process see where Rome is still in error today. This study will help, I hope, to show you where the dividing line between the Biblical faith is and what false religions teach.

The Roman Church, the Mormon Church, the Jehovah's Witnesses, and even Islam all claim to be worshiping God. My goal over the course of this series (and in possible future series to come in which we will deal with the claims of each of these movements) is to equip you to defend the faith and to have a grounding to have conversations around the claims of the Bible, the nature and person of Jesus, and to be better prepared and equipped to share the Gospel.

We are called to be witnesses to Christ and our part in The Missio Dei (the Mission of God) is to proclaim the Gospel. We know that God alone saves men and women. We cannot force a conversion, we cannot breathe life into the spiritually dead.

But the Holy Spirit, through the Apostle Peter tells us:

Sermon Text: I Peter 3:15

1 Peter 3:15 ESV

but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,

My goal is to help you honor Christ more in your thinking and understanding, emphasizing His holiness and His glory, and to equip you be prepared to give a defense of your faith. My goal is that we would always do this with gentleness and respect, and I think that comes particularly through a fair and accurate representations of even those we disagree with, even with false teachings that we will look at.

That said, I tend to get a bit worked up on these issues because they really are so much more important that most people think today… so you can anticipate times of passion from me too.

To begin our study, I want to take a look tonight at what we mean with by some of the phrases and terms that will be studied here.

So let's define our terms. In your handout I have some blanks to fill in and this will be the first. I plan to make copies of this hand out that are filled in (so they are essentially completed versions of these notes) and post those on my website each week. I have the address to my site listed on the handout if you are interested.

The first term we need to define is: Sola.

The word Sola is Latin, and means Alone or Only.

We would derive our English word "Solo" from the same basic root.We will use this word "Sola" and two derivatives of it "Solus" and "Soli" to refer to specific affirmations of the Christian faith that I believe are foundational dividing line issues. Thinks we cannot deny and remain in the true Christian faith.

There are Five (5) specific Sola affirmations that have come to be associated with Reformation Theology. We will take a look at each of them, though we will not find the exact phrases used in the first-hand writings of the Reformers as we look at what they have to say.

In part, this is due to the fact that the German Reformation had Martin Luther (who will spend a lot of time looking at because his life is very helpful) & Philip Melanchthon (a close friend the successor of Luther) writing a lot in German. In Switzerland we find Ulrich Zwingli (another first generation Reformer) writing also in German, but when we shift to Geneva we have John Calvin writing a lot in French and in Latin, which was what men like Erasmus mostly used. As we move to the Reformation as it spread to England & Scotland, you will find John Wycliff & William Tyndale writing in English, but an earlier version which is pretty different from our modern form. In Scotland you have John Knox, the Westminster Divines, etc. and of course in England we have Puritans like John Owen, Richard Baxter, and John Bunyan, whose writings are a bit more accessible in English, but still not quite modern.

So we have a language issue and we have the basic fact that they didn't feel the need to summarize and shorten everything like we do today. A modern work aimed at the popular level is about 200-250 pages, including footnotes usually!

The thing to understand is that these phrases are shorthand theological terms for us. They refer us deeper into theological truths and Biblical texts. That's where the authority is. We want to define and affirm our believes based on what the Bible teaches, but we can these terms as shorthand to know what we are talking about without having to recapture each full argument every time.

I want to give you all Five Solas here, both in Latin and in English so we can used to thinking about them and even using these terms together.

Sola Gratia - Grace Alone

Sola Fide - Faith Alone

Solus Christus - Christ Alone

Sola Scriptura - Scripture Alone

Soli Deo Gloria - For the Glory of God Alone

Those are the 5 positive affirmations that we will cover in depth in our study together, going into the Scriptures to see these taught and looking at the teachings of Rome to see their rejection of these principals and the error that produces.

To put it in a sentence, something that may help you remember each of the points a little easier:

We affirm: Salvation by Grace Alone, through Faith Alone, in Christ Alone, following the Scripture Alone, to the Glory of God Alone.

That is our confession if we are Protestant. These five things make up our confession and form what I believe to be the dividing line between biblical Christianity and false religion.

For the Reformers these five things defined what it meant to be a Protestant. The Roman Catholic Church could not and still cannot abide by these five things and has declared them to be anathema - false doctrines. Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons along with other cultic groups cannot hold to them. These five things define Protestantism, even crossing the boundaries between denominations and theological frameworks, and hence define a biblical view of the Christian faith. - Tim Challies

The word Protestant referred historically to those who affirm the Five Solas.

The term Evangelical originally meant "people of the Gospel"

Unfortunately today, the term is so broad that it is used to define everyone. The definition has gone out of it, hence we find heretics like Rob Bell claiming to be Evangelical, though he denies essential Christian teachings like the death of Christ for our sins, the resurrection from the dead, eternal judgement by God, salvation through Christ alone, etc.

Today Evangelical is a blanket term, so I will try to use it less often in our modern context and just use it in the historical context to refer to the non-Roman Catholic Church. When we talk about the church forming under Luther and the other Reformers, they didn't want their names attached to it and so the term used in those days was "Evangelical" - of course today we have denominations like Lutheranism, but in the beginning that was not the case.

I will also refer to Protestants, though that too is broad in itself, to discuss those who affirm the Five Solas and reject the false teachings of Rome. This term was a later development, and it was actually derived from a legal term in Germany where the minority view was protesting the actions of the majority, but it has come to be understood and used as a way to talk about the Christians who were Protesting the theology and practices of Rome.

Evangelicalism as a movement has seen many shifts over the last 500 years, and we will try to talk about those as the relate to our American understandings.

For example, we live in a time where our view of "Evangelicalism" has been influenced by the likes of men such as Charles Finney. In the AG circles, he is even held up as something of hero by some. But if you aren't aware, Finney denied original sin, the substitutionary atonement, justification, and the supernatural character of the new birth. He was a heretic actually and he created a system of faith and practice tailor-made for a self-reliant nation.

What I mean by that, is Finney denied the basics of the Gospel and proceeding to create an entire movement where men and women were taught that salvation can be generated by our efforts. We can make it happen, so techniques, skills, and sales pitches should be used. This is in direct contrast to the Word of God (as we will see) and what Evangelicalism or Protestantism originally recovered and caused us to separate from Rome in the first place.

Our approach in this study will be to look at the lives of some of the Reformers, starting with Martin Luther, in order to set the stage a bit. We need to understand what the religious culture and teachings were in that day. Understanding who Luther was, what he experienced and what he taught will be really helpful and I think relatable to us. We will look at other reformers briefly, mostly things they have written about each topic as we dig into those areas.

My hope in all of this is to lay a solid foundation, to put into perhaps new terms the things you already believe and affirm as Protestant Christians, and to bring some more clarity and even depth into our thinking.

I also want to bring to light for you the errors of Rome and Roman Catholicism. I want you to be aware of what the dividing lines are, where we differ, and help us consider how we should respond, how we should view these things, and how we can engage those in Roman Catholicism.

Conclusion:

The Five Sola represent the very heart of the Biblical Gospel message. Let me give you a very brief definition of each of the points tonight, points we will spend more time considering them one by one over this series:

SOLA SCRIPTURA

The Scriptures alone are our ultimate authority for faith and practice.

This doesn’t mean that the Bible is the only place where truth is found, but it does mean that everything else we learn about God and His world, and all other authorities, should be interpreted in light of Scripture. The Bible gives us everything we need for our theology.

We believe that every word of the 66 books of the Bible are inspired by God’s Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit helps us to understand and obey Scripture.

SOLA FIDE

We are saved justified through faith in Jesus Christ alone by the righteousness of Jesus Christ alone.

We can only stand before God because He mercifully imputes (transfers or credits to us - we will discuss this term more later) to us the righteousness of Jesus Christ and imputes to Him the consequences of our sins when we place our faith in Jesus Christ.

SOLA GRATIA

We are saved by the grace of God alone. We are not saved by our merits or any of our own works.

God grants salvation not because of the good things we do, but because of what Christ has done.

We are naturally enemies of God and lovers of evil. We need to be made alive (what the Bible calls regenerated) so that we can have faith in Christ. God graciously chooses to give His people new hearts so that we trust in Christ and are saved through faith alone.

By God's grace alone, Jesus’ life of perfect righteousness is counted as ours, and our records of sin and failure were counted to Jesus when He died on the cross.

SOLUS CHRISTUS

Salvation is found in Christ Alone. We believe there is no other way to be saved and nothing needs to be or even can be added to Him or His work.

God has given the ultimate revelation of Himself to us by sending Jesus Christ, Colossians 1:15. Only through God’s gracious self-revelation in Jesus do we come to a saving and transforming knowledge of God.

We reject the idea that the Sacraments save us, as Rome teaches, and instead look at the Cross of Christ as the "once and for all sacrifice" as Hebrews tells us.

SOLI DEO GLORIA

Glory belongs to God alone.

God’s own glory is the central motivation for salvation, not improving the lives of people—though that is a wonderful by product. God is not a means to an end—He is the means and the end.

The goal of all of life is to give glory to God alone: “Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31).

1 Corinthians 10:31 ESV

So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

As The Westminster Catechism says, the chief purpose of human life is: “to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.”

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Do you have any questions tonight?

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--Prayer--