Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - July 15, 2019


Ep 137 ｜ 5 Solas


Episode Stats


Length

47 minutes

Words per minute

184.47116

Word count

8,717

Sentence count

505

Harmful content

Hate speech

23

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

In this episode, Allie talks about the 5 solas and why Protestants and Catholics have very different theology. She also discusses the differences between the Catholic and Protestant churches and how they differ on some of the five solas.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 Hey guys, welcome to Relatable. Hope everyone is having a wonderful day. If you are watching this
00:00:05.640 on YouTube, if you're not, you should totally subscribe to the Allie Beth Stuckey YouTube
00:00:09.300 channel, by the way. But if you are watching this on YouTube and I'm sitting really weirdly,
00:00:13.660 that's because right now as I'm recording this, I'm at the end of the pregnancy and I'm really
00:00:19.540 uncomfortable when I sit a certain way for a long time. So I have to like arrange myself so that my
00:00:25.640 hips aren't killing me. Anyway, today we're not actually talking about my discomfort in
00:00:31.140 pregnancy, believe it or not. Sorry to burst your bubble, but we are going to talk about the five
00:00:36.240 solas. And if you have no idea what I'm talking about when I say the five solas, that's perfectly
00:00:40.760 fine. You will soon enough. So as most of you guys know, I am a Protestant. I am specifically
00:00:47.420 what you would call a reformed Protestant. And I've talked about kind of how I got into that and how
00:00:53.760 I recognized that that was the theology that I ascribed to. And of course, the theology that I
00:01:01.340 believe to be true when I was in high school and how that's developed since then. I've talked about
00:01:07.400 that on a past podcast, but I want to talk about the pillars of what it means to be a reformed
00:01:14.900 Protestant. A lot of you guys have asked me about this before, and this episode is going to lay the
00:01:20.340 groundwork for that by explaining something called the five solas. So the adherence to these five
00:01:27.300 solas is what fundamentally distinguishes Protestants from Catholics. There are a lot of things that
00:01:33.080 Protestants and Catholics agree on, even within the five solas, but we do differ on some really
00:01:39.380 important things. I know I have a lot of Catholic friends that listen to this podcast, and that is
00:01:44.260 awesome. I'm so grateful that you guys listen and you guys have messaged me sometimes about the
00:01:49.220 disagreements that you have, or you've said, Hey, I'm a Catholic. I don't agree with everything you
00:01:52.840 say, but I love your podcast. And I find that we agree on enough for this to be good for me to
00:01:58.860 listen to, or I've changed my perspective on something, whatever it is. I really appreciate
00:02:03.840 those of you who maybe don't agree on every point of my theology or don't agree maybe with my theology
00:02:08.880 at all, but you open your ears up to listen to a different perspective. I think that's really
00:02:13.000 productive for both of us to be able to have those conversations where we disagree. So
00:02:17.020 know in this, as I explain the five solas, I am going to have to say, okay, here's a difference
00:02:23.560 between what we believe and what the Catholic church believes. And of course, as a Protestant
00:02:28.080 coming from this perspective, if there is a place where we differ with the Catholic church,
00:02:32.480 of course, I believe that the Protestant position is right, or else I would not be in this position, 0.73
00:02:38.780 but I don't want that. I don't want anyone to take that as an attack. I don't want anyone to take
00:02:43.620 that as hatred or antipathy towards the other side. There's a lot of conflict between the Catholic
00:02:48.720 church and Protestantism coming from both directions. And I don't want this to be about
00:02:53.920 that conflict. This is simply saying what the five solas are and where they came from. And within that 0.74
00:03:00.180 is talking about some of the history of the disagreements between the Catholic and the Protestant
00:03:07.360 church. Now, there have been times where I have posted, like as a caption one time, I posted the
00:03:13.240 five solas. And I know I keep saying that word. And if you're like, what the heck are the five solas?
00:03:17.220 Don't worry. I promise that I'm going to explain that. But I think a lot of you probably do where
00:03:22.060 I've had Catholics reach out to me or comment or message me, whatever, and say, why would you 1.00
00:03:26.940 polarize your audience like that? Why would you, you know, make us feel bad? Why would you demonize
00:03:32.020 us when I really said nothing about Catholicism at all? I just said what I believe is a Protestant.
00:03:37.760 So please do not take me talking about my Protestant theology, my reformed Protestant
00:03:44.700 theology as an attack. I certainly don't see it as an attack when I hear a Catholic talk about 0.82
00:03:49.920 sacraments, when I hear the Catholics talk about Mary in a way that I don't agree with. So please
00:03:57.460 don't take it as a personal attack or that I dislike you or anything like that. I want us to be
00:04:02.780 able to have a productive dialogue about this. And since I've been asked so often about why I'm a
00:04:07.840 reformed Protestant or what it actually means and what the five solas are, I wanted to do this episode.
00:04:14.660 And like I said, I'm going to have to touch on Catholicism just a tiny bit, but it is all done in 0.99
00:04:21.000 the vein of edification and in love. So the five solas or the five solii, if you want to get super
00:04:28.900 Latin with it, I don't even know if that's how you pronounce it. I took Latin. We had to take Latin
00:04:32.840 when I was in middle school and I think it was beneficial, but unfortunately I don't really
00:04:37.520 remember that much, but I do know that solii or A-E is plural. So you could say five solii if you want
00:04:44.020 to do it that way. So what does sola mean? First of all, it's the Latin word for alone. So you could
00:04:49.560 call these the five alones if you want to, the five alones of the Protestant faith, the five alones
00:04:56.880 or the five pillars of reformed Protestantism. When I say reformed Protestantism, that means
00:05:02.300 taking the values and the pillars of the reformation that happened after Martin Luther. We're going to
00:05:07.600 get into that in just a second. And these five solas or these five alones, these five pillars
00:05:13.420 spring from the reformation and reformed theology or reformed Protestantism is built on these pillars,
00:05:21.880 which of course we believe is built on the word of God. So in Latin, these five solas or solii are
00:05:28.220 sola gratia, sola fide, solus Christus, sola scriptura, soli Deo gloria. And as you can tell,
00:05:36.300 don't have the Latin accent down very well. Probably sounds a lot like a Texan trying to say 1.00
00:05:41.560 these things in Latin. So sorry if I butchered it. Uh, any of you fluent Latin speakers out there,
00:05:47.560 just kidding. Uh, and this means English I can do. Okay. So this might be better. This means grace
00:05:53.560 alone, faith alone, Christ alone, scripture alone to the glory of God alone. So those are the five
00:05:59.940 solas, the five pillars of, uh, reformed Protestantism. So it's usually said like this
00:06:05.800 by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone, according to scripture alone for God's
00:06:11.940 glory alone by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, according to scripture alone for
00:06:19.260 God's glory alone. So let's ask this question. Where did all of this come from? Uh, where did Protestants 1.00
00:06:26.540 get this idea? Uh, so the five solas go all the way back to the reformation. Like I said,
00:06:32.520 the reformation was, uh, a theological revolt, if you will, revolt sounds kind of like a dramatic
00:06:38.620 word, but it really kind of was a revolt or a revolution against what a lot of people saw as
00:06:43.920 unbiblical practices of the Catholic church at the time. Uh, the reformation spread throughout Europe,
00:06:49.560 mostly led, uh, by people like Martin Luther in Germany. You've got John Calvin in France,
00:06:54.380 and you've got Ulrich Zwingli in Switzerland. Uh, the event that is seen as the precipitation or the
00:07:00.920 spark of what I think that you could honestly describe as a wildfire was Martin Luther's 95
00:07:07.800 theses that, uh, were posted on October 31st, 1517 at the university of Wittenberg. Now,
00:07:14.040 some people say that he actually nailed it to the door. Some people say that that was a myth.
00:07:17.860 Regardless, the tweet thread, if you will, went viral. It might've even gotten ratioed just a little
00:07:23.940 bit by a lot of people who were mad about it caused a lot of controversy, but also was retweeted a lot
00:07:29.740 of times throughout, uh, Europe. Okay. I'm done with that analogy. So Martin Luther was a German
00:07:35.860 monk and a professor of theology. He knew Catholic doctrine very well. This is not an outsider.
00:07:40.780 This is an insider in the Catholic church. He knew the Bible very well. He knew the Catholic church
00:07:45.780 very well, and he saw what he felt like was corruption according to God's word in the Catholic 0.96
00:07:51.660 church, uh, a wandering away from the Christianity of scripture, the church of scripture. And that is why he
00:07:58.700 posted the 95 theses to express his many concerns with how the Catholic church was operating at the
00:08:04.600 time. Uh, Luther didn't actually intend to start any kind of revolution. His early writings revealed
00:08:10.080 to us, uh, he wasn't trying to make a new church or even separate himself necessarily from the Catholic
00:08:15.220 church. Uh, he wanted to reform the Catholic church. He wanted to change it for the better in 0.87
00:08:19.700 accordance with scripture. Uh, his early writings show that he wanted, uh, really to still be a part
00:08:25.120 of the Catholic church to work on it from the inside. But he felt according to, uh, according
00:08:30.640 to what he was reading in the Bible, that, uh, the Catholic church needed to change. Church leadership
00:08:36.520 had become drunk with power and like anyone drunk with power, they had become, uh, corrupt and exploit.
00:08:43.100 I hate this word. I can't ever say exploit, exploitative, you could say exploitative, exploitative.
00:08:49.740 They were exploiting the people at the bottom. So one of the ways that the Catholic church was 0.88
00:08:55.280 abusing power at the time was the church's selling of indulgences. Uh, this was money the church received
00:09:01.440 from its congregants. Uh, the church leaders promised would pay for their sins and limit the amount of
00:09:07.000 time their loved ones would spend in purgatory. Uh, Luther was very concerned about this. He was
00:09:11.780 concerned about a false sense of assurance that Catholics would feel, uh, by giving money to the church.
00:09:17.640 And that's not what the Bible outlines as the means of salvation. That is not what gives us peace in our
00:09:23.760 salvation. Uh, Luther saw serious problems as well with the papacy. He wasn't actually anti-pope,
00:09:31.180 but he was against what he saw as a movement of the papacy, uh, towards embracing man-made doctrines
00:09:36.700 rather than scripture. Uh, so here's an example of what Luther said in his theses about indulgences
00:09:42.700 and the Pope number 32 on the way to eternal damnation are, are they and their teachers who
00:09:49.620 believe that they are sure of their salvation through indulgences number 33, but where well
00:09:55.480 of those who say the Pope's pardons are the inestimable gift of God by which man is reconciled
00:10:02.500 to God. Uh, a few years after he posted the 95 theses, Pope Leo the 10th issued something called
00:10:08.880 a papal bull against Martin Luther, judging Luther a heretic, uh, as a consequence of that Emperor
00:10:15.460 Charles V, uh, called the infamous Diet of Worms, which was a court assembled, uh, which was a court
00:10:21.940 assembled before which Luther was asked to appear and recant all of his so-called heretical beliefs.
00:10:28.080 Um, he was asked by Johann Eck, who actually represented the emperor at the time, if he would
00:10:33.600 recant these views. And this is what Luther said, unless I am convinced by the testimony of the
00:10:39.420 scriptures or by clear reason for, I do not trust either in the Pope or in councils alone, since it
00:10:44.980 is well known that they have often erred and contradicted themselves. I am bound by the scriptures
00:10:49.860 I have quoted in my conscience is captive to the word of God. I cannot and will not recant anything
00:10:57.180 since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. May God help me. Amen. Uh, after that,
00:11:04.220 the Diet of Worms issued the Edict of Worms, uh, which declared him a heretic officially and banned
00:11:09.580 the reading of Luther's writings. And it was understood that Luther, uh, was going to be
00:11:14.580 excommunicated or it was, it was understood that Luther was, uh, excommunicated. And then it was also
00:11:20.700 understood that he was probably going to be executed. Uh, but he ended up being taken away and hidden by
00:11:26.360 Prince Frederick the third of Saxony. And it was in his hiding that he continued to write and to read
00:11:33.440 and to actually translate the Bible into German. This was the, uh, first translation, uh, translation
00:11:39.640 of the Bible from the original Hebrew and Greek into German, um, rather than the Latin Vulgate version.
00:11:46.820 Uh, this meant that the common person, the lay person, not just, uh, monks and priests and clergy who
00:11:53.060 had been educated, uh, in the reading of the Latin Vulgate, but everyone who could read in Germany could
00:11:58.220 read the word of God for themselves. This was revolutionary. So imagine if you had been in
00:12:03.800 the Catholic church at the time, you just didn't know you likely had never read the Bible for
00:12:08.460 yourself. You didn't know, uh, that indulgences weren't in the Bible. You didn't know that the
00:12:13.180 Pope didn't have supreme power. Maybe you felt that it wasn't right, but, but you just weren't sure
00:12:18.480 you did what you were told until now, until the 95 theses, until the reformation, until the
00:12:24.120 translation of the Bible. At this point, uh, the revolution, uh, because of all of this had
00:12:29.080 already begun. Luther lit a flame that could not be put out. That was far beyond his control
00:12:33.700 and it was spreading throughout Europe. Uh, now Luther was, he was disturbed actually by a lot of
00:12:39.940 what was happening or some of what was happening. I won't say a lot, some of what was happening with
00:12:44.440 the Protestant reformation. Like I said, he didn't really intend to go for things to go exactly as
00:12:49.240 they did. He still saw good in the Catholic church, but he, that he thought maybe was worth 0.99
00:12:55.220 preserving, but it was too late. The idea that people got in their minds, uh, from Luther, from
00:13:01.860 the 95 theses and from the spirit that was traveling throughout Europe. And I say spirit just in the sense
00:13:08.360 of this attitude, this thought, this feeling, uh, the idea that men and women are not beholden
00:13:13.780 primarily to church authority, but to God himself. And that men and women through God's word could
00:13:18.440 have a relationship with God himself, that Jesus is the only intercessor between God and man. That
00:13:25.280 salvation was earned, not through allegiance to the Pope or the giving of indulgences, but through grace
00:13:30.580 by faith, that it's not something that is earned, but something that is given by God. Those ideas
00:13:35.940 were radical at the time and they started a revolution. Uh, one thing to note about Martin Luther,
00:13:42.000 uh, he was not a perfect guy. And I don't think that any Protestant reform Protestant claims that
00:13:47.700 or should claim that some of his ratings are, uh, antisemitic. He said some really hateful
00:13:52.980 things. We don't need to obscure that. I feel no reason to defend him to the death. Uh, we also
00:13:58.960 though, don't have to discount the reformation because of that. His ideas were true. They hold up
00:14:04.520 in comparison to scripture. When you look at scripture, his ideas were based on scripture and
00:14:09.740 Protestants are extremely thankful to God for what God did through him and what God did through the
00:14:16.820 Protestant reformation. Um, and again, this is not out of hatred for our Catholic friends. I would
00:14:22.940 argue that the Catholic church, and I've heard Catholics say this have benefited in a lot of 0.84
00:14:27.980 ways from the Protestant reformation as well. The idea that Catholics, that lay people can study the
00:14:34.820 Bible on their own with, they can learn theology on their own was sparked by the ideas of the 0.96
00:14:40.380 reformation that you as an individual have a responsibility to God and to know him for yourself
00:14:46.740 as he, as the supreme authority and salvation is by him alone. All of these ideas were spread because
00:14:53.660 of the reformation and also infused whether some in the Catholic church liked it or not into Catholicism.
00:15:00.480 And that has been helpful and productive for a lot of people in the Catholic church. Um, and I realize,
00:15:06.220 I do realize I was surprised by this. I've just kind of learned this over the past few years that a
00:15:11.020 lot of Catholics still hate Martin Luther and hates the reformation. They still see him as the guy who
00:15:17.440 ruined everything. Uh, and they say, how can Protestants possibly celebrate the Protestant
00:15:22.780 reformation? You've got so many denominations now you're so fractured. How could you possibly say
00:15:27.460 that this is right? This is like celebrating a divorce. And these, I've heard people say this,
00:15:31.920 who I really respect and like, and are extremely smart, wonderful people. But the understanding is
00:15:37.340 from a lot of Catholics perspective is how could you possibly celebrate this? And to that, I say,
00:15:43.240 well, yes, there are different denominations because disagreement is always going to be the result of
00:15:50.040 freedom. Disagreement is always going to be the result of freedom. That is true of the United States
00:15:54.200 as well. In the United States, we don't live under a tyrant or a monarch. We have freedom of speech.
00:15:59.420 We have freedom of religion. That means that there is speech out there that we don't like,
00:16:03.900 or that we don't agree with. That means that there are religions being practiced that we don't agree
00:16:07.620 with, but disagreement and freedom is better than unity and tyranny. That's what the United States
00:16:12.340 decided. That's what Protestants decided. Now Protestants don't believe in disagreement, period. We all
00:16:19.180 believe in the same source of truth and we'll get to all of that and reconciling that in a little bit.
00:16:23.460 But yes, the consequence, one of the consequences of freedom and not living under what Protestants 1.00
00:16:29.620 at the time felt like was a tyrant is going to be slight disagreement. And that's what I would say
00:16:36.040 is the difference between a lot of denominations is a slight disagreement. And like I said, we're
00:16:40.660 going to get into all of those and the nature of those disagreements in just a little bit. But
00:16:45.000 it's important to note that while Protestant denominations do disagree, they are mostly
00:16:53.280 just secondary and tertiary issues, not on what it means to be a Christian, but on salvation
00:16:58.960 issues. So fundamentally, Protestants are still united on the five solas, even if we worship a 0.72
00:17:04.560 little bit differently, if we sing our songs differently, even if we have different views
00:17:08.100 about the timing of baptism. Now there are, of course, more liberal denominations and more
00:17:14.240 conservative denominations, but that exists within the Catholic church too. That's just
00:17:18.540 the nature of humanity. We are going to disagree. But what all earnest practicing Protestants believe
00:17:25.900 is that the word of God is our authority, not our own opinions. So even if we do disagree on
00:17:32.260 things, we can agree that scripture, not any church authority, not any one person, not any
00:17:38.560 man-made piece of literature, scripture gets the final say as the word of God. And with that,
00:17:47.540 let us get into the five solas. So number one, sola gratia, by grace alone, or sola gratia,
00:17:54.780 however you want to say it. By grace alone is probably, I mean, you could say that about all
00:18:00.400 of all of the solas, what I'm about to say. It's probably one of the most radical, at least
00:18:05.260 to the world, radical ideas in Christianity. It distinguishes Christianity from other religions. 0.97
00:18:10.140 It's probably one of the hardest concepts for non-believers to understand because we are used
00:18:15.640 to the concept of earning or deserving or merit. Grace is the giving of a reward despite the punishment
00:18:23.340 that you deserve. So mercy and grace are different. Mercy is taking away the punishment that you deserve.
00:18:28.740 Grace is actually giving you a reward in place of the punishment that you deserve. So this means that
00:18:35.640 those who are in Christ, who are believers in Christ, that we not only escape eternity in hell,
00:18:40.140 but we also get to spend eternity with God in heaven, experiencing fullness of joy and peace
00:18:46.340 and perfection forever. Just because God loves us and is good. This wasn't something that he had to do.
00:18:53.040 This was something that he chose to do because of his kindness and his goodness for his glory,
00:18:58.500 not ours. You have heard the phrase, you know, I've got to get in her good graces, meaning like I've got
00:19:04.360 to get on her good side or get this person to like me. That is not the kind of grace scripture talks about
00:19:11.280 in relation to salvation. This grace fueled salvation is not a result or a consequence of what we do,
00:19:17.500 either through good works or indulgences or allegiance to a particular church, but a salvation that is
00:19:23.280 given to us as a gift through God's grace. Grace is not cheap. It is free for us, but it costs
00:19:30.520 God the life of his son, Jesus, who was God made flesh. Grace was poured out in the death and
00:19:37.500 resurrection of Jesus Christ, which resulted in salvation for all who believe. The very concept
00:19:43.140 of grace is by nature giving us what we in fact do not deserve. The Bible is clear that all of us
00:19:50.040 deserve punishment. Apart from Christ, we are all condemned. John 3 18 says this, whoever believes in
00:19:56.620 him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in
00:20:02.620 the name of the only son of God. Jeremiah 17 9 says our hearts are desperately wicked. Isaiah 64 6
00:20:10.460 says we have all become like one who was unclean and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted
00:20:16.320 garment. Some translations say like a filthy rag. That's what our righteous deeds are. Romans 3 10
00:20:22.240 through 11 says none is righteous. No, not one. No one understands. No one seeks God. Ephesians 2 1
00:20:29.380 through 3 says this, and you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked following the
00:20:34.540 course of this world, following the print of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the
00:20:39.080 sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived and the passions of our flesh, carrying out the
00:20:44.600 desires of the body and the mind. And we're by nature, children of wrath like the rest of mankind.
00:20:50.360 So apart from Christ, we are not just bad people, but we are condemned. We are dead in our sin. We are
00:20:57.380 corrupted. We are polluted. We are desperately wicked, whether we feel like we are or not. We are
00:21:03.000 completely lost. We are completely incapable of cleaning ourselves up or making ourselves
00:21:07.620 presentable to God. This means that in order to be saved, we need grace. We have to have it.
00:21:14.840 And this is what that looks like. Romans 5 6 through 8. For while we were still weak,
00:21:20.120 at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person,
00:21:25.620 though perhaps for a good person, one would even dare to die. But God shows his love for us in that
00:21:31.180 while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Ephesians 2 4 through 10. But God being rich in
00:21:38.720 mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses,
00:21:43.840 made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved. And then it goes on to say,
00:21:49.160 for by grace, you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing. It is the gift of
00:21:53.480 God, not a result of work so that no one may boast for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus
00:21:59.820 for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. So this is a concept the
00:22:06.440 reformers wanted to hammer home, that the Bible says that you are saved by grace. That means you
00:22:12.260 cannot earn it. God gave you the gift of salvation that is found in Christ alone. This is the concept
00:22:18.880 that distinguishes, or a concept that distinguishes Christianity from all false doctrines in other
00:22:25.540 religions. Every other religion, doctrine and cult will tell you how to climb up the mountain to earn 0.98
00:22:32.560 your way to God. Christianity, true Christianity says, no, no, no, you're dead at the bottom of the 0.96
00:22:37.940 valley. And God got up, came down the mountain and rescued you. He brought you to life when you were
00:22:43.100 dead. He reconciled himself to you when you wanted nothing to do with him. He befriended you while you
00:22:48.580 were his enemy. That is grace. And that is the gospel. Number two, sola fide or through faith alone.
00:22:57.380 So first by grace alone to through faith alone. Uh, what does this mean? So Martin Luther called
00:23:04.040 justification by grace through faith, the doctrine by which the church stands or falls. It was that
00:23:10.240 important. Uh, this is obviously tied closely to by grace alone. Uh, it is, as the passage in Ephesians
00:23:17.340 tells us by grace through faith, not your own doing a gift of God, not a result of works so that no one
00:23:24.620 may boast. It really doesn't get any clearer than that. Uh, a gift of God. Why? So that no one can boast
00:23:31.740 so that no one can brag about earning their own salvation. So we cannot take credit. Uh, Romans five,
00:23:37.420 one says, therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord,
00:23:44.260 Jesus Christ. Romans five also says that faith is counted to us as our righteousness. Galatians
00:23:50.160 two 16 says, yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law, but through faith
00:23:56.480 in Jesus Christ. So we also have believed in Christ Jesus in order to be justified by faith in Christ and
00:24:03.280 not by works of the law, because by works of the law, no one will be justified. Now I know what a lot
00:24:11.260 of you are thinking, because I think of this too, whenever I hear these verses, and this is the
00:24:15.960 verse that is always brought up by those who disagree with by faith alone. It's James two 24
00:24:20.960 that says, you see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. What? I thought that
00:24:27.220 this whole, I thought that this whole point was by faith alone. And I thought that we just heard that
00:24:31.020 that someone is justified by faith and not by works of the law and that no one will be justified by
00:24:36.100 works of the law. How do we square that? So this says, you see that a person is justified by works
00:24:41.540 and not by faith alone. So what do we do? We've talked about this many times. What do we do when we
00:24:46.240 have two pieces of scripture that seem to, in our mind, contradict each other? Do we throw one out in
00:24:52.980 favor of the other? No, we look to reconcile them. And how do we reconcile them? With what do we reconcile
00:24:59.820 them with our opinions? No, with scripture. And to do that, all we have to do is to back up a little
00:25:06.400 bit in the second chapter of James. So, uh, two 14 through 17 says, what good is it? My brothers,
00:25:12.640 if someone says he has faith, but does not have works, can that faith save him? If a brother or
00:25:18.440 sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, go in peace, be warmed and
00:25:23.560 filmed, uh, filmed, filled, uh, without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?
00:25:29.100 So also faith by itself, if it does not have works is dead. And of course, anyone who has a high view
00:25:37.720 of scripture, who sees scripture as a supreme authority, uh, would agree with that. Anyone who
00:25:42.280 believes in by faith alone would still read that passage and say, yes, and amen. That's not something
00:25:46.980 that we throw out. Uh, God through James defines what saving faith looks like. He doesn't discount
00:25:53.120 faith. He says, this is what saving faith actually looks like. As Jesus said, uh, a tree is known by
00:25:59.120 its fruit. If it doesn't bear fruit, it is a dead tree. In the same way, faith without works is a
00:26:05.160 dead faith, meaning it's not faith at all. So true faith, faith that has been given as a gift by God
00:26:11.880 through Jesus Christ does, and will always manifest itself in good works, in obedience to Christ and the
00:26:18.520 fruit of the spirit. Now, this does not mean that we don't sin. This does not mean that we don't
00:26:22.820 struggle as the Bible makes it very clear. Uh, but it does mean that through the Holy spirit,
00:26:27.840 we are being sanctified, conformed to the likeness of Christ and the overflow of that saving faith
00:26:34.500 is good works. Galatians five, six says this for in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor
00:26:40.420 uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love. That is the saving faith that
00:26:47.580 God graciously gives believers a faith that works itself out in love. If you say that you have faith,
00:26:54.560 but you don't have love, then your faith isn't real. You don't have anything. First Corinthians 13,
00:26:59.680 two says, and if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge,
00:27:05.140 and if I have all faith so as to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. People make the mistake
00:27:12.380 of separating faith and love and saying, well, if you don't have faith, but you do have love,
00:27:16.220 that's okay. No, the Bible also says without faith, it is impossible to please God. It is love working
00:27:22.960 itself out or faith working itself out in love. Ephesians two 10 says right after saying that
00:27:30.140 salvation is by grace alone through faith, that we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good
00:27:37.100 works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in him. So we are saved by grace through faith
00:27:44.020 for good works, not by good works, but for good works. And the faith that we have manifests itself
00:27:50.760 in good works. That is how you tell if someone has saving, justifying faith is how it is working
00:27:57.960 itself out in love. And this Ephesians passage makes clear that it's even those good works were
00:28:04.460 prepared for us beforehand. So we can't even take credit for that because the grace that we were given
00:28:08.700 is a gift. The faith that we were given is a gift. The love through faith that we work out
00:28:14.040 in good works was actually prepared by God beforehand. So we still can't take credit for any of it.
00:28:20.320 So the passage in James and the concept of by grace through faith don't contradict each other.
00:28:25.600 James does not say that you could earn your way to heaven. James does not say that salvation
00:28:30.520 is a product of our own doing, but a product of faith, which is a gift given to us by God,
00:28:37.740 by his grace. Number three, in Christ alone. So now here is where Catholics and Protestants agree.
00:28:45.680 Salvation is found in Christ alone, in no one else. This sola flies in the face of moral relativism that we
00:28:53.340 see in a lot of secular culture, and unfortunately a little bit in people who call themselves Christians.
00:28:59.200 Uh, no, not everyone is saved. Relativism is not right. Not everyone is saved. Not every religion
00:29:05.260 is the same. Not every God can save you. In fact, the Bible says no other God can save you. Isaiah 43,
00:29:12.180 11. I, I am the Lord. And besides me, there is no savior. Isaiah 45, five through seven. I am the Lord.
00:29:20.360 And there is no other besides me. There is no God. I equip you though. You do not know me that people may
00:29:26.660 know from the rising of the sun and from the West that there is none besides me. I am the Lord and
00:29:33.140 there is no other. I form light and create darkness. I make wellbeing and create calamity. I am the Lord
00:29:39.180 who does all these things. Uh, verse 12 of the same chapter says, I made the earth and created man on it.
00:29:45.780 It was my hands that stretched out the heavens and I communicated all their host. 45, 22, turn to me
00:29:53.120 and be saved all the ends of the earth for I am God. And there is no other. And Jesus, the Christ,
00:29:59.280 the Messiah is himself. God, the same God talked about in Isaiah, uh, this very God who speaks of
00:30:06.620 himself in Isaiah 45, who is alone. God who created the heavens and the earth in whom alone is salvation.
00:30:14.260 This is also the Christ. We know this from John one verses, uh, one through five say this in the
00:30:21.340 beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. He was in the beginning with
00:30:27.420 God. All things were made through him and without him was not anything made that was made in him was
00:30:34.160 life. And the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness and darkness has not
00:30:40.800 overcome it. So who is this word? Verse 14 tells us, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us. And
00:30:47.720 we have seen his glory, glory as the only son from the father, full of grace and truth. Verse 17 says,
00:30:54.360 grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. God is the only God that there is. Salvation comes through
00:31:01.560 him alone, taking the form of word made flesh with the, which the Bible says is himself. God is in the
00:31:07.760 person of Jesus Christ who died a gruesome death on a cross for our sake that we might be saved.
00:31:13.780 How? By grace through faith, which is a gift. Isaiah 53, nine prophesied of this Jesus by saying,
00:31:22.340 and they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death. Although he had done no
00:31:27.460 violence and there was no deceit in his mouth. And this parallels perfectly with second Corinthians 521,
00:31:33.240 which says for our sake, he made him, God made him to be sin who knew no sin so that in him,
00:31:40.680 we might become the righteousness of God. Uh, first Corinthians one 30 says this. And because of
00:31:46.940 him, you are in Christ Jesus who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification
00:31:53.100 and redemption. So that as it is written, let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord. So in Christ alone
00:32:00.700 means that salvation comes through Jesus Christ alone. Um, sola scriptura, scripture alone. That's number
00:32:08.800 four. Now this is also seen as a very controversial one or one that we have debates over. Catholics
00:32:14.940 don't, or typically Catholics will say that they don't believe in scripture alone, but, uh, they
00:32:21.280 believe in the equal authority. And if you're a Catholic and I'm saying this incorrectly, please let
00:32:25.620 me know the equal authority of the magisterium. Now it should be said that there are, and have been
00:32:32.140 many Catholics who have spoken out a bit, uh, spoken out against, uh, Catholic teachers or against the
00:32:38.040 Pope when something is said that is not biblical. A lot of people think that Catholics take everything
00:32:44.740 the Pope says as inerrant biblical truth. And that has not been my experience with Catholics. Uh, 0.90
00:32:50.560 Catholics do have a different view of tradition and teachings than Protestants do, but I don't think
00:32:55.860 it's accurate. And you guys can correct me if I'm wrong. I don't think it's accurate to say
00:32:59.700 that most Catholics will take everything that a Pope or a church leader says as inerrant gospel
00:33:06.500 truth, but that they actually do weigh it against scripture. However, that said, there are some
00:33:12.740 disagreements still between Protestants and Catholics on this point of scripture alone.
00:33:18.320 Martin Luther summed up this sola this way. Uh, the difference between us and the papists is that
00:33:23.500 they do not think that the church can be the pillar of the truth unless she presides over the word
00:33:29.460 of God. We, on the other hand, assert that it is, it is because she reverently subjects herself
00:33:35.880 to the word of God, that the truth is preserved by her and passed on to others by her hand. So that's
00:33:42.380 really important. There's a difference there between, um, Catholics believing that the church presides over
00:33:48.300 the word of God and Protestants believing, uh, that the church is supposed to subject themselves to the
00:33:55.400 word of God and preserve the word of God through that subjection, not by presiding over it. That was
00:34:01.520 true at the time. That might be true of, uh, a number of Catholics now, but maybe not all. So that was the
00:34:08.440 difference though, that kind of spurred or, uh, motivated this particular sola. Now it's important
00:34:14.760 to note that often sola scripture is misunderstood, uh, to mean that Protestants do not believe in the
00:34:20.420 wisdom of teachings or that we don't believe in the use of creeds at all. And that's not true. We simply
00:34:26.620 believe that all teachings, all wisdom, all songs, all creeds need to be rooted and grounded in
00:34:33.680 scripture. Um, and here I use Protestants as a general term to mean people who actually abide by
00:34:38.840 these five solas. There are a lot of people who call themselves Protestants who don't appear, uh, adhere to
00:34:43.920 scripture and are ignorant of the five solas. But I'm talking generally, uh, fundamentally, typically,
00:34:50.000 ideally, uh, reformed Protestants. Uh, sola scripture means that you and I, just as commonly
00:34:57.660 people have just as much authority through the Holy spirit to read and interpret scripture as any
00:35:03.600 pastor or teacher or church leader. Uh, that doesn't mean that we have as much knowledge or
00:35:07.880 wisdom as people, you know, who have been studying scripture for 50 years, but we have the ability,
00:35:13.380 the authority, the capacity to study scripture on our own. If a teacher, an elder, an author, a pastor,
00:35:19.400 uh, preaches to us something that does not align with what the Bible says, it is our responsibility
00:35:24.840 to reject and rebuke that teaching as a lie. Um, some people understand this to mean that everyone
00:35:32.340 just interprets a scripture. Every Protestant just interprets scripture as they see fit. 0.70
00:35:36.900 Protestantism is all about relativism. A lot of people wrongly think, uh, nothing, nothing could be
00:35:43.540 further from the truth. Reformed Protestants are often actually seen as fundamentalists, uh, because of
00:35:47.840 how seriously we take a proper interpretation of the biblical text. Uh, and there is a systematic
00:35:53.500 way we believe to do this. We don't just say, well, here's what this means to me. No, we actually reject
00:35:59.760 that entirely. We don't ask, what does this mean to me? We ask, what does this mean? What does this say?
00:36:06.100 What does this tell me about God? And to answer those questions, uh, what does this passage mean? We,
00:36:11.740 we first look at the passage in context. So that means in context with the chapter, the book, and the
00:36:18.600 entirety of the Bible, we look at the original Greek and Hebrew. We study historical context. We
00:36:24.620 understand the literary device being used, if any is being used. And yes, uh, we do rely on theologians
00:36:31.560 and teachers who view the word of God as their supreme authority to help guide us, uh, knowing that
00:36:36.500 none of these theologians, uh, are inerrant, but that they, in their wisdom and research and knowledge
00:36:42.280 could help us, uh, could help point us to a deeper knowledge of God's truth as is revealed in
00:36:48.420 scripture. Um, where forward Protestantism is the exact opposite of relativism. We care very little for
00:36:56.440 how we feel about scripture or how anyone feels about scripture or what we want scripture to mean.
00:37:00.740 Uh, we care very greatly about what scripture says and what scripture actually means. We take
00:37:07.700 second Timothy two 15, very seriously, uh, do your best to present yourself to God as one approved a
00:37:14.120 worker who has no need to be ashamed rightly handling the word of truth. Now that does not mean that there
00:37:20.500 are not disagreements on non-soultereological issues, meaning that, uh, issues that involve salvation or,
00:37:28.940 uh, there, uh, there aren't, there, there are a lot of disagreements on issues that do not involve
00:37:34.220 salvation, which reform Protestants agree, uh, is by grace through faith. We believe that salvation
00:37:40.000 is by grace through faith. We all agree on that, but we do disagree on things like believers,
00:37:45.480 baptism versus infant baptism on eschatological issues. Like in, you know, in times, uh, we disagree on
00:37:52.940 justice, how involved Christians should be in civic life, what that looks like, spiritual gifts.
00:37:58.060 And we all draw our views on these things, uh, from scripture, which we all believe to be the
00:38:05.620 supreme authority. Uh, we do still find ourselves disagreeing and that happens. That's okay. Um,
00:38:14.920 reformed Protestants have really vigorous debates about these things. Uh, but unless someone that we 0.98
00:38:20.340 are debating with is preaching a different gospel is saying that salvation is not by grace through faith
00:38:25.720 alone in, in, in Christ alone, according to scripture alone, uh, we can disagree and understand that we
00:38:31.200 are still brothers and sisters in Christ. That is okay. We are finite. We are fallible. There is one
00:38:36.480 truth. And of course we know that one day when we are all in Christ, we will know that truth when God
00:38:41.560 reveals to us that Presbyterians were wrong about infant baptism. Totally kidding, kidding, kidding,
00:38:45.780 kidding. Uh, but we do have, uh, disagreements like that, that we understand are okay because they
00:38:52.500 don't change salvation and what we believe about salvation. Uh, here's what Martin Luther had to
00:38:58.640 say in the vein of sola scriptura. I opposed indulgences in all the papists, but never with
00:39:04.580 force. I simply taught, preached and wrote God's word. Otherwise I did nothing. And while I slept,
00:39:11.220 the word so greatly weakened the papacy that no prince or emperor ever inflicted such losses upon it.
00:39:16.980 I did nothing. The word did everything. Uh, many Catholics say, or have said to me, uh, well,
00:39:24.080 sola scriptura, uh, uh, can't be right when the biblical canon wasn't agreed upon for so long.
00:39:29.900 There's been so much, uh, illiteracy throughout history. How could it be that, uh, how could it be
00:39:34.280 possible that Christians have to rely on the word of God and the word of God alone rather than the
00:39:39.960 spoken word of church, uh, or the spoken word of church leaders for teaching when thousands of
00:39:45.540 Christians couldn't do so before the printing press. Uh, but this actually isn't, I take that 1.00
00:39:51.700 point, but that is actually not an argument against sola scriptura. A sola scriptura isn't about
00:39:56.120 the availability of scripture. It's about the authority of scripture, whether or not the Bible
00:40:01.360 is, uh, available, it's still authoritative. And even though a lot of lay people didn't have access
00:40:09.600 or a lot of, uh, just a lot of your common person didn't have a Bible or access to a Bible for a lot
00:40:16.220 of history, most of the Catholic churches before the Reformation did. Uh, and they were the only ones 0.99
00:40:20.880 actually able to read it. And yet, uh, these, these were the leaders at this time, at this particular
00:40:27.320 time in history around the Reformation who were acting and teaching in a way that was not actually
00:40:31.640 in line with scripture. They weren't preaching scripture. They weren't helping their congregants
00:40:35.920 read scripture. Some of them were promoting doctrines that had nothing to do with scripture
00:40:39.800 like indulgences. Um, second Timothy four, two says, preach the word, be ready in season and out
00:40:46.000 of season, reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patient patience and teaching. And so, uh, just
00:40:53.740 because, just because we, just because it took a while for the canon to come together, which I'll get
00:41:00.240 to in just a second. And just because the word of God wasn't available to everyone doesn't mean
00:41:05.320 that it doesn't have supreme authority as the word of God. Uh, so the fact that people had to rely on
00:41:11.440 teachers rather than reading God's word themselves because of a lack of literacy or availability or
00:41:16.940 agreeance on the canon, uh, doesn't actually take away the authority of scripture, which is what
00:41:22.040 sola scripture is all about. Also, uh, the canon was decided systematically, uh, in accordance with
00:41:29.100 Jewish history, with careful study of the old Testament, along with the new Testament, using Jesus's
00:41:33.460 specific words, uh, to decide what actually should be included. And of course we believe God's, uh,
00:41:40.140 sovereign spirit guided that process. A second Timothy three, 16 through 17 says all scripture
00:41:45.380 is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training and
00:41:50.340 righteousness that the man of God may be complete equipped for every good work. That is soul of
00:41:57.040 scripture. And not that we don't read anything except the Bible, but that everything that we read and
00:42:01.100 believe in do is subject to the Bible. Um, number five, the last sola to the glory of God alone.
00:42:07.560 So this is the point. This is the answer to all of it. Uh, why, why by grace did God send his son to
00:42:14.180 die for us? Why did he grant us the gift of faith that we might believe in him to be saved? Why did God
00:42:19.720 offer us redemption and reconciliation and forgiveness and eternal life in Christ? Why does he choose to
00:42:25.860 reveal himself, his plan of salvation and his will in the written word? Why does he want this message
00:42:32.180 to be shared to the end of the earth? Why does he give us the gospel for his glory? That's it. Yes.
00:42:39.080 It is because he loves us. Yes. It is because he longs to save us. Yes. It is because he wants to take
00:42:44.620 care of us, but all of these things, his love, his salvation, his care, his provision, his protection,
00:42:49.740 it is all for his glory, that he might be glorified, that he might be made known. God is for himself
00:42:56.920 and he is about himself. Uh, as Jesus says in John 15, five, apart from me, you can do nothing.
00:43:04.840 You are nothing. I am the power source. I'm the only power source you got. I am your only
00:43:08.980 form of significance. I am your only source of satisfaction. Jesus says, apart from Christ,
00:43:14.000 we are dead in our sin. We are depraved. We are lost. We are unrighteous, but God,
00:43:18.640 because of his love, his mercy, his grace, his goodness, he is the only being in the entire
00:43:25.900 cosmic and earthly universe who deserves to be worshiped, who deserves to be glorified. That
00:43:30.840 is why we as Christians find satisfaction and find fulfillment and find fullness of joy
00:43:36.200 when we worship him rather than anger or jealousy or envy that we are not getting the glory. It is for,
00:43:42.960 uh, his glory that the Christian heart longs. We all long to worship something or
00:43:48.600 someone, whether or not we are Christians and everyone does actually worship something or
00:43:53.540 someone you worship yourself, you worship your boyfriend, you worship your job, your kids,
00:43:58.480 your body, whatever it is. And what we find every time we direct our worship to any of these things
00:44:05.400 is that we end up disappointed. Uh, the objects of our worship fail us. They turn their back on us.
00:44:11.620 They end up not being able to deliver on their promises or meet our expectations. They may betray
00:44:17.580 us or leave us or lie to us. Ultimately, these things break our hearts. Why? Because they are not
00:44:25.540 worthy of our worship. God alone is the God who made you, who made me, who made everything else in
00:44:32.760 the universe. The God who, according to Ephesians one, predestined you in love before the creation of
00:44:37.540 the world, the self-sufficient, all sustaining one, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords. God created us
00:44:44.060 in such a way that it actually benefits us to worship him and hurts us to worship ourselves or
00:44:50.780 anything else. He is sovereign over everything and control of everything. Nothing escapes his grasp.
00:44:57.720 We discussed God's sovereignty in a previous episode of predestination. So you can go back and
00:45:02.180 listen to that if you have questions. Uh, but the answer to everything that happens ultimately
00:45:06.680 is God's glory. Yes. He can even use wickedness for his glory. That doesn't mean that he likes
00:45:12.040 wickedness. In fact, he hates it. He hates evil. God doesn't tempt anyone. The Bible says, but the
00:45:16.640 justice he will bring to the evildoer will be victorious and will bring him glory. And he is even
00:45:22.660 able to bring good out of evil here on earth right now for his glory. Like the story of Joseph shows that,
00:45:27.980 uh, his brothers threw him into a pit, sold him into slavery, but God's plan for Joseph to rise in the
00:45:33.880 ranks in Egypt and deliver his family from famine was already in play before he was thrown into the
00:45:38.980 pit and brought glory to God. Uh, this is how, by the way, I've said this before the, of course,
00:45:45.840 the word of God is the standard of my theology and should be the standard of all of our theology,
00:45:49.960 not what we feel, but a good question to ask yourself in that is how can I, what doctrines bring
00:45:57.660 God the most glory? And does it bring God more glory to say that I have a part in my salvation
00:46:03.560 that, um, I can earn my way to heaven? No, it brings God the most glory to say that he did it all,
00:46:10.100 that it was by grace through faith in Christ, according to scripture for the glory of God,
00:46:16.860 that everything is for his glory. That's one thing that you can know for sure that everything
00:46:21.700 is for his glory and will ultimately be for his glory. So it's a good question to ask yourself,
00:46:26.880 does what I believe glorify myself or does it glorify God? And if it's something that you
00:46:31.880 believe glorifies you like the self love doctrine that we hear so often, it's not in accordance
00:46:36.800 with scripture. I can just tell you that right now. That doesn't mean that you should be self
00:46:39.700 deprecated. That doesn't mean you should hate yourself. You're made in the image of God
00:46:42.300 and he has chosen you. That's amazing. You have an incredible purpose because of that. That's
00:46:46.840 awesome. You get to see yourself through the lens of the creator and that's an amazing and
00:46:50.700 incredible privilege. So that's not self hatred that I'm talking about, but self glory and pride
00:46:55.620 and arrogance. If your theology is coming from that place, then it's something that you need
00:46:59.740 to lay down for the glory of God. That's how important this all is. A long episode. I knew
00:47:04.180 it would be, but I hope you guys enjoyed it. As always, feel free to email me. If you enjoy
00:47:09.520 these podcasts, please give me a five star review on iTunes. That would mean a whole lot to me.
00:47:13.960 And I will see you guys soon.