By Grace Through Faith Alone

What are the five solas?

The five solas are 5 Latin phrases that emerged from the protestant reformation that began on October 31, 1517. On that day, an Augustinian monk named Martin Luther, having spent months praying and writing, and growing in his frustration with the state of the church, nailed a list of statements, 95 to be exact, which were protests against the Catholic church. This is what is called the 95 thesis.

These statements range from issues on repentance, penance, the selling of indulgences, indulgence preachers, and issues on purgatory. So let me just say up front that I do not endorse ALL of the 95 statements written by Luther in this document, or recommend it as an article of absolute truth to live by.

But Luther was a righteously frustrated man whose soul was troubled by what he was seeing, namely the corruption of the Gospel within the church. He wrote this fully knowing the consequences were excommunication and possibly death for the heresy of defying the Catholic church.

What we can all be grateful for, and should be, is the courage and faith of a man to stand on the Scriptures against the tide of culture and against false teachings that harm the gospel and those who hear it. Luther nailed these statement to the door of the castle church in Wittenburg, Germany, sort of a public bulletin board of sorts, and did so inviting public debate. Within days it was copied by students in the city on the newly invented Gutenberg press and distributed across Germany, and soon, all of Europe. Staggering!

So much would happen in the years that followed. in 1521 Luther would be excommunicated and deemed a heretic. A death warrant was issued giving permission to kill him, but God gave him refuge. In 1529, 12 years after the 95 theses, the term “protestant” would be popularly used as a term describing those who stood with Luther in protest against the teachings of the pope, and those who rejected loyalty to the emperor.

The term protestant was applied to all who argued that the church should be reformed. Re shaped. Turned back to be what God’s word says it should be.

So that’s the history of that Catalyst that really launched the reformation. At the heart of it was the gospel, and the BIG question, how is someone to be saved and justified before God? Is it by works? Is it by the selling and buying of indulgences? Is it through the pope and his mediatory work? Indeed not!

And all along, as the church comes through the dark ages, and Scripture finally becomes widely read again in the languages of the common people (Thanks to men like Luther) what gets discovered? That Jesus Christ, and His work of justification through HIS merits, and HIS death and Resurrection, is the hope for sinners.

So, the 5 solas...

Sola Gratia,

Sola Fide,

Solus Christus

Sola Scriptura

Soli deo Gloria

Grace Alone

Faith Alone

Christ Alone

Scripture Alone

The Glory of God alone

Church, that’s the preaching of the Gospel. That’s dependable. That’s worth living and dying for.

Don’t die for the wrong causes. If we’re to die for a cause, let it be for the gospel. And what is the Gospel?

That a sinner can be justified before God by grace alone, (not human merit), through faith alone (not works), in Christ alone (no one else can do it), according to Scripture alone, (there’s no greater authority), and for the glory of God alone, (because it’s not to us, but to his name be the glory forever and ever).

But the question each Christian needs to ask is, But is it in your Bibles?

Let’s work through some Scriptures and establish the truth of this, and that these solas, these “only” statements do in fact, encapsulate the way of salvation, and will help you to distinguish between false teaching and damnable doctrines.

Sola Gratia - A sinner is justified by Grace Alone.

Turn to Ephesians 1:3-6 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 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, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.

Scripture places everyone on the same level. We are sinners, and as sinners, we are dead in sin and carry the penalty of original sin and are guilty. But being dead, which is the spiritual state Scripture gives to the nonbeliever, or the not-yet-follower of Christ, we are also helpless. Any Spiritual blessing must come, not from within, where the world says you’ll find it, but from without, in God who is blessed forever. Blessed be God the Father, who chooses to save sinners out of the system of the world and out of sin, and into the light with His Son, Jesus Christ!

Paul tells us in Ephesians that he chose us. That’s grace. It starts with grace. Not merit. When did he choose? Before the foundations of the world. Why did he choose those whom he would save? That we should be holy and blameless before him, not guilty and stained with our sins. And what’s the purpose of it all? That his glorious grace might be PRAISED! Did you see that in v6?

Now follow me over to the next chapter.

Ephesians 2:5-10 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.

The doctrine of Sola Gratia points us to the glory of God’s gift of grace as the decisive reason for our salvation, removes all human boasting, and promotes full reliance upon Him.

The one who contemplates their religion, or the faith they claim to have, and at any points relies on their work, or their doing good, or their abstaining from being as bad as the person next to them, has missed the grace of God, and by relying on their own ability will fall short of God’s glory and end up separated from God forever in hell.

Justification by grace alone, sola gratia, is a crucial part of our faith and it must begin there.

Romans 3:20-25 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.

And this transitions us nicely to the next sola

Sola Fide - A sinner is justified before God by grace alone, through faith alone.

If a person is to see God one day, and stand before the presence and beauty of perfect holiness, he or she must be righteous. Not compared to their neighbor, but compared to God. And of course the massive problem facing humanity is the sin that makes us unholy and unable to be righteous before him.

So, to access this free gift of grace and the salvation of the soul, Scripture tells us that faith in Christ is necessary. Faith is the means by with righteousness is imputed to the sinner. Faith and faith alone. But what is faith?

It is trust. it is full and total belief. It’s surrender and submission. It’s reliance on the mercy of God displayed through Jesus Christ and the blood he shed as payment for our sins.

Do you trust in that? The majority of you do, which is why you’re hear to be fed the word of God, but many in this world do not.

Ephesians 2 already put it in this order for us. “By grace you have been saved through faith.”

God’s grace is the cause, and faith is the mechanism he gives as a gift to receive what Christ alone has done.

Romans 4:3-5 For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.

In other words, you don’t want what you can earn, you want what is given by grace alone.

The doctrine of Faith alone rejects human merit completely as the means of our justification.

Abraham believed what God had said about the promise of a son, and that faith in God opened a whole new account in his name.

When a sinner has true faith in Christ that person is counted as righteous before God and a new account is opened in his or her name. The record of sin is cancelled, and Christ’s perfect record is given in its place.

Philippians 3:9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—

Galatians 2:16 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.

There are only two kinds of people on this room this morning, those to whom Christ’s righteousness has been imputed by faith, and those who are still relying on their own righteousness.

The former are free and forgiven and reconciled to God. The latter are in bondage to their sin and will never see God.

Matthew 5:8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” But who has a pure heart? Only those whose hearts of stone have been replaced with a heart of flesh to be molded by their Maker.

Brothers and sisters, anyone here who has yet to repent and trust in Christ for the forgiveness of sins, Sola Gratia and Sola Fide…Grace alone, through faith alone have an antithesis. The world preaches this antithesis. Earn it, and work it out. You are the master of your soul, and you can do it. But this is the lie of the age!

And as long as we live in this world we will need reformation to continue, and the church will always need to be reforming according to the truth of God’s word. Believers, members of New City, this is worth standing up for. Check your heart to be sure you believe this, and not just a version of Christianity that cannot be supported with Scripture.

For those yet to respond to the message of the Gospel by faith, that’s what you need to do right now. No one but Jesus can save you, and, oh I am so glad to tell be able to tell you that what Christ has done on the cross by his death for you, and His resurrection, is sufficient for you to let go of everything else and trust in Him right now. He will give you his righteousness and make you new!

You can do this by acknowledging your need as a sinner, someone who is bankrupt and poor in spirit, then look to Christ by faith and tell him you trust Him. We’re going to pray, and you’ll have an opportunity to pray as well, and begin today a new life as a disciple of Jesus Christ. It’s not the easy life but it is eternal life. There will be hardship and hatred from the word, but that’s all just momentary when compared to eternity in the presence of God!