The Five Solas: Foundation of Christian Faith and Its Impact on Believers Today: Part 1

What if the foundation of your faith was not as solid as you believed? Journey with us as we uncover the pivotal transformations that reshaped Christianity during the Protestant Reformation. This episode promises an enlightening exploration of the Five Solas, starting with the principle of Sola Scriptura. By diving into the historical context and enduring relevance of Sola Scriptura, we aim to reinforce the importance of Scripture as the ultimate guide for our beliefs and lives.

If you want to read more about the five Solas check out these references

Sola: How the Five Solas Are Still Reforming the Church By: Jason Allen
GotQuestions.org What are the five solas?  https://www.gotquestions.org/five-solas.html

God's Word Alone  The Authority of Scripture  What the Reformers Taught….. and Why it Still Matters (2016)  by Matthew Barrett (The 5 Solas Series)

Sola How the Five Solas are Still Reforming the Church (2019). Jason K. Allen Gen Editor Contributors Wilson. J., Duesing, J., Barrett, M,. Strachan, O.

Grace Alone  Salvation As A Gift Of God  What the Reformers Taught……and Why It Still Matters (2017)  by Carl R. Trueman  (The 5 Solas Series)

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Chapters

• 0:04 Exploring the Five Solas of Christianity
• 14:01 Unpacking the Five Solas of Faith

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:04

Welcome to Faithfully Living, the Podcast where we learn how to live for Christ in our daily lives. I'm Dwan, your host, and I would like to invite you on a journey with me to explore and learn how to be a faithful follower of Christ. Hi everyone, welcome to Faithfully Living, the podcast, where we strive to encourage you to live for Christ faithfully by offering guidance on how to study the Bible, how to understand the Bible better and how to remain faithful to historic Christianity in a contemporary society. So in this episode I'm going to talk a bit about history. So history is important and I've always loved learning about the past. You know history tells us where we've been and how we progress, and you know sometimes this progression is good and sometimes it's not so good. So, looking back, we can see the mistakes that we've made and how truth has stood the test of time. So we're going to look at the five solas. One of these times in history we're going to look at is the Protestant Reformation. Is the Protestant Reformation? This is a time when there was a revolt against the abuses and controlling nature of the Roman Catholic Church. So there were people like Jurek Zingrit, martin Luther and John Calvin who stood up and protested against the unbiblical practices of the Roman Catholic Church. And these men and others around the world at various times were striving to return back to sound biblical doctrine. So one of these events, the highlight, is when Martin Luther, on October 31st 1517, posted his 95 Theses to the Door of the Wittenberg Church.

Speaker 1: 2:10

Now there are several products of the Protestant Reformation that help define sound biblical doctrine more clearly. So to combat the false doctrine and teachings that they saw in the church, the Protestant reformers developed like the five solas. They kind of did it as they were trying to combat the practices of the church. So these five solars are what separated Protestantism from Roman Catholicism. So sola is the Latin word for alone. So the five solars are five Latin phrases that distinguish between the Protestant reformers and, like I say, the Roman Catholic Church. So the solas are sola scriptura, means scripture alone. Sola fidel faith alone. Sola grata grace alone. Sola Christo, christ alone. And sola de gloria, to the glory of God alone. So each was written to correct the incorrect practices and teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, and so the reformers wanted to follow what the Bible stated on these matters implicated in these five solas. And these five were highlighted to help people know and understand sound biblical doctrine. So these doctrines were essential then and they're crucial for us as believers now. So, as you can see, christianity has stood the test of time because of who God is, and believers throughout history have helped to articulate sound doctrine a little bit more clearly. So we're going to look at each one to understand its importance in the life of a believer today, and I will be talking about them over the next two episodes. So this is going to be part one and then the next episode you hear is going to be part two. So stay tuned.

Speaker 1: 4:35

The foundation of our religion is the written word, the scriptures of god, hydro, zinger, all right embracing solar scriptor, which is scripture alone. So what is what is scripture alone? What is solar scriptor? So solar scriptor is latin for scripture alone. So we know that the bible is god breathed, it, it's truthful, it's trustworthy, it's the word of God, and scripture is to be our authority in our life and it should guide and formulate our beliefs and affect our lives. I want to reference this book, sola Sola, how the five solars are still reforming the church today. This quote says, as the foundational principle sola scriptura is the doctrinal foundation upon which we erect the entirety of Christian belief, including our understanding of the gospel itself. So what we believe about the Bible is very, very important and it shapes how we think and how we act. This is why the Bible should be the final authority for us as followers of Christ.

Speaker 1: 6:02

So, to talk about a little bit of history, it was in the 16th century that the Roman Catholic Church was the authority on religious matters, and then you had men like Martin Luther. John Calvin, zingrit, to name a few, were questioning some of the church and the Pope's practices, and then they also questioned the church's belief. That Also questioned the church's belief, the Pope and the traditions that had authority over God's word. So as time passed the reformers they began to stress the infallibility and authority of the scripture, and this led to the bible being translated so ordinary people could read it, and just not the you know, just not the bishops and popes themselves, and it was because of what they believe as scripture alone. It's how Protestantism kind of took root, as they were trying to spread the Bible where it could be accessible to ordinary people and they can read it.

Speaker 1: 7:22

So what is this meaning for us today? I think it's important to you know. Think about. What do you truly believe about the bible? Is it the final authority for your life? You know how. How are you demonstrating this in your daily life like are you looking at your experiences more than you're looking at the authority of scripture? You know it's always important to know that. You know we have to study the bible diligently and believe that it is the guidebook. It's god's word, it's his word for us, and we have to know what it teaches in order for it to change our hearts and minds. So when we believe something, it it's going to change us. It's going to change how we think and then how we act, and then it's important that we stick with the change in which we are trying to make. Knowing the Bible is great, but if we don't believe its authority over us, we're not going to have any fruit in our life to show that we truly do believe what the Bible says. So let's be diligent students of the word and then also faithful doers of the word. All right.

Speaker 1: 8:58

Next solo is Sola Gatua Embracing Grace Alone, amazing grace. How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I'm found. I was blind, but now I see John Newton. So grace, you know we can't earn it. So sola grata is one of the five solas and it means grace alone. Salvation is a gift of God and is given us through grace alone, and grace is the basis for our salvation. You know grace is God's unmerited favor to us. So there are two types of grace you got special grace, where God offers unmerited favor through the work of Jesus Christ, where God offers unmerited favor through the work of Jesus Christ. And then there's common grace, where God shows unmerited but non-salvific favor towards people in general. Meaning common graces doesn't save anyone. So our focus is on the salvific grace, the one that saves us. No-transcript.

Speaker 1: 10:17

I like this quote by Chudman. It says Grace is at the heart of the gospel. It is the doctrine that touches the very heart of human existence, because it not only reveals to us the very heart of God but draws us back into that precious communion with him that was tragically lost in the fall. So our relationship was broken during the fall. You can see that, read that in Genesis 3. And the condition of our hearts, you know, are wicked. Jeremiah 79 says the human heart is the most deceitful of all things and desperately wicked. Who can really know how bad it is. So that's how. That's why we say we can't follow, follow our heart, because it is wicked and it's sinful, and we couldn't restore our relationship with god after we had sinned. It is only through the initiation of God, through the sacrifice of his son, that we could be reunited with God.

Speaker 1: 11:28

So the doctrine of sola grata grace alone was championed by reformers like Martin Luther and John Calvin. Luther and John Calvin and at this time the prevailing religious practices that were fostered in the Roman Catholic Church was a works-based righteousness that one had to earn their way to God. The idea that salvation by grace alone ignited the transformational movement of the 16th century and kind of redirect, directed the focus back on understanding the biblical nature of salvation. So, of course, what does this mean for us today? Or how does it point us to? To god. It lets us know and lets us see that God's grace saves us and keeps us living in grace to do his good works.

Speaker 1: 12:29

So Sola Grata liberates believers from the burden of legalism and then self-righteousness. By recognizing that salvation is not a reward for good deeds, we are set free to experience God's love without fear of falling short. So this freedom is not licensed or not, a free pass for us to be complacent. We should encourage others and encourage ourselves to be grateful and to do good works because of the grace we have received through Jesus Christ. God save you by his grace. God save you by his grace when you believe, and you cannot take credit for this. It is a gift from God, and that's Ephesians 2, 8 through 10.

Speaker 1: 14:01

All right, so that was the was two of the five solas that we're going to talk about. Stay tuned for the rest of the five solas. If you want to read more about the five solas, check out the references in the show notes. And until next time, god is always good and he's always faithful. Thank you for listening to the podcast. Do me a favor by following the podcast and leaving a review to help spread the word. I look forward to hearing from you.