The Solas of the Reformation - Soli Deo Gloria

Glory to God Alone!

To God belongs all the glory for our salvation.

Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us, but unto your name give glory, for your mercy, and for your truth's sake. (Psalm 115:1)

The whole of our lives are to be lived for his glory,

Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
(1 Corinthians 10:31)

In Medieval Catholicism only Popes, priests, cardinals, monks and nuns, living a specifically religious life were thought to be honouring God. The Reformation smashed such spiritual elitism. The Reformers emphasised the importance of ordinary life. They prized marriage and child rearing over and against the celibacy of the Catholic clergy. People were taught to glorify God in the home, in the fields, in their trades and professions. The lowliest tasks were dignified and sanctified by godly living.

And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him. (Colossians 3:17)

The arts were liberated from the patronage of the Church and artists painted not just saints and Bible-pictures, but people, landscapes, flowers, birds and crowds at work and play. The glories of creation and ordinary life were worth celebrating. We would not have the paintings of Rembrandt, Turner and Constable apart from the Reformation.

Music was simplified so that whole congregations, not just trained choirs could sing God’s praises. Bach was a child of the Reformation. Mendelssohn, in the 19th Century celebrated the Reformation with his great “Reformation Symphony”.

Science was encouraged. Calvin taught that God has written two books, the book of Nature and the book of the Word. Both are worth studying. The Catholic Church, mainly because its view of the universe owed more to Aristotle than the Bible, notoriously stifled scientific research.

Let all be done for the glory of God! Our self-obsessed culture and need obsessed Churches need to hear this authentic Reformation emphasis more than ever. Jonathan Edwards calls us to make the glory of God our chief joy and delight,

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God is glorified within Himself these two ways: 1. By appearing...to Himself in His own perfect idea [of Himself], or in His Son, who is the brightness of His glory. 2. By enjoying and delighting in Himself, by flowing forth in infinite...delight towards Himself, or in His Holy Spirit.

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So God glorifies Himself toward the creatures also in two ways: 1. By appearing to...their understanding. 2. In communicating Himself to their hearts, and in their rejoicing and delighting in, and enjoying, the manifestations which He makes of Himself...God is glorified not only by His glory's being seen, but by its being rejoiced in. When those who see it delight in in, God is more glorified than if they only see it. His glory is then received by the whole soul, both by the understanding and the heart. God made the world that He might communicate and the creature receive, His glory; and that it might [be] received both by the mind and heart. He that testifies his idea of God's glory [doesn't] glorify God so much as he that testifies also his approbation of it and delight in it. (Miscellanies no. 448, from A God Entranced Vision of All Things - The Legacy of Jonathan Edwards, ed. John Piper & Justin Taylor, p. 26, 2004, Crossway.)

Our chief end is to enjoy God and glorify him forever! If we grasp that, we will be truly biblical Protestants.

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O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who has known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor? Or who has first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen. (Romans 11:33-36)
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This is part 5 of a series on the "sloas" that arose from a couple of posts on Biblical Protestantism (see below)

Jonathan Edwards on the enjoyment of God here

The Solas of the Reformation - Sola Gratia

Grace Alone!

When the Reformers pondered the question “How does someone become a Christian?” Their answer was that we are saved by grace alone.

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2: 8-10).

Human works do not come into it at all. The Roman Church of the 16th Century gave far too place for human effort in salvation. Sola gratia was an attempt to bring Western Christendom back to its roots in Augustine's theology of grace.

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In his book The Lost Message of Jesus, Steve Chalke strongly disagreed with the biblical teaching on original sin and the radical sinfulness of the human heart. He prefers to speak of the “original goodness of man” as if the fall never happened. No wonder he has such a weak and inadequate view of the atonement. Salvation is not of works – but grace from beginning to end.

It is God’s loving grace that moved him to save sinners. Our salvation can be traced back to God’s sovereign and gracious choice in election. God did not choose us because he knew we would believe. He chose us as sinners and determined in Christ to give us faith unto salvation. Paul wrote of God,

who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began, but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel
(2 Timothy 1:9 & 10)

Arminianism teaches that God chose to save people because he foresaw that they would repent and believe. This undermines sola gratia. Biblical Calvinism emphasise the invincibility of God’s electing love. Donald Macleod reflects,

The popular view of the difference between Calvinism and Arminianism is that Arminians teach that God loves all men whereas Calvinists teach that God only loves the elect. This is a gross oversimplification. We are talking of two entirely different kinds of love. To the Calvinist, redeeming love is God’s determination to actually save. Far from believing that God loves all men in this sense the Arminian does not believe that God loves one single human soul in this sense. For him, God’s love does not go beyond offering salvation. The last word lies with the human will. The Almighty stands helpless outside the door of the heart, the handle on the inside. He is defeated by man’s No! Electing love, by contrast, means that God doesn’t take No! for an answer. He opens the door, not roughly, from the outside, but gently, from the inside, so that we come to Christ ‘most freely, being made willing by his grace’. (p. 215 Behold Your God!, 1995, Christian Focus Publications)

By grace we were chosen. By the grace of God, Christ tasted death for every man, that he might bring many sons to glory. (Hebrews 2: 9 & 10). By grace we are drawn to Christ and by grace we are kept to the end.

We sing with John Newton,

Amazing grace how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me!

Salvation by grace alone is the basis of true godly living. Holiness is a matter of glad obedience to a gracious God, not trying to earn our salvation by works.

Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace. (Romans 6:12-14)

This healthy emphasis on grace alone humbles man to the dust and exalts the saving love of God.

Sovereign grace o’er sin abounding,
Who like we Thy praise should sing?

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Augustine and the Reformation here

Union with Christ and the life of holiness here , here & here

The triumph of grace in Christ's victory over the devil here

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This is part 4 of a series on the "sloas" that arose from a couple of posts on Biblical Protestantism (see below)

The Solas of the Reformation - Sola Fide

Faith Alone!

Martin Luther tried as hard as he could to save himself as a devout monk. But he despaired of finding salvation by works. He came to understand that justification – a right standing before God was obtainable by faith alone.

Night and day I pondered until I saw the connection between the righteousness of God and the statement ‘the just shall live by faith’ (Romans 1:17). Then I grasped that the righteousness of God is that righteousness by which though grace and sheer mercy God justifies us through faith. Thereupon I felt myself to be reborn and to have gone through open doors into paradise. The whole of Scripture took on new meaning, and whereas before ‘the righteousness of God’ had filled me with hate, not it became inexpressibly sweet in greater love. This passage of Paul became to me a gate to heaven.

This is the Bible’s teaching,

Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. (Galatians 2:16)

Justification is God’s declaration that the sinner is righteous in his sight.,

But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness (Romans 4:5.)

The basis of justification is the death and resurrection of Christ,

who was delivered up because of our offences, and was raised because of our justification. (Romans 4:25.)

Christ alone saves us by faith in him alone.

This foundational doctrine of the Reformation needs to be safeguarded today. Biblical scholars such as Tom Wright, the current Bishop of Durham teach the so-called “New Perspective on Paul”. The “New Perspective” makes justification a matter of “Who are the people of God?” not “How can a sinner be right with God?” This view is becoming increasingly influential. But it robs the Biblical doctrine of justification by faith of its God-ward emphasis. Justification is primarily about God declaring a sinner righteous in is sight, not who belongs to the people of God.

Justification does impact on the doctrine of the Church – all believers have access to God in prayer through Christ. We need no priestly intervention. Christian Ministers are gifted and called to preach to and lead they people of God. But all Christians believers constitute a “royal priesthood” with access to God through Jesus Christ (1 Peter 2:9).

Justification by faith alone safeguards the free, gracious aspect of the gospel. We are justified apart from our works. But the faith that alone saves does not remain alone. The faith that justifies works through love (Galatians 5:6).

Justification is the basis of assurance,

What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Who is he that condemns? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ (Romans 8: 31-35)

Luther was racked with guilt when he was a devout monk, because he could never be sure that he had done enough to satisfy God. Justification by faith alone points us outside of ourselves, away from our works, moods and feelings to Christ. He has satisfied God’s justice. His righteousness is counted to us by faith. Therefore we can by joyously confident that we are accepted in the Beloved.

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N. T. Wright on justification here

Justification & the resurrection of Christ here

See The Great Exchange by Philip Eveson, Day One Publications, for an evaluation of the New Perspective on Paul.

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This is part 3 of a series on the "sloas" that arose from a couple of posts on Biblical Protestantism (see below)

The Solas of the Reformation - Solo Christo

Christ Alone!

The Reformation was thoroughly Christ-centred. That is how we can tell it was a work of the Spirit,

However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you. (John 16:13-16)

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The great Reformers were concerned to glorify Christ in both his Person and his work. John Calvin was unhappy with the older Trinitarian formulas that suggested that the Father was the fountain of deity, who communicated the divine essence to the Son by eternally begetting him. Calvin acknowledged that the Son receives his Sonship from the Father, for how could he be Son without the Father? But the reformer explicitly denied that the Son received his essence from the Father. The Son is autotheos - God in his own right.

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And hence we also hold that the Son, regarded as God, and without reference to person is also of himself; though we also say that, regarded as Son, he is of the Father. (Institutes Book I:XIII,25)

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Calvin's insight was an attempt to rid the Church of subordinationist views of the Son of God. As Son, Christ is homoousios with the Father. He is God of himself as the Father is God of himself. As Donald Macleod points out,

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If Christ is not God in his own right, if he is God only by derivation, then we are tampering with his very deity. (p. 201 Behold your God! Christan Focus 1995, see also B. B. Warfield Calvin's Doctrine of the Trinity p. 189ff in Calvin & Augustine P & R 1980)

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Reformed Theology confesses Jesus as "I AM" (John 8:28) and ascribes to him the highest possible glory. Jesus is both fully God and fully Man. Only as one who was homoousios with both God and humanity, could Christ reconcile fallen human beings to God.

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Roman Catholic emphasis on the saints, Mary and the officers of the Church tended to obscure Christ. The Lord’s Supper became a sacrificial Mass that re-offered Christ as atonement for sin. This undermined the finality and sufficiency of the cross.

The Reformers insisted that Christ alone is Saviour and that his work is sufficient to save us from our sins. This is the clear teaching of Scripture:

For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.
(1 Timothy 2:5 & 6)

For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens; Who needs not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people's: for this he did once, when he offered up himself. (Hebrews 7:26 & 27)

One sure-fire characteristic of Evangelicalism was that Christ died as our substitute, bearing the penalty of our sin. But Steve Chalke, card carrying member of the Evangelical Alliance, infamously said that this teaching is tantamount to,

child abuse – a vengeful Father punishing his Son for an offence he has not even committed.

In an online article, Redeeming the Cross – The Lost Message of Jesus and the Cross of Christ, Chalke claims that the penal-substitutionary model of the atonement is the product of Reformation teaching as set out by the 19th Century American Theologian Charles Hodge. Hodge is the real Theological bogey man for Chalke. He blames him for popularising the penal substitutionary view of the cross that he finds so objectionable. Chalke prefers the pre-reformation view that Christ was offered as a ransom to Satan.

You do not have to be a dyed in the wool Calvinist to accept that penal substitution is the hallmark of an evangelical understanding of the cross. An 18th Century critic denounced the teaching that “the sacrifice of Christ was destined to appease vindictive justice” as “frivolous and blasphemous notions.” John Wesley responded, “These ‘frivolous and blasphemous notions’ do I receive as the precious truth of God.”.

Partly as a result of this controversy, penal substitution is regarded by some evangelicals as simply one theory of the atonement, rather than the very essence of the biblical teaching of the cross. But, if death is the penalty for sin and Christ died for our sins, then his death is by definition both substitutionary and penal. Listen to the apostle Paul as he reminded the Corinthians of the gospel that he preached to them,

Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: (1 Corinthians 15:1-4)

No wonder that Don Carson, in his Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church, could write of Steve Chakle and his fellow “Emergent Church” leader Brian Maclaren,

I have to say, as kindly but as forcefully as I can, that to my mind, if words mean anything, both McLaren and Chakle have largely abandoned the gospel.

Do unbelievers need to hear of Christ in order to be saved? You might have thought that Evangelicals of all people would answer YES! But this is no longer the case. Billy Graham was asked, whether “it’s possible for Jesus Christ to come into human hearts and soul and life, even if they have been born in darkness and have never had exposure to the Bible?” Graham replied, “Yes it is”. Billy Graham is not alone in his sentiments.

In April’s Evangelicals Now! John Benton wrote of his sneak preview of this year’s study guide for the Spring Harvest/Word Alive events.

It has been put together, with assistance, by Steve Chalke, well-known for his dismissal of the cross as a penal substitution. The guide deftly presents various options rather than definite truth on various major doctrines. And a drift away from a clear need for decision for Christ is betrayed in such quotes as the following from Newbigin: ‘The position I have outlined is exclusivist in that it affirms the unique truth of the revelation in Jesus Christ, but is not exclusivist in the sense of denying the possibility of salvation of the non-Christian.’ This really shows a concern to say things which are culturally acceptable at the expense of the gospel…the price of drawing in all the punters seems to be defection from historic evangelicalism and biblical truth. No doubt, Spring Harvest mean well, but this spells disaster

The Reformers believed that people needed to hear the truth in order to be saved. That is why they translated the Bible into the languages of the people, and preached the Word of God to the masses.

How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? (Romans 10:14)

The Reformation calls us back to a explicitly Christ-centred gospel and spirituality. What could be healthier for the Church?

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John Calvin on salvation through Christ alone here
John Owen on the glory of Christ here
Did Jesus know that he was God? here
Steve Chalke and the cross of Christ here
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This is part 2 of a series on the "sloas" that arose from a couple of posts on Biblical Protestantism (see below)

The Solas of the Reformation - Sola Scriptura

The Bible Alone!

At the time of the Reformation, the Roman Catholic Church taught that the laity should not be allowed to read the Bible. Only the Pope and the priests and officers of the Church could interpret the Word of God. The official Catholic interpretation of Scripture is called the Magesterium. The Catholic Church elevated its traditions to the level of Scripture. It held that there were seven sacraments, not two. It taught that the faithful should pray to Mary and the saints. It offered indulgences for sale for the forgiveness of sin.

The Protestant Reformers rejected all that. Luther saw that the basis for Christian truth is the Bible only. Tradition is valuable. The Reformers often quoted from Augustine and the other Church fathers. But the Bible alone is authoritative. When Luther was urged to retract his criticisms of the Catholic Church at the Diet of Worms, he said, “My conscience is bound by the Word of God. Here I stand, I can do no other, so help me God.”

Luther was being entirely biblical,

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work (2 Tim 3:16.)

On this basis, Evangelical Protestant Churches give central place to the Bible. The Reformation rediscovered preaching. The pulpit took central place in the Church-building and people gathered to hungrily devour the preached word. All the Reformers were first and foremost preachers of the Word.

We admit no continuing revelation either from the Pope’s “infallible” directives or from the experiences or visions of mystics who claim that the Spirit has spoken to them. We will not allow liberal Theologians to tell us what parts of the Bible we can believe today. We allow the Bible to judge our age, not the other way around. We hold to the total reliability and inerrancy of the Bible as the unique Word of God.

knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. (2 Peter 1:20 & 21)

The doctrine of Biblical inerrancy has been criticised by some influential Evangelical scholars. They are unable to confess that the Bible is without error. Such people claim to hold a high view of the Bible without holding to full inerrancy. Evangelicals who have moved away from the older position are in danger of jeopardising the gospel that is based on the testimony of Scripture. Iain Murray warns us,

A person who believes the gospel and is yet uncertain about the whole Bible will get to heaven in spite of the inconsistency of thought. But we cannot stop there. That same inconsistency, if condoned, has the potential to undermine all saving Christianity. Belief in the trustworthiness of Scripture is essential for the preservation of the Christian faith as a whole. (p. 312 Evangelicalism Divided, Banner of Truth Trust, 2000)

The Bible alone! This principle gives us a sure objective guide in our confusing world of post-modern thinking where anything goes. The Bible makes us wise unto salvation and is a sure guide to heaven.

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The law of the LORD is perfect,
reviving the soul;
the testimony of the LORD is sure,
making wise the simple
(Psalm 19:7)

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Kevin Vanhoozer on inerrancy here

The Bible and the future of Evangelicalism here

Today's Roman Catholic teaching on Scripture here

Word and Spirit in Reformed & Puritan Theology here

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This is part 1 of a series on the "sloas" that arose from a couple of posts on Biblical Protestantism (see below)