“Sola Fide” Galatians 3:23-25; 4:4-7
Introduction
There are two kinds of magnets, steel magnets and soft iron magnets. The steel magnet receives its magnetism from the load stone, and has it permanently; it can get along very well alone in a small way; it can pick up needles and do many other little things to amuse children. There is another kind of magnet, which is made of soft iron, with a coil of copper wire round it. When the battery is all ready, and the cups are filled with the mercury, and the connection is made with the wires, this magnet is twenty times as strong as the steel magnet. Break the circuit, and its power is all gone instantly. We are soft iron magnets; our whole power must come from the Lord Jesus Christ; but faith makes the connection.
Good works flow from a connected relationship with God by faith. Works and Faith do not go hand in hand, as though they are two rails of a train track. No, works flow naturally from a life of faith; works are the product, not the partner of genuine lasting and purely biblical faith.
Faith connects us to the source and His power flows through us unto others.
Transition
This morning we will discuss the great doctrine of the Reformers, “Sola Fide,” that is; faith alone. We will briefly discuss the history and origins of this most important of biblical doctrines and then see what it means for us today. The reformation era – the 16th Century – of the church is a great field of treasure for our lives today; it is but waiting to be explored, that we may come to know its riches.
Exposition
The fire that was the protestant reformation was sparked by Martin Luther on October 31, 1517. Luther was a Catholic priest living in Wittenberg, Germany. He had grown weary of the abuses of the Catholic Papacy as well as theological and biblical variances within the Church.
Luther’s famous document, “The Ninety-Five Theses on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences”, commonly known as The Ninety-Five Theses, were the primary catalyst for the Protestant Reformation. Luther used these theses to display his displeasure with some of the Church’s clergy’s abuses, most notably the sale of indulgences. Luther was the first in a long line of reformers who taught, wrote, and lived in the sixteenth century. Many of the reformers were martyred for what they lived, believed, and taught.
Luther’s popularity encouraged others to share their doubts about the Church and to protest against its ways; it especially challenged the teachings of the Church on the nature of penance, the authority of the Pope and the usefulness of indulgences. They sparked a theological debate that would result in the Reformation and the birth of the various Lutheran, Reformed, and Anabaptist sects within Christianity.
As a Congregational Church, this is our heritage and it is at a great price that we have received it. The primary things that the reformers spoke against were the abuses of the Catholic clergy in the selling of indulgences and the abuses of the Papacy. During this period in Europe the Papacy was ripe with scandal.
Their chief objective though, was not as much against the Church of Rome, as it was in favor of freeing the Word of God – the Bible – from the captivity of the Church body, the Dogma which was indeed at war with the content of the very Bible that it sought to explain, and to give it to the people.
The chief aim of the reformers, the central theme of the reformation, wither it be found in Germany, Geneva, or England, was the elevation of the Word of God, its availability to common people rather than merely the very wealthy, the clergy, or the most highly educated, and the stripping away of works from faith.
Sola Fide, faith alone according to the grace of God alone as it has been revealed in the Bible alone was their cry. Opponents to the doctrine of Sola Fide during the time of the reformation cited primarily that it went against the teachings of the Roman Church and its Pope. Sola Fide flew in the face of papal authority as it undercut so many of the corrupt practices of the Church in that era.
In that era, during the late medieval and early renaissance period, the selling of indulgences was rampant and regularly abused by Catholic monarchs who were allowed to sell indulgences to raise money to finance the crusades and by the Church who used the selling of indulgences to finance building projects such as Saint Peters Basilica, the central seat of authority of the Catholic Church.
Indulgences though, had been available for purchase from at least the third century, very early in the life of the Roman Church. The biblical basis for indulgences was non-existent. Many local priests even offered to pray for the souls of loved ones who were in the imaginary, non-biblical, place of purgatory.
The Church had taught biblically ignorant and often illiterate people that men needed to earn heaven through good works and faith.
They had further perverted the Gospel by creating doctrines, such as purgatory, that gave them tremendous leverage over the hearts and minds of the common people. Out of ignorance the people found themselves filled with an image of a cruel tyrannical God whom they must work to please.
The reformers sought to change the very nature and climate of the world around them; they sought to free people from the shackles of ignorance by translating the Bible into the language of the people and teaching them what it said; salvation comes by faith alone, you don’t have to earn God’s favor, but rather, our right response is to respond to His invitation of grace by faith.
Sir William Napier, the British Baron of the late 19th & early 20th century, was one day taking a long walk, when he met a little girl about five years old, sobbing over a broken bowl. She had dropped and broken it in bringing it back from the field to which she had taken her father’s dinner in it, and she said she would be beaten on her return for having broken it; then, with a sudden gleam of hope, she innocently looked into his face and said: “But you can mend it, can’t you?” Sir William explained that he could not mend the bowl; but the trouble he could mend by the gift of a sixpence to buy another. However, on opening his purse, it was empty of silver, and he had to make amends by promising to meet his little friend in the same spot at the same hour next day, and to bring the sixpence with him, bidding her, meanwhile, tell her mother she had seen a gentleman who would bring her the money for the bowl next day. The child, entirely trusting him, went on her way comforted. On his return home he found an invitation awaiting him to dine in Bath the following evening, to meet someone whom he especially wished to see. He hesitated for some little time, trying to calculate the possibility of honoring the meeting to his little friend of the broken bowl, and of still being in time for the dinner party in Bath; but, finding that this could not be, he wrote to decline accepting the invitation, on the plea of a “pre-engagement,” saying to one of his family members as he did so, “I cannot disappoint her, she trusted me so implicitly.”
We likewise have been given an invitation, only our invitation is to trust so simply in Christ, just as the little girl in the story trusted that Sir William Napier would return and give the little girl the money for the bowel.
Faith alone is the means of Grace. God shows love, mercy, and forgiveness to us based not on what we have done by way of good deeds, good works, or anything else of our own making. God’s grace is alone contingent upon our accepting the invitation to place our trust – our faith – in His Son Jesus Christ.
Opponents to Sola Fide in our day, use a much more biblical argument, they say that faith without works is dead and take this very biblical idea a step further, I would suggest, a step out of context, to imply that without good works faith is invalid; many of these folks skirt the fence of legalism; being overly focused on works and holy living, which, while they are good things; they should never take the place of the purity of God’s unending grace.
Faith and works are not, according to the Bible, two pillars holding up the roof of salvation. No, Faith is the connection between us and God and grace is the foundation upon which we stand. It is by faith that we are called to live out the Christian life. Good works flow from faith as fruit grows from the vine.
The nutrients of God’s life enable us toward godly living, the water of live nourishes us and strengthens us, and God Himself tends to the vine.
Listen to the words of Hebrews 11:1-6, “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for. By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as a righteous man, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead. By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death; he could not be found, because God had taken him away. For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” (NIV)
Conclusion
A. W. Tozer once wrote that, “At the root of the Christian life lies belief in the invisible. The object of the Christian’s faith is unseen reality.” Sola Fide during the protestant reformation was the battle cry for a break away from something.
For us today Sola Fide, Faith Alone, is a means of accessing God’s mercy apart from the struggle to earn His favor. Today, if you find yourself wondering how you might live a life more pleasing to God; remember the words of the reformers, Faith Alone in Christ Alone according to God’s unending Grace alone, as we find it revealed in the Bible alone.
This morning, accept His invitation to trust in Him through faith alone. Amen.
