5 Solas: Sola Fide in the Church Fathers

by Jim Curtis

One of the common Roman Catholic objections to many Reformation ideas is that their teaching is line with the Church Fathers—the generations of men who lived roughly from just after the Apostles through the 8th Century or so. This clearly means, then, that the Reformation was creating something new; the theology of Luther, Calvin, and others was innovation, and therefore out of the bounds of orthodoxy.

Specifically, Roman Catholic apologists love to claim this about the five Solae (editor or Solas) of the Reformation. In their view, these solae were a sharp break from the Church Fathers, and therefore do not fall in line with historic Christianity. Yet, I don’t believe this claim can be substantiated—and neither did the Reformers! There are plenty of instances of the Solae in the Church Fathers, though it takes some work in seeing that these men were planting the seeds of such doctrines for those after them to reap when they grew to maturity.

Yet, couldn’t we simply claim Sola Scriptura and be done with their objection? Well, yes and no. Yes in the sense that we don’t need to ultimately address their claims, because the Solae are definitively found in the Scriptures (I sense a part 2 to this post…). But we would be putting ourselves in a precarious position if we began teaching something in broad contradiction to the Fathers, and so it is incredibly important for us to do our homework, study their writings, and let them speak for themselves.

Sola Fide and the Fathers

While a post on all five Solae would be beneficial, time and space only permits me to focus on one. Since Michael Cochran did a great job in concisely explaining Sola Fide just recently on our Five Blokes, Five Solas, Five Minutes, I figure this is a great chance to capitalize on his good work and seek to further it just a hair in this historical direction.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at a few excerpts from the Fathers on Sola Fide:

St. Origen (AD 184-253)

Origen is, admittedly, a somewhat controversial figure in church history. He was an early figure in the Church dedicated to teaching and discipling, and many of his writings survive to us in the forms of his commentaries and lectures. It is in his commentary on Luke (23:43) where we find his reference to an early form of Sola Fide:

A man is justified by faith. The works of the law can make no contribution to this. Where there is no faith which might justify the believer, even if there are works of the law, these are not based on the foundation of faith.

It is interesting here that Origen specifically uses faith and works as elements of contrast—these two concepts of faith and work, in the discussion of justification, are opposites. This is instructive for the discussion of Sola Fide; many discussions I’ve had with Roman Catholics have gone the way of the Roman Catholic reminding me that it is not that they don’t believe that they are justified by faith. It is the Sola which they struggle with. Here, Origen closes the door on any scheme of faith and works working in tandem in justification. Note also that works are also on the “foundation of faith,” meaning that if one is justified already, works will be present—a key beliefe of protestantism.

St. Hilary of Poitiers (AD 315-368)

St. Hilary of Poitiers was known as Malleus Arianorum, Hammer of the Arians. He was a great defender of Nicene Trinitarianism along with his brother in the Faith, St. Athanasius. He was the Bishop of Poitiers from 353 to his exile in 360. St. Hilary is perhaps the most famous example of Sola Fide in the Fathers because he says the phrase explicitly in his writings. In his commentary on Matthew 9:6, St. Hilary is commenting on Jesus’ authority to forgive sins after saying to a paralytic, Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven (Matt 9:6, ESV). He writes:

This was forgiven by Christ through faith, because the Law could not yield, for faith alone justifies (In Evangelium Matthaei Commentarius, Caput VIII).

This is a striking example, especially given the Latin: fides enim sola justificat.

St. Basil the Great (AD 330-379)

St. Basil of Caesaria, called “The Great,” was in line with the likes of Hilary and St. Athanasius in his condemnation of the Arian heresy. He worked tirelessly as the Bishop of Caesaria, along with his younger brother, Gregory of Nyssa, and close friend, Gregory of Nazianzus, to establish Nicene Trinitarianism in the Church. These three, commonly referred to as the Cappadocian Fathers (as they all ministered in Cappadocia, in modern day Turkey), are some of the most quoted, interesting, and prominent Fathers.

St. Basil confidently taught in his Homilia XX, Homilia De Humilitate (§3, PG 31:529):

For this is perfect and pure boasting in God, when one is not proud on account of his own righteousness but knows that he is indeed unworthy of the true righteousness and has been justified solely by faith in Christ.

Turns out, St. Basil wasn’t just a defender of the Trinity, but of justification solely by faith!

St. John Chrysostom (AD 347-407)

St. John, called Chrysostom (“The Golden-Mouthed”) for his apparently incredible preaching gift, would eventually ascend to become the Archbishop of Constantinople, until he too would be exiled. St. John’s writings are incredibly vast from the Patristic era, only outdone by the likes of Origen and Augustine—no slouches themselves! Regarding Sola Fide, St. John’s homily on Ephesians 2:8 is instructive:

That he may excite in us proper feeling touching this gift of grace. “What then?” saith a man, “Hath He Himself hindered our being justified by works?” By no means. But no one, he saith, is justified by works, in order that the grace and loving-kindness of God may be shown (Homilies on Ephesians, 2:9).

Here St. John shows the other side, or the negative, of Sola Fide: that works are not that which justify us, lest any boast. Justification cannot be by works for the simple reason that “the grace and loving-kindness of God may be shown.” This matches precisely with Paul’s words in Ephesians 2: For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast (Eph 2:8-9).

St. Jerome (AD 342/347-420)

St. Jerome is perhaps most famous for his translation work, which would result in the Vulgate, the Latin translation of the Bible which became the standard translation for the Western Church for centuries. One lesser known fact about St. Jerome is his skepticism of the Apocrypha for most of his time as a translator.

Nevertheless, this is about Sola Fide! And on this topic, St. Jerome says the following in his commentary on Ephesians:

Paul says this in case the secret thought should steal upon us that "if we are not saved by our own works, at least we are saved by our own faith, and so in another way our salvation is of ourselves." Thus he added the statement that faith too is not in our own will but in God's gift.

This is an important quotation from the Fathers for the simple reason that St. Jerome connects the negative formulation (in the way Chrysostom formulated it) with the positive: “we are saved by our own faith.”

Combine this with the follow from his commentary on Romans 10:3:

When an ungodly man is converted, God justified him through faith alone, not on account of good works which he possessed not

One wonders whether St. Jerome lived in the 4th-5th Centuries, or alongside Luther in the 16th!

St. Clement of Rome (AD 35-99)

I’ve saved what I believe to be the best for last. St. Clement of Rome, who lived during the time of the Apostles, wrote a now famous letter to the Church in Corinth—not too long after Paul’s own letters! In this letter, he proclaims:

All these, therefore, were highly honored, and made great, not for their own sake, or for their own works, or for the righteousness which they wrought, but through the operation of His will. And we, too, being called by His will in Christ Jesus, are not justified by ourselves, nor by our own wisdom, or understanding, or godliness, or works which we have wrought in holiness of heart; but by that faith through which, from the beginning, Almighty God has justified all men; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen

Here, St. Clement is proclaiming that the faithful of Israel were honored and made great not for or in themselves, but simply by the Will of God. This corresponds to us now in Christ, as we are justified not by ourselves or our works, but by faith!

In The End…

In the end, are these quotes a silver bullet? Absolutely not. Do Roman Catholics have a response to these? I’m certain of it. Yet, it is undeniable that Sola Fide is found in prototypical form in the Church Fathers. This confirms that the Reformers were truly continuing the legacy of those who came before them. Rather than anything novel or innovative, Sola Fide has been part and parcel of the Christian faith from the time of Adam to Noah to Abraham to Moses to David to the Prophets to our Lord and his Apostles to the Early Church—and this rich and ancient belief continues to this day.

May God, therefore, grant us the faith that leads to eternal life!