'Solas' of the Reformation
Sola Scriptura | Solus Christus | Sola Gratia | Sola Fide | Soli Deo Gloria
Evangelical churches today
are increasingly dominated by the spirit
of this age rather than by the Spirit of Christ.
As evangelicals, we call ourselves to repent of this sin and to recover the historic Christian
faith.
In the course of history words change. In our day this has happened to the word "evangelical." In
the past it served as a bond of unity between Christians from a wide diversity of church traditions.
Historic evangelicalism was confessional. It embraced the essential truths of Christianity as
those were defined by the great ecumenical councils of the church. In addition, evangelicals also
shared a common heritage in the "solas" of the sixteenth century Protestant Reformation.
Today the light of the Reformation has been significantly dimmed. The consequence is that the
word "evangelical" has become so inclusive as to have lost its meaning. We face the peril of
losing the unity it has taken centuries to achieve. Because of this crisis and because of our
love of Christ, his gospel and his church, we endeavor to assert anew our commitment to the
central truths of the Reformation and of historic evangelicalism. These truths we affirm not
because of their role in our traditions, but because we believe that they are central to the
Bible.
SOLA SCRIPTURA:
THE EROSION OF AUTHORITY
Scripture alone is the inerrant rule of the church's life, but the evangelical church
today has separated Scripture from its authoritative function. In practice, the church is guided,
far too often, by the culture. Therapeutic technique, marketing strategies, and the beat of the
entertainment world often have far more to say about what the church wants, how it functions and
what it offers, than does the Word of God. Pastors have neglected their rightful oversight of
worship, including the doctrinal content of the music. As biblical authority has been abandoned
in practice, as its truths have faded from Christian consciousness, and as its doctrines have
lost their saliency, the church has been increasingly emptied of its integrity, moral authority
and direction.
Rather than adapting Christian faith to satisfy the felt needs of consumers, we must
proclaim the law as the only measure of true righteousness and the gospel as the only announcement
of saving truth. Biblical truth is indispensable to the church's understanding, nurture and
discipline.
Scripture must take us beyond our perceived needs to our real needs and liberate us from
seeing ourselves through the seductive images, cliches, promises and priorities of mass culture.
It is only in the light of God's truth that we understand ourselves aright and see God's provision
for our need. The Bible, therefore, must be taught and preached in the church. Sermons must be
expositions of the Bible and its teachings, not expressions of the preacher's opinions or the
ideas of the age. We must settle for nothing less than what God has given.
The work of the Holy Spirit in personal experience cannot be disengaged from Scripture.
The Spirit does not speak in ways that are independent of Scripture. Apart from Scripture we
would never have known of God's grace in Christ. The biblical Word, rather than spiritual
experience, is the test of truth.
Thesis One: Sola Scriptura
We reaffirm the inerrant Scripture to be the sole source of written divine revelation,
which alone can bind the conscience. The Bible alone teaches all that is necessary for our
salvation from sin and is the standard by which all Christian behavior must be measured.
We deny that any creed, council or individual may bind a Christian's conscience, that
the Holy Spirit speaks independently of or contrary to what is set forth in the Bible, or that
personal spiritual experience can ever be a vehicle of revelation.
SOLUS CHRISTUS:
THE EROSION OF
CHRIST-CENTERED FAITH
As evangelical faith becomes secularized, its interests have been blurred with those of
the culture. The result is a loss of absolute values, permissive individualism, and a substitution
of wholeness for holiness, recovery for repentance, intuition for truth, feeling for belief,
chance for providence, and immediate gratification for enduring hope. Christ and his cross have
moved from the center of our vision.
Thesis Two: Solus Christus
We reaffirm that our salvation is accomplished by the mediatorial work of the historical
Christ alone. His sinless life and substitutionary atonement alone are sufficient for our
justification and reconciliation to the Father.
We deny that the gospel is preached if Christ's substitutionary work is not declared and faith
in Christ and his work is not solicited.
SOLA GRATIA:
THE EROSION OF THE GOSPEL
Unwarranted confidence in human ability is a product of fallen human nature. This false
confidence now fills the evangelical world; from the self-esteem gospel, to the health and wealth
gospel, from those who have transformed the gospel into a product to be sold and sinners into
consumers who want to buy, to others who treat Christian faith as being true simply because it
works. This silences the doctrine of justification regardless of the official commitments of our
churches.
God's grace in Christ is not merely necessary but is the sole efficient cause of
salvation. We confess that human beings are born spiritually dead and are incapable even of
cooperating with regenerating grace.
Thesis Three: Sola Gratia
We reaffirm that in salvation we are rescued from God's wrath by his grace alone. It
is the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit that brings us to Christ by releasing us from our
bondage to sin and raising us from spiritual death to spiritual life.
We deny that salvation is in any sense a human work. Human methods, techniques or
strategies by themselves cannot accomplish this transformation. Faith is not produced by our
unregenerated human nature.
SOLA FIDE:
THE EROSION OF
THE CHIEF ARTICLE
Justification is by grace alone through faith alone because of Christ alone. This is the
article by which the church stands or falls. Today this article is often ignored, distorted or
sometimes even denied by leaders, scholars and pastors who claim to be evangelical. Although fallen
human nature has always recoiled from recognizing its need for Christ's imputed righteousness,
modernity greatly fuels the fires of this discontent with the biblical Gospel. We have allowed
this discontent to dictate the nature of our ministry and what it is we are preaching.
Many in the church growth movement believe that sociological understanding of those in the pew
is as important to the success of the gospel as is the biblical truth which is proclaimed. As a
result, theological convictions are frequently divorced from the work of the ministry. The marketing
orientation in many churches takes this even further, erasing the distinction between the biblical
Word and the world, robbing Christ's cross of its offense, and reducing Christian faith to the
principles and methods which bring success to secular corporations.
While the theology of the cross may be believed, these movements are actually emptying it of its
meaning. There is no gospel except that of Christ's substitution in our place whereby God imputed
to him our sin and imputed to us his righteousness. Because he bore our judgment, we now walk in
his grace as those who are forever pardoned, accepted and adopted as God's children. There is no
basis for our acceptance before God except in Christ's saving work, not in our patriotism, churchly
devotion or moral decency. The gospel declares what God has done for us in Christ. It is not
about what we can do to reach him.
Thesis Four: Sola Fide
We reaffirm that justification is by grace alone through faith alone because of
Christ alone. In justification Christ's righteousness is imputed to us as the only possible
satisfaction of God's perfect justice.
We deny that justification rests on any merit to be found in us, or upon the grounds of an infusion of Christ's
righteousness in us, or that an institution claiming to be a church that denies or condemns sola fide can be recognized
as a legitimate church.
SOLI DEO GLORIA:
THE EROSION OF
GOD-CENTERED WORSHIP
Wherever in the church biblical authority has been lost, Christ has been displaced, the
gospel has been distorted, or faith has been perverted, it has always been for one reason: our
interests have displaced God's and we are doing his work in our way. The loss of God's centrality
in the life of today's church is common and lamentable. It is this loss that allows us to transform
worship into entertainment, gospel preaching into marketing, believing into technique, being good
into feeling good about ourselves, and faithfulness into being successful. As a result, God, Christ
and the Bible have come to mean too little to us and rest too inconsequentially upon us.
God does not exist to satisfy human ambitions, cravings, the appetite for consumption, or
our own private spiritual interests. We must focus on God in our worship, rather than the satisfaction
of our personal needs. God is sovereign in worship; we are not. Our concern must be for God's
kingdom, not our own empires, popularity or success.
Thesis Five: Soli Deo Gloria
We reaffirm that because salvation is of God and has been accomplished by God, it
is for God's glory and that we must glorify him always. We must live our entire lives before the
face of God, under the authority of God and for his glory alone.
We deny that we can properly glorify God if our worship is confused with entertainment,
if we neglect either Law or Gospel in our preaching, or if self-improvement, self-esteem or self-
fulfillment are allowed to become alternatives to the gospel
|
