This points to what some see as the defining doctrine of the Reformation and the very heart of the Gospel. This refers to the basis on which God justifies sinners. In light of what faith is, justification is God’s declaration of the sinner as just or righteous in His sight. As a holy and just God, He can and will only declare sinners just on a proper basis. The teaching of faith alone points to the issue that God declares sinners just on the basis of Christ apart from the works of man. God declares human beings just on the basis of Christ bearing the wrath of the Father for the sins of human beings and crediting or imputing to human beings the righteousness of Christ. To believe in Christ alone is to believe that Christ suffered for all of my sins and gives me a perfect righteousness apart from my own merit or my works. That is to say that to believe in Christ is to believe and trust in Him without and apart from my own works. Faith alone teaches us that we are to receive the promises of God in Christ without trusting in any or our own goodness or works at all. Thus, justification by faith alone is the declaration that God declares a man just on the basis of Christ apart from the works of man at all, but simply by the man receiving Christ apart from anything else. Faith alone preserves the biblical doctrine that salvation is by grace alone and to the glory of God alone. Men are saved through faith in order that salvation would be by grace apart from any works of man (Romans 4:16) and so would be to the glory of God alone. That leaves men with nothing to boast in.
Thus it should be clear at this point how the previous three solas of the Reformation come to bear at sola fide. While many today are opposed to this, they must see how this ties in with the other points of the Reformation. They should also see how it is linked with the sola gratia which follows this point. Sola fide cannot be rejected without rejecting all the other points of the Reformation. There is no Gospel by faith alone unless God does all for His own glory. There is no Gospel by faith alone unless it is taught in the Word of God. There is no Gospel of faith alone unless salvation is truly by Christ and His words for salvation apart from the works and goodness of man. There is no Gospel of faith alone unless salvation is all of grace and grace alone.
There are those in our day that teach of a salvation that is by grace and indeed by faith. What they mean by those terms, however, are not derived from Scripture and not according to the glory of God alone. Others teach of a salvation that is of grace but not by Christ alone. To be blunt, a so-called Gospel that does not have all of these points in it is at the very least unbalanced in its message of the Gospel. A Gospel that is by faith alone may say that the faith is simply an intellectual belief that a proposition is true and so the sinner is saved by grace alone. However, that is to turn the biblical concept of faith and grace around to be something dreamed up by man. A biblical faith is something that God gives and is the sight of the soul (Hebrews 11:1-6) by which it perceives the glory of God in the Gospel. A biblical grace is really the indwelling Christ who will rule in the heart that He dwells and lives in. In other words, a biblical faith adheres to the Gospel of the glory of God and to Christ alone as the true Savior and Lord of all who really believe.
The Christ that is revealed by Scripture cannot be divided into pieces and offices. The Christ that Scripture teaches does all to the glory of God and works the same thing in His people. The Christ of Scripture is omnipresent and indivisible in His divine nature, and wherever He is, He is all there. So if Christ is indeed Savior of a sinner, He is Lord over that sinner as well. The Christ that is received by faith is not just received as Savior, but received as a whole Christ and not just a partial one. Holy Scripture (Romans 10:9) teaches that we must confess Christ as Lord in order to be saved: “that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” We also know that on the last day that everyone will confess this: “and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil 2:11). Also note that the confession that Christ is Lord is to the glory of God the Father. This is a link to soli deo gloria in which so many presentations of the Gospel have forgotten in our day.
The teaching of the Reformers of justification by faith alone was really a preservation of the Gospel of the glory of God in the face of Christ. When men hold to justification by faith alone apart from His glory alone some main cog of the Gospel will fall out. We must hold firmly to sola fide and yet just as firmly to all the other points of the Reformation. Let all that we teach come from Scripture and be to the glory of God alone through Christ alone that comes by grace alone. If we do that, we will not distort faith alone as so many do in our day.
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