Sola Fide

Sola Fide "Faith Alone" is one of the tenets of the Reformation. Faith alone is what saves. As part of our ongoing Catechesis, I asked my daughter where faith comes from. She correctly answered "God." This is a sticking point for some because they can't, or won't, allow that they have no part in their salvation. They must have accepted Christ, for how else would He enter their life? The same way He entered the world for our salvation- by His action, and His alone. There are many Scriptural passages that support this, but one I recently found was striking to me because the Promise is wrapped up in a critique of Israel as a people being "stiff necked." God does it for our sakes, not because we merit it, but because He chooses to. The passage is the first six verses of Deuteronomy 9. I have copied verses 5-6 below because they make the point so precisely. I highlighted the sections to pull them out of the surrounding text.

⁵ It is not because of your righteousness or your integrity that you are going in to take possession of their land; but on account of the wickedness of these nations, the Lord your God will drive them out before you, to accomplish what he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. ⁶ Understand, then, that it is not because of your righteousness that the Lord your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stiff-necked people.

 Before we Christians get puffed up, knowing what the Israelites did in rejecting God over and over and how they messed up time and again, take a look at verse 5. God specifically calls out "account of the wickedness of these nations". We, as Christians, are also a "stiff necked people." We too have been wicked, perhaps more so than the Israelites were. And yet Christ still died for your sins. The Old Testament holds chastisement for all the descendants of Abraham. What you think doesn't matter- only the Word that proceeds from God. Sola Scriptura "Scripture Alone" 


"Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time."  1 Peter 5:6 NIV