I delivered this message on Reformation Day, October 31, 2001.
Can anyone tell me what is special about today? It is Halloween, right? Well, that is true, but there is something else special about today that happened 484 years ago on this very date. It took place in Wittenberg, Germany when a Catholic Monk supposedly nailed 95 theses on the door of the castle church. These theses were objections to the Roman Catholic system of indulgences, which said that if you paid money to the church, you could have your sins forgiven. This money was being used to build St. Peter’s in Rome.
This momentous event is known as the starting point of the Protestant Reformation. The heart of the Reformation was concerned with the source of Christian authority. Where does God reveal His will to His people? This question of authority primarily concerned the issue of salvation—how could a sinner be right with God? The Roman Catholic Church had become corrupt and shifted from a biblical teaching, and many began to see errors and problems with the church’s doctrine. These men became know as Protestants. Thus, what has come to be known as the Protestant Reformation was set in motion.
There were many issues at stake in the Protestant Reformation with the church of Rome. But I would like for us to give consideration to the Five Main Pillars of the Reformers in their battle against Romanism: Sola Scriptura, Sola Gratia, Sola Fide, Solo Christo, and Soli Deo Gloria.
What is known as the formal cause of the Reformation is Sola Scriptura, Scripture alone.
I. 2 Timothy 3:16–17 – Sola Scriptura
The Reformers became convinced that it was the Bible alone that revealed God’s will for man. It exclusively reserved the right to bind men’s consciences in matters of right and wrong. Only in the Sacred Scriptures can Christian find what to believe and how to behave. The Bible is the only rule for faith and practice. This ran cross-grain to the Roman Catholic Church that claimed an equal status for traditions with the Bible, the Chruch being the infallible interpreter of both. The Reformers said, “No!” They believed that the Bible alone was sufficient and revealed the entirety of all that God wants His people to know as a revelation from him.
An issue that goes right alone with this was the priesthood of every believer. While Rome believed that the church leaders alone could give the interpretation of the Bible, the Protestants believed that every believer could, with the help of the Holy Spirit, understand the Bible apart from the Church. They believed that the Scripture was clear and understandable for all Christians who were willing to study it with the aid of the Holy Spirit. This is what Jesus Himself taught, that the Holy Spirit would be the teacher of the saying of Christ to His people.
A. The Inspiration of the Scriptures (v. 16a)
B. The Profitability of the Scriptures (v. 16b)
C. The Sufficiency of the Scriptures (v. 17)
II. Romans 3:21–31
The issue of sola Scriptura found its chief dispute in the matter of justification. How can a sinner be righteous in the sight of God? How can a sinner be accepted before God and have eternal life? There is scarcely a more important question for sinners to address. Luther said that the church rises and falls on this issue of justification. Rome proposed that man was right before God by faith and works, that somehow his own righteousness was the ground for his acceptance with God, which included the necessity of the church and its traditions. Rome said that there could be no salvation outside of the Roman Catholic Church.
Before we start, I would like to read a definition of justification to help us all understand what it is that we are talking about when we refer to God justifying a sinner: “Justification is an act of God’s free grace, wherein he pardoneth all our sins, and accepteth us as righteous in his sight, only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, and received by faith alone.”
There is really no better place to go for this doctrine of justification than Romans. Paul’s exposition of it in Romans is superb. Justification deals with righteousness, a concept mentioned 63 times in Romans alone. Galatians as well deal with the doctrine in some detail, but I would like for us to consider Romans 3:21–31.
A. The Need for Justification
Paul has just previously spent the last 2 chapters showing the need for justification. He then establishes the fact that all Gentiles are guilty before God and are under His wrath in verses 18–32. In Chapter 2:1 through 3:8 Paul moves to show the guilt of the Jews, declaring that God will judged both Jew as well as the Gentile. And then in Chapter 3:9–20 Paul gives his concluding remarks that all have sinned, both Jews and Gentiles alike. Let us read quickly these verses.
1. Man’s failure necessitates justification.
a. Man has failed to obey the law. (Chapters 1–3; 3:23)
b. Man has failed to attain to the righteousness of God. (vv. 10, 23)
B. Sola Gratia – The Cause of Justification (v. 24)
This work of justification is completely a free and undeserved gift of God. Ephesians 2:8–9 tells us, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.” Titus 3:5 “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;” 2 Timothy 1:9 “Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,” Grace is the sole cause which leads God to justify a guilty sinner. The sinner has no merit to earn this justification. It is free and undeserved. God is the sovereign dispenser of his grace.
C. Sola Fide – The Means of Justification
1. God justifies sinners through faith. (vv. 22, 25, 26, 27, 28, 30)
Both Jew and Gentile alike (vv. 29–30)
2. God justifies sinners apart from the law. (vv. 20, 21, 28)
God makes is quite evident that no man can attain a righteous standing before God by keeping the law, because man is sinful, and a single offense against it is total failure. And neither does man’s obedience to the law help with his justification. It is not the work of Christ plus man’s work. Man’s work and obedience have no part in justification whatsoever. Notice what Paul says in verse 20, “Therefore, by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight,” and in verse 21, “The righteousness of God is manifested apart from the law,” and in verse 28, “Therefore, we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.”
Chapter 4 continues on to establish this same theme.
D. Solo Christo – The Basis of Justification (vv. 22, 24, 25, 26)
God justifies sinners on the basis of the work of Christ.
Both of man’s problems are dealt with in the person of Christ: (1) his sin is forgiven and (2) righteousness is imputed. 2 Corinthians 5:21 “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”
1. Forgiveness by his death (passive obedience). (v. 25)
Since our disobedience to God earned for us death, on the cross, Christ dealt with the problem of that broken law, taking away the penalty of our sin. This is what our text means when it calls Christ a propitiation. He is the means whereby God’s wrath is removed and our sins are taken away. Ephesians 1:7 “In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;”
2. Righteousness by his life (active obedience).
By His life, Christ fulfilled perfected the law of God and the will of God, earning for us the necessary righteousness that we need to be acceptable before God. Romans 8:3 “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” Romans 5:19 “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.”
E. Soli Deo Gloria – The Goal of Justification
“…to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; 26 for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. 27 Where then is boasting?”
III. Ephesians 1:3–14 – Soli Deo Gloria
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love 5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. 7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace 8 which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight 9 He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him 10 with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth. In Him 11 also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, 12 to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory. 13 In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation– having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.
Conclusion: The beauty of the gospel is that of the perfect union of the mercy and justice of God. These two perfections of God meet together perfectly in the person of Christ, so that God in no way compromises his divine justice, His wrath being fully poured out upon His Son, and He shows mercy to undeserving sinners, acquitting them and declaring them righteous on the basis of Christ’s perfect work of obedience to the law and death on the cross. Oh, the beauty of the gospel! What man could not do for himself, God has done in for him in Christ. God deals with us in terms of His Son, because He dealt with His Son in terms of us. Today, (1) if you are a believer, let yourself be humbled before the gracious God who justifies the ungodly and glory in His free grace shown to you in Christ, but (2) if you are outside of Christ, there is acceptance with God found in the person of His only Son. There is forgiveness of sins and a righteous standing before God for all who will turn and embrace the Christ in all His perfect person and work. Cling to Christ today and be saved!