The question is, "What does 'sola fide' mean?" It's a Latin phrase that means "faith alone".
Christians have been professing the "five solas" of the Reformation. One of these is sola fide, faith alone.
But why are Christians professing that we have faith alone? Faith alone in what? Because we don't have faith in faith but we have faith in a person - it's the person and work of Jesus Christ. So what sola fide means is it's a confessional statement of where our trust and hope is.
I want to read out of the book of Ephesians 2:4-5 to show us where our faith comes from and who it's in.
"But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God" (Eph 2:4-8, ESV)
Sola fide is a reminder that our faith is in Christ; our faith is in the person and work of Christ. It's how we are then justified, how we are declared clean before a holy God because in and of ourselves we're not holy, we're sinful, we're enemies of God. So how are we restored to a correct righteousness with God? Do we have to do enough good things to earn God's favor? Are we justified based off of what we do? Or are justified based off of what somebody else has done? Are we justified based off of the person and work of Jesus, his perfect life, his obedience to God's law, and his atonement for our sins? That's the confession of sola fide. We are saved by faith alone.
Even one of our historic confessions outside of scripture says that saving faith is the accepting, receiving, and resting upon Jesus, him alone, for justification, sanctification, and eternal life.
Sola fide is our confession that we are saved by faith alone in Christ, that our faith rests upon Christ alone, not ourselves. We are truly saved by faith in him and him alone.
Luke Wartgow (MTS, Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary; BA, University of Nevada-Reno) is a pastor at Carson Valley Bible Church in Minden, NV. He is husband to Gina and father of three.
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