This week we will continue on our series on the Five Solas. Last week Pastor Tom looked at Sola Gratia – By Grace Alone. This week we will consider Sola Fide. In English, this means “Faith Alone.” Let’s take a deeper look at what that means to us and how we can apply that to our everyday lives.

Sola Fide, in layman’s terms, means that nothing we do or say can be the reason that we are justified before God. At times, that is a struggle for me to believe. Like many others I am very much a fixer - when I see something wrong I want to be able to fix it. Sometimes I allow that mindset to seep into my relationship with Jesus and try to fix the gap between us. I believe the lie that, if I don’t live or act this certain way, then my standing before God changes. That is the opposite of the Gospel! God’s love for me has never been dependent on me.  Believing the lie also means I am making more of myself than I really am.

Scripture is filled with verses that show us, time and time again, that it really is the work of God that saves us. For example, hear what Paul says here in Galatians: “We know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.”  Paul makes it very clear here that we aren’t justified by what we do, but by what Jesus did for us on the cross.

What does that mean for you this week? I listened to a sermon that asked a question which has really stuck with me. If I am justified by faith alone, what can I do to change God’s view of me as his child? If I believe God receives me based on what Jesus has done for me and not what I’ve done, then the answer is nothing! Nothing can change the fact that I am a child of God. When I remember that, then I really know what it means to be justified before God by faith alone.