Sola Fide

Romans 3:28 Sola Fide

For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.

Luther said: Justification by faith alone is not only the doctrine by which the church stands or falls and we stand or fall, but it is the head and cornerstone of the gospel. Without Sola Fide (faith alone), the church cannot exist for one hour.

Essentials of Saving Faith one is justified by faith Salvation and all that is entailed in it including faith is a gift of God (Eph 2:8-9) .God is the author of faith (Heb 12:2) . He gifts us with faith. We don’t do things in order to condition God’s acceptance of us, and the one thing that God requires of us – faith – He gives. “Command what you will and give what you command.” In other words, he’s saying, “Lord you can command me to do anything You want. Just enable me to do it.” God requires faith of those who would be justified, and He gives that faith by His grace (Schwertley). Faith is an act, but it is not a work. In other words, God doesn't give justification because of any value in your faith--because your faith is a such a great thing that it deserves reward--but because it is how you are united to Christ. For example, when someone gets married their spouse usually will not have access to my money because they deserve it, but simply because that's what goes along with the marriage relationship. "God did not ordain faith to be the instrument of justification because of some particular virtue in faith, but because faith is self-emptying and has no merit in itself." Faith is only as good as its object. It has no value in itself. We are justified not because of what faith is, but because of what our faith lays hold of--Christ. Horatius Bonar has said: "Faith is not work, merit, or effort; but the cessation of all these, and the acceptance in the place of them of what another has done--done completely and forever." (Perman). Faith is the instrument which lays hold of Jesus Christ and His merits. God, through His regenerating power, enables a person to believe. He gives a person the gift of faith, and then by faith a person embraces Jesus Christ and all His benefits. “Regeneration is the act of God and of God alone (Titus 3:5-7). But faith is not the act of God; it is not God who believes in Christ for salvation, it is the sinner. It is by God’s grace that a person is able to believe, but faith is an activity on the part of the person and of him alone. In faith we receive and rest upon Christ alone for salvation (Schwertley). Faith occupies the position of a channel or conduit pipe. Grace is the fountain and the stream, faith is the aqueduct along which the flood of mercy flows down to refresh the thirsty sons of men. Our life is found in looking unto Jesus, not in looking to our own faith. By faith all things become possible to us, yet the power is not in the faith, but in the God upon whom faith relies (Spurgeon)

Exclusion in Saving faith apart from works of the law A man is accepted as righteous before God, not on account of His works, (nor even on account of his faith), but as a result of that man’s response of faith to His free gift of righteousness. Any connection with the works of the Law is totally excluded. (Pett) It is not faith plus, but faith alone We come with nothing in our hands and cling to Christ alone. (Sproul). Faith does not justify as an act of righteousness, but as the instrument by which we receive Christ and His righteousness. Believers are said to be justified by faith and of faith, and through faith, but never on account of faith. (Haldane) men are justified gratuitously by faith, and not meritoriously by perfect obedience to any law whatever.” (Benson) Without the deeds of the law - Without works as a meritorious ground of justification. The apostle, of course, does not mean that Christianity does not produce good works, or that they who are justified will not obey the Law, and be holy; but that no righteousness of their own will be the ground of their justification. They are sinners; and as such can have no claim to be treated as righteous. God has devised a plan by which, they may be pardoned and saved; and that is by faith alone. We are not justified by our works (Rom 4:2, 4:6; 9:11, 9:32; 11:6; Gal 2:16; 3:2, 3:5, 3:10; Eph 2:9; 2 Tim 1:9. (Barnes) . The means is "by faith", not habitually or actually considered; that is, either as an habit and principle infused into us, or as an act performed by us; but either organically, as it is a means of receiving Christ's righteousness; and all this is done "without works", of any sort; not by a faith which is without works, for such a faith is dead, and of no avail; (James 2;17) but by faith without works joined to it, in the affair of justification; or by the righteousness of Christ imputed by God the Father, without any consideration of them, and received by faith, and relied upon by the believer, without any regard unto them. (Gill) There is no work that we contribute to our acceptance before God. That is so important for us to understand. If you think there is something that you have to contribute in order to be accepted by God, you will never, ever understand the freeness of the Father’s love, or the costliness of the sacrifice that He initiated in order that you might experience the freeness of His love. There is no work whatsoever, even the works that God Himself commands and enables that has anything to do with our justification. The only works that have anything to do with your justification are the works of the Lord Jesus Christ. Other works in that equation do not add to the work of Christ, it takes away from it. It’s says if we’re saying, well, Christ, Your work wasn’t quite enough. I’m going to add this to it. And Paul wants to make it absolutely clear here that we are accepted before God not on the basis of something in us, not even on the basis of something that He has wrought in us. But on the basis of Christ alone. Works have no part in your acceptance by God. Works have no part in your acceptance before God. Not even works that God commands, not even works that God, by His grace, enables you to do, your works have no part in your justification. Paul is emphatic. We are ‘made right’ not by living a moral life (it would never be moral enough), or by good works (they would never be good enough), or by religious deeds (they would never be pious enough), but by faith alone in Christ alone. (Duncan)

Elements of Saving Faith by faith Faith is a firm and certain knowledge of God’s benevolence toward us, founded upon the truth of the freely given promise in Christ, both reveled to our minds and sealed upon our hearts through the Holy Spirit. (Calvin) There are three elements of faith: Knowledge, belief, and trust (Spurgeon) or awareness, assent and commitment (Jones).

Awareness (Knowledge) Faith begins with knowledge (Spurgeon) The first thing needed in order to have saving faith is knowledge; one must have a certain amount of knowledge of God’s special revelation, the Bible. One cannot believe in a Christ he knows nothing about. Paul said, “How shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?... So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Rom. 10:14, 17). To believe in Jesus Christ is to believe that everything the Scriptures say about Him is true: Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man. He was born of a virgin. He lived a sinless life of perfection. He was tortured and crucified as a blood sacrifice for His people. He died and was in a state of death for three days. Then He rose from the dead a victorious king and ascended to the right hand of God the Father, etc. Trusting in God is equivalent to believing and trusting His word (Schwertley) There cannot be any true faith without the Word of God, for it is in the Word alone that we learn what we are to believe (Boice) There is permanent relationship between faith and the Word . . . Take away the word and no faith will then remain (Calvin). The Word of God is the means by which the Spirit awakens faith in us. We are born again (come to faith) through the Word of God (1 Pet 1:23). The Holy Spirit uses the knowledge of the word of God to convict a person of his sins, to convince a person of the truth of Scripture—in particular the gospel, and to place his trust in Jesus Christ as He is presented in Scripture (Schwertley). Knowledge about the facts of Jesus’ life are not enough. For people can know facts but rebel against them or dislike them (Rom 1:32, James 2:10) (Grudem)

Assent (Belief) Mere belief in the facts is not good enough (John 3;2, Acts 26:27-28). What must I do to be saved?’ Answer: ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved’ (Acts 16:30–31). Believe. The mind goes on to believe that these things are true. (Spurgeon) It now remains to pour into the heart itself what the mind has absorbed. For the Word of God is not received by faith if it flits about in the top of the brain, but when is takes root in the depth of the heart that it may be an invincible defense to withstand and drive off all the Strat grams of temptation. (Calvin). The person who has saving faith believes the Bible; he embraces the truth. “This special act of faith in Christ, secures salvation., (‘coming to Christ,’ John 6. 35; ‘looking to him,’ Isa. xlv. 22; ‘receiving him,’ John 1:12; ‘fleeing to him for refuge,’ Heb. 6. 18; —all of which manifestly involve an active assent to a cordial embrace, as well as an intellectual recognition of the truth.”)

Commitment (Trust) In addition to knowledge of the facts about the gospel and belief in those facts, in order to be saved, I must decide to depend on Jesus to save me. Gk for faith pisteuō means “to entrust oneself to an entity in complete confidence, believe (in), trust, with implication of total commitment to the one who is trusted. Faith is the attitude of heart that is the exact opposite of depending on ourselves. When we come to Christ we are saying. “I give up! I will not depend on myself or my own good works any longer. I know that I can never make myself righteous before God. Therefore, Jesus, I trust you and depend on you completely to give me a righteous standing before God. True saving faith occurs when I make a decision of my will to depend on and put my trust in Jesus as my Lord and savior. (Grudem) (Acts 16:14, John 20:24-29). Faith is not a bare intellectual conviction of the truth of truths revealed in the Scriptures, but that it includes a hearty embrace of and a confident reliance upon Christ, his meritorious work and his gracious promises. (Hodges) The soul believes that God is and that He hears the cries of sincere hearts, trust. Commit yourself to the merciful God, rest your hope on the gracious Gospel, trust your soul on the dying and living Savior, wash away your sins in the atoning blood, accept His perfect righteousness, and all is well. Trust is the lifeblood of faith, there is no saving faith without it. Lean with all your weight upon Christ. Cast yourself upon Jesus, rest in Him, commit yourself to Him. That done, you have exercised saving faith. (Spurgeon) Faith is not a blind thing, for faith begins with knowledge. It is not a speculative thing, for faith believes facts of which it is sure. It is not an unpractical, dreamy thing, for faith trusts and stakes its destiny upon the truth of revelation. Faith is believing that Christ is what He is said to be and that He will do what He has promised to do and then to expect this of Him. The merchant places his money in the care of a banker and trusts altogether to the honesty and soundness of the bank. He entrusts his capital to another’s hands and feels far more at ease than if he had the solid gold locked up in an iron safe. Sometimes faith is little more than a simple clinging to Christ, a sense of dependence, and a willingness so to depend. it is the sinner’s life to cling to Jesus. Thousands of God’s people have no more faith than this, they know enough to cling to Jesus with all their heart and soul and this suffices for present peace and eternal safety. Jesus Christ is to them a Savior strong and mighty, a Rock immovable and immutable, they cling to him for dear life and this clinging saves them. Faith which receives Christ is as simple an act as when your child receives an apple from you, because you hold it out and promise to give him the apple if he comes for it. The belief and the receiving relate only to an apple, but they make up precisely the same act as the faith which deals with eternal salvation. What the child’s hand is to the apple, that your faith is to the perfect salvation of Christ. The child’s hand does not make the apple, nor improve the apple, nor deserve the apple, it only takes it and faith is chosen by God to be the receiver of salvation, because it does not pretend to create salvation, nor to help in it, but it is content humbly to receive it. Faith saves us because it makes us cling to God and so brings us into connection with Him. Consider the illustration: A boat was upset above Niagara Falls and two men were being carried down the current, when persons on the shore managed to float a rope out to them, which rope was seized by them both. One of them held fast to it and was safely drawn to the bank, but the other, seeing a great log come floating by, unwisely let go the rope and clung to the log, for it was the bigger thing of the two and apparently better to cling to. Alas! the log with the man on it went right over the falls, because there was no union between the log and the shore. The size of the log was no benefit to him who grasped it, it needed a connection with the shore to produce safety. So when a man trusts to his works, or to anything of that sort, he will not be saved, because there is no junction between him and Christ, but faith, though it may seem to be like a slender cord, is in the hands of the great God on the shore, infinite power pulls in the connecting line, and thus draws the man from destruction. Oh the blessedness of faith, because it unites us to God! (Spurgeon All of Grace)

Unlike the spurious forms of faith, saving faith has the proper object: Jesus Christ as He is presented in the Scriptures. It is a faith which leads to a life of obedience and good works. It is permanent. The faith produced by the Holy Spirit cannot ever fail. Everyone who truly believes in Christ is justified, sanctified, and eventually glorified (Rom. 8:30). The Holy Spirit produces saving faith and guarantees that a believer’s faith will never fail. (Eph 2:13-14). Since faith is a gift of God, God receives all the glory in the salvation of men. (Schwertley)