Practical Implications of Soli Deo Gloria - Richard Barcellos

From Reformed Baptist Fellowship

The universe is all about God, not man.

The vastness and mystery of the universe does not point to our importance, but to God’s. The universe is a theater for God’s glory. Living as if you are the center is the problem not the solution. Living for personal happiness is just that–personal. It is temporary. It does not last, nor does it satisfy the soul. It will bring you nothing but trouble when you face God at the great day of judgment. We are all restless and fickle until we find our rest in God and the only way to find your soul’s rest in God is through Jesus Christ, the only Mediator between God and man. Come to Him for cleansing now, if you haven’t. And if you have, thank Him, praise Him, adore Him. Why? ^“For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen” (Rom 11:36).

When seeking to explain the purpose of the universe, the Christian, or biblical view, is to start with God, not man.
He is first and He gives meaning to all the rest. If we are trying to justify our belief in Christianity before an on-looking and unbelieving world, we should not assume it to be false or put it in a neutral category till proven true. If we believe Christianity has been revealed to man by God via the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, then we will tell others what the Scriptures say. The Bible does not need to be defended or proven by a litmus test outside of itself. As Spurgeon reportedly said, “The Bible is like a lion; just let it out of its cage and it will defend itself.”

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Five Pillars of the Reformation - by Michael Horton

In May, 1989, a conference jointly sponsored by the National Association of Evangelicals and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School was held at the Trinity campus in Illinois. Dubbed a consultation on Evangelical Affirmations, the meeting revealed more than it settled. In the published addresses (Zondervan, 1990), Carl F. H. Henry, the dean of American evangelicalism, sets the tone for book with his opening line: "The term 'evangelical' has taken on conflicting nuances in the twentieth century. Wittingly or unwittingly, evangelical constituencies no less than their critics have contributed to this confusion and misunderstanding." He warned that "evangelical" was being understood, not according to Scriptural teaching and "the theological 'ought,'" but according to the sociological and empirical "is." In other words, Henry was disturbed that evangelicalism is increasingly being defined by its most recent trends rather than by its normative theological identity. Author after author (presumably, speaker after speaker) echoed the same fears that before long "evangelical" will be useless as any meaningful identification.

The term itself derives from the Greek word euangelion, translated "Gospel," and it became a noun when the Protestant reformers began their work of bringing the "one holy, catholic and apostolic church" back to that message by which and for which it was created. People still used other labels, too, like "Lutheran," "Reformed," and later, "Puritans," "Pietists," and "Wesleyans." Nevertheless, the belief was that the same Gospel that had united the "evangelicals" against Rome's errors could also unite them against the creeping naturalism and secularism of the Enlightenment in the eighteenth century. The so-called "Evangelical Awakening" in Britain coincided with America's own "Great Awakening," as Wesley, Whitefield, Edwards, Tennant, and so many others centered their preaching on the atonement. Later, of course, Wesley's zeal for Arminian emphases divided the work in Britain, but the Reformation emphases were clearly and unambiguously articulated in the Great Awakening.

Out of this heritage, those today who call themselves "evangelicals" (or who are in these churches, but might not know that they are in this tradition) are heirs also to the Second Great Awakening. Radically altering the "evangel" from a concern with the object of faith, the Second Great Awakening and the revivalism that emerged from it focused on the act and experience of faith, in dependence on the proper "excitements", as Finney and others expressed it, to trigger the right response.

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The Reformed Faith

The term "Reformed" refers to the great revival that swept through Europe five hundred years ago that is known as the Protestant Reformation. This movement was a protest against the abuses of the Roman Catholic church, abuses which arose from two principle tap roots. The first was Rome's denial of the sole Headship of Jesus Christ over His church. The second was the leaven of the false gospel of Roman Catholicism, a "gospel" which taught (and still teaches) that men are justified before God by their own merits, and not by the free and Sovereign grace of God in Christ alone.

The Protestant recovery of the gospel of Christ and His Apostles finds its best summation in the five "sola" statements of the Reformation: Sola Scriptura, Sola Gratia, Sola Fide, Solus Christus, and Soli Deo Gloria.

I. Sola Scriptura ("Scripture Alone").

The Lord Jesus Christ alone is the unrivaled Head of His church, and He shares His throne with no man; even if that man is a pastor, priest, or pope. King Jesus exercises His rule over His church by His Holy Spirit through His Holy Word. Therefore the Protestant Reformers insisted upon the sole authority of Holy Scripture to bind the consciences of men. Although God does empower a plurality of men known as "elders" to shepherd each local church, their authority must always be exercised under the authority of Christ and His Word, to which nothing may be added or taken away.


II. Sola Gratia ("Grace Alone").

With the recovery of the sufficiency of Holy Scripture came the recovery of Scripture's message: the gospel of Christ and Him crucified. The Reformers believed and then preached that the only hope anyone has of being saved from his sin and from the wrath that is to come is in the free grace (the unmerited favor) of God alone. The Triune God alone saves sinners, and He is absolutely Sovereign over when and to whom He dispenses His effectual saving grace. Fallen man is powerless and helpless to save himself or to contribute anything to his own salvation.


III. Sola Fide ("Faith Alone").

The saving grace of Almighty God is received by sinners as they exercise faith in the Living Christ alone for their salvation. Yet even this faith is a gift of God's grace to sinful men, so that they have no room to boast. By affirming this truth the Reformers were denying that men are justified before God by their own merits or by an infusion of Christ's righteousness that enabled them to keep God's Law unto salvation. Instead, the Protestants taught that whenever a lost sinner ceases from his works and simply believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted to him for righteousness. From the moment a lost sinner truly believes the righteousness of Jesus Christ Himself is imputed to him because his sin was imputed to Christ upon the cross. Therefore, from that time onward, the believing sinner is eternally justified before God on the basis of Christ's perfect righteousness and finished work on the cross.


IV. Solus Christus ("Christ Alone").

The Reformers affirmed that the only object of saving faith has always been and evermore shall be the Lord Jesus Christ alone. He alone is the way, the truth, and the life; no man can come to the Father except through Him (John 14:6). The saints of the Old Testament were saved by faith in the Messiah who was to come, and the saints of the New Testament are saved by faith in the Messiah who has come and who is soon coming again. There is no other Mediator between God and men, and there is no other name given under heaven by which men must be saved, than the man whose name is the Lord Jesus Christ.


V. Soli Deo Gloria ("To God Alone Be the Glory").

Because the Triune God alone is the Creator of all things, and because the salvation of sinners is a loving work of His free grace alone; all honor, praise, and glory is His alone. "But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God-and righteousness and sanctification and redemption-that, as it is written, 'He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.'" (I Corinthians 1:30-31)


So, what is the Reformed faith? It is the acknowledgement of the sole Headship of King Jesus over His church which He exercises by His Holy Spirit through the sixty-six books of His Holy Word. It is also the unashamed belief and proclamation of the message of those sixty-six books, the gospel of Christ crucified. This gospel teaches all men that sinners are saved by God's grace alone through faith alone in Christ Jesus alone to the glory of God alone. To the One True and Living God be all glory, honor, and praise in Christ Jesus our Lord both now and forever. Amen.


Courtesy of Berean Baptist Church