Menu

Solae

Soli Deo Gloria | #TheSolae

, , , , , , ,

Here we are, the last section of our journey. It is my hope and prayer that you have enjoyed the ride almost as much as I have. I started in October, hoping to have finished by end of November, but it seems I had a lot more to learn and a lot more to surrender to God before I could do every post. Maybe after this post, I’ll do a behind the scenes and breakdown of what more I have learnt, but all in good time.

When I started the Solae, as I do with all other series I have done on this blog, I pray it be for God’s glory. Surprising now I have to do an article on what that is, the glory of God alone. If you’re like me, the glory of God is usually a phrase we hear, sing and speak about, but seldom give much thought to. What is it? Why do we ascribe everything to the glory of God? How do we glorify God? These questions and more begin to rise up once we give them the due attention they deserve, and rightly so.

The word that has been recurring in this series is alone; five things that alone are the pillars on which the doctrine of salvation stands. We are saved from our sinful, dead state and our position as legally guilty before God, and now continually being cleansed of our sinfulness, having been made alive by God to seek Him, and pronounced righteous before Him.

All this came to be through the work of Jesus Christ alone, no other person could have so perfectly obeyed God, and by Him taking our place on the cross, bearing the punishment meant for us, we are justified (having His righteousness covering us), made alive from sin, and effectively being indwelt of the Holy Spirit who constantly makes our consciences desire to please God in all we do, say or think.

If to summarise everything we have gone through, we are justified before God by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ’s atoning work alone for the glory of God alone as authoritatively taught through Scripture alone. In this final article, we will look at how all these tie up to the overarching glory of God.

The glory of God alone, overarching and supreme over all

What is the glory of God? John Piper defines it as, the radiance of His intrinsic worth, beauty and greatness of all His manifold perfections. Let’s try to demystify that. In Isaiah’s vision (Isaiah 6), the angels cry out,

Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory.

Isaiah 6:3b, ESV

Before we dive into how holiness and glory relate, let us ask ourselves, what is God’s holiness? When we say God is holy, it means He is set apart from all other created things; His love is unlike any other, it is a holy (separate, God-unique) love. His majesty is holy; His justice is holy. Everything Scripture says to be true about God are what are known as His attributes, His holy attributes. If we were to describe God as a diamond, His attributes would be the facets of the diamond; each individual facet shines forth with holiness, and the brilliance with which all facets collectively shine is His glory. This might be a very weak example, but I hope it somewhat gives a perspective of what God glory is.

If we closely look at all God does, it is with the aim of displaying His beauty and greatness; His glory. A song I love, Creation Sings the Father’s Song, has this line saying, His fingerprints in flakes of snow. Psalm 19:1 says that the heavens tell of God’s glory. Have a look at the stars at night, the phases of the moon, the dramatic sunsets and cries of birds in the morning; all these are testament to His greatness. His glory is also shown in our own redemption (Romans 15:9); the manner with which He wrestles with a sinner’s heart and reveals the worth of Himself to the simple is beautiful. Yet, all these things are inended to give man the most basic idea of God’s grandeur and majesty. If He can create all we see and all that will ever be down to their molecular levels, just how powerful and awesome is He?

So, this points us back to Soli Deo Gloria as a tenet of salvation. How does the glory of God fit into the work that leads to our salvation? For starters, it gives us a hint of His supremacy, His greatness and His holiness above all that ever was and will be. In light of this majesty, we then begin to see the extent of our own inadequacy and depravity. Think of it as walking on a dark, muddy road toward a friend shining a light at the end of it; the closer you get to the light, the more you see the filth with which you are covered. The natural reaction would be to turn away so as to hide the mess you are from whoever will see you, and more so, to hide the fact that you are dirty from yourself. However, we see God’s holy love displayed through Christ in whom we have our sins washed away, and our minds renewed and progressively conformed to His desires and will. In turn, we delight to do what His desires are and find joy in seeking Him through His word.

And that is what He has intended, dear one, that through salvation we may be reunited to Him to enjoy being in His presence and under His love, as it was in the Garden of Eden before the fall. The Psalmist says,

You make known to me the path of life; in Your presence there is fulness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forever more.

Psalm 16:11, ESV

God is glorified, that is (as we have inferred), beautified, when those who see His worth and greatness delight and find their source of joy in it. And as we are continually sanctified, we look forward to the day when we too shall become glorified, taking up new bodies that are incorruptible and as intended to be before the effects of sin. That shall be the day when we will fully be satisfied in God, and He will be most fully beautified (glorified) in us.

Why then should we glorify God? It will naturally flow from all we have seen this far. All the other solae are from Him, through Him and to Him. There was and is nothing at all, even if given the opportunity, we could do for ourselves to save us from the wrath of God intended for us; from initiation to execution of salvation, it all was Him and Him alone.

Our response, then? We see our own depravity and corruption, and as much as it grieves us, it shows us that it is only God who can help us, and as such, prompts us to live a life of morality where we, guided by the Holy Spirit and the Scriptures, carry it out with a keen awareness of accountability to God alone. Our words, our deeds, our thoughts; all are held under the microscope of, how can I daily show the beauty and greatness of God?

My friend Ngome often says, be the walking version of a Bible (or the Gospel) to the non-believer. Show the wonder of God in your life that has been made new by the work of Jesus Christ alone, and not to attribute it to what you are able to do now, but what God has thus far enabled you to do it. This is how we live out Soli Deo Gloria.

The Reformers did much to make known these truths, some even dying for what they knew to be true as taught from Scripture. I must admit, at times I wish it could be as what the Catholic church was fighting against, and still fights against today; to attribute part of the work of salvation to human effort and tradition. It would make salvation feel deserved and rightly won, and easy to attain, right? Pray a prayer, do some rituals, and eventually you will outweigh the bad you’ve done and be granted access back to God’s presence. So easy, and so satisfying to the ego.

However, if I look at the depth of my wretchedness, oh, how I am torn apart! And it suddenly becomes blindingly clear that there is nothing that can wholly and fully cleanse me rather than the blood of Jesus; everything I do is coloured by sinful and selfish pride, a desire to be better than my neighbour and eventually God Himself. That couldn’t save me no matter how many times I would try it.

So I look to Christ. Who else lived perfectly, no sinful ulterior motives in everything He did, thus obeying the command set out by God to a tee? And I pray for you, dear reader, that your state doesn’t cause you to flee from God, but that you may be drawn in by His grace, be cleansed and live out the life full of joy that comes with seeing God’s beauty in His word and walking daily with Him, and showing that beauty to all around you in deed, word and thought.

Thanks for sticking it out this far and walking this road with me. I pray you have come to a fuller understanding of salvation as we followed the guideposts, and a greater appreciation for God’s great work.

What next? Well, as much as I would want to hang up my boots and take a breather… Sounds inviting, but more lies in store. For now, I will take a slight break to prepare an announcement on the future of this blog. Hopefully, it won’t be too long, maybe a week or so. Keep me in your prayers as I chart the way forward.

Grace and peace to you. Stay safe, and remember to wash your hands.

Solus Christus | #TheSolae

, , , , , , , ,

Hello, and welcome back to the next installment of the Solae series. It has been a few weeks since we last (virtually) met, and I am glad to be reunited with you guys.

It’s been a tough number of weeks for us all, with the coronavirus ravaging the world and changing our rhythms of life. We can’t meet physically, and acts of love such as a hug or a kiss could be harmful to us. It’s a very interesting period of history to be in. Still, what can we do other than place our trust in Christ and in God, for in Him all questions have answers; if not answered now, they will in due time. Let’s make that a thread of hope to hold on to during this time.

This is going to be the first Easter weekend that many of us will spend away from family and friends (myself included). We usually associate it with the people we will meet, the fun times we will have, and of course the welcome break from a tedious work schedule.

As much as all these are good things (rest, family bonding and iron sharpening iron), I think it gives us an opportunity to return back to the ultimate thing, or person in this case; the real reason for the Easter holiday, the man Jesus Christ.

2000-odd years ago, a man carried a wooden cross up a hill known in the Judean region as the Skull, a popular execution point for the then reigning Roman empire. He was nailed to the cross, as was the Roman style, and hung up to die. Not only was this the worst kind of execution at its time, reserved for the worst of criminals, it was the most tortuous. A crucified man would be hung up in such a way that he would slowly suffocate, and eventually, to speed up death, the Romans would break the man’s legs as an act of mercy. Yes, it was that horrendous.

What was this man’s crime? To the Roman, and maybe everyday Hebrew at the time, he was a radical, a teacher who had amassed a great following by making greater claims about Himself; that He was the Son of God, present at creation, with and sent from the Father, along with astonishing miracles to show that it was so.

The teachers of the Law felt quite unsettled by this man’s teachings, not because they were wrong, but because they showed them the extent to which the Law they taught required obedience; down to the heart, an obedience stemming from love for God and not as a checklist to prove how righteous one was.

And the truth always will cause an unsettling. So the teachers then planned to have Him dealt with once and for all. They portrayed Him as a dissident to the Romans, carrying out a series of back and forth kangaroo courts, before finally having a violent murderer released just so He could die. The lengths we humans go to…

He died, and was thought to be dealt with once and for all. But surprise, He didn’t stay dead. The grave borrowed for Him to be laid in was found open, His body missing. After brief confusion, He appeared to His followers, alive, but apparently more alive than He had been. And to one who didn’t believe, He had the marks of the crucifixion to prove that it was indeed Him and none other.

He then finally rose up back to heaven where he had come from 33 years prior, with a promise to return and take with Him all who placed their full trust in who He claimed to be.

Solus Christus. Christ alone. The fourth pillar of the Reformation stood to show that it is faith placed in this man alone that saves us. What was the prevalent ideology at the time? People were saved by intermediaries, like venerated saints and Mary, who they believed were daily before the throne of God pleading for the lives of people. Jesus Christ, meh, He was one of them.

However, the Reformation sought to clarify that He wasn’t the one of the many intermediaries; He was the only intermediary.

For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.

1 Timothy 2:5-6 ESV

What makes Him the sole intermediary? Well, for starters, He alone lived a sinless life, that is, He perfectly loved God with His entirety, and loved people as He did Himself. That was the entirety of the Law, which He fully obeyed to the tee.

All the others, saints or otherwise, were human, and as such, subject to failure and disobedience. He, however, was human and God at the same time, meaning He was tempted as we are in every way, but did not succumb to them, whether in action, thought or words.

No one else in the history of the world had been able to achieve such a feat; able to live in the world with all its wickedness and still obey God fully. What the Israelites had done was to sacrifice an innocent animal many times as a means of forgiveness. The animal had done no wrong, but took the place of the person who has offended God. Its substitutionary death atoned for the person’s sin.

However, this was a ritual that would have gone on forever and ever, knowing the depth of the human condition. What Jesus did was step in, not just as the substitution for one person, but for all who had, and eventually would, place their faith in Him as who He said He was. His death would act as a one time act, ending the need for ritualistic sacrifices and offerings for atonement.

The glory of the cross…

And it indeed was enough. His death was marked by the tearing of the veil that separated the innermost temple chamber (Holy of Holies), symbolic that now anyone, not just a select group of people, could approach the presence of God without fear of death.

Any person granted the faith to believe that Jesus is the Son of God who alone took all the sins of mankind (including their own), died and rose again and now stands before God as our only mediator who understands our trials fully and completely is assured of their salvation.

But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Saviour appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.But when the

Titus 3:4-7 ESV

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,

Romans 3:22-24 ESV

Martin Luther said, ‘I must listen to the Gospel, for it tells me not what I must do, but what Christ has done for me.‘ What a profound resolution, that nothing we can do will merit our own salvation; our seemingly good works are stained with the stench of sin, but by the blood of Christ shed on the hill those many years ago, we are washed, made clean and renewed. Hence, we look to Him alone as the basis of our salvation.

As we enter into the season of Easter, my personal desire is to be renewed in my view of who Christ is; that even though the salvation He offers is free, it wasn’t cheap.

How vast is His love for God and the human race, that He would willingly lay down His life to reconcile us back to the Father. I pray we don’t lose that wonder and awe, and that we daily seek Him to teach us and instruct us.

One last leg of the journey remains. Thank you for bearing with my erratic posting schedule. See you all soon!

Sidenote: I got great things coming up for the future of this blog. I will give more details after we are done with the next post, but trust me; it’s gonna be amazing.

Sola Fide | #TheSolae

, , , , , , ,

Hello again dear ones! It has indeed been a while since the last post on this series, and I do feel bad for breaking the promise I had made, to put up these posts weekly.

Not to dwell on the past and could-have-beens, and to move forward with this wonderful trip we have been having of exploring the pillars of Reformed Christianity.

A bit of an update about where I vanished to; work took a rather interesting and deep dive, and a lot of my efforts went there (stewardship and priorities, and rent doesn’t pay itself 😅). It was a whirlwind of activity. Now that things have settled a bit, I had better get this going before I (probably) disappear again into that black hole.

Here we go!! Buckle up!

From where we left off, we saw that it is only by God’s grace that we are saved. There is nothing we can do to earn our salvation; it is free, given without any meritorious advantage to us who believe. What we do cannot save us, no matter how well intentioned it may seem, or how altruistic the heart behind it appears. The church led the masses to believe that, yes, truly it is God’s grace that saves us, but you have to supplement that grace with good works. Then, and only then, will you be truly saved.

Not so.

After a look into what Scriptures had to say, plus the life story of John Newton, we can clearly say it is only God’s grace that saves us. Our response, then, should be to seek how to live a life that shows the beauty of God’s grace; love the unlovable, kindness and generosity to those who seemingly would deserve the opposite, joy in every circumstance.

Let’s continue with this journey; onto the next stop. The Reformers had been able to show where the church had failed in showing with whom supreme authority lay with, and that whatever power traditions and human achievements held had no means in play at redeeming the human soul from its sin and wickedness. A prevailing question then arose; on what basis is man justified before God?

A question which I believe dwells deep within the hearts of many. And with good reason too.

God’s grace is indeed great, that even the most vile of hearts is not too far to be redeemed. How can we reconcile these two extremes, a holy God and a sinful people? How is this holy God able to welcome the most impure of people into His family and call them His own?

Of course, it would automatically make sense to include good works onto the grace already given, but we saw that would nullify grace as grace. If, then, man is not justified (pronounced righteous) before God by works, on what basis then is one able to stand before Him?

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God

Ephesians 2:8, NIV

Faith alone. Sola fide.

Faith is a word we have heard over and over again, preached from the pulpit, proclaimed as a means (by some sects) through which someone can gain material wealth, but what exactly is it? Martin Luther described it as a vital, deliberate trust in God’s grace, so certain that one would die a thousand times for it. Hebrews 11:1 describes faith as the confidence of things not seen; the assurance of things hoped for.

What then do we hope for, may have most probably been the very next question that followed. Obviously not our works, because we can see them, and they are already nullified in the steps that lead one to salvation.

We who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.

Galatians 2:15-16, NIV

According to sola Scriptura, this holds to be true and inerrant. We are made right in the sight of God solely by hoping in and placing our trust and confidence (faith, in simpler terms) in what Christ has done. This truth is echoed in many other places within Scripture itself; Romans 4:4-5, 2 Corinthians 5:21, Romans 5:19 are just a few to mention.

As simple as it may seem, it couldn’t be further from the fact that this is one of the most difficult things to accept. It is easy to say, I gave of myself in church, so God must save me, or, I volunteer to feed street families and the poor, and give almost half of what I earn to charity. That must count for something.

It is noble, and from our moral viewpoint, it does indeed make sense that one good turn deserves a reward or another good turn. But it doesn’t work that way with God.

Faith means seeing yourself as incapable of even approaching the throne of God, yourself being your entire being; your deeds, your strengths and weaknesses. It means seeing all the grand things we have done as nothing of value before God. It means even seeing our own selves as pitiful striving vapours in the wind.

Faith is knowing and understanding that we can’t save ourselves, but that a means has been offered. That means is the man Jesus. None of us have seen Him, but we believe He is God the Son made flesh, lived among us perfectly and died having fully obeyed and loved God and loved people. Thus, in Him we place our trust and confidence. This is faith that saves.

Faith is not only the foundation we stand on, but the shield that defends us from lies, deceit and slander the enemy and the world may throw at us.

Much like grace, faith is a great gift we know we don’t deserve, but try to justify our deserving of it anyway. Much like the Catholic Church at the time of Luther. Make penance, go to confessions, recite this prayer and count those beads. Then you will be saved.

How I pray that we turn our gaze fully upon Jesus, and see in Him the perfection of our imperfections; that we may be granted the ability to even see Him in that light because of the darkness that fills our being.

On our next post, we will take a look the object, or person, of our faith; Jesus Christ. We will see why faith in Him alone, and no one else, is what makes us right in God’s eyes. I pray we all may be strengthened and preserved until then.

Peace! 🤸🏾

Sola Gratia | #TheSolae

, , , , ,

The storm howled, its violent winds straining at the already ripped sails and whistling through the broken hull of the ship. John was at the helm of the ship, trying all he could to steer the course of the ship away from the calamity, holding on to the feeble hope he and his fellow sailors had left in surviving the onslaught.

He likened the wreck of the ship to his own life; becoming a sailor at the age of 11, dealing with some of the coarsest, most depraved human beings in the world (hence the origin of the term, cursing like a sailor) and engaging in debauchery that shocked everyone he met or interacted with. He had sunk so low to a point he even became a servant to West African slaves after being deserted by one of his captains. He participated in slave trade, treating them with little to no dignity, and even allowing his juniors to do the same as he.

As the ship rolled and swayed in the waves, he remembered the teachings his mother had impressed upon him as a child, teachings he had rejected all his life. He despaired, feeling as one who had fallen beyond all hope of salvation from the God he had heard of so many years ago. A New Testament passage came to mind as he wallowed in his despair;

 If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

Luke 11:13, NIV

“Would he still answer, even if I have lived a life full of sin and wickedness?” he wondered.

He miraculously survived the storm, and began to make deliberate efforts afterwards to turn away from his past life and focus on the Christ he had written off. He disciplined himself to read the Bible as often as he could, pray and seek the comfort from other known Christians. Although he still continued in slave trade, those under him noticed a change in him; he was kinder to the slaves, and gracious to those he dealt with. Something was wringing his heart, and all could see it as plain as day.

John went on to become a preacher, a husband, and eventually an slave-trade abolitionist. Close to the end of his life, he said to his friends, “My memory has faded, but two things I know and I’m sure of; that I am a great sinner, and Christ is a great saviour.” Today, one of the greatest, most beloved hymns is attributed to him.

Amazing grace! How sweet the sound!

That saved a wretch like me!

I once was lost, but now I’m found;

Was blind, but now I see!

John Newton

Grace. It’s a word we hear so often in singing and in Christian circles, but how often do we take time to ponder upon the word and its meaning?

Simply defined, grace means ‘unmerited favour’. A good deed done towards someone that is not based on what they have done or will do. To illustrate, you could buy a nice, warm blanket and offer it to the first homeless person you meet outside the store you bought it from. The guy, you most probably don’t know. Maybe you willnever meet him again afterwards. He hasn’t done anything prior to deserve getting the blanket from you, and most likely will do nothing afterwards to warrant why you gave him the blanket. A feeble example, but you (hopefully) get the point.

The Reformers, in their quest to bring a change to the Catholic system by referring them back to Scripture as the base authority, discovered grace as a truth that the church had indeed preached, but slightly added to and was liable to cause uncertainty in a believer’s life.

The Catholic church, even till this day, taught that that one is indeed saved by grace. However, the teaching rejects the word alone, which is what the Reformers advocated for. The Catholic view of how one is saved is as such; you are accepted in the eyes of God by grace and the works that follow after salvation, and that these works actually do merit your entry into heaven. The Reformers insisted, according to Scripture, it is by grace alone that we are saved; works come after as a result of the change that is brought about by God in the life of the believer.

Several portions of Scripture serve to show that it is grace alone that saves us. Paul asks the Corinthian church (and us as well) if what they have (their giftings upon salvation and salvation itself) were not given freely to them, and why then they boast as if these things were given to them as a reward for things done [1st Corinthians 4:7]. He poses the same thought to the Romans [Romans 11:35]; what can we give to God that would be enough to pay back for all that He has done? Think for a moment; what can we give to God, the great Creator and infinite ruler of everything and all things, that isn’t already His?

Perhaps the richest and most quoted source on grace alone is the second chapter of Ephesians. We were (and/or are) dead in and to sin, so deeply and fully into the sinful way of life that in the eyes of God we were as good as dead. Condemned by Adam’s disobedience, the sin nature now is present in every person born that makes us follow the desires of our bodies, the pleasures of the world and the will of the devil. God being holy and unable to stand sin actually pronounced judgement upon us; a full outpouring of His wrath upon all sinfulness that would have to be effected. No escape, no way out… or so it would seem.

We were deserving of death, but Jesus comes onto the scene, and willingly lays down His life and dies in the the most horrible way possible. In. Our. Place.

What could we have possibly done in our dead state to merit our salvation from the wrath to come? In all honesty, what? The painful truth; NOTHING. Zero. Zilch. Nada. All this is God’s own work. If it were ours, well… who wouldn’t boast about how they built a worldclass hospital, staffed it with all the medical specialists in the world and offered free treatment to all the sick who came regardless of age, race and background, and on that, they were granted access to heaven?

We are hardwired to think we deserve the good we are given, and man, we love to think that we will go to heaven because we deserve to be there for one reason or another. But we don’t. We do not, my dear ones. It’s hard to even write this down, but it is the truth.

So then what makes grace so amazing, as we often sing? It shows us how broken and fallen we are, yes, but it shows us how full of love and mercy God is. We deserved death; He gave us life and life in full. We deserved to bear the full weight of being separated fully from God; He offered a way through which we can be reconciled to Him. We deserved an eternity of suffering, pain and agony; He has given us the key to perfect peace, rest and joy. Two diametric opposites of the coin called grace.

The Reformers relished this truth; that even though they were great sinners, their God and Saviour was greater. Nothing they (and we) have done prior has merited our salvation, and interestingly, nothing we will do will add even more merit to it. The quick thing that comes to mind is, so I can do whatever I want and get away with it because it doesn’t change the fact that I am saved? Umm, no. What grace should do in the life of a believer who is in awe of what God has done so freely and abundantly is prompt them to seek more of who this God is, and carve a desire to obey Him and serve Him and love Him even more.

Think of it this way, if you received a gift (hmm, say a phone, for lack of a better example) from someone you did not know, wouldn’t the first thing in mind be to find out who that person is? Once that is done, and you realise they gave you the phone ‘just because’, wouldn’t that spark a form of admiration for that person? You would immediately conclude, that is a good person, so gracious and kind. A very feeble example, again, but I hope it clarifies my earlier point somehow.

Grace alone is what saves us. The abundant, excess and overflowing graciousness of God, shown through the giving of His Son. Not what we have done, or will do, or are doing.

A perfect gift…

This was one of the most pride-crushing articles I have had to write in a while; having to understand grace in its depth was harder than I thought, and harder still will be my attempts to fully understand it as I walk this journey of faith. However, it is worth every step, and my prayer is that grace, as Newton wrote, shall lead us all home; to God and our eternal rest.

As usual, some articles I found quite helpful during the writing of this…

  1. Sola Gratia: Christians Are Saved by the Grace of God Alone
  2. Misunderstanding the Five Solas – Sola Gratia
  3. Sola Gratia: Understanding Grace Alone | Monergism

Sola Scriptura | #TheSolae

, , , , ,

Creator God, our sovereign Lord

The heavens tell, the stars have shown

Your splendour, might and deity

But truth lies in Your Word alone

Nathan Clark George

After Luther nailed his 95 questions to the door of his church at Wittenburg, several of the people who had a chance to read them saw the truth in them, and began to question the Catholic church on its heavy emphasis on tradition and the extravagance of the clergy.

At first, the church saw it as a minor disturbance, akin to the one led by Jan Hus a little over a century prior. However, the more Luther read and wrestled with Scripture, the more the errors of the church’s theology became evident, and published a few books which sought to give further insight into why the Bible taught that justification is by grace through faith. Eventually, the church became incensed by his efforts, and Pope Leo X issued a decree that if Luther did not recant of everythung he had declared, he would be excommunicated from the church.

Excommunication back then was much worse than receiving a cold shoulder from fellow church goers. As the papacy had a full hold on the state, anyone declared a heretic could be arrested and executed by the civil authorities. The chance Luther was given was to recant his statements against the papacy, or face imminent death. Luther did not recant, and publicly burnt the papal decree and declared the Pope the anti-Christ for condemning what he had searched through the Scripture and found to be the Gospel truth. That act sparked a greater rift between Luther’s adherents and the Catholic church.

It was starting to get out of hand, the church noted, seeing as to how Luther was adamant on not rescinding his stand, and how popular he was getting by the day. He was duly summoned to a gathering of the Catholic church’s most prominent leaders in the town of Worms (pronounced Vurms, German…) slated for early 1521, again to recant his statements made against the papacy and restore stability to the Holy Roman Empire. Failure to do so would lead to his excommunication from the church, which in that day an age was a death warrant.

“My conscience is captive to the Word of God,” he told his accusers. “I cannot and will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand.”

Martin Luther declared his conscience to be bound to God’s Word, and no longer to the church and its coercive traditions and rites. Earlier before the gathering at Worms, he said to a cardinal, who challenged him on the basis of church teaching, “The truth of Scripture comes first. After that is accepted one may determine whether the words of men can be accepted as true.” It was a bold statement to make at the time, and even today, the weight of it still bears heavy on us. Why is Scripture alone to be considered the only source of truth necessary for our life?

For close to a thousand years, Christianity was defined by tradition and acts of routine. Theology (knowledge of God and His plan for humanity) was the reserve of a few. People would have their own theological questions, but did not own a copy of Scripture to find answers on their own. They would go seek answers from the appointed clergy, who would then provide answers based on their own, often flawed and self-serving understanding of the Scriptures. This created a kind of drone mentality in the populace; you know what you believe, but you cannot defend what you believe in. So, if one would be asked why they have to give penance and indulgences, or why they celebrate something as simple as the Lord’s Table, the run-to answer would be, “Because the priest told us so.”

However, Luther used his position as a priest to fully look into Scripture, wring it and intellectually ponder over all he read, possibly coming across verses such as:

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

2 Timothy 3:16 – 17 (NIV)

His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.

2 Peter 1:3 (NIV)

By penning sola Scriptura, he affirmed what had been true all along; that God’s Word has sufficient truth that leads to salvation and that is necessary for spiritual life. It is the perfect and only standard of spiritual truth; not a pope (a fallible human figure), traditions (which change and waver over time) or anything else that is set up as a measure of one’s spirituality. For the longest time, traditions had taken root in the hearts of people instead of the unchanging Scripture which backed them up; imperfect human had set their decrees and laws above that which was perfeect and whole. What he called for was for a shift from what had been set as standards by human authority and turn back to what was the original authority on all spiritual matters. Himself, a mere priest, had been able through God’s help to find the truth by simply reading the Scriptures; how much more would someone else’s heart be captivated by this truth?

Sola Scriptura frees the believer from all these things, and in turn allows them, just like the reformers did, to study Scripture on their own and discover the way to salvation. It gives the believer an opportunity to wrestle with the very words of God in their minds and hearts, and make personal convictions based on these truths themselves that they can intellectually defend and make a case for.

The reformers themselves had experienced this power of the Bible alone being the beginning of one’s journey to knowing God and His ultimate plan for humanity, and they did all they could to make sure it reached the masses so that as many people as possible could make that first step. Luther translated the New Testament into German for his countrymen to read and be read to in their native language. In England, a man named William Tyndale, through violent opposition that eventually ended in his death, translated the New Testament as well into the commoner’s language, English. “I defy the Pope and all his laws,” he once said to a priest. “If God spare my life, before very long I will cause a boy who drives a plough to know more Scriptures than you do!”

Sola Scriptura paved the way for the Reformation. But without an understanding of what it really talks about concerning salvation, one can easily revert to following set traditions and human authority as a means of ‘acquiring’ their own salvation. In our next installment of this series, we will delve deeper and get to learn what the reformers advocated for as the means by which we are saved.

All that is necessary for spiritual life and what God requires of us…

Here are some sites I used to aid in writing this article. I hope they will benefit you as well 🙂

  1. What Sola Scriptura Really Means | Crossway Articles
  2. The Danger of Sola Scriptura | Bible.org
  3. The Real Meaning of Sola Scriptura – The Gospel Coalition | Australia

History | #TheSolae

, , , , ,

Hey there!

A big thank you for making it here, and, hopefully, as excited as I am for this new journey. I feel like I’ve used the woulrd journey a lot, but anyway, it is what we all are on; the road that leads to knowledge and wisdom.

I posted an alert on Sunday about this new series we’re doing, and today we get this ball rolling. Now I can get deep without the fear of revealing spoilers (sigh of relief). As I teased, the solas/solae are the principles that surround the doctrine of salvation in Lutheran and Reformed Christianity. Let’s lay down a few definitions and refreshers before we can dive right in.

Sola is Latin for alone, and there are five of these tenets we shall explore as we progress on in the series. Now that we have that fancy word made familiar…

We looked at what salvation is based upon in the 4th installment of Know More, Overwhelming Sacrifice; the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. The question that would naturally come to mind is, why then must principles exist to explain this? Is there really a need to have guiding lights to help us understand what salvation is? The next logical question in the chain is then, what formed the basis of these principles? This is what we will attempt to answer in this article.

After the formation of the first church (body of believers, not a physical building), the Gospel was spread to various parts of the world through the efforts of the early apostles. As we all have experienced, the Gospel can be very offensive, because it shows us how flawed we are and how in need of a relationship with God we are. So, as time went by, several people and groups of people decided to place the Gospel (God’s truth for mankind that leads to salvation) on the back burner, and instead attempt to use their limited human knowledge to try and box the vastness of this truth.

One of these was what we currently know as the Roman Catholic movement. This in and of itself is a very broad, very deep topic which, if we explore in depth, may cause a digression from the intent of this series. However, a lot of things present today in Roman Catholicism were present in the early days of Christianity, and the solae are one of the ideologies expounded by the founders of what we now know as Protestantism, which were used in (obviously) protest against the superpower that was the Roman Catholic Church.

In the European Middle Ages, only the elite (royalty, nobility, and the clerics) were able to read and write. A vast majority of the population were peasants, and even those who managed to escape the life of peasantry still had social classes that didn’t place emphasis on literacy. Hence, a lot of people would have the Bible spoken to them on set days of the week, then go about their business as usual. The church at the time took note of this, and used the people’s weakness as a weapon against them.

Whatever was spoken by a priest was final (hmm, interesting that this still seems to go on till today). The church then organised itself into a superpower of sorts, using divine threats as a means of conquering and gaining power. At the head of this was the aptly titled ‘Vicar of Christ’, the Pope, who claimed infallibility and the power of God’s spokesperson on earth.

Basically, it was a mess. A big, big mess. So much so, it caught the attention of one man called John Wycliffe. He showed, after careful and thoughtful analysis of Scripture, that there existed no biblical justification for the papacy, and emphasised on the basis of the Bible alone being the only source of matters pertaining to life, not the Pope or any spiritual head. He was fervent in his attempts, and had a group of his followers preach these truths in the common language (English) to make sure as many people as possible heard them.

His works influenced a Bohemian priest called Jan Hus about a century later. He too made known the glorious truth of Scripture alone being sufficient to give knowledge of salvation, as well as bringing to light the fact that salvation was by grace alone through faith alone, not through added works or human merit as was widely preached to the masses. The church silenced him by charging him with heresy (a very high crime) and duly burnt him at the stake.

Eventually, for a while, it seemed things cooled down and went back to the norm; the clergy abusing their power and using it to enrich themselves. Within no time, the priests and the papacy were among the wealthiest members of society, and wielded so much authority that even kings would submit to them. A Dutch humanist, Erasmus, noticed this, and blatantly called out the Catholic Church for the systemic rot; the wealth and ease with which their leaders lived in, non-scriptural practices such as veneration of saints and worship of Mary, as well as some grave errors in the Latin translation of the Bible.

It didn’t take long for his protests to gain traction. A German priest, Martin Luther, also had began to notice how extravagant the current Pope, Leo X, was. Upon the disrepair of a great cathedral, St. Peter’s Basilica, Leo began to give indulgences those who would give alms to go towards the repair of the building. Indulgences were tokens given to the church essentially as a way of buying one’s salvation as well as for those who had died; hence, the more alms given, the less your chances of suffering for your sins.

Martin questioned why the Pope, who was one of the wealthiest men of the time, could not give part of his wealth towards the repair of the church, but rather asked for money from some of the poorest people, threatening them and their loved ones of eternal torment if they failed to do so. This, and many other issues he had seen, prompted him to write the now-famous 95 Theses, which he nailed to the door of his church on October 31st, 1517. He posed his thoughts as a means of garnering debate, not knowing the wave that would follow it soon after. From that simple act, a great division occured from the Catholic Church at the time, and the ‘dissidents’ were ridiculed as Protestants for their protests calling for reform in the church.

That, dear readers, is a highly summarised version of the history of the Protestant Reformation. This would have been one very long article that I had to shorten and emphasise key points through.

What exactly were they protesting over? The answer is, the perversion of salvation and grace by the Catholic Church. The church had set the word of the pope as the final authority on matters of salvation; it was countered with God’s word (the Bible) as final authority. Salvation, they preached, was by faith and good works; the reformers, basing their conclusion on Scripture, said it was by faith alone. Your good works merit your salvation, the chuch said; nope, said the reformers, again using Scripture to show it was only by the undeserved favour of God (grace) that we are saved. Mary and the saints can save you, the church proclaimed; the Bible says its Christ alone, the reformers said. Salvation is to be attributed to all these things and people, the church hollered; actually, no, said the reformers, it’s all to God, and for His glory alone.

Everything points back to the centre…

Scripture alone. Grace alone. Faith alone. Christ alone. All for the glory of God alone. These five pillars, built on the foundational doctrine of salvation, are what we shall be exploring in this series. Next Friday, we begin with the sola that started it all; sola Scriptura (Scripture alone).

See you there!

The Solae

New Series Alert | #TheSolae

, , , ,

blows away dust that settled on blog for the past year

Good evening everyone! Wow, it has been ages since I last did something here! I guess I should stop this habit of doing a consistent run, then dropping off and returning after a long hiatus.

Here on Eddie Awesome, I share, among many other things, the basics of what I hold to be true in my walk and growth as a (not-so-perfect) Christian, in the hopes that it too will guide you, as led by the Holy Spirit, to seek them out in Scripture and strengthen your faith in God. My prayer, as I go through the process of research, editing and publishing every article, is for each of my readers, and myself, to constantly see the beauty and majesty of God as He has shown Himself in His Word, and grow to love Him all the more in the daily pursuit of righteousness.

Know More was the first full-length series I, and a few collaborators (it was that intense) did around this time last year, in the hopes of demystifying what Christianity is through its core doctrines such as regeneration, justification, the Trinity, and a whole lot more. It was an amazing venture; personally, getting to grow in faith, and seeing readers gain a greater appreciation for the truth. In all, God was glorified.

We will keep on in the journey of knowing more, that is true, but now, let’s take a more interesting and scenic route along that road, one that I, being the young Christian I was at the time, found to be jaw-droppingly brilliant it would be difficult to not share if given the opportunity.

To give a teaser, the solae (singular sola, from latin meaning ‘alone’) are the principles surrounding the doctrine of salvation held by Reformed and Lutheran Protestants. In this series, we will look at the principles from the perspective of learners, with the goal of adjusting our view on salvation to its original Designer. As simple as that, hoping I haven’t ruined your anticipation.

Posts will be up every Friday starting 1st November. Mark your calendars. Like I said in the first series, this will be a journey one would not easily forget. It is my prayer, as always, that we all benefit from this walk.

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.

Proverbs 9:10, English Standard Version