WWUTT 552 Sola Fide?

Grace Through Faith and the Gift of God

It is by grace you've been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God, not a result of work so no one may boast. But it is so God might be both just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus when we understand the text.

Remembering the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, this is when we understand the text. Presenting the Word of God as our ultimate authority. Visit our website www .wutt .com. Now here's your host, Pastor Gabe.

Sola Fide and Justification by Faith Alone

Thank you, Becky, and happy Reformation Day, everyone. We continue with our study of the five solas of the Protestant Reformation, those foundational truths that are fundamental to a doctrine of salvation.

Our root text is Romans 3, verses 21 through 26. Yesterday, we considered the doctrine of sola scriptura. It is by Scripture alone that we know our sin and the righteousness of God, that we hear about the work that Christ completed with his life, death, and resurrection from the grave, ascending into heaven where he is seated at the right hand of God and will be returning again.

And it is only in the Scriptures that we see our sinfulness and need for a Savior that we might repent and worship Christ the Lord. Today, the doctrine we'll be looking at is sola fide. Today, it is by faith alone that we have received this justification from God, paid for by Christ on the cross.

And so we come back to our text again, Romans 3, starting in verse 21, where the apostle writes, 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.

This was to show God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance, he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

So yesterday, looking at sola scriptura by scripture alone, which we see spoken about here in verse 21, the righteousness of God manifested apart from the law, but the law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.

And that's what we're talking about today. Sola fide, by faith alone, we have been justified before God. It is not simply enough that we repent of our sins or that we we turn from our sin and ask God's forgiveness for our sin.

Someone had to pay the price for our sin. Let's consider an example from our own judicial system. Let's say that you are guilty of some heinous crime, which is not too out of bounds for me to accuse you of that.

After all, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. It is in the pages of scripture that we learn about our sin, that you realize that you have blasphemed God, that you have committed perjury.

You consider yourself above the law, that God's law doesn't apply to you. I can do whatever it is that I want in order to be happy. And that's exactly what a person has done who has committed perjury.

They have considered themselves above the law. You find out that you have lied, you've cheated, you've stolen. And this is against the law of God. You've committed sexual immorality. You've hated others.

You are full of wrath and malice and envy. And on and on the list goes. We see these things explained to us in God's word that we have sinned and we are fallen depraved wretches, but he is righteous and holy.

And there is nothing that we can do with our dead, filthy hands to make ourselves right with God. So again, all of us are guilty of heinous crimes. What we deserve is death. That's Roman six, 23, the wages of sin is death.

That's what we've earned for our sin. So once again, bringing this back into an earthly example, so you're guilty of some heinous crime and you're now standing in a court of law before a judge, the judge tells you what it is that you've done wrong.

He gives you your sentence and he's about to land the gavel before he asks you, what do you have to say for yourself? And you say, well, judge, yes, I did the things that you just told me that I have done.

But you know what? I'm sorry that I did that and I will try harder. I will never do that again. So would you please forgive me now? If a person were to say that in a court of law, what do you think the judge is going to do?

He's still going to land that gavel and he's still going to sentence that person to the sentence that they deserve. As the as the old colloquialism goes, if you do the crime, you do the time. All right.

So that's that's what's going to happen to you, even though you have asked for the judge's forgiveness, you still have to pay for your crime. But in the heavenly court, when we stand before God in judgment, our sentence has been paid by Christ, who took the wrath of God that we deserve for our sin upon himself on the cross.

So when we ask God for forgiveness, he grants it to us because the price was paid by Christ. This is what Romans three means when it says that this was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

It is by our faith in Christ that we are justified before God. It is God who justifies us by giving up himself, his own son, who laid down his life for our sins and by his death on the cross. Our sentence has been paid.

So we are justified. And God is also just in the sense that his righteousness has been displayed, not our good works, but his good works. The goodness that Christ did in his own life, as Jesus said to the rich young ruler in Mark 10, there is no one good but God alone.

And Jesus, who is God and took on flesh, lived the perfect life and kept the law in a way that we never can and never will. And he became that perfect sacrifice of righteousness on the cross for our sins.

Our sins were placed upon him. His righteousness was placed upon us. And now it is in Christ that we have been forgiven. How is it that we receive this righteousness from God? By faith. And it is by faith alone.

There is nothing that you do to merit this righteousness. You do not. You don't do enough things or enough good works for this righteousness to be attributed to you. You believe. And that's what the doctrine of Sola Fide means.

By faith alone, the righteousness of God has been given to us and we stand before him as justified. We read in Romans 4, 5, just in the next chapter over to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly.

His faith is counted as righteousness. And Romans 5, 1 and 2, therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him, we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

It is the grace of God that we're going to be talking about tomorrow with Sola Gratia by grace alone. But again, it is by faith that we have received this righteousness, that we stand before God as justified.

It's not simply enough that you ask forgiveness or that you repent, but your sins had to be paid for, which was done by Christ. And you receive that payment by faith and no other way. Not by doing good works, good deeds, not by saying the right words or praying the right prayer, not by getting baptized or any of these other things.

And Paul even explains that in Romans chapter 4 when he's talking about Abraham. So I just mentioned Romans 4, 5, to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.

And Paul asked this question, how then was it counted to him? How was it counted to Abraham? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? For the sign and seal of this covenant that he has with God was circumcision.

So did he receive this justification by faith, this righteousness of God before or after he had been circumcised? Paul says it was not after, but before he received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was uncircumcised, the righteousness of God was given to him before the sign and seal of circumcision.

So the point that Paul is making here is that the works that we do are the sign and seal of the faith that we have been given by God. And once again, this faith is granted to us by God. It is not something that we do.

You just concentrate hard enough, bam, oh, hey, I believe in God today. No, you came to know God and his son, Jesus Christ, and put your trust in what Christ had done for you rather than believing that you yourself could merit the grace of God.

You came about these things by faith. You believed because God gave you that faith to believe. Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, 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.

If you did it, it's your work. When God does it, it's his work. Even faith itself is granted to us by God. The people who were following Jesus in John 6, they said to him, what was what must we be doing to do the works of God?

And Jesus replied, John 6, 29, this is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent. But these people thought that they had to do something and then they would be considered godly. We receive godliness.

God gives us his righteousness just as he gave it to Abraham, just as Abraham received it before he had even done anything. But then the works that Abraham did verified that the faith that he had been given to him, the righteousness that he had did not come from himself, but came from God.

And this is what James talks about in James 2, where he says faith without works is a dead faith. And he uses the same example that Paul is using here in Romans 4. He uses the example of Abraham. Well, if Abraham merely believed, but didn't then did not do anything with his life to show this faith that he had in God, then the faith was dead.

It wasn't really a dead faith, but his works would show and confirm this faith that he had been given by God. It is a working and an active faith. If it was not in pursuit of something, it would be a dead faith.

Faith is not merely some conversion or some proclamation of a statement of beliefs. Like when James gives the example of, hey, even the demons believe in God and they tremble. So when we're talking about faith in that way, well, that's nothing.

That's no kind of faith. But we have this definition of faith given to us in Hebrews 11, 1. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. So convinced are we by the beliefs that we have, we are convicted to obey them.

Jesus saying to his own disciples, you will show me that you love me when you obey my commandments. You keep my commandments. That's in John 14. And so we must do the same. If we have faith in God, we will show that faith is genuine and real, that we have been justified before God and now live in his righteousness.

When we display the righteous works that Jesus told us to walk in for Hebrews 11, 6 says without faith, it is impossible to please him. For whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

First Corinthians 2 .5, let your faith not rest in the power of men, but in the power of God. And so it is our faith in God. It is through faith in God that we have been granted this justification in now which we stand before God.

I want to go back to Romans 1 .16 -17. We read the following, for I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes to the Jew first and also to the Greek for in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith as it is written, the righteous shall live by faith.

You know, this was a verse that Martin Luther hated. He hated this passage. Romans 1 .17 for in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith. Why was it that Luther hated this passage?

Because he thought the righteousness of God was his wrath. And so Martin Luther, that Roman Catholic monk who knew of his sinfulness before God thought that God was somebody that simply could not be pleased, that he was always just angry with people for the sins that they had committed against God.

And so that was one of the reasons why Luther hated this particular verse, Romans 1 .17. Once again, it was because of a misunderstanding of the righteousness of God. Verse 18 says, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

So Luther had taken that explanation and applied it to verse 17 where the righteousness of God when contrasted with the unrighteousness of men meant God's wrath. And God is indeed righteous in his wrath, but he is also righteous in grace and love and mercy.

And that was something that Luther had not yet come to understand. But he was reading in the book of Exodus, chapter 25, and specifically he was reading it in Greek, the Septuagint. His Greek was a little bit better than his Hebrew.

So oftentimes he read the Old Testament in Greek. And as God is giving Moses instructions for the ark of the covenant, what the ark is supposed to look like, how big it's supposed to be, what its dimensions shall be, the two cherubim that are supposed to be crafted on top.

God says, Exodus 25, verse 17, you shall make a mercy seat of pure gold. And then verse 21, and you shall put the mercy seat on the top of the ark. And in the ark, you shall put the testimony that I shall give you.

There I will meet with you. And from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim that are on the ark of the testimony, I will speak with you about all that I will give you in commandment for the people of Israel.

We actually see that term mercy seat appear several times in that particular paragraph. Well, in the Greek, mercy seat is translated hilasterion. It literally means the place of propitiation or the place of atonement.

Well, that exact same word is used in Greek in the section that we just read. 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.

That word propitiation is the same in the Greek as mercy seat in Exodus 25. It is the place of propitiation, the place of atonement. And when Luther read that, he realized that the righteousness of God that we receive by faith was not the wrath of God.

It's the grace of God. And Luther rejoiced to read that, that Christ is our atonement place. We meet God there at the cross where our sins have been forgiven by Christ. And we receive that forgiveness by faith.

And this just opened up the scriptures to Martin Luther in a whole new way. And he found himself falling in love with God in a way that he had never loved him before. It was the conviction of Martin Luther that has led us to this day.

The Protestant Reformation and the Rescue of the Gospel

And we remember October 31st, 2017, as the 500th anniversary of the day that Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of All Saints Church in Wittenberg, Germany, where Luther was a professor at that particular time.

We call it the 95 theses. Specifically, it was called a disputation on the power of indulgences. The Catholic Church was selling indulgences. In other words, they were selling forgiveness that people could have years knocked off their sentence in purgatory or even the sentence that their dead family members had received.

If they wanted to not be in purgatory for so long, they just had to pay a certain amount of money. This was John Tetzel that had done this and also Albert of Mainz and many others in the Roman Catholic Church.

The pope at that particular time, greedy for the money that was being brought in for selling these indulgences. So that day that Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of the church is the day that we consider the start of the Protestant Reformation, a protest against the corruption of Roman Catholicism in order to reform the church and return to the gospel.

But why did Luther choose that particular day? Why October 31st? Was it just any day or was there a reason for that day? In addition to the Catholic Church selling indulgences, November 1st was All Saints Day.

You probably know that about November 1st. On that particular day, the church in Wittenberg, where Luther was a teacher, was about to present an exhibit of newly acquired relics. Worshippers would come from great distances to genuflect upon these exhibits.

And in doing that and paying money to see those exhibits, they would also hope to take thousands of years off of their purgatory sentence and the sentences of their loved ones. Well, this was not the gospel.

And Luther knew that it wasn't even good news. It was it was a burden of legalism that was being imposed upon the people, and they were being led astray into heresy, which saves no one. It would lead people to damnation, not to salvation in Christ.

And at this particular time, the Roman Catholic Church was really the only show in town. There was not another church down on the other block that you could attend if you didn't like the Roman Catholic Church.

And if you oppose the church, they would even sentence you to prison or put you to death, maybe even torture you or flog you, put you in the stocks and set you in the public square so that you would be shamed by people.

This was the tyranny of the Roman Catholic Church at that particular time. They had the people under their thumb and salvation. Luther knew was not something that a person received through confession or the sacraments or bowing the knee to idols, nor could it even be granted by the pope.

It is only by the grace of God through faith in Christ Jesus that we are saved. So Luther knew that he had to act, and he came up with these 95 theses on the power of indulgences. One of those theses was the true treasure of the church is the most holy gospel of the glory and grace of God.

And that is the meaning of Reformation Day. That's what we consider this day. It is the day that the light of the gospel broke forth out of darkness. Hence the motto of the Protestant Reformation, Post Tenebris Lux, out of darkness, light.

Job 17, 12 says in the Latin Vulgate, after darkness, I hope for light. And we read in 2 Corinthians 4, 6, for God who said, let light shine out of darkness has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

R .C. Sproul, who knows far more about the Protestant Reformation than I know or will probably ever hope to know, he has said that the Reformation rescued the gospel. How how dark the times were at that particular time and how little the gospel was proclaimed in the Catholic Church actually was not even being proclaimed at all.

And it was the conviction of Martin Luther and also the other Protestant reformers like John Calvin and John Knox and William Tyndale and many others who helped to lead the church back to the glorious doctrines that we find in scripture alone, that it is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone that we have been justified to the glory of God alone.

And we praise God in remembrance on this day for the gospel that was rescued by the conviction of the Protestant reformers. Let us pray. Our Lord God, I pray that we would not take the sacrifice of these men for granted, some of them even losing their lives for the sake of the gospel of Christ.

But we rejoice in that we're even able to read a Bible in our own language and have the medium that is available to us today to record programs just like this, where we commit ourselves to Bible memorization and Bible teaching and understanding the word of God, that they become more than just words on a page to us, but it is the living, active word of God penetrating through bone and marrow to the very heart of man, that we would be convicted of our sin, repent before God and seek your righteousness.

And because of the payment that was made by Christ on the cross, we know that by faith we stand before you as justified. There is truly no work that is done in this process that we take credit for. It is all to the glory of God.

Let us reflect upon these things on this particular day, this Reformation Day, and may Reformation continue in your churches where the gospel is lost, that those churches would repent of their sin and return to the truth of God's word, the Bible, which only in this gospel is the power to save men's souls.

We praise your great name. In the name of Christ Jesus we pray, amen.

Closing Thanks and Sign-Off

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