Sola Scriptura

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Sola Scriptura, Scripture alone, is a reminder of the fact that God has always worked and will always work on this side of eternity through His Word, the

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Bible. Sola Scriptura deals primarily with the issue of authority.

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It is not a claim to Scripture only, as in there is no other thing that is helpful to us.

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That would not be biblical. It is not Scriptura Nuda, to use another Latin phrase. It is not

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Scripture by itself, but it is Scripture as the only authority.

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I would like us to look at a couple of verses, just as a starting point.

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Psalm 138 .2, I think, captures in a poetic way and in a note of praise, which

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I think is appropriate on a commemoration of the Reformation.

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The psalmist here, in Psalm 138 .2, says, I bow down towards your holy temple, and give thanks to your name, for your steadfast love and your faithfulness.

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For you have exalted above all things your name and your word.

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The translation is a little bit different in how that is rendered, but the idea is clear.

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God exalts His Word, and God will exalt those who exalt

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His Word. And God will be exalted when His Word is exalted.

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The Reformation, this great turning from error in the

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Church to a period where, by God's mercy, there was much more truth seen in the

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Church, follows a clear trajectory of a return to the Scripture. Every person who had a hand in that turning was a person who held to Scriptures as being the final authority.

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You can back up to the 1300s and see John Wycliffe in England, who was ultimately executed for his hold to the

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Scriptures as the sole authority. You can look in the 1400s at John Hus, who also was executed.

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But when he died, he famously said, Hus, which means goose in German, that you may cook this goose, but God will raise a swan that will sing

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His praises. That swan came a hundred years later in the person of Martin Luther, who was actually commissioned as a priest in the same church of the priest that condemned

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Hus. And you see God superintending through history to bring about the honoring of His Word.

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Each of those men were translated to the great task of putting

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Scripture into the language of the people at that time. Every one of them saw one of the great projects of their lives, putting

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Scripture into German, so the German people could read it into English, so that the plowboy would know more

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Scripture than the priest who was condemning the translator. They did these jobs, and they worked tirelessly.

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Sola Scriptura is the cause of the Reformation.

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The other tenets that we've mentioned here, there are five solas.

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Whether it is sola fide, faith alone. Whether it is grace alone.

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Whether it is Christ alone. Whether it is the glory of God alone. We could not have those were it not for a return to Scripture alone.

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Scripture is the foundation. It is the foundation upon which God's Word will always be built.

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Peter reminds us in 2 Peter 1 .16.

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He begins talking about the Bible in general. He talks about the mountain of transfiguration.

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And he talks about that great experience where he and the other apostles are on the mountain. And they see the

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Lord in His glory. But then Peter says, in verse 19, that we have a prophetic word, more fully confirmed, through which you will do well to pay attention, as a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.

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We have a more sure word of prophecy. What Peter is reminding us through the

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Holy Spirit of here, is the fact that were God to reveal Himself to us, that testimony, in a physical way, that testimony should not be as authoritative to us as the

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Book that God has given us. We have a more sure word of prophecy.

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Which we do well to pay attention to. So the

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Scripture speaks to the authority and sufficiency of God's Word. In the time of the

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Reformation, the threat to the Bible, the threat to the Bible came from an approach to truth that said that we can't know for sure.

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We can look at Scripture and tradition. We can look at Scripture and reason.

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We can look at Scripture and the teachings of the Church. We can look at Scripture and experience.

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And out of that mixture of this endless list of footnotes, maybe we can put together some semblance of what the truth may be.

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Martin Luther said that that approach, that possible approach, the idea of possible truth, possible truth paves the road to hell.

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In Martin Luther's words. Martin Luther said we do not need possible truths. We need therefore truths.

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We need truths that come to us with the thunderous certainty that therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

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We need truths that are absolute. And our only source, our only hope for that kind of truth comes in the revealed

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Word of God. Sola Scriptura. Sola Scriptura finally speaks of our confident joy.

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Every commemoration, every anniversary, every celebration is finally, should be characterized by gratitude.

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We're thankful to God. On the 500th anniversary of the

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Reformation, our hearts should be hearts that are filled with gratitude that God has kept

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His Word. We can say with the hymn writer,

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How firm a foundation, you saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith in His excellent

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Word. What more can He say than to you He has said, To you who treat