Sola Fide

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, "'But we did not yield in subjection to them "'for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel "'would remain with you.'".

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry. It is another Tuesday, which means we have Pastor Steve Cooley here today. The show is basically set up in this format.

We get to talk about whatever we want, and you have the privilege to either listen or turn over to country rock.

I thought you were gonna say, we have the privilege of talking about whatever we want, and you're gonna like it.

You know, that would be the New England way. No, no, in all sincerity, in the last seven or eight months since we've been on this great station, WVNE 760, we have had lots of callers, lots of emails, lots of folks who have visited the church and who have been encouraged by the ministry.

We joke around a lot with Pastor Steve in the studio, but we are frail, we are sinful, we are totally depraved, of course now redeemed and washed by Christ Jesus. We have his perfect righteousness imputed to our account.

We are far from perfect, and we are glad that the Lord would use us in any way, shape, or form. Huh? That's right. I was trying to say something seriously, and then Steve's back to the whole, you know, Laurel and Hardy deal or something, Abbott and Costello.

We are supposed to be the foil. We started off that way, Tonto. That's right. But we are really, really thankful to be on the air. And as you know, if you have the privilege to minister in any way, shape, or form, and you answer this question, you say, what does it mean that God of the universe, the God of the universe could use me in ministry?

And if you answer that by saying, it means everything, and we wanna just praise him and thank him and give him glory, and that's what this show is about, to try to exalt Christ in his word, and Pastor Steve is here on Tuesdays, and we're continuing our theme of the five solas.

What are we gonna talk about today?

Sola Fide and the Meaning of Faith Alone

Well, we've talked about sola scriptura, and today we're gonna be talking about sola fide.

That's right, sola fide. Now let's see, what would be a good kind of, that'd be a good rap song, sola fide. Sola fide. I'm so tired, I wanna mix up the first letters of each word so it'd be folacide. That wouldn't be good.

That would be the ancient heresy. Basically what happened during the time of the Reformation, 1500, 1600s, there was an ever-growing reliance on humanity, that is, human revelation, human conscience, human works, human merits, and the Reformers, of course, had their problems, but they didn't have a problem here.

They knew that it was the Bible alone, and they also knew it was faith alone. And so when we say faith alone, what do you think of? When I used to listen to the Bible Answer Man, Hank would ask a question, then I'd quick turn down the radio to see if I could figure out the answer.

Well, if I ask you the question, only turn down your radio for five seconds, what is sola fide, and why is it important? You would say? Turn down your radio.

Da, da, da, da, da, da, da. Okay, enough stalling. Well, sola fide is salvation is by faith alone, and what that means is that there's nothing we can add to it, and we would even understand the faith being a gift from God and not something that is self-generated.

And, you know, let me just take a step back. The purpose of all the solas is basically included in the ultimate one, which is soli deo gloria, which means they all point toward God, away from the humanism that was so dominant in the Enlightenment and that whole period, and the focus is totally on God and his work, not on man and his ability, because man has no ability except for to sin and to fail God.

And so sola fide, salvation by faith alone, means that there's nothing we can add to God's perfect work in salvation. We can't even add the faith. The faith, as I said, is a gift, and so our works are evidence of our faith and not something that kind of leads up to saving faith.

Good. When we talk about faith alone, we're ultimately talking about justification by faith alone. And when we talk about sola fide, we are affirming and we are promoting that God pardons guilty sinners through faith alone, which means there are no human works, there are no meritorious things done for that to happen.

It is through or by faith alone. And by faith alone, we realize from Romans 3, that Christ's righteousness is counted to, is imputed to the believing sinner. It is not infused into, when I think of infused, Steve, sometimes I think about some kind of molasses or some kind of

Yeah, I was going to say, I think of some kind of bottled drink. Isn't there an infused tea or some kind of infusion or something?

It's not infused, it's not imparted, but the believing sinner, not based on anything he has said or done or will do, but he is pardoned by the work of Christ Jesus and Christ Jesus' righteousness alone.

And so when we say by faith alone, it means not by works of any sort. And of course, other religions teach that it's faith, faith is good, but faith plus something else, plus sacraments, plus good deeds, something like that.

This is a very important doctrine because we are saying, the only works that get you to heaven are Christ works, not your own works.

Separates biblical Christianity from every other religion on the face of the earth, because coming from a Mormon background, they would say that faith kind of kicks in, that God kicks in once you've done all that you can.

So it's this idea that you work and work and work, and then God kind of picks up the slack, and that's not Christianity. So this idea, just to amplify what you said about justification, it means to be declared righteous, and we're declared righteous as Christians, not on the basis of our own deeds, but on the finished work of Christ.

As you said, it is God using accounting terminology, basically putting to our account Christ's righteousness and putting to his account on the cross all of our sin, and that's a double imputation. We need, not double amputation, we need his righteousness to get into heaven.

If he only died for our sins, then that just kind of brings us up to neutral. We need to be perfectly righteous, that is to obey perfectly. We could never do that on our own, and we need, therefore, Christ's perfect obedience imputed to us.

Scripture Alone and the Courtroom Language of Justification

Well, this is Mike Abendroth with Steve Cooley on No Compromise Radio. We're talking about the theme here today on Tuesday, the ongoing theme, our little mini-series on the solas, the five solas, our onlys, our alones of the Reformation.

Scripture alone, and today we're talking about faith alone, sola fide, you could get the word fidelity, if you'd like, from the same Latin root. By faith alone, God pardons guilty sinners, as Pastor Steve said, by the work of another.

And this language of justification by faith alone is very important. And we use words like forensic and legal and imputation right from a courtroom because things are declared, God declares people righteous, he doesn't make them righteous in the doctrine of justification.

And so today we're talking about this because it's important, lots of people want to add things, and we want to make sure that God alone receives the glory. Now, Steve, let's just talk about faith for a minute.

What do you think of this definition of faith itself? Because I think that's important. Faith, we'll just use a little acronym, okay? Sometimes people, you know, forsaking all, I trust him. That's a good acronym for faith, yeah?

How about this one? F, financially secure, A, affluent, I, income rising, T, tax sheltered, and H, home paid for. I've seen that on TV, I think. Of faith alone. Here's what I would say comes up quite often.

Where in the Bible, Steve, is faith alone found? It's kind of a trick question, and you may or may not know it, I just was looking it up.

Well, you know what I would say is, I would say that Ephesians 2 would talk about that, and you could also argue, people say that it's kind of contradicted in James, but let me just Yeah, that's where I was going to go, James, but do Ephesians first.

Thank you, I will. Yes, sir, Roger Wilco.

Ephesians 2, eight and following, for by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not of your own doing, and that is so key, it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them, and you know, just a word about the context. Why is it so important? Because in Ephesians 2, one, Paul writes that we're dead in our sins and trespasses before we, or trespasses and sins as the ESV would have it, that we're incapable of doing anything, that there are no works that we could possibly do that would somehow merit God and his saving grace.

In fact, it says to the contrary in verse four, but God being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.

Well, that's an excellent passage, and Paul is saying there, you are saved by grace alone, even though he didn't add the word alone. That doesn't make the case. There are some who try to say, well, the Bible doesn't say faith alone there, so it's faith plus something else.

Paul was trying to say it was faith alone. Matter of fact, Steve, what do you think of this here? I found this interesting quote from someone who denies sola fide. Robert Sudgenis remarks in his book, Not by Faith Alone, quote, a thorough study of his epistles reveals that Paul used the word faith and its cognates over 200 times in the New Testament, but not once did he couple them with the agitival qualifiers aloner only.

This argument from silence is, I mean, I'm kind of laughing under my breath here because it's just so ridiculous. Nowhere in his epistles does Paul ever use the word trinity, and no one wants to deny that, do they?

Well, as we like to say, as you know, Steve, if somebody comes up and says, well, you know, the word trinity is not in the Bible, then I always like to say a couple things. The word Bible's not in the Bible either.

Nowhere in his epistles does the apostle Paul use the word Bible.

And there's not one English word in the Bible either. It's all in Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic. People who are listening today, let me just read a few verses about salvation, and you tell me if it's something else that saves you besides faith, some other kind of instrument that God saves you through besides faith.

He who believes in him is not judged. He who does not believe has been judged already, but because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son. He who believes in the Son has eternal life, but he who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.

Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life. And they said, believe in the Lord Jesus and you shall be saved, you and your household. I say of his righteousness at the present time that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Christ.

And I've got a whole list here. Those are from John 3, John 6, Acts 16, Romans 3. It is through faith there alone that you are saved. It is not faith plus good works at all. I've got one that you don't have.

How cool is that?

I mean, there are so many. If you look at 1 Peter 1, he talks about our inheritance and all these things. And listen to verse nine, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. There is no place you can look through there.

There's trials that come our way, but it has nothing to do with our salvation. Our salvation is because of faith and faith alone over and over and over again. And going back to Ephesians 2, I think from the outset of that chapter, he pretty much lays it out.

You couldn't do anything because you were dead. And then God makes you alive, gives you the faith, and you do believe. So there's no works in there whatsoever. Works comes after belief.

And we are not denying that works are part of the Christian life, but they don't save you. They're an outgrowth of who you are in Christ Jesus. And if you're a new creation in Christ Jesus, that new creation acts like it, but you don't try to do works in order to get saved.

The Reformation’s Chief Article and the Difference Between Paul and James

Some may say, Steve, this justification by faith alone, sola fide, it's not a very important topic. I'd rather talk about Christian hypnotism today or Christian mimes or something like that. It is, what did Luther call it?

He said it was the article upon which the church stands or falls. I mean, this is the dividing line. There is no more critical doctrine in all of scripture. If you don't believe this, then you have some serious issues with the Bible.

In fact, it's debatable whether or not you should be called a Christian.

It's interesting that when Jonathan Edwards here in New England, here in Massachusetts, began to preach and revival broke out, he was preaching a series on Christian mimes. It was a short sermon. No, it was justification by faith alone.

Especially once the congregation rushed the pulpit.

Luther went on to say the doctrine, this one and firm rock, which we call the doctrine of justification is the chief article of the whole Christian doctrine, which comprehends the understanding of all godliness.

So it affects evangelism. It affects the way you think about God. It affects salvation. It affects sanctification. It's an important doctrine.

It's all encompassing. I mean, literally there are so many denominations out there and presumed denominations, and here's the dividing line. If you don't believe in salvation by faith alone, then you are not in keeping with the Bible.

I mean, I could say you're not in keeping with Christian tradition, all these other things, and then I sound like a Catholic. The Bible teaches that, and if you don't agree with it, then your issue is with God and not with us.

Steve, I can't believe you said the word Catholic because I was determined today not to say anything about the Roman Catholic Church. I was really going to just try to be on my best behavior, and now you've

Yeah, but then you quoted Robert Sugenis.

Who is a Catholic apologist, by the way. Listen to what Calvin said.

Everyone who would obtain the righteousness of Christ must renounce his own. Now see what Calvin's saying there is, instead of trusting in ourselves, we trust in someone else. We're not trusting in our own works.

We have to trust in someone else's works. Listen to this quote from Romans 3 .28, and tell me if you can deny faith alone from scripture. Therefore, we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.

Now, he didn't use the word alone there, or only in terms of that linguistic word, but he did say justified by faith without the deeds of the law. That is

He severed it, right? He cut off works. He said, look, it's faith apart from works. It's faith, I mean, I don't know, without works, apart from works, how much more clear can you be? It's faith alone.

Jesus said unto her in John 11, I am the resurrection, the life. He that believeth in me and is baptized and confirmed, though he were dead, yet he shall live.

And you forgot, and receives last rites. See, he didn't say that.

He that believes in me. Jesus is saying, not trusting in yourself, not believing in yourself, abandoning self, submitting to Christ, fleeing to him for full refuge, and saying it is the work of another, I trust in him.

That's why Psalm 84 said, blessed is the man who trusts in thee.

And you know why it's so critical that we've already talked about scripture alone, because the only way you can get around this sort of doctrine is by going outside scripture, by appealing to traditions, by appealing to church teachings, by appealing to some other form of scripture.

In other words, you can't just go through the Bible, the Bible alone, and come to some other understanding of salvation other than salvation is by faith alone, sola fide.

It's so true, yet this is being attacked by lots of people who even want to say they're within evangelical camps, such as N .T. Wright, the Bishop of Durham, and he wants to have, with his new perspectives on Paul, some kind of faith alone, but a justification characterized by faith, along with a little bit of works.

I think I'll just run away from all that and kind of go back to the good old days, and I don't mean the Reformation. I mean the days of Paul, and the days of Peter, and the days of Jesus. Now I do want to say this, Steve, because somebody might be asking the question.

The only time faith alone is used, as far as I know, in the New Testament, is found in this verse, and ironically, it teaches the opposite of what, it seems to teach the opposite of what we're trying to say today.

So to be fair, James 2 .24, there are apologists from other systems, from other works, righteousness systems, will say in verse 24, you see that a man is justified by works, and not by faith alone. And so they'll say, see, there's faith alone.

The only time faith alone is used, it's used here, and it's used to teach that you've got to have something more than faith. And here's what I would say. I would say very, very simply, you forget the first two words of that particular verse.

You forget the two words, you see. Now how do I know Pastor Steve is a Christian? Well, I take my x-ray vision eyes that I got in the back of the Batman comic book that I had back in the 60s, I look through Steve and see his heart, and I see his soul, and I make a good judgment, and I say, you know what, he's saved.

I know, I know because I know because I know. Well, that's dumb, nobody can do that. The only way I can tell if Pastor Steve is saved is by observing. He has a credible profession. His profession matches his walk.

When it doesn't, he's sorry. He does what Christians do. And so, John, James is saying, you want to know if somebody's a Christian or not? You could look at them. God already knows. God already knows if someone's saved or not, and he's already taught clearly in other passages, like in Romans 4, verse two, you're not saved by works.

So if you want to see with your own eyes, oh, does somebody look like they're a Christian? Well, then you look. So he says, you see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone, just like you see Rahab in the next verse, what she did.

Well, and, you know, backing up in the context, I think it's abundantly clear. You know, you can rip any verse out of context and try to make it walk on all fours, as it were. But if you just back up to verse 18, but someone will say you have faith and I have works, show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.

In other words, you can't say you believe and that it doesn't affect what you do. He goes on to say, you believe that God is one, you do well. Even the demons believe and shudder. Well, the demons have the same understanding that God is one, the Shema of Israel, Deuteronomy 6, 4, but it doesn't change anything that they do other than they shudder.

And he says, do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? Listen, if you have faith, your life changes, things in your life, people will be able to look at your behavior and say, well, there's something peculiar about that fellow or that young woman.

What is it? And then ultimately they'll be able to discern that you are a Christian, a follower of Christ. If there is no difference between the way you behave and the way the world behaves, you laugh at the same jokes, you do all the same things, you talk the same way, then one might wonder, what happens is a person's activities they're giving show outwardly what has already taken place inwardly.

That is, if you are a Christian and you act on what you believe, your life will be different.

Absolutely, and James is dealing with that problem. Faith does work. You can't just say you're a Christian and it doesn't change you. I mean, the God of the universe is going to change you and you're still the same.

So Romans is dealing with people that want to be justified by the works of themselves or someone else besides Christ. And so he says in Romans 4 .2, if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.

So James is fighting, excuse me, Paul is fighting a particular enemy, the merit of Christ plus works. James is fighting a different enemy, and that enemy is, oh, you can say you believe and just be like a demon and don't do anything about it.

Well, and how many people do we have in the country today? If we look at polls and say 70, 80 of Americans are Christians, and then we look at the country and the way it actually runs and the way people behave, we would have no reason to think that 70 or 80 of the people are Christians.

They just say they are, and that has absolutely no value. And that's exactly what James is addressing in chapter two.

Faith as the Instrument of Salvation, Not the Basis of Merit

Good, two last points that we want to bring up today, at least I'd like to bring up. When you read something like this, we confess together that sinners are justified by faith in the saving action of God in Christ.

You should have some theological discernment spidey senses go up, because if you hear things like justified by faith in some kind of document called the Lutheran World Federation and the Roman Catholic Church, justification by faith and through grace, you should say to yourself, these people are denying sola fide.

It is not by faith alone, by grace alone, it is faith plus something else. So the Lutherans get duped, the Catholics are glad because they can sign this, the Lutherans can sign it, and then we're all friends together.

So that's the first thing I want to say. Secondly, and lastly, Steve, faith is not by itself this thing that is meritorious. Faith itself is not, we're not saved because of faith, we're saved through faith.

What's the difference? That's right, it's the instrument of salvation. And if we were saved because of faith, then we might have, we might ultimately have something to boast about, right? If we were able to believe on our own, if we're able to generate faith, or even if God takes the 99 steps towards us and we take one step towards him in faith, then we've done something, we've added to it, we've taken a step forward and God has recognized that step that we boldly took.

And that's just not the case. God, what comes first is regeneration. God causes us to be born again. We see this over and over again. He regenerates us, he brings us a spiritual life, and we respond in faith.

Amen, faith is a gift. Enacts they believed through grace. Philippians chapter one, verse 29. Second Peter chapter one, verse one. This faith is a gift. Faith isn't the savior. I love Horatius Bonar, and we end with this.

Faith is not our physician. It brings us to the physician. It is not even our medicine. It only administers the medicine. Faith is not our savior. It was not faith that was born at Bethlehem and died on Golgotha for us.

It was not faith that loved us and gave itself for us that bore our sins in its own body on the tree that died and rose again for our sins. Faith doesn't do that. So we want to make sure we realize that it is faith alone, in Christ alone, for salvation.

Justification by faith alone.

Five seconds. God bless you and nocompromisedradio .com.

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life transforming power of God's word through verse by verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at six. We're right on route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

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