The Importance of the Five Solas - Sola Fide

Our series on the five solas now moves to look at what many consider to be the heart of the matter, namely Sola Fide - faith alone. James Montgomery Boice noted that the Reformers called the doctrine of Sola Scriptura the “formal principle” of theology and the doctrine of Sola Fide the “material principle.”1 They called Sola Scriptura the “formal principle” because it is from the Bible that we derive our theology, i.e., the Bible is the ultimate source of what we are to believe concerning God and what duty God requires of man. On the other hand, the Reformers referred to Sola Fide as the “material principle” because it deals with the very heart or substance of what one needs to believe to be saved. There is a lot that needs to be fleshed out in order to understand the importance of this rich doctrine, and I remind you readers that this was not a novel invention of the Reformers, but rather a return to the truths found in Scripture.

In my last post, we saw that Sola Gratia means that all of salvation comes to God's people only because of His good pleasure to save sinners in Christ Jesus. The doctrine of Sola Fide is much more specific in its focus. This sola teaches us that God justifies a sinner through faith alone. Question #33 of the Westminster Shorter Catechism gives us a concise, yet excellent definition: “Q. What is justification? A. Justification is an act of God’s free grace, wherein He pardoneth all our sins, and accepteth us as righteous in His sight, only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, and received by faith alone.” There is so much rich material in this concise answer and some key words that I need to define in order for you to see the beauty of this truth. I’ll define the terms justification, imputation, and faith.

Justification

According to the Roman Catholic Church, to justify means “to make righteous.” Thus, in the eyes of Rome, justification is the process or the work of God making a sinner righteous. Faith is involved, but as noted in a previous post it is not sufficient; good works are required as well. Thus Rome teaches that justification comes by faith and works. I believe the fundamental reason for this belief that justification is a process is because the Latin translation of the Bible uses a word that does indeed mean “to make righteous.” Ironically, this Latin word is where we get the English word “justification.” However, the Bible was not written in Latin originally; the Old Testament was written in Hebrew (and a bit in Aramaic) and the New Testament was written in Greek. Marin Luther rightly noted that in the New Testament the Greek word for “justify” means “to declare righteous.” A Roman Catholic may object by citing Romans 5:19 where the Apostle Paul tells us that it is by the one man’s obedience (Christ’s obedience) that the many will be made righteous. However, that is not the ordinary Greek word for “to make.” In this case, it is a word means something like this: “to legally constitute into the class of.” In other words, because of what Christ has done, the act of justification is God's legally putting the sinner into the class of the righteous. It is also important to note that in Romans 5, Paul is contrasting justification in Christ with condemnation in Adam. Condemnation does not make a person a guilty, but rather it is an act that declares a person to be a guilty sinner. A bit more will be said on that below as it relates to Christ and His sacrifice. There is another somewhat subtle, but crucial difference between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism with respect to justification: Rome sees justification as a work whereas Protestantism understands justification to be an act, i.e., done only once. When God justifies a sinner, He declares that person to be righteous. But how can this possibly be so? After all, if God is holy and  just, is it not necessary for Him to uphold justice by punishing guilty sinners? How can He simply declare any sinner to be righteous when he is anything but righteous? This is where imputation comes into play.

Imputation

In connection with their definition of justification being “to make righteous,” Rome believes that when a person is justified, righteousness is infused into them in order to make them righteous. However, the Reformers recognized that the righteousness that comes from God to a sinner is imputed, or reckoned to him; some English translations of the Bible will say "reckoned" or "credited to" or something similar (see Genesis 15:6 and Romans 4:22). In order for righteousness to be imputed or reckoned to his account, it has to come from somewhere, i.e., there has to be a basis upon which God can stay true to His holy nature as He declares someone righteous. That righteousness comes from Jesus Christ, and this is part of the reason that Christ lived a perfect life on Earth. Christians tend to focus on only His death which takes away the sins of His people. However, as wonderful as that truth is, His perfect life was absolutely necessary for two reasons. Firstly, He needed to be a perfect, sinless sacrifice and most people recognize that right away. Secondly, His perfect righteousness in His obedience to the law is what is credited to our account, i.e., it is imputed to us while our guilt is credited to His account, i.e., our sinful guilt is imputed to Him. Thus, Christ is declared, or legally constituted a sinner; He is not made a sinner, nor is sin infused into Him. Our sinful account is credited to Him and this becomes the basis upon which He bears the full wrath of the Father. His perfect righteousness is credited to our account and this becomes the basis upon which God the Father can declare us righteous, i.e., justify us. Theologians have called this “double imputation” and “the great exchange.” Christ’s perfect righteousness is the ground of our justification. It is how God can be both just and the justifier of those who trust in Christ (Romans 3:21-26). Think about this for a moment - you who trust in Christ for salvation are legally as righteous as Jesus Christ! This is the basis of your justification or right standing with God. How does one appropriate this imputation and declaration of righteousness? This is where faith comes into play.

Faith

What is faith? "Faith in Jesus Christ is a saving grace whereby we receive and rest upon Him alone for salvation, as He is offered to us in the gospel."2 Notice that faith is not described here as a work. It is a gift from God (cf., Philippians 1:29). It serves the conduit through which we appropriate Christ and His benefits. It is through faith and faith alone that we are justified. This is why the Westminster Divines say that faith is "the alone instrument of our justification."3 Does Scripture affirm this truth? That is an important question considering that Scripture alone is the only infallible and inerrant rule of faith and practice - something the Westminster Divines knew so well. The Apostle Paul had to deal with this very issue. In his letter to the Galatians, he had to address the problem of those who said that one had to be circumcised in order to be saved, i.e., one had to obey the law to be saved (cf., Acts 15:1, 5). Paul tells the Galatian church about the time he had to confront the Apostle Peter because his actions were leading people astray (see 2:11ff). While speaking to Peter, Paul said, “yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified” (Galatians 2:16). For Paul, this was the heart of the gospel and he took the matter with all seriousness - so much so that under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit he said that anyone who preached another gospel was anathema, i.e., accursed or eternally condemned (Galatians 1:8-9). Roman Catholics will be quick to reply, “Ah, but what about James 2:24? James says we’re justified by works and not by faith alone!” Do we have a contradiction in the Bible? Is this a battle royale between Paul and James? Of course not. James is dealing with a different issue. While Paul was dealing with the issue of legalism, James was dealing with antinomianism (it simply means "against law"). There were those who claimed that since we’ve been saved we can do whatever we want and obedience to the law do not matter at all since we believe. James said that such a faith is a dead faith. It’s important to read the whole passage in second half of James 2, but especially note the question he was answering: “What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?” (James 2:14). The simple answer is "No." James in no way taught justification by faith plus works nor did he contradict the doctrine of justification by faith alone.

To get this doctrine wrong is to get the gospel wrong and to get the gospel wrong leaves no hope for sinners. This is why Martin Luther said, “When the article of justification has fallen, everything has fallen…. This is the chief article from which all other doctrines have flowed…. It alone begets, nourishes, builds, preserves, and defends the church of God; and without it the church of God cannot exist for one hour.”4 To put this more positively, this is a doctrine of such profound beauty. It is a doctrine that frees us from all unnecessary burdens because we rest on Christ and His righteousness alone. We receive from God a declaration of righteousness through faith; we receive Christ’s perfect righteousness to our own account. We need only trust in Christ and His work. We need only receive and rest upon Christ alone as He is offered to us in the gospel. God pardons our sins and accepts us as righteous in His sight, and this comes to us Sola Fide – by faith alone.

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1 James Montgomery Boice, Whatever Happened to the Gospel of Grace?: Recovering the Doctrines That Shook the World (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books, 2001), 129.  

2 Westminster Shorter Catechism Q.86. 

3 Westminster Confession of Faith XI.2 

4 Cited in Boice, Whatever Happened to the Gospel of Grace?, 130.