Sola Gratia

Automated transcript of the sermon audio, generated with OpenAI Whisper (small.en). It has not been checked against the recording and may contain errors, especially in names and Scripture references.

I’d like to start this evening by reading Ephesians 2 verses 8 and 9, and I’d invite you to join me in this letter of Paul to the Ephesians, Ephesians chapter 2, just two verses, but we’ll be turning back to this chapter soon enough, so you may want to just keep a finger here when we’re finished. Ephesians 2 verse 8, Paul says, For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing, It is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. In our Sunday evenings this year, this ministry year that started last fall, we’ve examined together two of the five solas of the Reformation.

Specifically, we’ve looked at sola fide, that’s faith alone, sola scriptura, that is scripture alone. And then tonight we’re going to add to our list grace alone, or sola gratia. still to come are Solus Christus and Soli Deo Gloria. And in the 16th century, these doctrines challenge the teaching and the traditions of the Catholic Church, and have been proclaimed by Protestants and Reformation sympathists or Reformational Reformed types ever since. But because we rehearse these and we return to them so often, there’s a danger to us, namely that our familiarity with these doctrines sometimes breeds apathy, which is crazy.

And so tonight, I hope that we can sort of get out of that and provide an antidote. But we can forget that Christians have, in fact, even as I prayed moments ago, died for this doctrine and others like it, defending these truths that we take for granted. We act as though these counterintuitive doctrines are common knowledge and so we fail to marvel. I call them counterintuitive because this is not the way the natural man thinks. The gospel is not the construct of a human mind. It’s from God’s mind. So these are truths, these are doctrines that are true that are counterintuitive to the natural man. And so they are not then common knowledge.

It is not a human given or common knowledge that the only way to be happy after this life is to now throw yourself completely at the mercy of our creator, abandoning then all hope of saving yourself. Natural man doesn’t think that way. It is not common knowledge that the definitive source of authority on spiritual things is the written word of God. It is not common knowledge that the flesh profits nothing in our salvation. It’s not common knowledge that the Lord of all creation is the second person of the Trinity. And it is not common knowledge that everything points finally and ultimately to the glory of the God of the Bible.

Yet those are applications of sola fide, sola scriptura, sola gratia, sola scristus, and soli deo gloria. Though these doctrines are absolutely true, they are not common knowledge. They are not commonly accepted even today, though they do reflect the five solas. So this evening, I want to encourage you to do your best, though familiar with this doctrine of sola gratia, grace alone, to try to hear it again for the first time. And as we do so, we’re just going to try and work through a very simple outline. I’m going to talk about sola gratia defined, sola gratia supported, and in that I’ll reference a bunch of scriptures, sola gratia opposed, and touch on the teaching of the Catholic Church against this doctrine, and then sola gratia applied, some simple takeaways, and some attitudes that ought to mark us when we have applied this doctrine.

So first, let’s jump right into it and define our terms, sola gratia. The doctrine of grace alone teaches that man’s work plays absolutely no role whatsoever in his salvation. Rather, his salvation is 100% by God’s grace alone. That’s contrasted with the Catholic Church’s teaching that a man’s works do actually play a role in his justification and as such is salvation. The medieval Catholic church taught that God’s grace was absolutely necessary for salvation. So it’s not as simple as many Protestants would like to think. The Catholic church teaches the salvation by works. The Protestants teach the salvation is by faith alone, by grace alone.

And no, that’s actually doing injury and that’s not a fair treatment of the Catholic teaching. to teach that grace is absolutely necessary, but that man’s works must cooperate with the grace that God gives. In other words, to put it more crassly, grace is necessary, it’s just not enough. So, as I said, the medieval Catholic church taught that grace was absolutely necessary for salvation, but it was not sufficient. So rather, it was a combination of that necessary grace and additionally man’s good works that made him just before God. And if salvation is by God’s grace alone, then that means to steal away from the last point in application, that literally nothing that man does can bring it about.

Literally nothing that man does can bring about his salvation. Of course, that’s something that we, Protestant Reformed types tend to take for granted, but doing so is a great mistake. Where does a doctrine come from? So let me move on quickly to Sola Gratia supported. So the doctrine of Sola Gratia is closely tied to Sola Fide, not too surprising. Faith alone and grace alone are tied together. And then of course it’s also a cousin to Total Depravity. You cannot rightly understand why grace is marvelous or amazing if you think that man can save himself. But the doctrine of Total Depravity of course teaches that man is completely unable to avail himself of God to do any righteousness.

But we have to understand these things together if we’re going to understand grace alone. So what does the Bible say then about man’s ability to save himself? So some of these passages I’m going to talk about drive home the doctrine of total depravity, which is if that’s true, then grace alone is a big deal. And also for sake of our discussion, we have to take it as a given that there exist redeemed people. So this is an assumption that we’ll make, that there exists such a thing as people who get to go to heaven. Okay, I mean, that’s actually pretty easy to defend from scripture, but we’re gonna take it as a given tonight.

We’re gonna save that defense for another time. There are Christians. So the question is, if there are people who find themselves in God’s favor, how do they get there? That’s what we’re going after. Not if people are saved, but how. So I’d like to take some time now to examine a handful of scripture passages as we build our case for sola gratia. Now the passage that we just read moments ago is a great starting point. It’s one where this doctrine shines through pretty clearly and it is a favorite of lovers of sola gratia. Let’s look at Ephesians two and this time I’m going to look at verses one through 10 and make a few observations as we go along.

So first verses one through three say, and you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. Now, of course, Paul is talking to the Christians at Ephesus, and Ephesus was a city that comprised principally Gentiles.

So it was what we call a Gentile city. So these are Gentiles that he’s writing to, and the things that he is writing to them apply to us by extension. So when he says that you Christians, you Ephesian Christians were dead in your trespasses and sins, the same thing is true of modern Gentile Christians. Before we’re Christians, we are dead in our trespasses and sins. So you used to be spiritually dead. Now this is simple language and it’s not hard to understand, but dead people are incapable of responding to or cooperating with anyone or anything, at least by themselves. Dead people don’t respond cooperatively to any sort of call, any sort of pleading on the part of God or anyone else by themselves.

From birth, man’s condition is one of spiritual death. That’s thanks to original sin. And unless he has given new life, what Jesus calls in John chapter three, being born again, he cannot honor God, let alone be saved. So to be still clearer, though spiritually dead and in our sins, we were very much alive and able to walk in unrighteousness. So these dead people were walking around and dead in sin, alive to righteousness, alive to unrighteousness. And we did, so we did. As spiritually dead people, we did lots of sin and we did it with enthusiasm. We follow the devil, that is who he’s speaking of, the prince of the power of the air, and it’s said by Augustine that he likens, I told some of the students this, man is like a horse whose rider is either the devil or the Holy Spirit.

So a horse will go where he is directed, it’s a matter of who the rider is. It’s a fitting picture. Look at verse four. “‘But God, being rich in mercy “‘because of the great love with which he loved us, “‘even when we were dead in our trespasses, “‘made us alive together with Christ.’” by grace you have been saved, and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. So this is a glorious intervention on God’s part. So now, spiritually dead people are given life.

They are by themselves unable to respond until they are made alive. When we were dead, God made us alive together with Christ. And don’t miss that he, so he brought life to the spiritually dead, but why did he do it? He did it to showcase the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. He did it for his own sake, and that’s glorious. We get to be a part of that. We are born again because of the work of Christ. We are given spiritual life and new love and life and appetite and desires for him. Look at verse eight.

Which you’ve already read. For by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of works so that no one may boast. Now this is the climax of the passage and it provides a definitive answer for us to our question. Works do not contribute to our salvation. Not even a little bit. It is all of grace. For by grace you have been saved through faith. So that’s the affirmative. That’s the clear grace alone teaching. And then he emphasizes to clarify, it is not your own doing, it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. Because of a word of us, even a little bit, then we would share glory with God.

We would have opportunity to rob him of some of the credit. When two people write a song on a piece of sheet music, they’re both of their names at the top of it, right? So if our salvation were a masterpiece, and it is, there’s only one name at the top. What does this look like? So what does this look like, however? So what role do we play in this masterpiece that is our salvation? Doesn’t a Christian have to respond to the call of salvation? Well, yes, he certainly does. But he is only capable of responding rightly if in fact God makes him born again. If God gives him spiritual life and he is born again, and if he is born again, then God grants us a new heart and a love for God and for spiritual things.

So here it’s worth mentioning, because some people say, what if I love God but God doesn’t give me new life? Well those things don’t actually happen. You don’t love God unless God has first given you that spiritual life. What if I really earnestly want to go to heaven but I’m not numbered among the elect, people might ask. That also does not happen because people don’t want to go to heaven unless they’re numbered among the elect and vice versa. Nobody is dragged kicking and screaming, who’s somebody who hated God but was one of the chosen so he had to go. That also does not work. So our problem is though with our wants, Jonathan Edwards wrote in his book, The Freedom of the Will, that man does and must do.

He is bound by his will, constrained to do according to his strongest inclination at the moment. He has to do what he wants. The problem is with the want part. So men do what they want all the time, but their wants are only wicked apart from God’s grace. If we were to do some commendable or some cooperative work with God, then it’d be like having our names up there alongside of His on the sheet music of our salvation. But of course, as we know, God will not share His glory with us. And then look at verse 10, for we are is workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. So now the path is paid for our behavior to become more and more righteous. God has prepared good works for us ahead of time and it’s our job to walk in them. Okay? So as we continue our look at the support of this doctrine, let’s look at another passage. John chapter 3, we’ll look at the first three, first six verses.

So John chapter 3 verses 1 through 6. You can turn there but I’m going to read it regardless. Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher, come from God, for no one can do these signs unless you do, unless God is with him. Jesus answered him, truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus said to him, how can a man be born when he’s old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born? Well, Jesus answered, truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born of the water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

That which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. And he goes on, but we’ll stop there. So again, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God, says Jesus. Spiritual life is not a matter of reforming our old and busted selves. It involves a new life altogether. That’s the new hotness, right? It involves new life altogether a second birth But what does this tell us about grace alone? Well, actually it tells us a lot because babies don’t decide when to enter the world now Some moms are saying oh, yeah, I didn’t have a whole lot of choice in a matter of the time. Well But you do know what I mean that generally speaking a baby doesn’t decide to enter your family It is it is a it is a gift is decided by someone else namely but by God ultimately Two chapters earlier, John referred to this concept.

He said in John chapter 1, verses 12 and 13, But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. Our being born was not our decision or work, but God’s alone, because we were dead and could not cooperate. So it was his alone. He acted, acted and we helped him about as much as Lazarus helped Jesus in John chapter 11. So if we are to be born again, it can only possibly be by the grace of God, but we keep going here more men cannot choose God even. And, and even if they couldn’t could, we never would.

So even if we could of ourselves choose God, if we actually had that capability to, to please God, we would not choose to do so according to scripture. John chapter 3 verse 20, same chapter, look ahead. I’ll read verses 20 and 21. Everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light lest his deeds should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light so that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been carried out in God. Natural men hate the light and we don’t come to it, rather we avoid it. John 663 reads as follows. John 663 is over a couple of chapters. It is the spirit who gives life, the flesh is of no avail.

He goes on. But there’s a funny story where Luther was debating on this topic, I think the authorized version says the flesh availeth nothing. And Luther said, and that nothing is not just a little something. It’s nothing. In the middle of a host of very offensive things, Jesus puts forth this stumbling block for the proud. The flesh makes no contribution to our salvation. our salvation.

Afterwards, of course, we are soul and body. We are in flesh creatures. It’s not like what we do in the flesh doesn’t matter, as the Gnostics would suggest, but in terms of how we are saved, our flesh has nothing to do with it. Flip over to Romans chapter eight. Romans chapter eight. And some of you are excited cause I’m getting into Romans. And some of you are terrified cause I’m getting into Romans. That’s fair. Look at Romans chapter eight. in the history of verses 7 and 8. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law, indeed it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

This is an indictment against natural man. If salvation were to be obtained by works, or by any combination, if it were necessary for there to be a combination of grace and man’s good works, works, that is really, really bad news. Because, evidently, natural man cannot please God. Does not submit to God’s law and deed it cannot. Natural men or unbelievers are the ones that Paul is talking about who are in the flesh. Well, the Catholic doctrine distorts man’s ability and misrepresents it. It assumes too much. It thinks too highly of man. Suppose and that he is capable of good that he simply cannot do. If you flip back to chapter six, or just bear with me, let’s come and skip around a little bit in chapter six, I’ll read verses six, 16, 17, 19, and 20.

For we know that our old self was crucified with him and ordered that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. Do not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, Your slaves of that one whom you obey, skip ahead, but thanks be to God that you who were once slaves of sin had become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, leading to sanctification.

For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. So free slaves are incapable of freeing themselves from their bondage. Of course there exists some exceptions and the illustration breaks down at some point. But Paul’s point is pretty clear. He is definitely assuming that some voluntary action on the part of the believer. Don’t mistake there. He is assuming some voluntary action on the part of the believer. But this is after the believer has been born again. Once he has been given spiritual life, the believers thinking and behavior should look different from how they were before. Look over at Titus, we’re not done in Romans, we’ll go over to Titus chapter 3.

Titus chapter 3, verses 3 through 7. Titus finally men in Hebrews, James. Titus in a little book, just two pages in my version. I’m going to read verses 3 through 7, just a few passages, a few verses. Titus 3, 3 says, for we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. That is some really dark language. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God, our savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”

So not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy. So Paul writing again here emphatically that it is not your own works, it’s God’s. It is by grace all his work, not yours, or would be given to pride. is very familiar with our human tendencies, our nature. And if there is an opportunity for man to take credit for his salvation, you can bet he will do so. And history is full of examples along those lines, which is why. We love the idea of being in control. We love the idea of being able to save ourselves. And there are even lots of well-intentioned Christians who are terrified of impugning God. So we want to protect God and say, He’s done his part, now you must do yours.

Well, scripture doesn’t speak like that. Makes no apology there. So enough for now, that’s by no means exhaustive, but we’re gonna move on to some of the opposition that has been offered to this doctrine, or even the principles related to this doctrine. So our third point for this evening is sola gratia opposed. As I mentioned, we’ve now examined a number of scriptural passages that show the salvation is by grace alone. But now I’d like to consider some objections to the doctrine of sola gratia. And while there are logical objections that are sometimes offered, so people will say, that just doesn’t make sense, it doesn’t square with my own human experience, it feels like I’m doing a lot, how can God be doing all of it?

I don’t wanna necessarily take time to go through that tonight, but I do want to look at some of the religious or doctrinal objections that are offered by the Catholic Church. Now, we can tend to think that this debate has been settled and done because of the sort of cultural water that we are always waiting in. So this debate wages on. It goes on today. So because we have grown up eating and drinking and breathing, this these doctrines, these rich truths, does not mean that they are even still common knowledge to the world, which is why I’m trying to get us to hear it again for the first time. To be sure, the Solas represented a battleground on which the religious ideologies in the Reformation were being challenged and orthodoxies were being established.

But this is not an outdated discussion. This discussion is far from over. So in my study for this message, I did some research of Catholic apologetic resources. And even as recently as this morning, in an article on Catholic.com entitled We Can Work It Out, which is pretty telling right there, The site dismisses the doctrine of justification by faith alone, that is sola fide, which we’ve agreed, or I don’t know if you agreed or not, I said it. It’s related to sola gratia. But just dismisses justification by faith alone out of hand as a clear contradiction of a couple of key passages. Well, I’d like to look at them together and see if they are in fact different from what, well, let’s look at them and see.

They point first to James 2.24. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. I’d like to look actually at the context there. So Titus finally men in Hebrews, James, right? Let’s get over there to James chapter two and let’s look at 18 to 26. It’s a little bit longer, but it’s worth our time. But someone will say you have faith and I have works. I’m in James chapter two, verse 18, show me your faith apart from your works. And I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one. You do well. Even the demons believe in shudder. But you want to be shown you do you want to be shown you foolish person that apart from works, apart from sorry, that faith apart from works is useless.

Was not Abraham, our father, justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works and faith was completed by his works and the scripture was fulfilled. It says Abraham believed God and was counted to him as righteousness And he was called a friend of God. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.” Well, James says here that of man’s works justify him. What does he mean?

Well, when he says that, he does not suggest that man is capable of doing these works apart from the grace of God. And so this is where I think Catholics try to walk a very fine line. They would say, ah, we don’t either. We say the grace of God is necessary, but it’s not sufficient. James would say emphatically that the grace of God is sufficient and the works will inevitably follow. When men do works that justify them, to borrow James’ term, they give evidence of they’re having been born again. Conversely, if they don’t have works corresponding with their faith, then their faith is in fact not real. It’s not genuine. It is dead. R.C. Sproul put it this way. What James is saying is this.

If a person says he has faith but he gives no outward evidence of that faith through righteous works, his faith will not justify him. Martin Luther, John Calvin, or John Knox would absolutely agree with James. We are not saved by a profession of faith or a claim to faith. That faith has to be genuine before the merit of Christ will be imputed to anybody. You can’t just say that you have faith. True faith will absolutely and necessarily yield the fruits of obedience and the works of righteousness. So we love James, we love that passage, but scripture can’t contradict itself and he can’t be contradicting the teaching of Paul, who of course says that justification by faith alone.

The second passage offered, which I think harmonizes quite nicely, but in a sort of a different way, is, yeah, this one’s offered as a sort of silver bullet to the doctrine of justification by faith and total depravity. And it’s Romans 2, verses 6 through 8. Romans 2, 6 to 8. I told you, I’m not done in Romans. I’m not going to sing the song backwards. Verses 6 through 8 say, he will render to each one according to his works. To those who by patience and well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury.

There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek. I’m reading on, I’m going to finish paragraph. But glory and honor and peace to everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. God shows no partiality. So drilling in on six through eight, I read six through 11 there. He’ll render to each one according to his work to those who, and I want you to zoom on this, by patience and well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. Well, I believe that this passage is describing believers. The first half of it, verse 7, yeah, that’s right, verse 7, those who by patience and well-doing does not describe natural man. And you have to read, well, you can read the rest of Romans to get that sense.

Paul makes that case very strongly. Natural men don’t have patience and well-doing. They cannot please God. They cannot obey the law of God. No matter what they’re seeking, only the alive in Christ can seek for glory and honor and immortality in God-honoring ways. Men seek for glory and honor and immortality. Natural men do that, but they don’t do it by patience and well-doing. So to To them, God gives what’s promised to the wicked, destruction, and to the godly, the born again, eternal life. So we can say happily, it’s fantastic news that God would render to believers according to their works because their works demonstrate their saving faith.

So the works of Christians are the fruit of their faith. we give evidence by our works to whom we belong to. The Catholic teaching here has a presupposition that I think is wrong. I think scripture would agree that it is wrong. And that is that man is capable of acting independently of God. Then he will work good works and gain God’s favor. He will work good works and be justified. We have no problem saying that man is justified to a degree by his works because those works testified to whose child he is. We have no problem saying that the one who, by patience and well-doing, seeks for glory and honor and immortality because that describes us, we want that.

And so to those, God is going to give eternal life. Those are hardly a silver bullet shooting down the Zeppelin of faith alone. Let me continue with then how we ought to respond to this. What is an appropriate response if all of these things are true? Well, if you’ve heard this for the first time, great. If you’ve heard it again for the first time, that’s also great. Because this ought to affect in us great humility. If we get that justification is by faith, and if we get that salvation is by grace alone, then that means that it’s not by anything that we contributed to the equation. And why are you saved and your unbelieving neighbor is not?

God has been particularly gracious to his people with a saving grace. When our pride is then killed, when our pride is dead, we’re aware of what we actually deserve. How our salvation and the good things that we enjoy are gifts from God. This produces humility and humble people are not easily offended. Sola gratia applied also ought to result in thankfulness. Realizing what we have compared with what we deserve ought to make us truly grateful. And of course, grateful people are the most fun to serve and to bless. It ought to result in our grace extended toward others. A fitting response for people who have been blessed is to bless others.

Jesus expected as much. You have the parable of the king who settled accounts with his slaves. He forgave one a great debt. He expected that that one who had been forgiven much would respond in turn to his fellow slave who owed him a hundred denarii. So if we receive much grace, then we ought to be happy to extend grace to others. If you’ve been a recipient of grace, conversely, how can you not extend that grace in turn to others? Also mercy toward others. If we have received much mercy, we ought to be quick to extend mercy to others. A man who is profoundly and humbled because he’s been mercifully pardoned should be easy to spot because he’ll be the most merciful guy around.

But here’s the thing, all of us deserve destruction. But we have instead been given a promise of a glorious inheritance in Christ instead. Sola gratia applied ought to result in our joy. Of course there’s no room for the contagious grumpiness of Christians because that is not fitting, that is not wearing the right clothes for whose child we are. But it ought to result in a thankfulness and a joy because glory to God, the work is done. We do not need to labor to impress God or save ourselves. Jesus has already done that completely and sufficiently and it’s done. It’s over. Similarly, it ought to result in our comfort and our increasing comfort.

As we grow in our understanding of God, we grow in our confidence of His promises, and if He has done all of this for us, and He has, it cannot be undone, and there are none who can take us from our Father’s hand. The perseverance of the saints is not one of the five solas, but it is something that we cling to with gratefulness. Father, we don’t deserve Your grace, or else it wouldn’t be grace. It is by its nature undeserved. It is favor from you to us because of Christ. And we pray that as we do, hear that maybe even tonight again for the first time that we would preach that message to ourselves routinely. May that reflect again in us humility, thankfulness, comfort, mercy and grace toward one another and joy.

Thank you for the work of Christ. May we never tire of singing about it and thanking you. And we pray that you’d help us to find new application for even this principle again this week. Keep us in your care as we go our separate ways now, and we ask this in Christ’s name. Amen.