Series Pt 3 – The Five Transcendent Truths
Sola Fide
Romans 5:1 Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:
2 By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
What is Sola Fide? Like last week it is a Latin phrase that means “Only faith or faith alone.”
What is faith? The biblical definition of faith is found in Hebrews 11:1 :
“Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” (Hebrews 11:1)
I love Sinclair Ferguson’s definition of faith - “The receiving and relying on Christ and His righteousness. It is Christ-directed, not self directed. It is Christ-reliant, not self-reliant.”
Habakkuk 2:4 Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith.
Romans 1:17 For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.
Galatians 3:11 But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith.
Hebrews 10:38 Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.
Jefferson M. Williams
“This morning, we come to faith alone. This was the material principle of the Reformation. The question at hand was, “How is one made right with God?” The theological term for this is “justification.”
The way you answer this question makes all the difference. Catholics, Orthodox, and Protestants would all agree that being made right before God involves faith. But as Protestants, we assert that it is by faith alone that we are made right before God.
James Montgomery Boice defines justification as “an act by which God declares sinners to be righteous by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.”
Terry Johnson reminds us that it is a judicial act of God:
“It’s a declaration, not a process, a new status, not a new nature, it the verdict of the judge, not the works of the accused.”
Remember, the equation is Jesus + Nothing = Everything. The Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses, and Catholics would all disagree with this equation. To them, it is Jesus + good works (missions, confession, church attendance) = everything.
“There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. (Romans 3:24-25)
I. The Operation of Faith – “Therefore being justified by faith…
Justification means "just-as-if-I-never-sinned."
NO RECORD ANYWHERE
Dr. Roy Gustafson has the finest illustration of justification I have ever heard. It seems that there was a man in England who put his Rolls-Royce on a boat and went across to the continent to go on a holiday. While he was driving around Europe, something happened to the motor of his car. He cabled the Rolls-Royce people back in England and asked, "I’m having trouble with my car; what do you suggest I do?" Well, the Rolls-Royce people flew a mechanic over! The mechanic repaired the car and flew back to England and left the man to continue his holiday.
As you can imagine, the fellow was wondering, "How much is this going to cost me?" So when he got back to England, he wrote the people a letter and asked how much he owed them. He received a letter from the office that read: "Dear Sir: There is no record anywhere in our files that anything ever went wrong with a Rolls-Royce." That is justification!
W. Wiersbe, Key Words of the Christian Life, p. 16
Theologian Louis Berkhof wrote, "Justification is a judicial act of God, in which He declares on the basis of righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ that all claims of the law are satisfied with respect to the sinner." Source: Systematic Theology, p. 513.
a. The source of our justification - the grace of God and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
We are justified freely by grace through redemption. Redemption is the language of the marketplace. It means to buy back or to ransom.
b. The ground of our justification - the work of Christ.
God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith.
The big theological term for this is “propitiation.” This means a substitutionary sacrifice which satisfies the wrath of God.
“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)
c. The means of our justification - faith.
John Stott writes:
Jesus lived a life we couldn’t live - He kept the law perfectly. He died a death we couldn’t die. He died in our place, for our sins, to atone or pay our penalty.
His righteousness was imputed (given) to us. We have no righteousness but His.
How was this done?
The writer of Hebrews wrote, quoting Leviticus 17:11:
“In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” (Hebrews 9:22)
II. The Outcome of Faith – “…we have peace with God…”
a. The possession – we have
The highly respected theologian Louis Berkhof defines genuine faith in essentially the same way noting that it includes an intellectual element (notitia), which is "a positive recognition of the truth"; an emotional element (assensus), which includes "a deep conviction of the truth"; and a volitional element (fiducia), which involves "a personal trust in Christ as Savior and Lord, including a surrender … to Christ."
(Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1939)
b. The prize – the most elusive prize
Charles Spurgeon wrote:
“Oh! how sweet to view the flowing of my Savior’s precious blood. With divine assurance knowing He has made peace with God.”
THE UNGODLY
"Who does God justify through faith? The ungodly! Who did Christ die for? The ungodly! That means those without God. Ungodly. Why does God justify the ungodly? Why did Christ die for the ungodly? Because that’s the only kind of person there was." c.e.t.
III. The Object of Faith – “…through our Lord Jesus Christ
Remember it is Christ alone, Christ only plus nothing else that brings salvation to us.
John Flavel: "How dangerous it is to join anything of our own to the righteousness of Christ, in pursuit of justification before God! Jesus Christ will never endure this; it reflects upon His work dishonorably. He will be all, or none, in our justification…. Christ is no half-Savior. It is a hard thing to bring proud hearts to rest upon Christ for righteousness. God humbles the proud by calling sinners wholly from their own righteousness to Christ for their justification."
In the hymn Rock of Ages by Augustus Toplady we read:
Not the labor of my hands
Can fulfill Thy law’s demands;
Could my zeal no respite know,
Could my tears forever flow,
All could never sin erase,
Thou must save, and save by grace.
3
Nothing in my hands I bring,
Simply to Thy cross I cling;
Naked, come to Thee for dress,
Helpless, look to Thee for grace:
Foul, I to the fountain fly,
Wash me, Savior, or I die.
a. The channel of blessing – “through”
b. Not a creed, code of conduct, catechism, or any other thing or person. It isn’t faith in faith but faith in a Person - Jesus. It is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ!
Saving faith is trust in Jesus Christ as a living person for forgiveness of sins and for eternal life with God. This definition emphasizes that saving faith is not just a belief in facts but personal trust in Jesus to save me... The definition emphasizes personal trust in Christ, not just belief in facts about Christ. Because saving faith in Scripture involves this personal trust, the word "trust" is a better word to use in contemporary culture than the word "faith" or "belief." The reason is that we can "believe" something to be true with no personal commitment or dependence involved in it.
(Grudem, W. A. Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine Zondervan)
c. The principle of trust
ILL: When missionary John Paton was translating the Scripture for the South Sea islanders, he was unable to find a word in their vocabulary for the concept of believing, trusting, or having faith. He had no idea how he would convey that to them. One day while he was in his hut translating, a native came running up the stairs into Paton's study and flopped in a chair, exhausted. He said to Paton, It's so good to rest my whole weight in this chair.
John Paton had his word: Faith is resting your whole weight on God. That word went into the translation of their New Testament and helped bring that civilization of natives to Christ. Believing is putting your whole weight on God. If God said it, then it's true, and we're to believe it.
ILL: A pastor was trying to teach a children’s class about how to be saved.
”If I sold everything I have and gave it to the church, would I go to heaven?”
The children answered, “No.”
The pastor said, “Very good. That’s right. And if I worked hard at keeping the 10 commandments, would that get me into heaven?”
The kids answered, “No.”
The pastor said, “Very good. That’s right. And if I was baptized, would that get me to heaven?”
The kids once again answered, “No.”
The pastor replied, “Very good. If I repented of my sins and believed Jesus died for my sins and asked Him to save me, would I go to heaven?”
The kids, to the pastor’s surprise, answered, “No.”
“No?” questioned the disappointed pastor. “Then what would I have to do to go to heaven?”
The kids answered, “Die!”
Scriptures: 1 John 5:13-20
ILL: Why did the Father will the death of his only eloved Son, and in so painful and shameful a form? Because the Father had “laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isa. 53:6). Jesus’ death was vicarious (undergone in our place) and atoning (securing remission of sins for us and reconciliation to God). It was a sacrificial death, fulfilling the principle of atonement taught in connection with the Old Testament sacrifices: “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins” (Heb. 9:22; Lev. 17:11).
As the “last Adam,” the second man in history to act on mankind’s behalf, Jesus died a representative death. As a sacrificial victim who put away our sins by undergoing the death penalty that was our due, Jesus died as our substitute. By removing God’s wrath against us for sin, his death was an act of propitiation (Rom. 3:25; 1 John 2:2; 4:10—“expiation,” signifying that which puts away sin, is only half the meaning). By saving us from slavery to ungodliness and divine retribution for sin, Jesus’ death was an act of redemption (Gal. 3:13; Eph. 1:7; 1 Pet. 1:18-19). By mediating and making peace between us and God, it was an act of reconciliation (Rom. 5:10-11). It opened the door to our justification (pardon and acceptance) and our adoption (becoming God’s sons and heirs—Rom.5: 1, 9; Gal. 4:4-5).
This happy relationship with our Maker, based on and sealed by blood atonement, is the “New Covenant” of which Jesus spoke in the Upper Room (1 Cor. 11:25; Matt. 26:28).
James Packer, Your Father Loves You, Harold Shaw Publishers, 1986.
