Sola Fide
Text: Rom. 3:27-31
Introduction
1. Illustration: One of the most important events in both world and church history was the Protestant Reformation. People like Martin Luther, John Calvin and John Knox began to question the practices of the Roman Catholic Church and sought to bring reform to the church. There were five statements that drove the Reformation, and they were all in Latin.
a. Sola Scriptura = Scripture Alone – The Bible alone is the highest authority.
b. Sola Gratia = Grace Alone – We are saved by grace alone.
c. Solus Christus = Christ Alone – Jesus Christ is our Savior, Lord and King.
d. Soli Gloria = To the Glory of God Alone – We live for the glory of God alone.
e. Sola Fide = Faith Alone – We are saved through faith alone in Jesus Christ.
2. Today we are going to talk about the last of these statements, as Paul declares that we are saved by faith alone and not by our own works. In other words, you cannot earn your way to heaven for it is a gift from God.
3. In our text today, Paul talks about…
a. Faith Alone
b. Oneness Of Faith
c. Fulfillment of the Law
4. Read Rom. 3:27-30.
Proposition: Salvation is a gift from God that we can only receive by faith in Jesus.
Transition: First, Paul declares that salvation is by…
I. Faith Alone (27-28).
A. Made Right With God Through Faith
1. Now I’m sure that you have talked with people, as I have that say, “I don’t need Jesus or to attend church. All I have to do is…”
2. But Paul’s assertion in this section totally contradicts those types of ideas.
3. In v. 27, he says, “Can we boast, then, that we have done anything to be accepted by God? No, because our acquittal is not based on obeying the law. It is based on faith.”
a. Paul asks the question, "Can we boast..."
b. This refers to the Jewish boast that they are under the covenant of Moses, and as a result, automatically the people of God, as well as the covenant of works where you could be right with God based on your actions.
c. In the previous section Paul made it very clear that in God's mind this sort of boasting was useless.
d. Jesus' sacrificial death removed any possibility of anyone standing right before God based on their actions.
e. Before Jesus the old covenant enabled people to maintain their relationship with God by keeping the law, but now that the Messiah has come that relationship has changed.
f. The error of this thinking is that keeping the law was good enough. The reality is that only the grace of God experienced by faith is enough.
g. That's why Paul says, "our acquittal is based not only obeying the law. It is based on faith." The contrast between works and faith is at the heart of the argument here.
h. The "law of faith" would mean that the law was finally fulfilled in Christian faith.
i. The contrast is between the Jewish misuse of the law as a system of works to attain right standing with God based on human effort and the priority of faith in Christian salvation.
j. The Jews thought they could get to heaven based on their own goodness because this is now rendered useless on the basis of God's new rule of faith (Osbourne, 100-101).
4. Paul then takes his argument a step further in v. 28, where he says, “So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law.”
a. Here Paul draws his conclusion.
b. Since faith rather than works is the key in the new covenant, being made right with God is now entirely by faith, and now righteousness is achieved by apart from keeping the law.
B. By Grace Through Faith
1. Illustration: Sola fide isn’t a license to sin; it’s the motivation to follow your Savior. Now, there was a time in the history of the church, when this doctrine was all but lost. By the fifteenth century the church had become a massive institution of power, and the gospel was polluted. The church was teaching salvation by subjection to the pope, receiving the sacraments, and doing good works. In fact, by the fifteenth salvation was for sale. In order to raise funds for the building of St Peter’s basilica in Rome, the church was selling admission to heaven, even for dead relatives. It wasn’t by faith at all, silver and gold got you into the heaven. In those dark days, God raised up a hero of the faith to stand against the powers of the empire, and the most powerful institution on the planet, to preach sola fide. That hero’s name was Martin Luther.
2. The only way that we can be saved a go to heaven is by faith in Jesus!
a. Ephesians 2:8-9 (NLT2)
8 God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God.
9 Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.
b. You cannot be saved simply by being a good person.
c. You cannot be saved based on how much you give to the poor.
d. You cannot be saved by following rules and regulations.
e. You cannot even be saved because you attend church (you can sleep in a garage and that doesn’t make you a car!)
f. The only way that you can be saved is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.
g. If you could be saved by your own merits, then Jesus died for nothing.
h. But he died so that by faith in him and receiving his free gift that he purchased for on the cross we could be saved.
i. Have you received Jesus as your Savior?
Transition: Next, Paul talks about…
II. Oneness Of Faith (29-30).
A. Only One God
1. Paul now goes back to something that he discussed earlier in the chapter, the idea that we are all in the same boat. That we are all sinners in the need of grace.
2. In v. 29, he says, “After all, is God the God of the Jews only? Isn’t he also the God of the Gentiles? Of course he is.”
a. Since both Jews and Gentiles are in the same boat, as both being sinners in need of grace, and since both are justified by faith, then it just makes sense that God is the God of both.
b. Now if you could earn your salvation through keeping the law, then the Jews could say that God was only their God, but since that is not the case, and we all have to come to God through faith, then we all come to the same God.
c. Certainly, the Jews are the chosen people and blessed with the revelation of God, but in the OT it shows that it was always God's intention to draw the entire world to himself.
d. Genesis 12:3 (NLT2)
3 I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you.”
3. Paul then, especially for the benefit of the Jews, anchors his argument in something the Jews knew very well, the Shema. In v. 30, he says, “There is only one God, and he makes people right with himself only by faith, whether they are Jews or Gentiles.”
a. This, of course, comes from Deut. 6:4, which says,
b. Deuteronomy 6:4 (NLT2)
4 “Listen, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone.
c. So, if the Lord is the Lord "alone," then he is the God of everyone!
d. The belief was that there was one God, but that they had a special relationship with God that no one else had.
e. In their minds, the only way a Gentile could come to God was by becoming a Jew.
f. But now there was a historical, salvation related, change has taken place.
g. Salvation was no longer associated with the law, but rather through faith in Jesus Christ.
h. Therefore, Gentiles now have the same access to God that the Jews did.
i. Christ died for all so Gentiles are just as acceptable to God as the Jews.
j. As a result, we will all stand before the judgement seat of God and judged purely on whether we have received the sacrificial death of Jesus on our behalf. God expects one response to his offer of salvation - not works but faith!
B. A New Creation
1. Illustration: You are not a Christian until you receive a new nature and if you receive a new nature there will be evidence. You can educate a pig to stay out of the mud and eat differently but on a hot day with fellow pigs he will resort to his normal nature and dive happily into the mud. If you could give him a new nature, say, the nature of a cat, when the test of a hot day and welcome mud came, he would not be happy in the mudhole even if his friends persuade him to join them again, he has a new nature, new desires. He does not think he is better than them, he just does not enjoy those things anymore.
2. Faith is not about religion, denominations or following a set of rules, it is about being changed.
a. 2 Corinthians 5:17 (NLT2)
17 This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!
b. Faith is not about following a set of rules.
c. Faith is not about what church you go to.
d. Faith is not about what version of the Bible you read.
e. Faith is about believing in Jesus and allowing him to change you.
f. Jesus half-brother, James, in his letter said, “Don’t tell me about your faith show it to me.
g. Faith in Jesus is not about coming to the altar at the end of a church service a praying a cheap prayer that you have no intention of living out.
h. Faith in Jesus is about be transformed, changed from who you were to whom Christ wants you to be.
i. I’m not who I want to be, I’m not who I should be, but thank God I’m not who I used to be!
Transition: Finally, Paul talks about faith being…
III. Fulfillment Of The Law (31).
A. Fulfill The Law
1. Paul concludes this section by saying that faith does not nullify the law but rather upholds it.
2. In v. 31, he says, “Well then, if we emphasize faith, does this mean that we can forget about the law? Of course not! In fact, only when we have faith do we truly fulfill the law.”
a. He uses his strongly worded "Of course not!," to give this special emphasis.
b. Elsewhere, Paul equates faith in Christ with fulfillment of the law.
c. This is in keeping with what Jesus said in Matt. 5, that he came not to abolish the law but to fulfill it.
d. In Jesus the whole law has not been nullified but fulfilled, so in coming to Christ by faith, we are actually keeping the law in it's entirety.
B. To Fulfill Them
1. Illustration: Dietrich Bonhoeffer worded it this way: "It is Jesus himself who comes between the disciples and the law, not the law which comes between Jesus and the disciples." (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship, 123 (R.H. Fuller trans., New York: Touchstone, 1995).
2. Jesus didn’t come to change or do away with the law, but rather for the law to make sense.
a. Matthew 5:17 (NLT2)
17 “Don’t misunderstand why I have come. I did not come to abolish the law of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No, I came to accomplish their purpose.
b. Jesus did come to do away with the law of Moses.
c. He didn’t come to do away with the writings of the prophets. I mean that wouldn’t make sense because they wrote about him.
d. No he came for all of those things to make sense, because everything written in the OT points to Jesus.
e. He is the pinnacle of all of Scripture.
f. The law’s purpose was to show us how sinful we are, and that we are incapable of keeping God’s laws.
g. The law’s purpose was to show us a need for forgiveness.
h. The law’s purpose was to show us our need for grace.
i. The law’s purpose was to show us our need for Jesus
Conclusion
1. In our text today, Paul talks about…
a. Faith Alone
b. Oneness Of Faith
c. Fulfillment of the Law
2. THREE THINGS TO REMEMBER…
a. EVERYONE YOU MEET IS JUST LIKE YOU…A SINNER IN THE NEED OF GRACE!
b. REMIND PEOPLE THAT SALVATION CANNOT BE EARNED ON RECEIVED!
c. THE LAW REMINDS US WE ARE SINNERS, BUT GRACE REMINDS US THAT WE HAVE BEEN FORGIVEN!
