The 5 Solas of the Reformation
10/27/19 | Will DuVal
This morning, we are taking a brief pause from our study through the Gospel of Mark this year, to commemorate the 502nd anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. To my chagrin, Gary MISSED the 500th anniversary 2 years ago; but I figure, better late than never.
And before we go on: not ONLY is this Reformation Sunday, but it’s ALSO FAMILY Sunday, so where are all my kids at?! Parents – if you’re new here, we believe at WH that it’s important for kids to get programming specifically designed to connect with them on their level, and so 3 out of 4 Sundays that’s what we do; but we ALSO believe it’s VITALLY important for families to worship together, at LEAST once a month. We don’t want our children’s spiritual growth to simply be outsourced to someone else at the other wing of the building; we want them to know they are part of the CHURCH?! So Kids: On the one hand, parts of this morning’s message may be a little... DIFFICULT, for you to track with - we’re going to be learning about some HISTORY? How many of y’all like history?! Yeah?! Good for you! I HATED history when I was your age. I didn’t care about the people all AROUND me, much less dead people in books. But good for you – and here’s the thing: this is really, REALLY IMPORTANT history. In fact, the Protestant Reformation may be, arguably, the MOST important event in nearly the last 2,000 years of history since Jesus. And the REASON the Reformation was so important, was because of the MASSIVE significance of the “central truth” that Martin Luther discovered that, as you just heard in the video, changed not only his life, but changed the world forever. And we should really say that Luther “RE-covered” this truth; he didn’t actually DIS-cover anything NEW at all; this central truth is laid out plain and simple, right there in the Bible. In fact, it is THE central truth of ALL of Scripture; the Bible is really just one big story that tells one central message. And in the church, we call that message the GOSPEL, and THAT’S what the Reformation recovered for us.
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Gospel means “good news”. And HERE is the good news ABOUT this good news, kids: that even though the BIBLE is SO deep, and SO complex that you could spend your WHOLE LIFE studying it, and be WAAAY smarter than me, Pastor Will, you’d still never fully understand ALL the wonderful mysteries that God recorded for us in it; and YET, at the same time, the central truth, of the GOSPEL is SO simple, and SO basic, that my 3 year old daughter can understand it. And so can you. And if you can understand it, and more importantly, if you can receive it, Jesus says we have to have “faith like a CHILD” in order to get into Heaven. Kids – if you can believe the good news of Jesus, you can be SAVED, and enjoy eternal life with Him, in Heaven, forever. The Bible says in Romans 1:16 that the GOSPEL is the “power of salvation for all who believe”.
So... what IS this “good news” that is so central to our faith, and our eternal fate?
In 1 sentence, the gospel is the good news that even though you and I are sinners who deserve to be rejected by a perfect and JUST God, in His mercy, God made a WAY for sinners to be restored to a loving relationship with him because of what his Son Jesus has done FOR us.
THAT is the gospel. It’s the good news of HOPE and SALVATION from sin, through Jesus, for ALL who would simply believe. But 5 centuries ago, the Church had, over time, all but forgotten the gospel. And the Protestant Reformation was an attempt at just that: a PROTEST to REFORM the church. Roman Catholic Church; the only church that EXISTED at the time. Luther was a Catholic MONK. He had no DESIRE to overthrow the Church, or start a new denomination. He simply wanted to REFORM it. But much like the chief priests and Sanhedrin who killed JESUS in HIS day, these 16th c. popes and bishops rather ENJOYED the corrupt system they had created for their OWN selfish gain – it was WORKING, for them – so instead of repenting and reforming, they excommunicated Luther, and ex-TERMINATED many of his fellow Reformers, who threatened their power. The Catholic Church declared their protesting a crime punishable by DEATH. And many of the Reformers willingly gave their LIVES rather than renounce the truth of the gospel.
And the way THEY summarized it, we refer to today as the FIVE SOLAS of the Reformation. “Sola” is the Latin word for “alone” or “only”. So much of what was wrong with the Catholic Church is they had BURIED the gospel under a heap of UNBIBLICAL doctrines and practices. And the Reformation was an effort to strip all that JUNK away, that had come to obscure the gospel over the years, and recover the pure, undefiled CORE of Christianity. The BASICS. There are FIVE of them. In basketball, it’s dribble, pass, shoot, defend. In volleyball, it’s bump, set, spike, block – you add anything TO that, or take anything AWAY from that, and pretty soon you’re not playing volleyball anymore. You’ve got a PERVERSION of the true sport. So let’s unpack these FIVE SOLAS.
But First, let’s pray...
Now, before Sola #1, what WASN’T debated in the 16th c. Church, but is HIGHLY controversial in our 21st c. world, is the starting assumption that we are SINNERS, who need SAVING. Luther and the pope AGREED on that. They just disagreed on HOW that salvation occurs. But the basic premise that we NEED saving, saving from OURSELVES, from the sin that lives in MY OWN heart: no one was disputing that. But today, OUR culture obscures THAT truth, and indoctrinate US to believe the exact OPPOSITE message – that I don’t need saving from myself; I need to INDULGE myself; there’s nothing WRONG with me; if I think it, if I feel it, if I believe it, then it MUST be true and right and good. But God’s WORD says “the wages of sin is death...”. That there is a God. Who LOVINGLY gives us a moral standard to live by; I wouldn’t be a LOVING parent if I didn’t care how my daughter acted. Hug your Mom... slap her in the face... what difference does it make? NO! God LOVES us too much to let us live like that. He calls us to a life of obedience, because it’s GOOD for us. And yet we fall short. And the Bible calls this SIN – missing the mark that God lovingly desires for us. And the WAGES, what our sin rightfully EARNS us, is death. The death of our relationship with a holy, perfect God who can’t have any PART of sin. And God IS life, He is the AUTHOR and CREATOR and SUSTAINER of life, in Him we live and move and have our being; so to REJECT God, is to reject LIFE, and choose the opposite: death.
Ephesians 2:1-3 summarizes our situation well (For the sake of time I’m going to SKIP some of the passages I listed for you in the bulletin; go look them up later on your own): “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body[a] and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.” Notice again: the Bible describes our natural state in the exact OPPOSITE way that our 21st c. American culture does: we are NATURALLY “children of wrath”, that is, children who rightfully deserve the Heavenly Father’s wrath; it’s not just that God is disappointed by our sin; it doesn’t just UPSET him, or SADDEN him; God HATES our sin. He HATES it, because he LOVES us – v4: [[“But[c] God, being rich in mercy,]] because of the great love with which he loved us, [[5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ”]]. Love means wanting the BEST for someone. And God KNOWS how much our sin WRECKS our lives; as a Good Father, He wants so much BETTER for us. He created us, for better. For worship. The HIGHEST aim of all – to bring Him glory. But in our sin, we worship ourselves instead. So we need SAVING. But how does that salvation HAPPEN?
Well, for starters, #1 – salvation comes in accordance with SCRIPTURE alone. Sola Scriptura. That was the rally cry of the Reformation. Scripture alone. That’s where we HAVE to start, because the whole reason the 16th c. Church had devolved into the corrupted system it HAD was because the church had lost its moorings. All the other 4 Solas ultimately HINGE on this one, because they’re all grounded... in Scripture. You let go of the OBJECTIVE truth of SCRIPTURE, the word of GOD, as your ultimate source of authority, then SOMEONE ELSE has to replace Him, as the authority.
And the pope said, “I’ll do it!”. And the church declared ITSELF – its leaders and traditions – to be EQUALLY authoritative, as God’s word. The pope’s interpretation of the Bible became just as important as the Bible itself. A priest’s application of Scripture was just as important as Scripture itself. So when the Bible says “God loves a cheerful giver”, and the Church interpreted “You’ve got to give half your weekly paycheck to us, or your soul will be eternally DAMNED,” then that became the final, authoritative word. And it HELPED that the only COPIES of the Bible that the Church allowed were held IN the churches, BY the priests, written IN Latin, a language that had been DEAD for 1,000 years, and “preached” in Latin Masses, so that no one could understand, because Heaven forbid people get ahold of the Bible, and read it for themselves, in their own language; they might decide to give LESS than half their paycheck to the Church. So the Church had a vested interest in keeping people in the dark.
But Luther was an insider. A whistle-blower. And he read 1 Peter 2 for HIMSELF, and realized Christianity is SUPPOSED to be a priesthood of ALL believers. Luther read Mark 10: “the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them... but Whoever would be great among you must be your servant”. These priests and popes weren’t doing a lot of SERVING. 2 Timothy 4:2 – church leaders are called to SERVE God’s people His WORD: “Preach THE WORD”. Why? Because 2 Timothy 3 – the Bible describes ITSELF as “the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. [Salvation comes ONLY through the illuminating light of God’s WORD. And that’s EXACTLY what the Bible is, verse 16...] 16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God[b] may be complete.” Scripture is SUFFICIENT. It lacks NOTHING that we need, for ETERNAL life.
Luther read 2 Peter 1, [[“no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. 21 For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (20-21)]] and realized that Scripture, isn’t mere interpretation; THIS is the inspired word of GOD.
So Luther famously CONCLUDED, at the Diet of Worms in 1521, that “Unless I am convinced by Scripture and plain reason - I do not accept the authority of the popes and councils, for they have contradicted each other - my conscience is captive to the Word of God.” And for that statement, for claiming that Scripture ALONE was his ultimate authority, Luther was excommunicated; cast OUT of the church.
But friends, the situation REALLY hasn’t changed all that much in 500 years, has it? If you walked into any Roman Catholic Mass in town right now, and simply asked around, “Hey, just curious: why are you doing that?” With the (*sign of the cross*)... with the... prayer beads... lighting the candles... virtually EVERYTHING that takes place during Mass; why are you DOING that? The answer will almost CERTAINLY be: “It’s TRADITION. It’s what we’ve always done. The priest told me to. Because church tradition is STILL just as important as Scripture.
But let’s bring it a little closer to home. How many PROTESTANT churches today put THEIR OWN dogma above Scripture? If the agenda is “open and affirming” – if what is most important is that EVERYONE here feels really good about themselves, no matter what, instead of feeling really CONVICTED about my SIN and my need for a SAVIOR, REGARDLESS of whatever my particular sin struggle might be – if THAT’S your agenda, then you’ve really resigned yourself to taking a pair of scissors to MASSIVE chunks of the Bible that don’t fit your theological presuppositions. At the end of the day, ALL of us have to decide who or what our ultimate authority in life is going to be: is it our CULTURE? Is it my GUT? “I dunno, that passage of the Bible just doesn’t sit right with me...” Well, if it’s GOD’S word, and you’re not God; in fact, you’re a SINNER – then that kind of makes SENSE, doesn’t it? That LOTS of stuff in the Bible wouldn’t sit right with us. Right?
Friends, thank GOD this morning for His word. That he has not left us in the dark. To try and figure OUT the truth on our own. And thank God for his church – for this place, where we can come together, with brothers and sisters, centered around the WORD OF GOD, Amen?
#2 – Luther recovered the truth that Salvation comes BY GRACE ALONE.
Because of its stance that the Church possessed the same authority as Scripture, Roman Catholicism claimed that SALVATION was a gift not just from a loving, merciful God, but that it was a gift of the CHURCH as well. THE CHURCH was the arbiter of salvation. And salvation FOR the church, had become not so much a GIFT, as a HOT COMMODITY, to be bartered and sold for top dollar; after all, what price WOULDN’T you pay, for a ticket into Heaven? And ONLY the church was selling them - They had a MONOPOLY on Heaven. 76 years before Luther arrived on the scene, the Council of Florence declared “The most Holy Roman Church firmly believes, professes and preaches that none of those existing outside the Catholic Church... can have a share in life eternal.” Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus – “There is no salvation outside the Church”.
But then Luther started reading Scripture for himself, and he couldn’t find that passage anywhere. What he DID find, was Romans 3:23-24 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus”. We are justified – we are DECLARED innocent of our sin; acquitted of all wrongdoing, and its penalty: death – by HIS grace, given FREELY as a GIFT, through the REDEMPTION, that is in Christ Jesus - he BOUGHT US BACK; we don’t have to BUY salvation because he already PURCHASED it for us at the HIGHEST cost: his own blood.
Because as David says in Psalm 51:4, “Against you, You ONLY, have I sinned, O Lord”. I don’t need the CHURCH’S pardon; I need GOD’S forgiveness. My sin isn’t against THE CHURCH; that’s not the relationship that’s been damaged and needs restoring. So I don’t need a priest to tell me how many “Hail Mary’s” I need to say, cuz I don’t owe HIM ANYTHING. I need GOD’S forgiveness. Reconciliation with HIM!
That’s what LUTHER came to realize: “Only God can forgive - the pope can only reassure people that God will do this.” That’s Thesis #6 of his famous 95 critiques of the Church, that he nailed to the cathedral door at Wittenberg that kicked off this whole Protest. Luther had the AUDACITY to contend: “It is wrong to think that papal pardons have the power to absolve all sin.” (#75) He read it for himself, in Ephesians 2:4-5 “But[c] God, (NOT the POPE! But GOD) being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved”.
And Luther declared, just as Paul does right there Ephesians 2:5, that this GRACE, #3 – comes through CHRIST alone. NOT through the vicarious merits of the saints. See, the Church’s system for doling out salvation was based on this sort of bizarre line of reasoning that there were a few people, mainly former popes and bishops, it was kind of a “good ole boys’” type club where I beatify the pope before me, with the understanding that when I die, it’s the new pope’s job to pronounce ME a “saint” officially; and there were just a few people who had lived REALLY really good lives, SUCH good lives that by the end, they had excess good deeds, or MERITS, stored up, beyond what they needed to USE in order to get into heaven. They had EXTRA. So there was this invisible, spiritual TREASURE chest of merits that the Church presided over, and had the authority to bestow on others, the rest of us sinners whose own merits didn’t add up; who aren’t good enough to get into Heaven on our own.
And it was OUT of this weird theology that the concept of PURGATORY was born. The Catholic Church invented the idea of Purgatory to explain where Christians, who were SINNERS, and thus couldn’t be admitted straight into HEAVEN, because Heaven is a perfect place for perfect people, and yet, if the person was still for the MOST part a good, faithful Catholic, then she couldn’t go to HELL either; so the Church invented this in-between place for souls to go and “BURN OFF” all their imperfections, pay for their earthly sins, and be purified in order to get into Heaven.
But once again, Luther couldn’t find anything about Purgatory in Scripture. So his thesis #16 corrected the Church’s teaching, that what they called “Purgatory” was in fact just “Hell”. John Calvin, the SECOND most important Reformer, went even further. He called Purgatory “[[Purgatory is]] a deadly fiction of Satan, which nullifies the cross of Christ, inflicts unbearable contempt upon God’s mercy, and overturns and destroys our faith. For what means this purgatory of theirs but that satisfaction for sins is paid by the souls of the dead [themselves]? . . . But if it is perfectly clear . . . that the blood of Christ is the sole satisfaction for the sins of believers, the sole expiation, the sole purgation, what remains but to say that purgatory is simply a dreadful blasphemy against Christ?” (Institutes of the Christian Religion, 3.5.6)
If Christ is truly sufficient for salvation, who needs Purgatory?
Luther further undermined the idea of RELICS. A relic was something that supposedly belonged to a deceased saint – the femur of John the Baptist, the hairbrush of Pope Boniface VIII – and the Church claimed these objects had magical, saving powers. Luther called them [[“Relics are... in fact,]] evil in concept.” (Thesis #58)
Because once again, NONE of these ideas – the merit chest of the saints, Purgatory, relics – NONE of it was BIBLICAL. Instead, what Luther read plainly in Scripture, was
Hebrews 9:12 - that “[Christ] entered once for all into the holy places... by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.” Jesus’ sacrificial, atoning death on the cross in our place was SUFFICIENT; Jesus meant it when he said, “It is FINISHED”. Our eternal redemption is now SECURE in Him. We don’t have to wait, and stress, and hope, and pray, that our combination of our good deeds and purchased merits of other saints, and holiness by osmosis from their relics, and paying the rest of the balance for ourselves in Purgatory – ALL of that is a direct OFFENSE to the gospel truth that salvation is found in CHRIST alone.
Luther discovered that the theological distortions of the 16th c. Church were really no different than the 1st c. ones the apostle PAUL had to deal with. In Galatians 5, he had written to warn the church against false teachers who were claiming that Jesus wasn’t enough for salvation; they had to trust in Jesus AND be circumcised. Jesus AND observance of the OT Law. And Paul replied: “if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. 3 I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. 4 You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified[a] by the law; you have fallen away from grace.” (vv2-4).
In other words, Jesus + Anything = Nothing. The GOSPEL is that Jesus + Nothing = Everything. But you try and add ANYTHING to Jesus, and you totally undermine the sufficiency of the cross. Galatians 2:21 “ I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness[c] were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.”
2 Corinthians 5:17-18 “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.[b] The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. (It’s DONE. FINISHED. Safe and secure. Salvation can’t be UNDONE any more than a person can be un-BORN. A NEW creation. And v18...) 18 All this is from God (Not the Church, not the saints, not Mary, not the pope, not your works, your time in Purgatory; it’s from GOD!), who through Christ reconciled us to himself”. Past tense. It’s done. Not because OUR works are sufficient, but because CHRIST’S work on our BEHALF... was.
Therefore, ours is no longer a weak, shaky, uncertain faith, but a BOLD and CONFIDENT assurance, that Romans 8:1 “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Because there’s nothing left to be PAID! No outstanding guilt, no leftover balance, no debt remaining that we owe God, friends – Is has been PAID IN FULL by Jesus Christ!
Do we believe that this morning? Really believe it; Forget about the Reformation for just a minute; what about YOU? Kids – what about YOU? Kids, listen to me for a second: who’s the OLDEST person you know? ....[June?]... Listen: I know you’re not thinking about it right now, and it seems like the SECOND GRADE is dragging on forever, much less the next 80 years of LIFE, but if you are LUCKY, you MIGHT make it to 94. But God doesn’t promise you tomorrow. Even the rest of TODAY! You could get in a car accident on the way home today, and here’s the question that you, and me, and ALL of us here have to be ready to answer: 94, 34, or 4 years old – “When God asks you why He should let you into Heaven, how will you respond?”
Will you say “Because I was a pretty good person”? “I went to church most Sundays”? “I was baptized”? “My Mommy and Daddy believed in Jesus”? What will you SAY?
I know how I’m responding: “In Christ alone, my hope is found – I am His and He is mine; Bought with the precious blood of Christ.”
And BECAUSE our salvation was purchased by Christ alone, all WE have to do, all we are ABLE to do, is #4 - simply receive salvation as the gift that it is, in FAITH alone. Sola FIDE.
This whole corrupted system of merits, the need to EARN your way to Heaven, proved to be QUITE lucrative for the Church. Because as we said, most people COULDN’T... earn their way in, on their own merit. And that’s where the Church’s treasure chest of the SAINTS’ merits came in handy. The Church began selling these tickets, they were called “INDULGENCES”, and they were literally slips of paper that said, “this buys you one fewer day in Purgatory”, and you could buy them not just for YOURSELF, but for your deceased loved ones who had ALREADY passed away, and were currently anguishing in Purgatory, trying to pay their remaining sins off. And that just threw the market WIDE open for the Church. You may remember the motto of the MOST famous indulgence salesman, Johann Tetzel: “As soon as your coin in the church coffer rings, a soul from Purgatory springs.” And the Church got busy liberating PLENTY of souls; because there were PLENTY of cathedrals to be built, PLENTY of priests to send on vacation.
But Luther pointed out, once again, that the whole IDEA of indulgences, the notion that YOU could purchase your OWN salvation, rather than simply receive it as a GIFT from God, amounted to telling God that HIS grace wasn’t sufficient. Christ’s SACRIFICE was enough. Luther RADICALLY insisted: “An indulgence will not save a man.” (#21), “It is vain to rely on an indulgence to forgive your sins.” (#52) & “It is nonsense to teach that a dead soul in Purgatory can be saved by money.” (#27) & “A man can be free of sin if he sincerely repents – an indulgence is not needed.” (#36)
Why? Because John 6:28-29 “[The crowd] said to [Jesus], “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” 29 Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”” You really want to EARN your salvation? WORK for it? OBEY God enough... DO something that can get you into heaven? Here’s what you can do: STOP doing. Trust Jesus. That’s the ONLY thing you can do: believe in HIM. Admit that you are unable to do it on your own, REPENT and turn from your attempts to do it YOUR way, and trust in HIM instead.
Romans 3:28 “we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.”
Romans 4:4-5 “Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. [Paul says, ‘If you WORK for it; it’s called a PAYCHECK. And trust me, you don’t want the paycheck that your SIN earns you; the wages of sin is DEATH.] 5 But to the one who does not work but believes in[a] him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.”
Romans 5:1-2 “Since we have been justified by faith, we[a] have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith[b] into this grace in which we stand.”
Galatians 2:16 “we know that a person is not justified[b] by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ”
And MOST famously, Ephesians 2:8-9 “By grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
So I ask you again this morning, friends: what are YOU trusting in, for the salvation of YOUR soul? WHO are you trusting in?
And LASTLY, WHY are you trusting in Him? Is it for YOUR glory? Or do you realize, that even your SALVATION, is not first and foremost about you, but is ultimately #5 - for the GLORY OF GOD alone.
The Church in Luther’s day was all about its OWN glory. It's OWN flourishing. So Luther asked, “If the Pope can empty Purgatory, why doesn’t he do it out of love and not for the sake of miserable money with which to build a Church?” (#82) “Why doesn’t the Pope, whose wealth is greater than the riches of the richest, build just this one church of St. Peter with his OWN money, rather than with the money of poor believers?” (#86
Because Luther studied the SCRIPTURES, and came to understand that even our SALVATION isn’t mostly about us, but about GOD receiving the glory and honor and praise that is due His name: Ephesians 1 “In love, he predestined us[b] for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace.” (vv5-6) WHY? Why did He in love CHOOSE us and ADOPT us, DESPITE our sinfulness and unworthiness? v12: it was “...so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.” God gets glory by saving undeserving, seemingly HOPE-LESS sinners like you and me. By proving that HIS power is greater than OUR failures, HIS faithfulness is greater than OUR faith-LESS-ness, that though our sins they are MANY, HIS mercy is MORE.
And the more broke we WERE, the more power God had to DISPLAY, to RESCUE us, the more glory he gets. So church, let’s stop dressing it up. Can we start wearing our spiritual SWEATPANTS to church? Stop pretending we’ve got it all together. Don’t shrink the cross of Jesus. If his cross was meant to bridge the gap between a perfect God and a sinful me, then whatever areas of my life I’ve got figured out on my own is an area that I no longer need Jesus. And I don’t know about you, but I DESPERATELY need Jesus in EVERY area of MY life. And I’m not afraid to confess my sins, even publicly, from the PULPIT to you, and lead with my brokenness, because it’s not about MY glory, and making sure people think I’M really great; it’s about HIS glory. The great God who has redeemed me. According to Scripture alone, by HIS grace alone, through Christ alone, who I received in FAITH alone, all unto the Glory of GOD alone. Amen. Let’s pray...)