You
have heard of the popular 5 solas.
How
do you understand them?
I
understand the 5 solas like this:
Sola
Scriptura, by Scripture alone:
-
Scriptures are the only infallible source of divine revelation on creation,
providence and redemption.
Solus
Christus, through Christ alone:
-
Christ and His redemptive work are the sole BASIS and alone GROUND of eternal
salvation.
Sola
Gratia, by grace alone:
- The eternal salvation purposed by God and secured by Jesus Christ alone for His people is bestowed upon each
one of them by God's free and sovereign grace while they were still in their
native state of sin and death, being wholly incapable of meeting any condition!
(How salvation is bestowed.)
Sola
Fide, by faith alone:
-
Believing in Christ is the only means God has appointed for His children
(regenerated elect) to experience the salvation already freely bestowed upon
them by God's sovereign grace.
-
Faith is a saving grace worked in the child of God by the indwelling Spirit;
faith manifests the eternal salvation already bestowed by God's free and
sovereign grace.
-
"The reason why any are justified IS NOT because they have faith, but the
reason why they have faith IS because they are justified." John Gill.
Soli
Deo Gloria, glory to God alone:
-
God purposed salvation; Jesus Christ secured the salvation, and the Holy Spirit applies the
salvation to each elect personally, when they are still in their native state of
sin and death, making them perfectly fit for eternal glory; the redeemed are
wholly and completely passive in their eternal salvation; thus all glory to the
Triune God alone.
"Him
that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord."
That's
my understanding. What's yours?