# The Five Solas of the Reformation by James Montgomery Boice

- Link: https://tollelege.net/2007/10/31/the-five-solas-of-the-reformation-by-james-montgomery-boice/
- Published: 2007-10-31T01:10:15-05:00
- Author: tollelege

“1. **Scripture alone**. When the Reformers used the words sola Scriptura they were
expressing their concern for the Bible’s authority, and what they meant is that 
the Bible alone is our ultimate authority—not the pope, not the church, not the 
traditions of the church or church councils, still less personal intimations or 
subjective feelings, but Scripture only. Other sources of authority may have an 
important role to play. Some are even established by God—such as the authority of
church elders, the authority of the state, or the authority of parents over children.
But Scripture alone is truly ultimate. Therefore, if any of these other authorities
depart from Bible teaching, they are to be judged by the Bible and rejected.

2. **Christ alone**. The church of the Middle Ages spoke about Christ. A church 
that failed to do that could hardly claim to be Christian. But the medieval church
had added many human achievements to Christ’s work, so that it was no longer possible
to say that salvation was entirely by Christ and his atonement. This was the most
basic of all heresies, as the Reformers rightly perceived. It was the work of God
plus our own righteousness. The Reformation motto solus Christus was formed to repudiate
this error. It affirmed that salvation has been accomplished once for all by the
mediatorial work of the historical Jesus Christ alone. His sinless life and substitutionary
atonement alone are sufficient for our justification, and any ‘gospel’ that fails
to acknowledge that or denies it is a false gospel that will save no one.

3. **Grace alone**. The words sola gratia mean that human beings have no claim upon
God. That is, God owes us nothing except just punishment for our many and very willful
sins. Therefore, if he does save sinners, which he does in the case of some but 
not all, it is only because it pleases him to do it. Indeed, apart from this grace
and the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit that flows from it, no one would be
saved, since in our lost condition, human beings are not capable of winning, seeking
out, or even cooperating with God’s grace. By insisting on ‘grace alone’ the Reformers
were denying that human methods, techniques, or strategies in themselves could ever
bring anyone to faith. It is grace alone expressed through the supernatural work
of the Holy Spirit that brings us to Christ, releasing us from our bondage to sin
and raising us from death to spiritual life.

4. **Faith alone**. The Reformers never tired of saying that ‘justification is by
grace alone through faith alone because of Christ alone.’ When put into theological
shorthand the doctrine was expressed as “justification by faith alone,” the article
by which the church stands or falls, according to Martin Luther. The Reformers called
justification by faith Christianity’s “material principle,” because it involves 
the very matter or substance of what a person must understand and believe to be 
saved. Justification is a declaration of God based on the work of Christ. It flows
from God’s grace and it comes
 to the individual not by anything he or she might
do but by ‘faith alone’ (sola fide). We may state the full doctrine as: Justification
is the act of God by which he declares sinners to be righteous because of Christ
alone, by grace alone, through faith alone.

5. **Glory to God alone**. Each of the great solas is summed up in the fifth Reformation
motto: soli Deo gloria, meaning ‘to God alone be the glory.’ It is what the apostle
Paul expressed in Romans 11:36 when he wrote, ‘to Him be the glory forever! Amen.’
These words follow naturally from the preceding words, “For from him and through
him and to him are all things” (v. 36), since it is because all things really are
from God, and to God, that we say, ‘to God alone be the glory.’”

–James Montgomery Boice, _[Whatever Happened to the Gospel of Grace?](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1433511290?tag=toletaupanre-20)_(
Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway, 2001), pp. 65-149.