Welcome back to Him We Proclaim. Today we continue our special Reformation Conference series with a powerful message that gets to the very heart of the gospel through faith alone. Scripture tells us that faith comes by hearing, and hearing through the Word of Christ. That's why gatherings like this matter, because as we hear the truth faithfully proclaimed, the Spirit builds up our faith in Christ. Today we're joined by Dr.
R. Scott Clark, pastor, professor, and host of the Heidelcast, who brings rich historical insight and deep gospel clarity to this core Reformation doctrine of sola fide. In this episode, Dr. Clark reminds us that our righteousness before God is not based on anything we've done, but is fully received by faith alone in the finished work of Christ. It's not our strength and not a resolve, but simple, saving trust in Jesus that brings us peace with God.
Let's listen now and be encouraged because this kind of faith doesn't come from within us, it comes by hearing the Word of Christ. The title of my talk is, But Our Hermit Broke Through, which is a phrase I'll explain. It comes from an early Lutheran historian of Luther, I want to talk about sola fide. And I want to focus on Luther's use of sola fide through faith alone, that's what that means. In Romans 3.28.
I was going to talk about how he got there and then I started reading Some Commentaries on Romans And I thought, well, crud, I guess I better explain what this means and why it's important again, because apparently not very many people who comment on Romans think it's important anymore. In fact, some of them think it's a terrible thing to say.
So then I thought, well, I better try to. explain why we should agree with that. But let me uh let me pray quickly. And since uh At least some of y'all are Anglicans. You'll know this prayer.
Blessed Lord, who has caused all scriptures to be written for our learning, grant that we may so hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that by patience and comfort of your holy word we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
So on April 26, 1521, after Luther had survived his encounter with the emperor, he was making his way back to Wittenberg or Wittenberg and stopping along the way, which he wasn't really supposed to do, to preach. And on May 4th, so he's been out on the road for a while, he heard thundering hooves of about four or five horsemen. And he probably thought to himself that he was That the Spanish soldiers who had not killed him at Vorms, they were standing along the sides of the hall, and when he entered, they with their pikes in rhythm in Spanish or Latin, I don't know. Actually, I never thought about that. But they're thumping them on the floor and said they were saying, to the flames, to the flames.
That's where Luther was supposed to stand up and defend the faith. You understand why he asked for a day to go back across the street and sit in his hotel again and think about what he was going to say. Because that was serious business right there.
So, but he got away with it and he's got safe passage. But he's supposed to go back home, but he's a naughty preacher and he can't help himself but preach. And so he stops and preaches, and he's late, and then so he's on the road and he hears thundering hooves coming, and he thinks, Oh, crud, they didn't get me in Warrens, but they're going to get me now. It's a hit job. But they weren't there to kill him.
They were there to save him. These fellows worked for Frederick the Wise, the Elector, the. Governor, I guess, of Saxony, and they picked him up and they carried him off to the castle Wartburg, where he stayed for the next ten months. No, he'd done a doctoral degree already, but this is kind of a of an imposed postdoctoral research program. Where he got to think through some of the things that he had been learning and concluding.
And his chief and greatest labor during his ten months there. was what sometimes is called the September Testament, the German translation of the New Testament. We just take it for granted, of course, that you've got a Bible in English and a Bible in French and a Bible in German and a Bible in Swahili and whatever other language that you want.
Well, that was a kind of a big deal when he did it. Not everybody was doing that sort of thing. It'd be a while yet before Tyndale made his translation. There was a Bible in English, but it hadn't been done from the original text, it had been done from Latin. And so he was doing that, and maybe the most significant thing he did in that translation was to insert the word in his German translation of Romans 3:28.
He inserted the word a line, alone. You can almost hear it in English. If you were Scots, you'd probably think, well, yeah, that's alone. That sounds just like the way they say it. I won't read you the Latin text, but it says the same as in our English Bible.
For we judge that a man is justified through faith without the works of the law. And he added, through faith alone.
So he added the word a lion alone, or sola, as he says, or even in one place, solum. And Rome did not like this translation. The Roman Catholic critics howled that he was adding to the word of God. Um Which is kind of ironic. Excuse me?
I can tell you where you got baptism of the Lord's Supper, but I have no idea where the other five sacraments come from.
Well, okay, anointing of oil. You could kind of see where that comes from, James. But after that, It's a pretty tough argument. And The papacy is a little bit of a problem. Peter is the rock when he confesses Christ.
But he's the devil when he denies him.
So the Roman Communion reacted in January session six, January. 1547 at the Council of Trenton, and said: If anyone says that by faith alone the impious is justified, in such wise as to mean that nothing else is required to cooperate in order to the obtaining of the grace of justification, and that it is not in any way necessary that he be prepared and disposed by the movement of his own will, let him be eternally condemned. Whenever I say for my students, let him be anathema, let him be eternally condemned, it always comes out like JFK in Berlin, let him come to Berlin. I don't know why, I always hear JFK in my head. If anyone says, Canon 12, that justifying faith is nothing else but confidence in the divine mercy.
Which remits sins for Christ's sake, or that this confidence alone is whereby we are justified, let him be. In case, by the way, you wondered what the Protestants mean by sola fide, all you have to do is read Canon 12 of the Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent, session 6, 1547, because they articulate what we believe very carefully. They didn't get it wrong. They knew what we said. And they condemned it.
And by the way, they still condemn it. You don't think, oh, well, they had Vatican II and all that went away, we fixed all that. And the Lutheran World Federation said it was fixed, and the evangelicals and Catholics together said it was fixed. No, it's not fixed. Read the Catholic Catechism.
Don't believe me. It's easy to get. It's online. Vatican.va. Just look for the catechism.
Just ask for the catechism. Boom, it'll come up. It's a terrible website, but ugly as sin, but it still works. It works. Yeah.
It's like right out of 1996. It's 2024, people. You're in the Vatican. Sell one book from the Vatican Library, pay a web designer, and you're good to go. I know like 10 web designers that could do that, but.
Anyway. It's right there. It's either section 1984 or 1987. I don't remember which one, but it's right in there in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. And look at the footnotes.
Right. It cites Council of Trent session six.
So, contrary to what you may have heard, this is still an issue. All right, so why was it a big deal? Why were they so upset that he translated or he added a line, a lone sola, to his translation of Romans 3:28? And the reason is because for a long time the church had said that you're justified by grace through faith. Faithfulness.
And you hear lots of evangelicals saying this now. Covenant fidelity. which is just Latin for faithfulness. Allegiance? If I is it m is that I think that's the word Matthew Bates uses?
So, this is commonly taught, and I hear it from people in my world, in the PNR world, Presbyterian Reform world, regularly talking about this. John Piper says you're finally saved through good works. You're initially justified, by the way, that whole scheme of initial and final. He didn't learn that from Martin Luther, he learned that from the Council of Trent. And if you say, well, that's mean, go read William Perkins.
William Perkins explained that in the late 16th, early 17th century. He said, that's a Roman Catholic way of talking, two stages of justification, initial and final. We don't talk that way. You just heard it in the last session. You're justified now.
You're not going to be any more justified later. There is now, therefore, a little condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. I mean. Having therefore made a start. We have peace with God.
Is that what your Bible says? If it does, you've got a terrible translation.
So the medieval church had said that faith. Is faithfulness. The Latin phrase is formed by love, is how it gets translated into English. Formed means made a reality, and love is a synecdoche, it's a part for the whole for sanctification.
So, the short way of putting it is it's faithfulness. They turned faith into faithfulness. Yeah, they believed in knowing and trusting. Uh right But they also believed in faithfulness. And that then that's really code for works.
So faith is sanctification, faith is obedience.
So, when Luther said through faith alone, that was outrageous, that was shocking. Because he stripped away faithfulness. And when they said, right, when they read without the works of the law, they translated works of the law to mean the ceremonial law. By the way, If people would just read Luther and Melanchthon, Uh from this period It'd be a lot harder, the whole new perspective on Paul would be a lot harder because you know what they say the works of the law are? The ceremonies.
And they think that's clever. No, the medieval church did that for a thousand years. And the Reformation said, no, that's not what the works of the law stands for. The works of the law is a principle, it's the principle that says, do this and live. It's not the hearers of the law who will be justified, it's the doers of the law.
And it's the whole laws, the moral laws. Love God with all your faculties and your neighbor as yourself. That's the principle. That's what the law stands for in Paul. Especially in these cases.
Not that the ceremonial law is of no consequence for understanding the relationship between Jews and Gentiles in the New Testament. Jew-Gentile relations are a real issue in the New Testament, but that doesn't mean that you can resolve everything down to sociology. If you're really serious, by the way, about getting to grips with a new perspective. Dr. Horton wrote three or four volumes with Westminster John Knox Press.
Is that three? I don't know. Anyway, and one of them took Tom Wright out to the public square, took his pants off, and they just left him there. The whole time I was reading that book, I thought, Lord, I thank thee that I am not Tom Wright. Right?
I don't know how he I honestly the whole every page I think goodness sakes I'd be terrified leave my house. I hope he never comes after me.
So have to move to Bolivia or something.
So that's what Luther is after. He's undoing. centuries and centuries of turning faith into faithfulness. Right. And so we can't, but what I learned again by going through these commentaries is we can't take this stuff for granted because you go through the commentaries and hardly anybody even talks about it.
And some of them say we shouldn't say these sort of things. We should say something very different. You really have to go, except for a couple of exceptions. John Fesco mentions it, Dan Doriani mentions it, but you really have to go to commentaries from the 70s and into the early 80s to see people sort of standing up for sola fide. Otherwise, that was a little shocking.
Mostly the Romans commentaries I read are in Latin and were published in the 16th century. And they all take it for good. They all defend it at great length. I'll come back to that.
So, what do we mean when we say sola fide?
Well, In Belgica, in the confession that we confess in our churches, the churches that I serve, we say in Belgian confession, Article 22, and therefore we justly say with Paul that we are justified by faith alone or by faith apart from works. For us, sola fide, by faith alone or faith apart from works, those are synonymous. Just by contrast, Thomas Aquinas in the 13th century summarized the medieval consensus when he said that it is by faith formed by love, fides formata caritata, that justifies, and it justifies not because it's the sole instrument, not because it rests on Christ, leans on Christ, trusts in Christ. He believed all that, by the way. He believed in resting, leaning, and trusting.
But it's not by resting, leaning, and trusting alone. Faith ultimately justifies in the medieval consensus and the Tridentine doctrine because, and to the degree it is faithful. And so when Luther published his New Testament, right, as I say, Roman Catholics complained about it bitterly, and some are still doing it. I looked at Scott Hahn's commentary on Romans, and it's like reading somebody from the 16th century, which is good in a way. And as I say, as we judge, judging by New Testament, and I won't go through all of it, but it was a little bit of an awakening for me to see how indifferent and just ignorant people were.
They just didn't care, they didn't even talk about it.
So, here's what I'm arguing: Luther was right translationally, exegetically, and theologically. I don't have time to make all of that case in the time that we have, but I can point you in the right direction in a few words. And a lot of what I want to do is just read to you from what Luther and Melanchthon said, because they make the argument better than I can make it. But what we mean, just so in case this is new to you, what we mean when we say faith alone or sola fide is that faith is the unique instrument, it's the empty hand that takes hold of Christ, and it's wrought in us, it's worked in us freely, sovereignly by the Spirit of God and by the unconditional favor of God. It rests, it leans, it trusts, it lays hold.
And that is, right, relative to our justification and our sanctification and our salvation. It doesn't do anything else. That's why Luther said it's an empty hand.
So I started out my Christian life. I was raised basically a pagan. And then a Unitarian. And when I came into Christianity, I came in through the Southern Baptist, a little Southern Baptist church in my hometown. And God bless Pastor Dennis Woods because he always pointed us to Jesus and he always offered us the gospel freely, and I'm thankful for that.
But it wasn't always clear exactly what faith was. Is it walking the aisle, which I never did? I resisted that 22 verses of just as I am. I never did. Every Sunday.
Every eye closed, every head bowed. No, it's not walking the aisle. It's not signing a card. It's not even praying a prayer.
So learn these participles: leaning, resting, trusting. Apprehending, we say sometimes, embracing even. But the power of faith is not you. It's not your character, it's not your good works. It's not anything that's happening in you.
What makes faith powerful is not faith.
So, if you don't come away with anything else today, maybe come away with that. What makes faith powerful is not faith.
So, people always ask me, but my faith isn't very strong. And I say You're looking at the wrong thing. You're looking at the wrong thing. What makes faith powerful is the object of faith. And Jesus is the object of faith.
It's not the subject of faith. It's not the believer that makes it powerful. That's what Luther's trying to say when he says, sola fide, through faith alone. And then people come back to me: well, yeah, but it's not through a faith that is alone.
Okay, fine, but just don't turn that into Fide's formata. Faith formed by love. It's not because it's formed by love that it's powerful, it's because it lays hold of Christ that it's powerful, and because it's laid hold of Christ, it doesn't remain alone. It produces fruit. It grows.
Sanctification is a real thing. It's progressive. It happens. Luther spent a lot of time defending progressive sanctification. Anybody thinks he's an antinomian is just plain mule, ignorant, and stubborn.
Just hasn't read Luther. Read Luther. And I'm not talking to you. You probably all read Luther, but some of my people in my world don't. Especially the American Presbyterians.
That's why I've done everything I can for my Presbyterian students to distill Luther down and inject it right into their veins. Woo! Because they suspect he's a little naughty and he swears and he talks about bodily functions and he makes them very nervous. Mm-hmm. It's true.
I'm from Nebraska. Poop doesn't frighten me. I work cattle. My my grandpa's. From southwestern Kansas, I learned to drive in a pasture.
I was spitting tobacco on the side of a pickup truck when I was 14 years old. Big deal.
So here's the interesting thing. Luther in 1517, if you look at his lectures in 1517, he doesn't have sola fide yet. If you look at his lectures from 15, 17, he's got imputation, but he doesn't have sola fide. And he said later on, 1545, And before that, by the way. That he didn't get it until 1519, and I think that's right.
There's some scholars who tell you, oh no, he's just making stuff up. He's old, he didn't remember what he was doing. I don't think that's true at all. I think he remembered exactly what happened. I'm 63.
There are certain things I remember very clearly from 30 years ago, and one of them would certainly be when I figured out sola fide. I remember when he taught me how to distinguish law and gospel. Mm-hmm. I remember where I was? Totally.
For 10 years, my preaching was all screwed up, and I knew there was something wrong with it, and I didn't know what it was, and I didn't know how to fix it. But I knew there was something wrong. We canceled the evening service because I knew my preaching wasn't right, and I was probably damaging the people. I had to preach in the morning. We did a Bible study in the evening.
I thought, well, if we just do a Bible study, I can't do too much damage.
So, I gave up one of the means of grace that we confess that God uses because I knew I was doing something wrong. I was like a mechanic using the wrong tools. Try to fix the car. And I didn't know what the right tools were. And I didn't know how to fix the car.
But there was something wrong. And then he gave a 20-minute talk on how to distinguish long gospel and preaching. I remember exactly where I was. And exactly when it happened, and that was in 1998. And it's like yesterday.
You tell me that Luther doesn't remember when it finally broke through? As Mathasius said some years later, but our hermit broke through, that when he had that breakthrough, it took years, it was a process, it wasn't all it was, and it wasn't even necessarily on the toilet that some of the Freudian scholars have gotten all wound up. Medieval castles, anyway. But over time, gradually, by preaching through the Psalms, he recovered the Augustine doctrine and reading Augustine, he recovered the Augustine doctrine of sin and grace. And then going through Romans, he recovered imputation.
And then he did Hebrews, Galatians, and the Psalms again. And it was in that last part: Hebrews and Galatians. And then the Psalms again, that sola fide Became clear, and I can show you from his 15-19 lectures on Galatians. I can't read all the passages because it's just wonderful reading his lectures on Galatians. His later lectures are even better.
So you said get those and read those. But uh 15, 19 lectures, Galatians 2.21. Take note, therefore, he says, of a new righteousness and a new definition of righteousness. For one usually says, righteousness is the virtue that renders to everyone his due.
Now that's intrinsic righteousness that pays the bill. That's what it just said.
Okay. Here it is stated that righteousness is faith in Jesus Christ, or the virtue, which is a strength, by which one believes in Jesus Christ, as in Romans 10:10. And then he quotes it, and he says, That is, if anyone wants to be righteous, it is necessary for him to believe in Christ with his heart. And in the third chapter, St. Jerome says, Well put, is that true statement of a wise man that the believer who does not live as a result of righteousness, but is righteous by faith.
A beautiful statement indeed. It follows now that the man who is righteous through faith, now listen to this, does not through himself give to anyone what is his. He does this through another, namely Jesus Christ, who alone is so righteous as to render to all. what should be rendered to them. Yeah.
As a matter of fact, they owe everything to him. But he who believes in Christ and by the Spirit of faith has become one with him. not only renders satisfaction now to all, but also brings it about that they owe everything to Him, since He has all things in common with Christ. His sins are no longer His, they are Christ's, but in Christ sins are unable to overcome righteousness. In fact, they themselves are overcome, hence they are destroyed in Him.
Again, Christ's righteousness now belongs not only to Christ, it belongs to His Christian. Therefore, the Christian cannot owe anything to anyone or be oppressed by His sins, since He is supported by such great righteousness.
Well, I mean, it's just, this is 1519. You have to understand. It's been a long time since anybody had talked like this. Wow. It's incredible.
An unlikely Little Increasingly, not little over the years, but. An unlikely obscure Augustinian monk Grasps. Hmm. Maybe one of the most important things anybody could ever know. And almost nobody else is saying it.
Now, it's not, we'll come back to this if we have time. It's not the case that nobody had ever said it, people had said it. But people hadn't said it, and they hadn't said it this way for a very long time. You need to appreciate that. You tell your friend Doug to quit messing around with this stuff, too.
Repent, believe in Jesus. Everything Jesus did is one justification, not two. There's no initial, there's no final, there's no final justification or final salvation through good works. You don't get in by baptism and stay in by good works. You get in by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.
And baptism is the sign and the seal of what Jesus did. It's not solar baptisma, it's Sola fide. Baptism isn't the instrument. Baptism isn't magic. Baptism doesn't confer justification, sanctification.
Union with Christ, the election. I'm getting after the federal vision, folks. Which is a wicked corruption of the gospel. Even if you said, I don't want to be called a federal visionist anymore, but I still believe everything I ever said. That's the definition of hypocrisy.
It's not good news.
So, what about his translation? Was Luther just making things up in his translation?
Well, he this is what he said. He defended himself brilliantly. His defense of his translation is one of the best explanations of how to translate scripture or anything else, really, that you'll ever read. I knew here in Romans 3:28, I knew very well that the word solem is not in the Greek or Latin text. Let the papists that.
Uh again, sorry. The papists uh did not have to teach me that. Right? It is a fact that these four letters, S-O-L-A, are not there. And these blockheads stare at them like cows at a new gate.
At the same time, they do not see that it conveys the sense of the text. It belongs there. If the translation is to be clear and vigorous, I want to speak German, not Latin nor Greek, since it was German I had undertaken to speak in the translation. But it is the nature of our German language, and I would say English, that in speaking of two things, One of which is affirmed and the other denied, we use the word solem, a line, along with the word nicht, not, or kine, no. For example, we say the farmer brings a lion grain and kind money.
No, really, I have now nikt money, but a lying grain. I have a lion eaten and nicked yet drunk. Did you align write it and Nick read it over? There are innumerable cases of this kind in daily use. In all these phrases, this is the German usage, though it is not the Latin or Greek usage.
It is the nature of the German language to add the word a line in order that the word nicht or kind may be clearer and more complete. To be sure, I can also say the farmer brings grain and kind money. But the words kind money do not sound As full and clear as if I were to say the farmer brings a line grain and kind money. Here, the word align helps the word kind so much that it becomes a complete clear German expression. And why should I talk so much about translating?
If I were to point out the reasons and considerations back of all my words, I should need a year to write on it. I've learned by experience what an art and a task translating is. Therefore, I will tolerate no popstasel. Pope Donkey. Yeah.
or mule to be my judge or critic, for they've never tried it. He who desires none of my translating may let it alone. If anyone dislikes it or criticizes it without my knowledge and consent, the devil repay him. If it is to be criticized, I should do it myself. If I do not do it, then let them leave my translation in peace.
Let each of them make for himself one that suits. What do I care? This I can testify with good conscience. I gave it my utmost care, my utmost in care and effort, and I never had any ulterior motives. I've neither taken nor sought a single penny for it.
Nor made one Buy it. Anyway, he goes on to explain.
So, I mean, he's right theologically. He's right. Translationally, Right, you sola is the right word, alone is the right word. It captures the sense of, right, without. the works of the law.
That's what without the works of the law means. That's what it communicates. That's why you need both alone. and without the works of the law. And he's right exegetically and pastorally.
He says, Now I was not relying on and not following the nature of the languages alone, however, when in Romans 3:28 I inserted the word alone. Actually, the text itself and the meaning of St. Paul urgently require and demand it. For in that very passage, he's dealing with the main point of Christian doctrine, namely that we are. Did you hear that, by the way?
The main point of Christian doctrine. Namely, that we are justified by faith in Christ without any works of the law. And by works of the law, he doesn't mean ceremonies, doesn't mean hand washing, doesn't mean not touching dead bodies, doesn't mean food laws. He means do this and live. That's what Paul means by law there.
And as Paul cuts away Which is a nice expression. All works. We could say circumcises all works, so that, so completely as to say that the works of the law. Though it is God's law and word, do not help us for justification, Romans 3:20. He cites Abraham as an example.
and says that he was justified so entirely without works that even the highest work, which moreover had been newly commanded by God over and over above all other works and ordinances, namely circumcision, Did not help him for justification. Rather, he was justified without circumcision and without any works by faith. As he says in chapter 4, if Abraham was justified by works, he may boast, but not before God. But when all works are so completely cut away. Hence the metaphor.
And that must mean that faith alone justifies whoever would speak plainly and clearly about this cutting away of works. We'll have to say faith alone justifies us and not works. The matter itself as well as the nature of the language. demands it. And he goes on to explain this.
It also comes down to the Um Well, there's one more thing. I have a little more time than I thought. I'm starting to panic here. I got 11 pages of notes. Yeah.
And I usually do about seven pages an hour, as Christian can tell you. Mm-hmm. Well, let's go on. Um And then this I'll go on and talk about the nature of faith. Again, Luther says, What is the work by which we lay hold of Christ's death and resurrection?
It cannot be any external work. But only the right but only the But only the eternal faith that is in the heart. Faith alone, indeed, all alone, without any works. Lays hold of this death and resurrection when it is preached by the gospel. Why then this raging and raving, this making of heretics and burning them at the stake?
When the matter itself at its very core is so clear. And proves that faith alone lays hold of Christ's death and resurrection without any works. And that his death and resurrection. are our life and our righteousness. Since then the fact itself is so obvious that faith alone conveys, grasps, and imparts this life and righteousness, why should we not say so?
It is no heresy that faith alone lays hold on Christ and gives life, and and yet it must be heresy, if anyone mentions it. Are they not mad, foolish, and nonsensical? They admit that the thing is right. But brand the saying of it is wrong. I could be reading.
It's like Luther was in the library with me reading the same commentaries I was reading last week. Though nothing can be both right and wrong at the same time. And Luther wasn't alone in doing this. Luther's colleagues, I'm on 8 of 11, I'm all right. Philip Melanthon used it in his commonplaces in 1521, just the way that we do.
Even that. Not Andreas Karlstadt von Bodenstein, who was Luther's senior colleague when he got there, who kind of shepherded him through the doctoral process and then lost his mind. and became a a nut such that he got Rebuked by the Augsburg Confession and the Second Helvetic Confession and others. Um But before he radicalized, he used sola fide in 1519 in his academic disputation as kind of a debate. And he's reflecting what Luther and Melanchthon were saying.
Melanchthon got it from Luther, by the way. Melanchthon learned this from Luther. Luther didn't learn this from Melanchthon. Don't anyway, don't let anybody mislead you about this. And the reformed all picked it up.
Francois Lambert, Johannes Oika Lempatius, that sacramentarian, he got it. I don't really know that he was, but anyway, that's what they call him. Martin Boetzer, who became a Protestant. Because of Martin Luther at the Heidelberg disputation in 1518.
Well I'm going to come back to him in a minute. Right? Um Bollinger, Zwingli's successor. Zwingli's actually a little fuzzy on this, but we'll That's another lecture. Peter, Martyr, Vermili, and Calvin, and all the Reformed.
Again, we use in the Belgian Confession, we use Luther's translation. as our definition of faith in the act of justification. We say, right, when we quote Romans 3:28, we say through faith alone, it's in our confession. We confess Luther's translation. That's how committed we are.
Martin Buzza, who died in 1551. Became a Protestant, as I say, adopted the evangelical cause at the Heidelberg disputation, wrote a massive commentary on Romans that very few people have ever actually read. More people have written about it than actually read it. Um uses the expression sola fide 40 times. in his commentary.
He doesn't use it in 328, but he uses it in his discussion of 328 after his discussion of 327 and 28. Just a quote from Bootser. Fourthly, he confirms the same from the oracle concerning Abraham, the father of all who believe, for he was justified by faith. This argument is not only before the law of Moses was given, but also before Abraham himself was circumcised, by which it is certainly demonstrated that, as in Abraham, the prince of the nation of saints, it's sort of a rough translation, faith, but this is what's important, faith alone satisfied for righteousness.
So it would be for his descendants also who are chosen to life. He added to those the authority of the 34th Psalm, and he goes on. And he argues from Augustine. And then following his discussion of Romans 3, 27 to 28, he says, For there are those today who deny that it is to be preached, which Paul everywhere teaches and proves with such zeal. And so nowhere does he not repeat, by faith alone or by faith without works, which is the same power, we are made righteous and saved by the way.
Not just justified, because you've got people saying, well, you're justified through faith alone, but you're finally saved through good works, because salvation, they say, is justification, sanctification, and they should say glorification, they don't always do that.
Well, you know what our guys say, and you know what Bootser says? We're justified and saved, just like the Israelites. When they were backs against the Red Sea, here comes Pharaoh. What did God do? He saved all those wicked, rebellious, stiff-necked Israelites by grace alone, sovereign grace alone, sovereign favor alone.
And led them through the Red Sea. And by the way, who led them through the Red Sea, according to Paul and Jude? Jesus led them through the Red Sea. And whom are they trusting, Jesus? How many of them were saved by their good works?
Not if you read Exodus, Zilch, Nada, Zip, Babkis. They were saved by saved, not just justified. Saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. You are finally saved now. You're being sanctified.
By the grace of God alone, through faith alone. You're being progressively sanctified.
So, in that sense, you could say you're being saved, but in the sense in which we're worried about Am I going to have to take a test when I stand before God? Do you know how I know that? Because Jesus passed that test when He said, Eloe, Eloe, Lama Sabaktani. He passed that test. That doesn't mean you get to go live like the Dickens.
You don't want to live like the Dickens because you belong to Jesus and He belongs to you. And you've been given a new life. You're united to him by grace alone, through faith alone. As Luther says, even before the law says, do, you've already done it.
Well, the way you get people to be good is not by putting them on the hook and putting them in what we call the covenant of works: do this and live in order to be accepted by God or enter into glory. That's not how you get people to become sanctified. You get people to be sanctified by telling them the good news.
So you preachers here, You just tell people about Jesus, you instruct them in the moral law, but if you want them to be good, the mystery is you don't get there by a straight line, you get there by a jagged line that goes through Golgotha. That's how you get the sanctification that you want. And you don't have the sanctification you want in your people because you think if you just crack the whip a little harder, you can get more out of them.
Well, Luther saved us from all this if we'd only pay attention to him. Philip Melanchthon said in his defense of the Augsburg Confession. I'll just read this one apart. In 473, he says, and again, this is amazing. Tom Wright, take note.
The particle alone offends some people, even though Paul says, Romans 3.28, we hold that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. And again, it is the gift of God, not because of works, lest any man should boast. And again, they are justified by his grace as a gift. If they delight, if they dislike the exclusive particle, by the way, look for that word if you have electronic resources. Look for that expression, exclusive particle.
It's a wonderful thing. Calvin says in his 1548 commentary on Galatians 5:6. When it comes to justification, We make no mention of love or good works, but adhere resolutely to the exclusive particle. What is the exclusive particle? It's the solar.
Think of the sola as the knife that the rabbi uses to perform a circumcision. That's the cutting instrument that cuts away. All of you are trying, all of you are performing. All of your doing all of your presenting.
Sola cuts all that away. It's only by resting. leaning, trusting, apprehending. And again, they are justified by his grace as a gift. If they dislike that exclusive particle, let them remove the other exclusive terms from Paul, too, like freely.
Not of works. It is a gift, etc. For these terms are also exclusive. We exclude the claim of merit. Not the word.
or the sacraments, as our opponents slanderously claim. We said earlier that faith is conceived by the Word, and we give the highest praise to the ministry of the Word. Which is what we in our Reformed churches say in the Heidelberg Catechism. How did you come, right? Since you're justified through faith.
From where comes this faith? The Holy Spirit works faith in our hearts. How? Through the preaching of the Holy Gospel and confirms it by the use of the Holy Sacraments. John Calvin was an ardent supporter of Sola Fide, the single largest expansion of the institutes of the Christian religion from 1536.
To 1559 was his reply to Andreas Oseander. Who very devilishly said that we're justified by grace alone. Through faith alone, in Christ alone, but he said, We're justified by Christ who is. inside of us. Which was wicked because it sounded to the people like.
Well, isn't that what we believe? It's Christ who accomplished righteousness outside of us. And the technical way of saying it is alien righteousness, which is a funny way of saying it to us, but it's Latin, means outside of us. Not a proper righteousness that's inside of us. It's accomplished outside of us, it's credited to us and received through faith alone.
Resting, receiving, trusting, empty hand, faith.
So Kelvin is He gets Oseander and he says, This is a serious problem. I believe, nobody believes in union with Christ more than John Calvin, but we're not justified. By our union with Christ, or in that strict sense, or by the indwelling of Christ. Christ, in a sense, indwells us through faith. Right?
As a consequence of being justified, it's the justified who are united to Christ. Mystically, as we say in our tradition. It's the justified who are united to Christ. Read the Westminster Shorter Catechism. Mm-hmm.
Mine remember a campaign. It's either twenty-five or thirty. Thereby, go look for that word thereby, and that solves pretty much all your problems, all your confusion about. Mystical union with Christ.
So on 328, Calvin said. Romans 3.28. We then conclude, let me start again. He now draws, Calvin says, the main proposition. as one that is incontrovertible, and adds an explanation.
Justification by faith indeed made very clear, while works are expressly excluded. Hence, in nothing do our adversaries labor more in the present day than in attempts to blend faith with the merits of works. You'd think he was reading the internet.
Okay. They indeed allow that a man is justified by faith, but not by faith alone. Yea they place works The efficacy, they place in works, I think, the efficacy of justification in love. Though in words they ascribe it to faith.
Well, what did he just say? They've turned faith into faithfulness, is what he just said. But Paul affirms in this passage that justification is so gratuitous, so gracious, that he makes it quite evident that it can be. by no means associated with the merit of works. Why he names the works of the law, I've already explained, and I've also proved that it is quite absurd to confine them to ceremonies.
Frigid also is the translation that works are to be taken for those which are outward and done without the Spirit of Christ. You see, they were saying if it's an inward work and it's done with the Spirit of Christ, then it counts. On the contrary, the word law is added, or that is added, means. The same As though he called them meritorious, for what is referred to is the reward promised. In the law.
And then he goes on to explain what James says. And he says, all James is talking about in chapter 2 is evidence. Those are people who were standing up in the assembly and saying the Shema, Shema Eschlael, Yahweh Elohanu, Yahweh Echad, hero of Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And they were pretending to be Christians, but living Like the opposite. And all James is saying in chapter 2 is: you say you have faith.
I don't see any evidence. You people treat each other like dirt. I don't think you actually believe. He's not saying that they're justified before God. By works.
That's Calvin's explanation. I boiled it down for you. paraphrased it in colloquial Nebraskan. And as I say, the Reformed churches say the same thing. You say, well, I'm still not entirely.
clear As to What faith is?
Well, Heidelberg 21 says that true faith is a certain knowledge and a hearty trust that not only to others, but to me also. A certain knowledge and a hearty trust, Not only to others, but to me also. How are you right with God, Heidelberg 60? Listen to this. The first word in the Latin text, the Latin translation of Heidelberg sixty, first two words, sola fide.
The first two words in the Latin text of the Heidelberg Catechism, the German Reformed Catechism in our churches we confess, some of you know this. One of the great summaries of the Christian faith ever published, some nut just. In the process of publishing a thousand-page commentary, he lost his mind.
Some people clearly have too much time on their hands. But the first two words in the Latin text are sola fide. Through faith alone.
So that Although my conscience accuses me of having sinned grievously by turning away from all the commandments of God and never keeping any of them, and moreover, I'm now listen to this, I am still inclined to every evil. or all evil. Nevertheless, if only I embrace these benefits with a believing heart without any merit of mine, By the mere grace of God, the perfect satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ are imputed to me. as if I had Not committed any sin myself. But as if I had done everything that Christ did for me.
That's what we mean by sola fide.
Well, and then just in case you weren't clear, Heidelberg 61.
Well, why do you affirm that you're a righteous? Again, from the Latin text, sola fide. Not that I please God by the worthiness of my faith. But that the satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ is mine alone. Before God But I embraced, I embrace it and apply it to myself in no other way than through faith.
You think I I So you're a sinner and you're worried. That maybe God doesn't love you, God doesn't accept you. And my only question is: are you trusting in Jesus? And I didn't say, How much are you trusting in Jesus? I didn't say, Do you ever doubt?
I didn't say that. I said, Are you trusting in Jesus? Do you know that you're a sinner?
Well, yeah, Pastor, I know I'm a sinner. Are you trusting in Jesus? Yeah, I am. But but but I don't want to hear the but. I mean, it's not that your concerns are irrelevant, but let's get the main thing established first.
If you're trusting in Jesus, you are accepted with God. You are a son. You have the legal status before God as a son. And relative to your standing with him, he does not see your sins. I'm not saying he doesn't see them in his general providence.
I'm not talking about that. But relative to your standing, he accepts you. Jesus was not surprised by your sin. When he died, he knew what kind of a wretch you are. And he did it anyway.
And he was raised for your justification. The question is not, how sinful are you? The question is, how empty is the tomb? Can you bring your hand? Thank you for listening to today's message on Through Faith Alone.
I pray Dr. R. Scott Clark's teaching has helped you see clearly that our right standing with God is not based on what we do, but on simply trusting in Christ and His finished work. Faith isn't another religious task to check off. It's the means by which we receive the gospel, by which we're united with Christ and all His benefits.
Let that truth settle deep in your heart and shape the way you walk each day. If you're ever in Jacksonville, we'd love to welcome you to Paramount Church. For more sermons, resources, or to plan a visit, check out Paramountchurch.com. Also, many of you asked about the other resources for deeper Reformation learning. A great resource is the Wittenberg Center for Reformation Studies.
Based in the historic town where the Reformation began, the center brings together scholars, students, and pastors from around the world to study the theology, history, and lasting significance of the Reformation. Through fellowships, guided tours, and online courses, the Wittenberg Center helps equip Christians to understand the past so we can proclaim the gospel faithfully today. Find all about it at Wittenberg Center.de and I'll put that link in the description.
Next time on the podcast, we'll continue our Five Solas series with the message In Christ Alone, delivered by Dr. Michael Horton. If you've ever wondered what it really means that Christ is ours and ours completely, the next episode is for you. Until then, rest in Christ, rest in faith, live by grace, and keep proclaiming Him.
