Sola Gratia, Sola Fide, Solo Christo

Sola Gratia, Sola Fide, Solo Christo:

The gospel is salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.

{Want to join along in the book of Galatians? There’s always room for another hungry soul!}

The book of Galatians begins with a bit of backstory: The Apostle Paul was not one of the original 12 disciples, but a Jewish Pharisee, or religious person, who persecuted the early Christians, even having them put to death. He was then miraculously saved when Jesus Christ (after his resurrection) appeared to Paul in a blinding light and commissioned him to go preach the gospel to the Gentiles (non-Jews). So he did, and he traveled throughout modern day Greece and Turkey and Italy establishing churches and spreading the gospel to the whole known world.

One of the places he preached the gospel was the region of Galatia, (in Acts 13 & 14 called Pamphylia, Pisidia, Iconium, Lystra, Derbe, Antioch. Mentioned as Phrygia & Galatia in Acts 16 & 18), to the Galatians and they believed him. They were new believers, vulnerable, and as a people they were easily tossed to and fro by different ideas and doctrines. One minute they were into this thing and the next minute they were into that. (Sound familiar?)

They were an inconstant people who changed their minds easily. They lackedspiritual discernment and steadfast determination. They lacked deep-seated convictions about divinely revealed truth, a conviction that can be formed only by careful thinking and unwavering faith in the Word of God. They were new converts with sincere desire, eager beavers who were very susceptible to believing what others told them they must do. Steadfastness is an exhortation again and again.

So after Paul had preached the gospel and left, these other religious leaders, called Judaizers came in and began telling these new believers that even though they’d received Christ as their Savior, they still had to abide by all the OT laws and continue the ceremonies and traditions of the Jewish faith.

Judaizers were messianic Jews who considered the Jewish law essential for a believer in Jesus Christ. They were Jews who made a superficial profession of Christ but turned back to Judaism and sought to make Christianity an extension of their traditional system of works righteousness. 

Galatians is an argument against identifying primarily with a certain religious tradition and a particular nation. It urges us  to be shaped by Christ apart from inherited standards of behavior or national allegiance.

Further, Galatians is a summons to be less attuned to the pressures and pleasures of our social context and more aware of the presence of Christ in our midst.

So, slowly the Galatians began to follow the Judaizers and  turned aside from the pure and simple gospel. The gist of the book of Galatians is Paul’s exhorting them to return to the true gospel and stand fast in the freedom of Christ Jesus. To identify more with the gospel of Christ than social, national pressures. It’s a challenging but refreshing opportunity to step back and ask ourselves why we do what we do. Is it an outworking of the gospel of Christ, or a cultural or religious practice to which we’ve been subconsciously tied to without knowing why?

This is a fighting epistle. Paul writes with deep emotion and strong feeling. His heart laid bare. He has on his war paint. This is the Emancipation Proclamation of Christianity. This is Martin Luther’s favorite book, the masthead of the reformation. It’s the strongest declaration of justification by faith in or out of the Scriptures. Sinners are not only saved by grace through faith plus nothing, but the saved sinner lives by grace through faith. Grace is the way to life and the way of life.

Paul does not correct conduct (like Corinthians) but doctrine. Much more severe than the former. Paul has no word of commendation, praise, or thanksgiving. The harshness and severity of this book indicates how very dangerous this subtle corruption is. At first it seems strange that Paul would have words of commendation for the worldly, divisive, immoral and immature Corinthian believers and yet have non for the saints of Galatia. (1 Cor 1:4-7). The difference was that, as bad as the Corinthian situation was, the major problem there did not pertain so much to right doctrine as to right living. In the Galatian churches, on the other hand, the very heart of the gospel was being undermined by false teachers, the gospel of grace was being trampled, and in its place was being offered the gospel of works, which is no gospel at all but a distortion of God’s truth that leads to bondage, not salvation.

He had warned them about false teachers in Acts 20:28-30. There will always be an enemy of the gospel. The world will always hate the cross, because the cross is the END of man’s self-effort, the end of pride, the end of pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps religion. The end of earn your way to salvation. The cross is central to Paul’s gospel and inextricably linked to righteousness by faith. He’ll make the argument that if we are saved according to our works then the cross is superfluous, unnecessary.

Galatians is a book of contrasts: Legalism vs. Love, Religion vs. the Gospel, Works vs. faith, law vs. grace, Flesh works vs. Spirit’s Fruit, World vs. Cross, true gospel vs. another gospel, bondage vs. freedom, Old covenant vs. New covenant.

Love is characterized by cooperation. Legalism is characterized by competition.

Legalism is the most popular substitute for spiritual living that we have in our churches today. Millions of believers think they are “spiritual” because of what they do and don’t do, who they follow and don’t follow. Warren Wiersbe says, “When the Holy Spirit takes over, there will be liberty, not bondage – cooperation, not competition – glory to God, not praise to man. The world will see true Christianity, and sinners will come to know the Savior.”

These Judaizers were legalists, they lived by the law, loved the “do” passages. Some of us can relate to that, right? Loved to read those passages and make them into lists, with boxes next to them. Numbered lists. And that way they could be checked off, right? That way they could judge themselves. That way they could count. Legalism loves to keep track. Love gives. Legalism calculates.

Paul is preaching the end of legalism and insisting that “the just shall live by faith” Habakkuk 2 is quoted 3 times in the NT: Romans 1:17, Hebrews 10:38, Galatians 3:11.

Faith plus law was the thrust of Judaism. Faith plus nothing was the answer of Paul.

 Living a life of faith in the gospel is a life of freedom. We’re always in danger to being either in bondage to works or in bondage to sin. That is, we are in bondage to the law or in bondage to the flesh.

John 8:36 “If the Son therefore shall make you free you shall be free indeed!”

 Galatians is the exhortation – STAND FAST IN FREEDOM. We do well to heed his words today as well…

{Thanks for reading.}