Sola - A 5-Day Devotional through Five Solas of the ReformationExemplo

 Grace Alone

Contrariwise, the world cannot suffer those things to be condemned which it most esteemeth, and bestliketh of; and therefore it chargeth the gospel that it is a seditious doctrine, and full of errors; that it overthroweth commonwealths, countries, dominions, kingdoms, and empires, and therefore offendeth both against God and the emperor; abolisheth laws, corrupteth good manners, and setteth all men at liberty to do what they list. Wherefore, with just zeal, and high service to God, (as it would seem) it persecuteth this doctrine, and abhorreth the teachers and professors thereof, as the greatest plague that can be in the whole earth.

Thus, the Reformer Martin Luther writes in his opening commentary on chapter 1, verse 1 of Paul’s letter to the Galatians. This work of Luther’s still remains one of the crown jewels in his immense body of theological and exegetical work, its power belied by its apparent simplicity. In that way, it is like the gospel itself.

What was the Reformation, really? What Luther and the Reformers undertook was nothing less than a recovery movement. They were retrieving from the deep, dank basement of the church the pure, potent, dangerous message of free grace in Christ. In the excerpt above, Luther touches on just how toxic to self-righteousness and religious pride this message really is, and why it was locked up for so long, obscured and suppressed.

The self-justifying cannot abide the gospel. It is a rogue element in their tidy moralistic world. And anyone who comes along preaching its true form is treated, as Luther says, as one who has the plague. “Don’t stand too close to that gospel guy. He’s contagious.”

The hallmark of the Reformation theology that Protestants cherish today is, of course, the doctrine of sola fide—justification by faith alone. But at the heart of faith alone must pulse the blood of sola gratia, the notion that our justification—indeed, the whole of our salvation—rests ultimately and solely on the grace of God given in Christ.

But “grace alone” is not simply a notion, an idea. Because Reformational theology as an idea saves nobody. No, the grace alone of Christ alone, I believe, is the heart of Christianity. I think this is the case Paul is making in the entirety of his letter to the Galatians, and I want to share some Reformational thoughts with you on sola gratia reflected in chapter 3, verses 19–26.