The Five Solas: A Cry for Truth! (Part 1 of 5)‏

Hello Friends!

Welcome to a new 5-part Daily Devotions series titled The Five Solas: A Cry for Truth! 

This series will investigate these often misunderstood beliefs and convictions based on the Bible – The Word of God. Please join us over the next five weeks as we learn more about the specifics of these cries for truth… 

The Five Solas are five Latin phrases (or slogans) that emerged from the Protestant Reformation intended to summarize the Reformers' basic theological principles in contrast to certain teachings of the Roman Catholic Church of the day. "Sola" is Latin meaning "alone" or "only" and the corresponding Sola phrases are:

• Sola Fide - by Faith alone
• Sola Scriptura - by Scripture alone
• Solus Christus - through Christ alone
• Sola Gratia - by Grace alone
• Soli Deo Gloria - glory to God alone

These phrases may be found individually expressed in the various writings of the 16th century Reformers – either explicitly or implicitly – but they are not found presented as a list per se. It is most likely the list of Solas came about later.

Let’s begin our short study with the Sola known as SOLA FIDE…

The Five Solas: #1 - Sola Fide

Justification is by grace alone through faith alone because of Jesus Christ alone. In justification, Jesus Christ's righteousness is imputed to us as the only possible satisfaction of God's perfect justice. Our justification does not rest on any merit to be found in us, nor upon the grounds of an infusion of Jesus Christ's righteousness in us, nor that an institution claiming to be a church that denies or condemns Sola Fide can be recognized as a legitimate church.

By faith alone, from the Latin Sola Fide, is one of the five Solas of the 16th century Protestant Reformation. This was Martin Luther’s cry in reference to our "right-standing" before God. Justification, he declared, is by faith alone, not faith plus anything else. Luther believed this was a critical doctrine and regarded it as the truth by which the church would either stand or fall.

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast – Ephesians 2:8-9

"The doctrine of free justification by faith alone, which became the storm center of so much controversy during the Reformation period, is so often regarded as the heart of the Reformers theology but this is not accurate. The truth is that their thinking was really centered upon the contention of Paul, echoed by Augustine and others, that the sinner’s entire salvation is by free and sovereign grace only, and that the doctrine of justification by faith was important to them because it safeguarded the principle of sovereign grace. The sovereignty of grace found expression in their thinking at a more profound level still in the doctrine of monergistic regeneration." – J.I. Packer

Thank you for reading! Don’t miss next week’s edition as we investigate Sola #2 – SOLA SCRITURA…

May the Lord Jesus Christ continue to bless you with His perfect love, mercy and grace!

Keep looking up and sharing the Gospel while there is still time… Hallelujah and Maranatha – come quickly Lord Jesus!

 

Blessings!

Shane <><

Stand

13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Ephesians 6

When reading through my study bible, an interesting point was made about these verses.  The war that is being waged is not a full scale war like we've seen in history.  There are not large battlefields with hundreds or thousands of casualties.  This is an individual war.  We are all footsoldiers, called to stand our ground, and we each fight our own separate battle.

Think about it.  It's not just a struggle for your soul between God and the devil, it's an all out war.  Both sides are putting everything they have into you.  One side wants to make you fall, and the other wants you to stand.  It's simple, really.

We are called to stand our ground.  Then, after we do everything, we're called to stand.  That's it.  Just stand.  We may be exhausted and unable to walk, unable to speak, unable to raise our hands in prayer, but we can remain standing.  God takes care of the rest.  He's there to handle everything else when all we can do is stand.

The last time I sang at church, we sang "Never Once."  While we were singing, I looked out into the congregation and my eyes fell on a mother.  She was standing with her eyes closed and both arms raised straight up in front of her.  I looked down and saw her two children clutching their arms around her waist.  One of them was looking out and had an expression on their face of, "I don't know what to do," but the image and the words struck me.  We are those children.  We may not know what to do, we may be lost and overwhelmed, but God's always there for us and to help us stand.  We can lean on him and he'll know how to provide us what we need and take care of us.

Never once did we ever walk alone

Never once did You leave us on our own

You are faithful, God, You are faithful

Working Through Wickedness

Jesus didn’t promise favor here on earth. In fact, He knew wickedness would increase and prepared His disciples and you and me for it.

Matthew 24:9-14 ⁹ “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. ¹⁰ At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, ¹¹ and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. ¹² Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, ¹³ but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. ¹⁴ And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

This section starts off quite unpleasant, but ends with great promises. Jesus promised eternal salvation to those who stand firm and that the gospel would be made known in all nations.

God is all-powerful. He even works through wickedness to accomplish His purposes. As the disciples and early church were persecuted and killed, they scattered from Jerusalem and “preached the word wherever they went” (Acts 8:4). They began fulfilling God’s purpose to spread the gospel to all nations!

Do you and I let the wickedness around us get us down or shut us up? Or, do we stand firm and allow God to work through us as a result of it? The gospel “will be preached in the whole world” just as Jesus promised. We can watch from the sidelines, freeze in place, or join His mission. Which one are you doing? Which one do you want to do?

True joy and blessings are in store for those who stand firm in their faith and join God’s work, in spite of the increasing wickedness.

Each Day Closer

I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.  I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.  Ephesians 1:17-21

I pray that I am an example of a follower of Christ who is both a shining example to other Christians and a flawed person to those who seek Christ.  Why the last part?  Because none of us are perfect, and the last thing I want is to be on a pedestal.  It is far better they find me as someone who they can come to when their life is messy and broken and ask the question, “You’re life is like mine, and yet there is joy in your life.  Why?”  Then I can share the joy God has brought me in spite of my trials, struggles, and failures.  The bottom line is that I just pray my walk of faith continually brings me closer to Christ.  Each day is better than the last.

Our goal as Christians is that we are in a continual state of growth moving ever closer to the image of Jesus Christ.  We so often get caught up in the things we want for our lives.  It can be so hard when we are bombarded with things that interfere with one fundamental need; the need to be closer with a God who loves us so much.  It does not matter either how great we were or how bad we failed yesterday.  Today we can move one step closer to Him.  Whether it be by prayer, action, or word, He is right where He has always been; watching, caring, protecting, and loving us.

No matter where you are in journey of faith, God wants us to know it is going to be alright.  If you feel close to God, have peace knowing you will only continue to grow closer.  If you feel distant, know God is still there sounding a beacon for you to keep walking toward the sound of His voice.  This is the hope of both Paul’s prayer at the beginning of the book of Ephesians and a savior who died so that we could have strength knowing He will neither leave nor forsake us.  How can you grow closer to Christ today?  What from the past must you lay at Christ’s feet to move forward?  My prayer is that we do what is necessary today to move closer to Christ today and beyond.  Amen

Tues Devo: Foundation

Hello,

There are many times where we think about situations that are coming, get our plan in place and feel very confident. But then, confusion sets in. We start to step into the situation and the unplanned is tossed at us. But the unplanned does not always look the same. Sometimes the unplanned are the big obvious bad things – but sometimes they are less straight forward. When satan wants to be more subtle, or throw off suspicion, he will come with a positive unplanned thing. If you are contemplating making some change, he will find a way to entice you to stay as you are. If you are thinking about sticking with something, he will entice you some other opportunity that appears to be ok or better on the surface.

We get ourselves tied up in knots sometimes when we go back and forth in our minds with these situations. We do not always know right away if things which pop-up are from God or not – but we give ourselves the best opportunity to see that quickly if we have started by going through the decision process quietly with God. When we are facing decisions we need to find the time away with God to quietly, without distraction, work through it with Him. This gives us the foundation to go back to when the unplanned things come. That foundation will help us evaluate information – and bring it to the conversation.

I don’t think we ignore the unplanned – I am just saying that we need to spend time with God to go over our decisions that lie in front of us, and understand the direction He is moving us –and any key factors (result, reason etc) that stem from the decision. Without knowing this, we cannot sift through the unplanned things as they come along (and they will!)

Mark 1:35” In the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went away to a secluded place, and was praying there.” (NASB)

While nothing with Jesus was unplanned to Him – He still knew the importance of going away and spending time with the Father.

Have a blessed day, and enjoy your time with God!

Will Hill