Welcome to The MHB Podcast. This is Michael Baun. And welcome to my 115th episode. Before we get into our topic I have some announcements. If you are watching this episode on YouTube or on Facebook then you know I’ve launched a video component to the podcast. It’s nothing extravagant, just a fly-on-wall style recording of me producing the audio. I’ve received several requests to record these podcasts in video format for YouTube. I’ve been hesitant to do that because I don’t want to add anything to the podcast that cannot be experienced purely through audio. I have my reasons for this and chief among them is the fact that audio podcast technology is revolutionary. I think the work of my fellow YouTube creators is very valuable, but if I create a podcast that requires you to sit and watch instead of being able to consume on-the-go or while you’re doing other things then the purpose is somewhat defeated.
I want you, the listener, to be able to access my content at your convenience during any moment of your busy schedule. So if you want to see the video version you can watch it on YouTube or Facebook. If you’re sticking with audio – rest assured that the video version is bringing nothing more to the table than me talking into the microphone. You might ask: why even do a video version? The reason is because when my content gets recommended on YouTube, the viewer quickly discovers that it’s audio-only and so switches to listening through a podcast app. This quick-switching is causing my content to get demoted and recommended less often. So this is my attempt to solve that problem while not changing anything about the original audio. If this works out then I’ll keep it up in all of the episodes going forward.
Okay so announcements aside, in this episode I want to explain the five solas. The five solas are exclusionary points that can help give you a framework for your theology. They are Sola Scriptura, Sola Fide, Sola Gratia, Solus Christus, and Soli Deo Gloria. Don’t worry about remembering these by name because if you are exposed to Scripture regularly then you’ll see that each of these points emerges from the text. It’s just helpful to understand each of them because they prevent you from straying too far into bad teaching. My goal for this episode is for you to walk away with a solid compass for navigating Christianity.
So let’s begin with Sola Scriptura. Sola Scriptura means by Scripture alone. Sola Scriptura claims that the Bible is the inspired word of God. It is inerrant and authoritative. Scripture is sufficient for explaining who God is, who you are, and the relationship between yourself and God. Scripture makes up the context of your life which means it answers the questions of where you’re from, why you’re here, how you should act, and where you are going. Scripture is sufficient for teaching you how to love God and how to love your neighbor. The Scriptures contain everything you need to learn about who God is and therefore live a life that is pleasing to Him. By consulting the Scriptures you can understand the fallen nature of humanity as well as the gospel truth that reconciliation with God is had by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Not only is Scripture all-sufficient in the domain of spiritual concern, but it’s also necessary for the explorations of scientific concern. Let me explain how.
Science deals with the study of objective facts. The purpose of the scientific method is to strip away all value judgments and analyze objectivity. But your brain is not designed to function in objective analysis, your brain is designed to function in narrative. You care more about the story of your life than you do about using the anisotropic synchrony convention to study the one-way speed of light. The truth is that you need oxygen to survive but you spend more time thinking about the story you’re building with your loved ones than you do about oxygen. If you were deprived of oxygen it would dominate your thoughts quickly, but that’s only because the lack of it is a threat to the continuation of your story.
Even the advancement of science and technology itself is bound by story. We do research and try to learn about the world so that we can make life better. But making life better is an ethical motivation and ethics are inseparable from story. Here’s a good example: you care more about your loved ones than you do about the random stranger you pass on the street. But the only difference between your loved one and the stranger is that you share a history with your loved one. The stranger is the loved one of someone else but that fact doesn’t make you love them. When you first meet someone you get to know them and the definition of getting to know someone is learning about their story. You build trust with people by establishing a history with them and observing their proper conduct across time.
Science is not primary because you do science for motivated reasons which are bound up in your story. You can do science to improve life or you can do science to develop a weapon of mass destruction. Science is simply a tool and the narrative you choose to believe in will determine how you use that tool. Modern people ask why God chose to reveal Himself in the written word and in the person of Christ. I think it’s because your brain is biologically constructed to see the world through the lens of a story – and Christ is the protagonist of that story. I take the faith-based presupposition that Scripture provides the story that is required to have the lens necessary to see the world the way it actually is. If you put hot chocolate in your gas tank instead of gasoline your engine would break down. Even if you believed with all your heart that it was designed to take hot chocolate – it would still break down. In the same way, if the story you’re telling yourself is inconsistent with ultimate reality then your life will break down.
None of this is to say that we don’t need science and reason. If Scripture provides the construct by which we are able to see ultimate reality, therefore showing us how to act – then science and reason give us the tools necessary to carry out those actions. Here’s the example I love to use. Scripture instructs you to love your neighbor as yourself. If your neighbor had an infection 200 years ago, loving your neighbor as yourself would have meant bloodletting to cure the infection. But if your neighbor had an infection today, applying leeches and cutting him to bleed the infection out instead of taking him to the doctor for medicine would be sinful. The only thing that’s changed between now and 200 years ago is our scientific understanding of infection. Scripture gives us the guidelines to using science properly (remember, science can be used to improve life or to destroy it) and the more we grow in our understanding of the objective world the more precisely we are able to apply Scripture. The relationship between science and Scripture is symbiotic and neither enterprise can be dispensed with.
Let’s go over some passages in the Bible that discuss the sufficiency of Scripture. My favorite is found in Psalm 19:7-11:
Psa 19:7 The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple;
Psa 19:8 the precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes;
Psa 19:9 the fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the LORD are true, and righteous altogether.
Psa 19:10 More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb.
Psa 19:11 Moreover, by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward.
This is perhaps the greatest compact defense of Scripture found in all of the Bible. The first thing I want you to notice about this passage is that it makes six declarations about Scripture. Inside of each declaration is the phrase of the LORD, of the LORD, of the LORD – six times. These declarations are using the covenant name of God to show us that Scripture comes from God. It is God-breathed. The phrase is repeated six times to leave us no doubt that the source of all of Scripture is God Himself. Notice also how Scripture is called by six different names: it is called law, testimony, precepts, commandment, fear, and rules (or judgments). It also lists six characteristics of Scripture: it is perfect, sure, right, pure, clean, and true. And it lists six benefits of Scripture: it revives the soul, makes wise the simple, rejoices the heart, enlightens the eyes, endures forever, and produces comprehensive righteousness. This passage is a full and complete defense of the sufficiency of Scripture in 5 verses. And if you study Psalm 119 you’ll see an expanded version of this defense that is 176 verses.
Scripture is called the law of the LORD because it is God’s instruction to us. Scripture is God telling us how to live life to its fullest. In this regard God says that it is perfect. The Hebrew term for the word perfect means comprehensive or all-sided. So Scripture lacks nothing when it comes to restoring your soul. Your soul is like your inner person – people often call it your mind, your heart, or your self. So the aim of Scripture is fully focused on your inner being and it is perfect in that focus. Scripture is not aimed at the temporal issues like how to fix your car – although many temporal issues will be resolved by proxy when your soul is restored. Scripture is divine instruction from God that is so complete it can entirely transform your inner person. The Bible is always targeting your soul. The Holy Spirit works through the Scriptures to convert, regenerate, and ultimately save your soul.
Scripture is called the testimony of the LORD because it is God’s witness to us. It is God telling us who He is, what He wills, and what He will do. In this regard God says that it is sure. Scripture is unwavering, trustworthy, reliable, and certain. God Himself guarantees that you can trust it and follow it. The word of God is more certain and more absolute than gravity. In the New Testament Peter witnessed the transfiguration of Christ which was an event more magnificent than anything we’ve ever seen – yet Peter said the Scriptures are even more resolute than that experience.
The word of God is perfect in its purpose of making simple people wise. The Hebrew term for simple is open. So a simple person is someone who believes everything that enters his or her mind indiscriminately. Scripture gives you the ability to shelter your mind from ideas and thoughts that will hurt you. It tells you how to close the door and keep the ways of the wicked outside. I’m the kind of person who likes to understand opposing viewpoints to my own. But you should know that I go about that work very carefully and with discernment. It’s not a good idea to try it if you are particularly suggestible and simple. Although if you are simple minded, studying the Scriptures and trying to understand them will make you wise. You’ve heard many people say that wisdom comes from age and experience. This can certainly be true but it’s not always true because it’s possible to just be wrong for a very long time. The good news is you don’t have to put yourself through the long years of mistakes in order to get wisdom. Scripture is able to take inexperienced, naive people and make them skilled at living.
Scripture is called the precepts of the LORD which means the doctrines of God. You can say that these are the truth-claims of God. These are God’s statutes. When we lose these established truth-claims we descend into chaotic relativism. In this regard it is called right. The Hebrew term for right means right path. Accepting and meditating on God’s precepts is how you stay on the right path through life. Life is full of deception, confusion, and pitfalls. Despite the deadly danger, the word of God allows you to walk through life with a joyful heart because it keeps you on the right path through the maze.
Scripture is called the commandment of the LORD which means it is God’s decrees. The Bible provides us with commands that are non-negotiable. Jesus said the two greatest commandments are to love God and to love your neighbor as yourself. The commandments of God are pure, clear, and accessible. This idea speaks of biblical perspicuity which means clearly understood. Scripture gives clear instructions for life. That doesn’t mean all of its wisdom can be imparted on your first read-through. There are passages in Scripture that require literary and historical context to be properly understood. But the meaning of Scripture is accessible to everyone – and even more so once you’ve put your faith in Christ and have been illumined by the Holy Spirit. This passage says that Scripture enlightens the eyes which means it allows you to see the truth. It allows you to look at reality and see it the way it actually is. This is what it means to have the mind of Christ. You think about things the way God thinks about things and that means you understand the truth.
Scripture is called the fear of the LORD which means the worship of God. So the Bible is like a manual on worship. The Bible tells us to worship God in spirit and in truth. That means if we lose Scripture we lose our ability to worship because we lose the truth. In this regard it is called clean. Clean means free from error. Scripture is free from corruption and is eternal. That means it’s just as relevant today as it was a millennium ago.
Scripture is called the rules of the LORD which means the judgments of God. The Bible is absolute truth. It is perfectly sufficient to provide comprehensive righteousness. This means that if you learn and obey the commandments of God found in Scripture you will be completely righteous. I don’t know about you but I’m not there yet. The Holy Spirit sanctifies us or makes us holy. When we pass away we will experience glorification and finally be free of sin forever. I always tell people that if you struggle with a sin it’s critically important that you maintain the fact that it’s a sin. Our guilt tempts us to rewrite God’s commandments to suit our sinful nature. That’s one of the reasons Christ had to die to forgive us of this guilt. God has given us everything we need in Scripture to be completely righteous. No matter what we do we must not change His prescriptions. The best we can do is aim up and pray for His Spirit to sanctify us. Listen to 2 Timothy 3:10-17. This is Paul writing to Timothy about the Scriptures.
2Ti 3:10 You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness,
2Ti 3:11 my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra—which persecutions I endured; yet from them all the Lord rescued me.
2Ti 3:12 Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,
2Ti 3:13 while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.
2Ti 3:14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it
2Ti 3:15 and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
2Ti 3:16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,
2Ti 3:17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
We see the true nature of Sola Scriptura. By the Scriptures alone. Once we understand and accept that the Bible can completely transform our inner being we get a taste of its infinite value. Psalm 19 says it should be sought after more than the finest gold. The joy that God’s word brings into our hearts is sweeter than the drippings of the honeycomb. We need Scripture to be a light to guide our footsteps through life and it is by Scripture alone that this is possible.
The next solas that I want to talk about are Sola Fide and Sola Gratia. Sola Fide means by faith alone. Sola Gratia means by grace alone. Listen to Ephesians 2:1-10. This is Paul explaining Sola Fide and Sola Gratia to the church at Ephesus.
Eph 2:1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins
Eph 2:2 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—
Eph 2:3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
Eph 2:4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,
Eph 2:5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—
Eph 2:6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
Eph 2:7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
Eph 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
Eph 2:9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Eph 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
We are saved by God’s grace through faith in Christ alone. It is Christ’s perfect sacrifice that saves us. Our salvation is not a consequence of our own righteous works. God grants us salvation as a free gift paid for by the blood of Jesus. So despite our sins God saves us. Regardless of our good works God saves us. And He does that because God loves us. Even when we go through difficult seasons of faithlessness God remains faithful to us because of His infinite grace. God is holy, which means sinful beings such as ourselves cannot stand before Him without being destroyed. By His grace and His mercy, God took the punishment of our sin onto Himself when He went to the cross. By His grace and His mercy, God imparts the righteousness of Jesus Christ onto us so that we may be reconciled to Him. That is the essence of Sola Fide and Sola Gratia.
Next I want to talk about Solus Christus which means by Christ alone. God has given us the perfect revelation of Himself in the person of Jesus Christ. Listen to Paul’s description of the character of Christ and his explanation of Solus Christus in Colossians 1:15-23:
Col 1:15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
Col 1:16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.
Col 1:17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
Col 1:18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.
Col 1:19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell,
Col 1:20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
Col 1:21 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds,
Col 1:22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him,
Col 1:23 if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.
Jesus Christ is God’s gracious revelation of Himself to us. Only through Christ can we encounter the soul-transforming knowledge of God. Religious rituals and good works are not enough to mediate between us and God. There is nothing we can do to redeem ourselves such that we become righteous enough to stand before God on our own merit. The name of Jesus is the only name by which we can be saved and His sacrificial atonement is our only gate to redemption. That is the essence of Solus Christus.
Lastly I want to talk about Soli Deo Gloria which means glory belongs to God alone. God’s glory is the central motivation for salvation and for His redemptive work. It’s a wonderful thing that God-fearing Christians make the world a better place and improve the lives of others. But human benevolence is not the power which is fueling the grand design of history. The entire purpose of creation and the entire purpose of the narrative we exist in is to bring glory to God. Irenaeus of Lyons said that man fully alive is the glory of God. Listen to Paul explain Soli Deo Gloria to the church in Corinth in 1 Corinthians 10:23-33:
1Co 10:23 “All things are lawful,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful,” but not all things build up.
1Co 10:24 Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor.
1Co 10:25 Eat whatever is sold in the meat market without raising any question on the ground of conscience.
1Co 10:26 For “the earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof.”
1Co 10:27 If one of the unbelievers invites you to dinner and you are disposed to go, eat whatever is set before you without raising any question on the ground of conscience.
1Co 10:28 But if someone says to you, “This has been offered in sacrifice,” then do not eat it, for the sake of the one who informed you, and for the sake of conscience—
1Co 10:29 I do not mean your conscience, but his. For why should my liberty be determined by someone else’s conscience?
1Co 10:30 If I partake with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of that for which I give thanks?
1Co 10:31 So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
1Co 10:32 Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God,
1Co 10:33 just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved.
I want to close by recapping what we’ve learned about the five solas. Sola Scriptura, by Scripture alone. Sola Fide and Sola Gratia, by faith alone and by grace alone. Solus Christus, by Christ alone. And Soli Deo Gloria, for the glory of God alone. I hope the five solas can help you by functioning as a theological framework for your understanding of Christianity. I pray that you will rest in the Scriptures – either by reading them or hearing them taught to you. I pray that you experience the peace of God’s grace through investing your faith in Jesus Christ. I pray that the name of Jesus awakens you to the truth and clears your vision. And I pray all of it for the glory of God alone. Amen.
If you enjoy this podcast, please rate it on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to it. You can follow The MHB Podcast on Facebook or Twitter @mhbpodcast. Tell your friends about it and share it on social media. If you’d like email notifications of new episodes or if you’d like to support my work directly, please consider becoming a paid subscriber on my website at mhbpodcast.com. This work is made possible by listener support so your generosity is greatly appreciated. Thank you all for joining me, and I will see you in the next episode.
The MHB Podcast 