5 Solas: Faith Alone - So what?
Join us the 8th, Tuesday at 7:00 pm (GMT) where Josh Rieger discusses Grace Alone why it’s biblical and why it’s necessary.
What are the practical or pastoral benefits of the doctrine of ‘faith alone’? Simply put they help preserve the free offer of the Gospel. If you think about, if salvation is from God by grace alone through (by means of) faith alone then the only criteria needed for salvation is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
This gets rid of any kind of preparation needed. This does not preclude the necessity of good works; but, ‘by faith alone’ puts good works in their proper perspective.
There was a great debate in Scotland in the 18th century over this very issue, whether the gospel was offered to all or only to the elect. Sinclair Ferguson deals masterfully with the issues and the solution in his book The Whole Christ. But one solution that should have been leaned upon by the Scottish church is the Solas. This would have corrected their aberrant theology and reminded them that to be Protestant, is to confess that salvation is accomplished by faith alone.
To add works or some kind of preparation as a necessary corollary is to return to Roman Catholicism. Rome would not have agreed with all that the hyper-Calvinists in Scotland believed at the time but they would have seen the need to add something to faith which was what was happening in the Scottish church at the time.
This then, helps us to see that being Protestant is also being evangelical (in the sense of offering the gospel freely to any and all). That, denying the free offer of the gospel, denies what it means to be fundamentally Protestant — it denies Sola Gratia and Sola Fide especially, while also touching upon Solus Christus and Solio Deo Gloria. Suddenly the subtle Satanic shift moves from Christ and his finished work to man.
So let us uphold the biblical teaching of faith alone in Christ alone (Eph. 2:8-9). This allows us to offer the gospel freely to all. There is no need to make yourself better for God (you cannot). There is also tremendous weight lifted when you realise Christ and his righteousness surround you. God’s holy standard is not lessened but strengthened. And since it was not by any work of your own that you were saved, nothing can separate you now from Christ’s love (Rom. 8:31-35)! This is the wonderful news of the Gospel!
As we continue to explore the Solas in our 5 blokes series it’s a good corrective to continue to remember where we came from as Protestants. We do not graduate from these principles but rather build faithfully on the foundations laid by our forefathers.
