Sola Fide

WELCOME
Pastor Chris Paavola: Hey everybody. Good morning. Good to be with you guys today. It is just a good day, man. It’s been a busy week. On Friday we had our trunk or treat. I see a lot of faces here that we were a part of that just making that evening so fun. We had an insane amount of people this year. The lines zigzagged across the front of our lawn here and then up the side of the actual entrance and stuff, so they looped all the way around the church. It was pretty intense, man. We loved the opportunity to be able to welcome so many people from our community for that. So, thank you guys who got decorated your trunks or got decorated yourself or whatever, and just making that night happen. Thank you so much for that. And then last night we had the youth Hayride bonfire with our middle school and high school youth, and it was just a great group of people hanging out and having a good time until the football game started. And then it was fun up to that point. And then after that, only half of the people had fun.

I notice you’re not wearing green this morning. I don’t understand why. Anyway, so yeah, it was a good time though. And then today though, it’s not this busy weekend today, it’s not just trunk or treat or hay rides that makes this weekend special. This is also Reformation Day. This is Reformation Sunday. And on this day, we remember this thing that happened 500 years ago with this man named Martin Luther, good looking guy. It’s how we get our namesake of a Lutheran church and what does that all mean? But this happened 500 years ago and change this thing called the Reformation, and it is a really, really important moment in history because Martin Luther was this guy who looked at the church as it was and realized all these things that were not as they should be. And he set out to not upend the church or to start a new church, but to reform the church, hence the name Reformation.

And it started really, it’s this story of what he noticed and what he went about doing. It didn’t just reform the church as we know it, and it didn’t just reform Western history as we know it. Like all of European history changed because of this man in this moment. But the reason it changed the church and reason it reformed human history is because it reformed people’s lives. And that’s what I want to talk about today as we go through this series called Certain that we’re starting today. We’re going to be going through these five, what’s in Latin, this word sola, these only or these alone, these essentials components of Christianity. And we’re going to be going through it today and in the next five weeks. And that’s my hope for you, that just like it changed and reformed the church and just like it reformed human history, that it would reform your lives.

It did, reforming the lives of so many people and we’re going to be going through and looking at these different souls. And the best way to talk about how it changed people’s lives is really, and how it can change your lives is to tell the story of how it changed Martin’s life. And so, I kind of want to take a few moments this morning and just walk through this story because it’s a pretty remarkable story and I think we can read ourselves into the story pretty easily.

LUTHER IN A MONASTERY
So, in 1483, this guy Martin Luther, he was born and raised in a very devout Catholic home, very strict home, and he also went to the school. Early on it was easy to see that Martin was a very intelligent guy. He had an obscene amount of intelligence that would serve him well later in life and just a prolific thinker and writer.

But because they saw so much potential in him, they put him in a school that was a very strict kind of a school where back in the day you would receive lashes if you got incorrect answers. And so, he was raised in this kind of corporal punishment world, and so a strict home and then a strict school, it definitely, definitely shaped his view of God and he saw God as holy and righteous. Okay, cool. But then he saw himself as not God is holy and righteous and perfect, and he is something far, far, far beneath that he is a sinner. And that didn’t sit well with him, and he was always troubled and burdened by his sin. Then in 1505, he actually went to law school to become a lawyer. And on break from his school, he’s traveling back to his family in 1505. And as he’s traveling, he gets caught in this terrible thunderstorm and it’s a terrible thunderstorm and actually a bolt of lightning comes down and lands right next to him and it terrifies him. And in that moment of terror, the reason it scared him this thought of dying, the reason it scared him is because he again thought that in just a moment he could be standing before the judgment seat of God and he was a sinner and he would spend eternity apart from God. It was a no brainer to him, and it’s just terrified him. And so, when that lightning bolt hit, he cried out. It was just kind of this kneejerk reaction. He cried out, help me, Saint Anne and I will become a monk.

It seems strange to pray to saints or something like that. You can ask your Catholic friends. They still pray to saints. It’s not really a biblical thing. They pray for someone, a saint to help their home or someone to protect them. And if I lose something, and it’s not really a biblical idea, it’s just kind of this idea that’s crept up in the Catholic church. And in this moment, Martin Luther cries out for Saint Anne to help him and his life is spared. He gets home safely and he is like, well, I guess I’ve got to become a monk now. I took this vow. And so, he sells all of his legal books, thanks his parents for his education and enters an Augustinian monastery. And Luther though, remember what drove him to the monastery was this dread, this torment that he was a sinner and God was holy and he wanted to make up that grounds.

Now, there’s also another teaching at the Catholic church at the time called purgatory. And this is still sometimes talked about, and again, this is not a biblical idea, just like praying to the saints. It’s this thing that kind of sprang up. And the idea of purgatory became this in-between, between heaven and Hell, that when you would die, you would go to purgatory to work off your sins and you would spend thousands of years in purgatory working off your sins. This is kind of this idea that he had. And so if he goes to a monastery, he could reduce his sentence in purgatory, and then the things that he did while he was in the monastery would again reduce his sentence in purgatory even more. And so he just set out to be the monk of monks, the top gun of monks, the best of the best.

And he actually has a quote later on. He talked about it and he said, next slide please. I was a good monk and I kept the rule of my order so strictly that I may say that if ever a monk got into heaven by his money, it was I. This is totally how Luther writes, and part of the reason he’s so popular is he just had such an interesting way with words. All my brothers in the monastery who knew me, bear witness, if I had kept on any longer, I should have killed myself with vigils, prayers, readings, and other works. He just gave himself fully to being a monk. There are stories that he would go to confession, which if you’ve ever seen in movies, maybe you see the priest sitting there and then someone comes into the box and says, forgive me father, for I have sinned.

And then you tell him your sins. Well, Martin Luther would go to confession and talk to the confessor for hours on end just listing off any sin he could possibly think of any sin that he has done or any sin that he has failed to do any sin that he doesn’t think is a sin but could be a sin. And then any sin that maybe he didn’t know that he did, and he would just have this litmus of sins and confessors would fall asleep because Martin wouldn’t shut up. He just kept on talking about all of his sins. And then they would tell him, okay, in penance to show God that you’re sorry for your sins and reduce your sentence in purgatory in penance, why don’t you save 50 hail Marys 50 our fathers, and then go scrub the floor of the monastery. And he would go, okay.

And he would leave the confession booth and he’d be like, ah, I thought of another sin. And he would come back and they’re like, Martin, please leave. Just go do your penance. And they’re like, why do you just trust in a loving God? He goes, A loving God. He’s holy. He’s just, he’s terrifying. Scripture says, who may ascend the hill of the Lord except the one whose heart is pure? I am not pure. And they’re like, well, then go do your fathers. Do your hail Marys go scrub the floor. And so, he would go do that and he would scrub the floor, but he would use a really small brush to show God how sorry he was. And then when he got done, he would do it again to show God how sorry he was, because he felt like he wasn’t getting rid of his sin, he wasn’t compensating.

His sin was who he was. He was sinful in his nature. And then he would do things like fasting for days on end to show God how sour he was and he would faint because he had not eaten in so long he would sleep, but he thought sleep should be punishment too. And so he wouldn’t use covers and he would sleep on the floor to show God how sorry he was. It was a miserable, miserable life. But he dared to take scripture at his word that we are sinners and God is holy and there is an impossible chasm in between us.

In 1510, he was given the opportunity to make a pilgrimage to the holy city of Rome, the Vatican. There was a kind of dispute in the Augustinian order about the way things should be done, and he volunteered to go on this trip. And so he goes on this trip down to the Vatican and he was so excited to go to Rome because pilgrimage would work off just a little bit more of your sentence in purgatory. And then while you were there, there’s all these things you could do to please God. You could go there and visit the relics of martyrs and the relics and the bones of St. Peter and St. Paul and James and John. You could go and you could kiss the bones of these saints and doing so would earn a few more years off of your sentence in purgatory. And he got there and he could go visit all these holy sites.

PURGATORY
And he got there and he realized though that, I mean he threw himself headlong into the opportunity of a lifetime to go visit all these relics and all these holy sites. But when he got there, he realized it costs a lot of money. And so, he spent a fortune because they had this thing called indulgences and the Catholic church would let you see these bones of these martyrs and touch them, would let you into this holy site if you paid an entrance fee, kind of like our idea of a theme park, right? And so, this was just a cash cow for Rome. They were making money hand over fist, which is how they built these gold cathedrals that you can go to today with marble and amazing commissioned works of art and paintings all around. They paid for it by selling indulgences. And again, this is not in scripture, but this is just what they decided to do because it made them a lot of money.

Like purgatory is not in scripture or praying to the saints is not sell of indulgences, is not in scripture. But man, they’d make them a lot of money. And there was actually a saying every time a coin in the coffer rings another soul from purgatory springs. And so they were just spending money. And so, he went and he visited relics of saints and he went to holy sites and he kissed the bones of martyrs and all the things, and he was bothered by it because he knew that these things were not in scripture. The common man, the Bible wasn’t written in any modern language. It wasn’t written in German; it wasn’t written in Italian or Spanish. It was only in Latin Greek and Hebrew. And Luther had studied Latin, Greek and Hebrew and was able to read the Bible in its original languages, but no one else around them could.

They just did whatever the Pope and the cardinals and the priests told them to do. And so if the Pope Cardinal and the priests tell you to visit these holy sites or to kiss these bones of relics and to pay indulgences, well that’s what you did because you didn’t know any better.

LUTHER ON THE SCALA SANCTA
And Luther was deeply bothered by this. He got to a place called the Scala Sancta. It’s the stairs that were apparently the stairs that Jesus climbed up to see Pontius Pilate after he was whipped and beaten and stuff. And so ever the martyr Catholic church supposedly took the stairs from Jerusalem to Rome. I don’t know how they did that. And then they put them on as an entrance to a certain church and you could pay money to ascend the Scala Sancta, but to show God that you were really serious, you would ascend the Scala Sancta on your knees.

And so, there’s Luther at the stairs. He pays the entrance fee. And what you would do is you would ascend the stairs in your knees and at every step you would confess your sins and then say an our father, so he can confess his sins and then he would our father who arts in heaven hallowed by name. And then he’d get to the next one, he confesses his sins, our father who arts in heaven hall would be thy name. And then he would confess his sins and get to the next one. Our father and my knees hurt right now. I can’t imagine if you’re anyway, just my knees are hurting, right? But again, the pain shows God how sorry you are. And there would be people ascending the stairs and lashing themselves for their sins to show God how sorry they were and to remember the lashings that Christ received. And Luther got to the top set, he said his our Father. And he confessed his sins. And then he stood up and he said, “Who knows if any of this works?”

17 For in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed – a righteousness that is by faith from fist to last, just as it is written: “The just shall live by faith.
Romans 1

GATES OF PARADISE
Who knows if any of this works? He was disenchanted. He went to Rome, devout and excited, and he left disenchanted. He goes back to Germany and he’s commissioned with writing a sermon on Romans one, and he gets to verse 17, which is the verse that we read very early on in our service if you were here by then. And Romans one 17, he came across these words “For, in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed” from faith, for faith as it is written, “The just shall live by faith”. And once again, he was frustrated by the text just who is just, I went all the way to Rome and I didn’t see a just person there. I saw people trying to go through as fast as they could to rack up points with God and not even paying attention to what they were doing. Who’s this just person who’s more just than I am the just us.

And then he, because is reading in Latin and in Greek he noticed something in the original, again, the Bible, the New Testament was written in Greek. And so, he notices something that that word righteousness is actually the word, this word diaca sene. But the word that was translated in Latin as just was actually the word again, diaca sine. So it wasn’t the just shall live by faith. It’s the righteous shall live by faith. And he had this moment, he was like, wait a minute. It’s not talking about justice; it’s talking about being justified. This is not talking about God exacting justice upon sinners for their transgression against holiness and righteousness. No, no, no. This is talking about God conveying justification upon sinners. This is not justice. This is being justified. My college professor would talk about the word justified or justified is God looking at you and saying, just as if I’d never sinned, when God looks at you and you come before him, the text is saying he doesn’t say, he says, what’s sin? All I see is my son. You are justified before God by faith.

16 A person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we too have put our faith in Jesus Christ that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.
Galatians 2

And then he is like, wait, wait, wait. He’s running through and he is kind of flipping through the scriptures and is this what the rest of the text is saying? Then, and he flips to Romans and it says it, and he flips to Ephesians and he says it and he flips to Galatians and he sees the words. In Galatians two, “a person is not justified by the works of the law.” A person is not justified by how often they scrub the floor of the monastery. A person is not justified by how many are fathers. They say a person is not justified by how much money they give to indulgences. A person is not justified by how much they do or don’t follow God’s law. A person is justified by faith in Christ. That’s it. It’s faith.

And this means that the most saintly person that Luther could think of was no more or no less righteous in God’s eyes than the thief on the cross who confessed at death’s door, Christ. And both the thief on the cross and the most saintly person you can think of are justified by faith in Christ. And he started to realize what this meant. The implications were huge. This means that the entire Catholic system that he looked at needed to be reformed. And this means he was going to upset a lot of people because a lot of people were going to lose their positions of power and Rome was going to lose all of its revenue stream. This was going to upset a lot of people. This could very well cost him his life. And it terrified him and he kind of sat on it for a little bit and he started talking to his friends and his peers about what he had discovered and they would debate it and he would just win hands down and he would go to his teachers or the other monks in the monastery and they were like, they couldn’t debate against him. It’s such an airtight argument Scripture after scripture after scripture making this point.

And so, in 1517 he couldn’t take it in anymore. He’s like, I got to go public with this. And so, on October 31st, 1517, he writes down 95 things that he sees wrong with the Catholic church. And he goes up to the door of a church in Wittenberg, Germany and nails these 95 grievances, the 95 theses on the door of this church, and thus begins the reformation. And what happened afterwards is astounding. And the heart of that, 95 theses, the heart of it is one tenant in Latin, sola fide or faith alone. Faith alone. This idea that we are justified, justified before God by faith alone, it is not faith plus the best you can do. And it’s not faith plus the most you can do. And it’s not faith plus the least you can do. It’s faith alone that saves you. That’s it. It’s just faith alone and it’s not faith that God is really kind and compassionate.

SOLA FIDE
He would never send anybody away from him for eternity. It’s not faith that God is good. It’s not faith that heaven is real. It’s not faith that all people are good people. No, it’s faith in Christ’s redemptive work alone. That’s it. Later on, they would describe this as that God would impart an external righteousness on they called it in Latin extra nose. It’s outside of ourselves. It’s foreign to us. It’s an alien righteousness that is conferred upon us, not by anything we’ve done to earn it, not by anything we’ve done to deserve it or any payment we’ve made to purchase it. It’s conveyed to us completely, entirely and solely by faith alone. That’s it. And if it was done, if God could give us righteousness by any other means, then Christ’s death means nothing.

If it was faith alone in Christ, after all we can do, then Christ’s death on a cross meant nothing. In fact, Christ’s death on a cross is a picture of the very thing that is required of us for our sins. You want to work off your sins before holy God. It’s not scrubbing a floor, it’s not fasting, it’s not pilgrimages to Rome. You want to work off your sin. It’s a cross. Scripture says the wages of sin is death, but it’s on the cross that God credited to Christ your sins and it’s by faith that God, it’s Christ’s righteousness to you.

And this is an astounding truth, my friends, if you’re sitting here going, well, that’s a nice theological nicety. That’s good doctrine. Okay, got that figured out. That’s nice, Chris. But the check engine light on my car is still on. That’s nice, Chris, but my bank account is about to be over-drafted. That’s nice, Chris. But my kid’s report card is still, I want to do corporal punishment. This doesn’t apply to my life. This doesn’t help me in the day to day. Then I would say, you are not thinking about this deeply enough. Think of what it means if you begin with the right standing with God by faith alone.

APPLICATION
Here I’ll help unpack it for you because you are certain that you are justified by God, by faith alone. You no longer have to run around trying to justify yourself before everyone. We do this all the time. Philosopher Carl Yung said, the human heart longs to justify itself. And he couldn’t find a reason why I would contend that. It’s because we know deep down inside there is some kind of eternal scale and we are being weighed against God’s standard for us and we always feel like we’re falling short. So what do we do? We play hot potato with blame and we do anything we can to abdicate ourself of any shred of blame. We justify ourselves all the time, all the time. We don’t say, sorry I was late. We say, sorry I was late. Traffic was terrible on 94 this weekend.

We don’t say sorry, I kicked my sister dad. We say I was just pushing her with my foot. That’s what I just heard on Thursday. We justify ourselves all the time. Actually, it’s a fun little experiment today. Just listen to the way that we talk, that you talk. We are constantly trying to justify everything so that we don’t feel a shred of guilt. It is a fascinating thing to watch and observe. Just try it. It it’s stunning. But if you are just before God, by faith alone, you don’t have to worry about any of that.

I’ll keep going. If you are certain that you are not condemned by God because of faith in Christ alone, then you don’t have to condemn yourself again and again and again. Why do we do it? I don’t know. It’s like there’s something weighing on us, this constant judgment. I’m not the wife I need to be. I’m not the husband I need to be. I’m not the employee I should be. I’m not the parent I should be. I’m not the child I should be. I’m not the sibling I should be. And you feel this constant feeling that you are disappointing the people in your life over and over again.

But if you start with this understanding that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ, it changes the way you live and interact with others. I’ll give you one more because you are certain that you are approved by God, by faith alone. You no longer have to run around seeking men’s approval. You can buy a new sweater, it’s fine. You can post pictures of your kids on Instagram. It’s fine. You can have company over and clean before they come. It’s fine. But now you’re not seeking validation based on their compliments of how dust-free your baseboards are, or you’re not seeking validation and approval based on how many likes your Instagram posts got. And you’re not seeking validation and approval based on how many compliments you got for your new sweater. You already have God’s approval and it changes the way you go about life because now you don’t need it so desperately from other people. I’m telling you guys, this is a profound concept because now think about it. You are not living life trying to become something you are not. You are living life trying to become something that you already are.

This is what reformed the church. This is what reformed western history. This is what reformed the lives of millions of people. And this is what has the potential to reform your life today, to begin living sola fide faith alone, confident and certain of your approval, your freedom from judgment and your justification before God. And it changes the way you live life. And when people see it, it is intoxicating. And I want it so desperately for you and that’s why we’re talking about it today and in these next few weeks so that you can be certain.

PRAYER
Lemme pray for you. Heavenly Father, we confess to you that we have fallen short of your standard for us. We acknowledge that you are far, far more holy than we can imagine, and we are far, far more sinful than we fear. Forgive us for trusting and putting our faith in any of our good deeds or putting our faith that we’re better than most and that somehow is going to win us entrance into your kingdom. It’s so subtle, it’s so easy. And forgive us for seeking approval from others as a way of gaining your approval. Forgive us for anytime we condemn ourselves when there is now no condemnation for those in Christ.

Forgive us for constantly trying to justify ourselves because we’re insecure in our right standing with you. And God, I pray today that you would help us live by faith alone in Christ and his redemptive work, and that in this today and in this series that you would reform our hearts, reform us that the world may see the change and want it for themselves. We are hardhearted, we are bitter. We’ve made other things far more important than this. Whether it’s the way we do church or this is it. This is the pure gospel. This is what it’s all about. So give us hearts that beat with sola fide, with faith alone. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen upon this, your confession of your sins. I as a called and ordained servant of the word announce to you the grace of God. Your sins are forgiven. You have God’s approval. You have a right standing with him. You are justified in the name of the Father, son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.