7. Reformed Baptist Distinctives: Five Solas

The Five Solas and Their Reformation Significance

Next is the Five Solas and we went extensively through this. I did a five-part series, again. I'll put the link in the description if you want to go.

Through them.

You could go, they write books on each one of the Solas. So the Five Solas of the Reformation which distinguish the Reformers from the teaching of Rome, remember this was in opposition to Rome, and they include Solus Scriptura, Scripture alone, Solus Christus, Christ alone, Sola Fide, Faith alone, Sola Gratia, Grace alone, and Soli Deo Gloria, to the glory of God alone.

So the doctrines that Rome was putting forth became known as the plus doctrines. So you needed Scripture plus the teaching magisterium of the church. You needed Christ plus the intercession of Mary. You needed faith plus some kind of works.

You needed grace plus what the church taught in addition to that. And it wasn't to the glory of God alone because if man has some part in it, he shares in some.

Of the glory.

So the Reformers were emphatic that God gets all the glory because God did all the work. He's the one who redeemed you. You don't add to the finished work of Christ. The moment you do, you ruin it. You ruin it.

So these five statements of the evangelical faith lay at the center of what distinguished the theology of the Reformation from the theology of the Roman Catholic Church in the 16th century. The five solos formed the nucleus of the evangelical faith.

They not only capture the gospel of Jesus Christ and explain how the gospel takes root in the sinner, but they also define where the authority of that gospel resides and to what end the gospel is preached and proclaimed.

Sola Scriptura and the Formal Cause of the Reformation

Now we have what's known as the formal cause of the Reformation and the material cause.

Of the Reformation.

The formal cause of the Reformation was what? Sola Scriptura. It was a question of authority. Who has ultimate authority? We say the scriptures. They say the Roman Catholic Church. Scriptures are infallible.

The Roman Catholic Church isn't, although they claim it is. The second cause of the Reformation is called the material cause of the Reformation. This is how a sinner is made right in the eyes of God. We say it's by faith alone.

They say it's by faith plus works. Works are roundly condemned as the basis of salvation in the Bible. You are not saved by your good works. Your good works are a reflection of what God has done in your heart.

You were saved for good works, but not by good works. Taking flight in the 19th and 20th centuries, the Fivefold Summary became shorthand, the shorthand version of what is known as Reformed Theology. This description of the Reformed faith came later, but it still captures the core of the gospel in all its graciousness and Christ-centeredness just as it is revealed in the scriptures.

So you want your doctrines to give glory to God and keep Christ at the center.