Sola Fide

I've been reading a book about a couple who grew up solidly on the Word of God, was very against the Catholic church, and eventually through their study in the Word came to the conclusion that the Catholic church was the true church founded by Jesus Christ. While I'll obviously disagree with some of the arguments in the book, it's still an interesting read.

The man did make some good points I never thought about how the different covenants in the Bible (with Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David) were connected and how the groups involved grew from a couple to a family to a tribe to a nation to a kingdom -- until at the end you reach the new universal covenant through Jesus Christ. I've never really looked into the different covenants all together before, so that to me was an interesting approach about how the bigger picture went.

But now on to the main two points of this pair of posts -- sola fide and sola scriptura. The man he said that through his studies, these two pillars of the Reformation, which he held as the only pillars, were knocked over for him. Those are what I want to think and talk about here. For today, I'll deal with sola fide. I wanted to deal with both, but this ended up to be a very long post as it is.

Sola Fide

Sola fide means "faith alone". In other words, we're justified, or made right with God, solely by our faith in Christ, not our faith plus works we do. Now I didn't quite follow how the man's logic went as he told his story, but he did quote two verses, James 2:24 (a man is justified by works and not by faith alone) and 1 Corinthians 13:2 (if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing). Well those sound pretty compelling on the surface, but you can make a lot of things compelling when you take them out of context.

First let's look at the James verse. There's a part of the verse missing. It starts "You see, a man is justified...". He is concluding an argument. Go read the rest of James chapter 2 for the full argument. He uses the word faith in two ways. One way is "lip service" which is bogus faith. In other words you say that you believe but that's about it. The Bible has a lot more to say about that kind of non "faith", and it's never anything good. The other ways is "real faith". What kind of faith is real? The kind that produces something -- for there will absolutely be evidence in your life to show that your faith is real. If someone can't look at your life and tell that you have a heart for God, you should be very troubled.

Now let's look at the 1 Corinthians verse -- the argument here seems to be that I am nothing if I have faith but not love -- so to be something, I must have faith plus love, which is shown by my good works. How about the verse just after it too, though? "If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing." Those are works, that without love, make him nothing. There's other stuff in that passage too, that, without love, makes him nothing. One might say then "well then, I need faith, and works, and love, and " but read the whole passage and get the context. Paul isn't talking about justification anywhere in the passage -- he's talking about the importance of love and what it looks like. That's it.

Now, to be fair to the man, he's not presenting his full argument in this book -- just telling his story and throwing in some key points. I'm sure these two verses aren't the extent of his supposed discovery, but for a person who writes about himself as a student of the Word, to take them out of context like that to argue an important point is not a good thing.

What his wife said in her explanation resonated with me more: "Justification meant being made a child of God and being called to live a life as a faithful child of God through faith working in love." I read that and thought "duh" but I also don't see how in the world that goes against sola fide. I'm really not quite sure what she understood it to mean before! Absolutely justification means being made a child of God, and after you're justified, you're called to, and will, produce fruit -- with the Spirit in you, you'll have a desire to obey God and live a life that glorifies him.

Look at how it works from my understanding and experience -- you repent of your sins and put your faith in Christ. That in itself is a gift from God, and recognizing it as such glorifies him. We're not talking "I said the sinner's prayer and I'm good to go" nonsense, we're talking "Jesus barged into my life with a wrecking ball and got me" faith. Okay, at that point, you're justified. Born again of the Spirit. A new creation. Adopted into sonship. Bye bye heart of stone, and hello heart of flesh. After that, what are you going to do? Walk the walk without taking away the credit from God -- glorifying him. What about when you fall? Mourn over your sin and thank God for his grace and mercy in forgiving you and picking you up -- glorifying him.

Notice there's a running theme here, and it's not about you.

So however you say the words to understand this mystery of being "right with God" through Jesus Christ, never go down that dangerous road where you think "I NEED to do [whatever] TO BE or STAY in good standing with God." It's evil. The proper response for the Spirit filled believer is "I WANT to do [whatever] BECAUSE I'm ALREADY in good standing with God."

The first takes the focus off God and puts it on you. The second takes the focus off you and puts it on God. Only one of those glorifies him.

God, I Thank You

I've been listening to John Piper the past two days and must say that is one solid dude in Christ. I will not be so foolish as to glorify the messenger, so praise God for working through this man to teach the Word clearly to all who turn their ear to him. Much of what I am saying here comes from greater understanding I have because of this message:

http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/conference-messages/did-jesus-preach-the-gospel-of-evangelicalism

I listened to a teaching of a story Jesus told today that floored me in a sense. It's short, and I've heard it and read it many times -- so much that I've never really slowed down in it enough to check out the details. There are just some things in the Word that are right in front of my nose sometimes that I don't even see. That's probably a sad pointer that I should get into it more and do more of my own studying.

The story is very short, so let me just put it here, from Luke 18:10-14:

"Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.' But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner!' I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted."

Whenever I got to this, I thought "Duh, it's against works righteousness. All this crap I do doesn't earn me anything before God. The point is that it's God who does the saving, not our own efforts."

I missed something that is so small and yet so huge. It lies solidly in four words -- "God, I thank you". The Pharisee was NOT a legalist trying earn his own righteousness with his good works -- he thanked God for making him the way he was. Thus, he gave God the credit for the change inside of him. That's not earning anything.

Let me pause and throw in a side story here. The story is one I've heard of a Sunday school teacher who teaches the story and then blows it at the end by saying "Thank you God, that we're not like the Pharisee." The person telling the story says the teacher blew it because she was acting just like the Pharisee. Now I admit I didn't quite get that. I thought she was okay -- after all, if the Pharisee was trying to earn something, then wasn't it right to say "Thank you that we're not like him" -- not to be superior in anyway, but because we understand that salvation is a gift from God through the shed blood of Jesus Christ on the cross -- nothing we earn.

I missed it, but I get it now.

The Sunday school teacher and the Pharisee acted in the same manner, not because they trusted in themselves -- neither did. They both gave God credit for making a change in them; however, despite giving God the credit for the change, they both still looked to themselves and their own righteousness for justification -- even though they acknowledged it was God given.

Let me make that more plain, maybe just for myself -- if we look to our own righteousness as a basis for our standing before God, even if we give God the credit for the change he's made in us, we're looking to the wrong thing. We must ALWAYS point to the cross. It is NEVER our own righteousness that counts for anything -- it is Christ's righteousness given to us by grace that counts before God.

I must admit I have been guilty of this very thing. I don't know to what extent, but I know that I've certainly thanked God for changes he's made in me -- taking bad stuff out and putting good stuff in. I don't think it made me look down on the unsaved in the same way the Pharisee did, as I still remember the old life I came from and know how easily I could have been in much dire straits in life on this earth. But I do know that I've looked down on my own brothers and sisters -- jumping to quick judgment on perceived sin in their lives -- focusing on specks in their eyes without seeing the plank in my own. I know I've been critical of members of my spiritual family and failed to show grace in the same way I've been shown grace.

I think this evil in my mind almost certainly was a result of falling into "moral deism" to some extent and looking inward instead of to the cross, always to the cross. I can't say there wasn't good intent behind any of it. I still think there's a lot of "easy believism" without any move toward holiness and honoring God with our very lives, and I still think there's a lot of knowing what God's Word says and then ignoring it. I want such evil in my life less and less, but I don't want the pursuit toward that end to make me ever, ever, EVER forget that when I stand before God, I don't want him to be looking at anything in me, other than Christ and his righteousness that was freely given to me.

Let us never boast "I was a wretch that God saved and made good!" but rather let us boast "I am a wretch that God saved, isn't he good?" Let us never forget that moral transformation is not the root of our good standing before God -- rather it is the fruit of our good standing before God that came about solely by grace through our faith in Christ.