Recovering the Reformation (pt. 1): Five Solas
Saturday marked the 492nd anniversary of the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. In the post I wrote on that day, I noted that the truths recovered during the Reformation are under attack today, not just from the culture, but in the churches, and in our own hearts. Dietrich Bonhoeffer once noted that American Christianity was very much a “Protestantism without the Reformation.” I’m not going to go into a tirade here, so I’ll leave it at that. But I will say that we lose sight of and/or ignore the truths and emphases of the Reformation to the church’s own harm. In the next few posts, we’ll be examining (maybe for the first time) some of the fruits of Reformation theology.
During the Protestant Reformation, five “solas” (Latin for alone)emerged, which served as slogans, rallying points, and symbols of the difference between the Protestant Churches and the Roman Catholic Church. The Cambridge Declaration is a helpful contemporary restatement of these articles and their importance. And I’d recommend reading it in its entirety. But for now, here are some excerpts explaining the solas
- Sola Scriptura (Scripture Alone): “We reaffirm the inerrant Scripture to be the sole source of written divine revelation,which alone can bind the conscience. The Bible alone teaches all that is necessary for our salvation from sin and is the standard by which all Christian behavior must be measured.We deny that any creed, council or individual may bind a Christian’s conscience, that the Holy Spirit speaks independently of or contrary to what is set forth in the Bible, or that personal spiritual experience can ever be a vehicle of revelation.”
- Solus Christus (Christ Alone): “We reaffirm that our salvation is accomplished by the mediatorial work of the historical Christ alone. His sinless life and substitutionary atonement alone are sufficient for our justification and reconciliation to the Father.We deny that the gospel is preached if Christ’s substitutionary work is not declared and faith in Christ and his work is not solicited.”
- Sola Gratia (Grace Alone): “We reaffirm that in salvation we are rescued from God’s wrath by his grace alone. It is the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit that brings us to Christ by releasing us from our bondage to sin and raising us from spiritual death to spiritual life.We deny that salvation is in any sense a human work. Human methods, techniques or strategies by themselves cannot accomplish this transformation. Faith is not produced by our unregenerated human nature.”
- Sola Fide (Faith Alone): “We reaffirm that justification is by grace alone through faith alone because of Christ alone. In justification Christ’s righteousness is imputed to us as the only possible satisfaction of God’s perfect justice.We deny that justification rests on any merit to be found in us, or upon the grounds of an infusion of Christ’s righteousness in us, or that an institution claiming to be a church that denies or condemns sola fide can be recognized as a legitimate church.”
- Soli Deo Gloria (Glory to God Alone): “We reaffirm that because salvation is of God and has been accomplished by God, it is for God’s glory and that we must glorify him always. We must live our entire lives before the face of God, under the authority of God and for his glory alone.We deny that we can properly glorify God if our worship is confused with entertainment, if we neglect either Law or Gospel in our preaching, or if self-improvement, self-esteem or self-fulfillment are allowed to become alternatives to the gospel.”
In upcoming posts, we’ll take some time to unpack these statements, and see how they can inform our Christian lives today.
Posted by: Gene Schlesinger
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