Five Solas - Session #4 (2025.07.27)
Scott continues the series on the Five Solas of the Reformation, focusing specifically on Sola Fide or by faith alone. Scott examines the historical and theological foundations of the Five Solas, clarifying that while the language of "sola" was not fully formed during the Reformation, the core concepts were present and are still relevant today. He explains how being made spiritually alive and justified before God comes by grace alone, through Christ alone, and is received by faith alone—not by any works or merit of our own.
The episode takes a deep look at the perceived tension between Paul’s and James’ teachings about faith and works in the New Testament. Through exploring key scriptural passages—especially from Romans, Galatians, Ephesians, and James—Scott and additional commentators clarify that while faith alone justifies before God, true saving faith always leads to good works as evidence of new life. They discuss how works do not contribute to justification, but are a necessary result and proof of genuine faith.
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Transcript
Hi. If you're looking for greater hope, assurance and confidence through the shifting sands of life, then join me on today's episode as we dig deep into the Bible to discover rock solid truth for life and living from the God of the Bible. I'm your host, Scott Keffer. Hi and welcome to today's episode. As always, for a deeper experience, you can go to the show Notes and download the blank Insight sheet. Fill in the blanks along with the group. Depending on how you're listening to this, there will be a link to the episode website@beholdingbibletruth.com and a sheet with the answers is included as well. Enjoy today's episode.
Scott Keffer [:So we're continuing on a path to look at fresh the five SOLAs of the Reformation. For those of you who've heard it, it's a reminder. And for those of you who never had, it's a revelation. Either way, whether it's a reminder or revelation, just understand. Kind of the core foundation of those five affirmations, if you will. So we put them down here and this is hyper statement are being made spiritually alive and God's becoming 100% for us in Christ is solo gratia. First one, which is by grace alone gratia G R A T I A.
Speaker B [:Section ram of the board.
Scott Keffer [:So gratia then priestess on the base of Christ alone D day faith alone, the O Gloria for the glory of God alone and scriptura, which is scripture alone. So if you've been a Christian for a while, none of these are a surprise. And none of them were counter in a sense to what was believed at the time. If you think about grace, Christ, faith, glory of God, scripture, none of them were against what was being believed. But it's the alone piece, the sola added to it which changes the discussion and changes theologically how you think about them. Right. And so I put down there, while reformers originally taught these principles, the phraseology of five SOLAs didn't happen until after the 1600s. Now here's here's and here's why.
Scott Keffer [:If you go back and look for where was and how were these phrases used by the reformers? Right. The first phrase sola fide was used. Yes. So the answer is yes, it was. That phrase was used. Sola fidelity, prominent Luther and Melanchthon. Sola scriptura also. Yes.
Scott Keffer [:Found in debates, confessions, solo gratia somewhat, but not really. Can't really find much. Same with solas Christas rare, the exact phrase and then sola dea gloria. No, this was added after the Reformation. So why do I do that? So if you look at the. The order which is used today, this is sort of the logical order by grace, through Christ, through faith, right to the glory of God based upon scripture. It's kind of how the five are set up, but that's not originally how they unfolded. So they've been.
Scott Keffer [:They've been enumerated based on kind of the logical order of that. So if you look at was really solo fide, which was the first and solo scriptura, how do I come up with solo fide, which was based upon Martin Luther's sort of journey of discovering in the book of Romans, and as Jim was saying today, a book of Habakkuk, just his journey to discover by faith. Because I asked the question, does the sola appear word for word in Reformation? That was the question. Those two do, the other ones do not. So the better question is, what do those phrases appear in Scripture? The answer is only one, faith alone. And it appears in James to counter faith alone. So how many like to know how to figure that one out? That's what we're going to look at today. That's what we're going to look at today by faith alone.
Scott Keffer [:And we're. That's is the only phrase that shows up in Scripture and it seems to counter by faith alone. So hold on to your jerseys and get your notes out. Okay, let's see here if I can get this rolling.
Lesson [:Fourth session on the five SOLAs of the Protestant Reformation. We're focusing on alone and we're trying to understand the biblical foundations for these five SOLAs. I tried to make clear in the first session that the gospel of how we are made spiritually alive, even though we were dead spiritually in our trespasses and sins, and the good news, the gospel that God has become 100% for us, though his wrath had been against us. That's the great transition that the gospel brings about life instead of eternal death, and God for us instead of against us in wrath forever in Christ. And the point of the five SOLAs goes like this. Our being made spiritually alive and God's becoming 100% for us in Christ, even though we are sinners, is by God's grace alone, on the basis of Christ alone. In this session, we focus on received through faith alone, so that all things lead ultimately to the glory of God alone with scripture, which is why we're focusing on texts in these sessions with Scripture alone as the only final authority teaching these truths. So here we go.
Lesson [:Texts, and you assess, you test whether you Think these texts show that our getting right with God, so that he is 100% for us, happens through faith alone. We hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. So justification that is being declared just and righteous innocent before a holy God, wonder of wonders that the ungodly like us could be declared justified by faith apart from works. In other words, our becoming better people is not the foundation of our justification. It's faith which receives Christ and all that he has done. So faith is looking away from ourselves, not looking to anything we do, but away from ourselves to something God has done and looking to that God counts us righteous. And therefore since works of the law contribute nothing, it is faith alone which receives and embraces that foundation for our justification. Same thing in Galatians 2:16, only more fully.
Lesson [:We know that a person is not justified by works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ. So that we also have believed in Christ Jesus in order to be justified by by faith in Christ and not by works of the law. Because by works of the law no one will be justified. Is stressing to go the route of trying our best to keep God's commandments as the way of providing a foundation for our justification won't work. The only way is to stop trying to provide our own foundation and to trust Jesus as the foundation to believe in Christ Jesus, to put our faith in Christ. So that's the alone means of taking our stand on Christ. Christ is the foundation. Faith is the one and only means by which we can rest on it.
Lesson [:That's what faith is designed to be. Here's a real strong analysis of what faith is, which shows how unique and solitary it is. Now, to the one who works, not believes, but works. His wages. Works correspond to what you earn. His wages are not counted as a gift. You want to go the route of works. You don't go the route of receiving a gift, but earning wages is due to do.
Lesson [:But to the one who does not work, he forsakes this way of life, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly. So we don't shape up before we get declared shaped up. We get declared just before we're just. Which means that the foundation of our being declared just is not in ourselves, but in a righteousness, that is Gods or Christs. And we take our stand on it. We embrace it by faith. But the one who believes in him, who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness. So God looks at our faith embracing Christ and counts that faith as Righteousness.
Lesson [:So it is faith, not any contribution of works, that puts us in a right relationship with God on the basis of Christ and His grace. It is faith alone that puts us there. So Paul says in 5:1 of Romans, therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace we with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. It would be disingenuous, wouldn't it, if this really meant we have been justified by faith and enjoy peace. Not really by faith, not really justified. But there have to be things added to this in order for us to be justified. The statement is clear and straightforward and meant to give us tremendous encouragement and confidence and restfulness of spirit. We have been justified by faith, not faith.
Lesson [:Plus plus plus it is faith alone which puts us in a position of having Christ as our peace through our Lord Jesus Christ. By faith we are justified. Now he really stretches to make sure we see how uniquely gracious and solitary this role of faith is. By grace you have been saved through faith. So faith in us corresponds to grace in God. If we go another route besides faith, in order to take our stand on Christ for our justification, we are going to jeopardize the grace of God. This is not your own doing. It's not.
Lesson [:Not from you, literally. So this faith, this grace, that whole process there is not from you. It is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, not our workmanship.
Speaker B [:He.
Lesson [:He brought us about. He created this in Christ Jesus. And he didn't do it as a result of our works, but for good works. So our standing as saved people is not owing to our works, but works come in after faith and after being saved by his grace. And we exist for good works which God prepared before him that we should walk in them. So you have faith here. And this faith is not from us and not from works. It is not from us.
Lesson [:It is a gift, a gift of God. And it is not from works. It is for works, for good works. To make crystal clear that this faith is in a unique and solitary role in setting us right with God. The faith itself is not coming from us, and the faith is now itself is not coming from works are being joined by works. Works come in after faith for works. Now here's the great problem that we have in establishing the biblical foundation of faith alone, because James says something that on the face of it, is diametrically opposed to what I'm arguing and what the Reformers argued. So let's let James talk and see if we can understand how they fit together, Paul and James.
Lesson [:Faith, if it does not have works, is dead. Now that is fundamentally important for understanding what he's about here. Faith that doesn't have or produce works is a dead face. And a dead faith justifies nobody. So he's going to stress with all his might. And if you try to take away works from faith and make faith that has no works a means of justification, you fail and he's right. So watch how he does it. Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.
Lesson [:So faith and works are not the same. Works are the means by which faith is shown. So faith produces works which become visible, and therefore works vindicate or demonstrate or confirm faith. Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless, dead and useless? Absolutely true. Yes. Faith, if it isn't the kind of faith that has works or is a part, is. Is producing works, then it's useless and dead. Was not Abraham our Father? No.
Lesson [:Here he becomes really risky, justified by works. The Paul did not talk that way. And the question is, when James talks this way, is he contradicting Paul? Abraham? Was not Abraham justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith, Abraham's faith was active along with works or by works, or expressed in works. And faith was completed, brought to its consummation. What the goal of faith is, is to produce a life of works. And so James is taking these works and these works, this act of obedience that faith gave rise to, and saying it was those two together which was the means by which Abraham was justified. Now, does he mean to contradict Paul when he says that and Scripture was fulfilled that says Abraham believed God, believed God and was count, and it was counted to him as righteousness. That sounds very much like what Paul wants to do with that text.
Lesson [:And he was called a friend of God. You see, here comes the. The red letter problem, that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. Is it? Whoa. So the Reformers are wrong. Well, if James means not by faith alone, the way Paul was ruling out works, then there's a contradiction and we don't have a reliable scripture. But if James means something different, then we do have a reliable scripture, and Paul and James cohere. Let's finish it.
Lesson [:For as the body apart from the spirit and the word pneuma also means breath, the body apart from breath is dead. So also faith apart from works is dead. So the body corresponds strangely to faith and breath. Or Spirit corresponds to works. And you see what he's saying. The body, if it doesn't produce breath, is a dead body. Faith, if it doesn't produce works, is. Is dead, just like it says up here.
Lesson [:It's useless here. So he returns to where he began. Which inclines me to say that what James is doing is not contradicting Paul. But let's, let's be fair. Let's put them right beside each other. James 2:24. You see that a person is justified by works, not by faith alone. Romans 3, 28.
Lesson [:We hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of law. My question is, and my suggestion is this. When James says a person is justified by works and not by faith alone, doesn't he mean, in view of the way he is saying faith is dead without works, doesn't he mean here, not by faith which is alone, in other words, which has no works, Is he saying that faith is part of the means by which we benefit from the righteousness of Jesus as the foundation of our justification and some deeds of our own, not based on faith, but contributed from our own will? Because I say it not based on faith? Because once you've got faith united you to Christ, then you've got the righteousness of Christ counting as yours. This, I think, is what Paul meant and what James means. Namely, we are not justified by faith which is alone. And look at the way Paul says it. This is Galatians 5, 6. In Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but what counts for everything.
Lesson [:What counts but faith working through love. The kind of faith that justifies, that counts is faith working through that. I think if James read that, he'd say, yes, yes, yes. That's exactly what I mean. I mean the kind of faith which justifies is the faith that works through love. It's the kind of Faith in Hebrews 11, over and over, by faith, Abraham obeyed. Obedience flows from faith. They're not the same thing.
Lesson [:They're not conflated. Here's the way the Reformers spoke very carefully. See if you don't think this honors both James and Paul. Faith thus receiving and resting, receiving and resting on Christ and his righteousness is the alone instrument of justification. Yet it is not alone. That's James whole point. It is not alone. If it's alone, it's dead.
Lesson [:It is not alone in the person justified, but is ever accompanied with other saving graces, and is no dead faith, but works by love. All of that is an attempt to say James really matters here. Paul did not mean to contradict James. James did not mean to contradict Paul. So faith, receiving, resting, which is what faith does, works are the overflow and the fruit of that resting on Christ and his righteousness are the alone instrument. By faith we are united to Christ, who becomes our righteousness and our justification. But that faith, as soon as it comes into existence, is the kind of faith that is never alone but is always accompanied by other saving graces. I think much of the misunderstanding between the Reformers and in the Roman Catholic Church in those early days was owing to the fact that the Reformers perhaps didn't bend over backwards to make plain that this kind of unbreakable connection between faith and a new life of works in Christ exists.
Lesson [:So I conclude, therefore, the Christian Gospel includes this truth, the gift of spiritual life from the dead and of justification. God being 100 for us and not against us, is received through faith alone. We have life and we have justification by the receiving act of faith alone. The good works which flow from this gift receiving, gift enjoying faith, the good works which flow from this gift receiving, gift enjoying faith are not the basis or the means of receiving and enjoying this gift. They are its fruit and they are its confirmation. Let us be forever thankful, therefore, and full of praise. That the God of all grace justifies the ungodly puts us in a position of being 100% for us by faith alone. So that on the basis of that sweet peace of acceptance, we now have the freedom and the courage and the boldness and the wherewithal to be about a new life of works of love.
Scott Keffer [:So I want to go a little deeper on this, answering this faith by works or faith alone. But any question that's popping in your head that's got you stuck at the moment. So we're going to keep rolling because R.C. sproul is going to go a little deeper on this to really answer that question. So let's take a look at this.
Speaker B [:Obviously the Roman Catholic communion did not roll over and play dead at the feet of Luther and the Reformers. They had a response to the assertion that justifications by faith alone without any reference to works. And they found their source for that in the Scripture itself, principally in the letter from the Apostle James. I'll just take a second to read a portion of chapter two of James, which portion was cited on more than one occasion later on at the Gospel trend in the sixth session of Trent in their Roman Catholics response to the Protestant we read in verse 21 of chapter 2 these words was not Abraham our father, justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar. Do you see then that faith was working together with his works? And by works faith was made perfect and the Scripture was fulfilled. That said Abraham believed God and was accounted to him for righteousness, as he was called the friend of God. You see then that a man is justified by works and not by faith only. And then verse 25, was not Rahab the Harlot also justified by works when she received the strangers and sent them another way? So here we have the explicit statement in Sacred Scripture that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone.
Speaker B [:You would think that that single verse would be the crushing blow to the article that Luther said, the article upon which the church stands or falls. So how do we reconcile what Paul teaches in Romans with what James teaches here? Some people think that it's an impossible task, that they're simply irreconcilable. And there is a debate historically as to which epistle appeared in print first, James or Romans. And that question focused on an attempt to understand how this difference could arise in the pristine church. Some argue that Romans appeared before James and James wrote his Epistle to repudiate and to refute what Paul had taught. Others are, you know, James appeared before Paul and Paul was trying to refute James. And so there's a divided house on that question historically about who was trying to refute home. But classic orthodoxy would say that neither one of them was trying to refute the other, and that the two positions are not contradictory, though on the surface they seem to be.
Speaker B [:And that is that this issue is so significant that it's worth the philosophy of a second glance. Part of the problem is compounded by the fact that both James and Paul use the same word here for justification. It would be nice to see that they used different words and obviously had different ideas in mind. Unfortunately for reconciling the two, they both use the same word. The matter becomes even more severe when we see that both of them have the same person that they use as Exhibit A to prove their point. Paul labors the point of Abraham's being the father of the faithful and that he was justified by faith and counted righteous before he had done any works, before he had been circumcised, before he had offered Isaac on the altar, so that Paul has Abraham justified in chapter 15 of Genesis, where James doesn't have Abraham justified until chapter 22, which is the chapter that records his offering of his son Isaac on the altar. So in a sense, the plot thickens. This is one of the things that made Luther question the canonicity of James.
Speaker B [:When he said at first that James was an abyssal straw or a right straw. Epistle was another translation by which he later repented of that judgment. But because he at one point challenged the canonicity of James, a host of scholars have used that challenge as an attempt to show that Luther didn't believe in the inerrancy of Scripture. Well, he did believe in the inerrancy of Scripture. He said the Scripture number errors, but he was questioning whether Scripture contained the book of James. But that's for another day. But in any case, we can see that in Scripture, though, the same word is used both by James and by Paul here on justification. Because something that that term does have more than one meaning and one verse that you are familiar with, I'm sure, is that when Jesus in the Gospel says that wisdom is justified by her children, obviously in that particular statement, the word that is used here does not mean that wisdom is reconciled to a holy God with an imputed righteousness that wisdom gains by having babies.
Speaker B [:No, simply showing that that which is a claim to be wisdom is shown to be true wisdom by its fruit, which is a principle of wisdom found throughout the wisdom literature of Scripture. By the way, many New Testament scholars would say that of those books that are considered wisdom literature in the Bible, you not only have the books of the Old Testament of Psalms and Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Jesus show, and so on, but they would include in that list of wisdom books the book of James in the New Testament. Because so many of the literary forms that you find among the wisdom books of the Old Testament are also found in James. Now, in the sense of the way in which Jesus used it, by saying that wisdom is justified by her children, the meaning of the term justified there is to demonstrate or to manifest the truth of something. If I said to you that I could run a mile in less than four minutes, I don't expect you would believe that. You would want to see it, to believe it with an accurate stopwatch in your hand. In fact, the only way I could prove to you my statement is to demonstrate it by running the mile under four minutes. So if I would say to you I can run a mile under four minutes, unless it's going to trick there, you would be wise not to believe my claim.
Speaker B [:In fact, if I said to you I could run a mile, period, I don't think I would be able to justify that claim. Even so, there is a sense in which the word to justify is used to prove the truth of a claim. Now, when I used to teach philosophy in university and we would, when I would teach the history philosophy, we would come up to various philosophers to study their thinking. It seemed like students had to have a certain kind of mind to do well with. Philosophy was so abstract and students would struggle, brilliant students, students that were acing other courses were having trouble in philosophy. And I try to give them little hints to help them understand the work of a given philosopher. And I would say, what you want to do at the beginning is ask this question, find out the answer to this queen, what problem is this philosopher trying to solve?
Lesson [:And why?
Speaker B [:If you know why Descartes was trying to find a clear, distinct idea, you can follow his reasoning and come to an intelligible conclusion. So I want to apply that same principle to this thorny question that we have a relationship between Paul and James. And to understand James in chapter two, we have to ask the question, what problem is he trying to solve? What question is he trying to answer? And I think the answer to my question here begins in verse 14 of chapter 2. For James writes this. What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but not have works, can that faith save him? So the question he's asking is, what good is it to make a profession of faith if you don't have any works? What profit is there in that? So he's dealing with the question of people who make a profession of faith but don't manifest any fruit of it. In our day and age, we have hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people in America who have made professions of faith, who have never demonstrated the reality of the faith they claim to possess. And so that's the question that James is answering. It's not the same question Paul is asking.
Speaker B [:Paul is asking, how can an unjust person stand in the presence of a just and holy God? His concern for justification is before God. And that's where he says that we're justified by faith apart from the works of the law. But now James is asking, what about the person who professes faith but has no evidence of it? He says, if someone says he has faith but does not have works, can that faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says, they will depart in peace, be warned, and feel filled, but don't give them the things that are needed for the body, what does it profit? What good is that? Thus, also after this illustration, faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. So now he's going to make a distinction between a dead faith and a faith that is alive. Now, again, when Luther was challenged for his doctrine of justification by faith alone, he was asked about this faith. And as I said before, does that mean you can just believe and live however you want to? Paul answers that same question. His answer is God forbid. And we'll Luther said justification is by faith alone, but not by faith that is alone.
Speaker B [:Many going on to say that the faith that justifies Luther said, is a fides viva, a living faith, a faith that is alive. And you know it's alive when it manifests itself in fruit, in the fruit of obedience. Now, if I tell you here in this room today that I have saving faith, do you know for sure, just because I said it, that I have it? Can anybody here read my heart? Of course not. The only way you can evaluate the truth of my claim is to see if I manifested in my life by their fruits. You shall know them, we're told. And even then we can fool people with rotten fruit, this foamy fruit. Now, how long does God have to wait before he knows whether my profession of faith is genuine? Can he read my heart? Yes. He doesn't have to wait a week or two weeks or six months or five chapters to see whether the faith that I profess is genuine.
Speaker B [:And so I think it's critical in answering this problem here that we see that even though both James and Paul appealed to Abraham to make their case, they appealed to Abraham at different times in his life. Paul makes his point that we're justified by faith apart from the works of the law by pointing to chapter 15, where Abraham believed God and it was palata for righteousness. James makes his case that Abraham is justified by works by pointing to chapter 22, seven chapters difference, actually, between chapter 15 and chapter 22, which is the chapter that tells us about the sacrifice of Isaac on the altar. So when James goes on to say that Abraham is justified by his works, is he talking about Abraham being justified in the sight of God, or is he saying that Abraham has been justified in the sight of men before whom he's made this profound before people make the profession, Again, the question is answered, if a man says he has faith but has not works, can that faith save? And the answer is given here is the resounding no. The only kind of faith that saves is not a dead faith, but a living faith. And if it is a living faith, it will certainly be made manifest by works. So Abraham is Proving, demonstrating, authenticating his claim of faith in chapter 22. And just as we claim to have faith, we have to show forth that faith by our works.
Speaker B [:I mentioned earlier about antinomianism that claims to have a faith that saves without having works that follow the whole carnal Christian concept that we wrestle with even to this day. I hope that that brief explanation will help you work through the problem here and understand that the men are answering two different questions using the same word and the same example. And to show that James is speaking of Abraham's being vindicated by his profession of faith with the works that fall. And if that's the way this book is understood, you don't have a contradiction. You have a difficulty of resolution, but you don't really have a contradiction. On the few moments we have left, I want to address one other question, and that is, what is it that produces saving faith in Christ? Where does that faith come from? And this question, probably more than any other, is what defines the very essence of Reformed theology? If there's one phrase that captures the essence of Reformed theology, it is the little phrase regeneration precedes faith, that is the power of faith. The power of believing is a result, not of an act of our will, not independent independently, but it is the fruit of God's sovereign act, changing the disposition of our hearts and giving to us the gift of faith. It's our faith.
Speaker B [:We're the ones who believe, but we don't create that faith. Faith is born out of the work of immediate supernatural work of God, the Holy Spirit, quickening us from spiritual death and giving to us the gift of faith in our hearts. Now, when we talk about the order of salvation, we talk about the Ordo salutis. We're talking not so much about a temporal order of things, but rather a logical order of things. The difference between chronological temporal priority and logical priority is this. When we say that justification is by faith alone, we don't mean by that that a person has faith and then five years later is justified. The second that you have faith, you are counted righteous by God and are covered with the robes of the righteousness of Christ and have all the benefits of justification. There's no time lapse in there.
Speaker B [:But yet we say that justification is by faith, meaning that faith comes logically before justification. Or we would say faith is by justification alone. We know that justification does not precede faith, but faith precedes justification in terms of its logical order. Now, the vast majority of evangelical Christians, if you ask them the question, which comes first, faith or rebirth? They would say, faith comes first, and as a result of believing in Christ, you're reborn or reformed. The ocean said no. Go back to chapter three of John, where Jesus has the conversation with Nicodemus, where Jesus said the lesson, man is born again. He can't even see the kingdom of God, let alone entered. And when Paul in Ephesians 2 talks about quickening or being made alive, when are we made alive unto faith? And what state are we at that time? We're still spiritually dead.
Speaker B [:And so we say that God, the Holy Spirit, changes the disposition or inclination of the heart. So now what the person refused to believe before, he now believes and embraces and loves. One of the greatest sermons ever preached by Jonathan Edwards was A Divine Supernatural Light, where he talks about this work of the Holy Spirit, who changes our hearts and disposition so that we not only see the truth of a proposition, but we see the sweetness of it, the loveliness of it, and the beauty of it, and the glory of it. And so the faith that justifies is a faith that has been created in our arts as a gift by God the Holy Spirit. So that now what we formerly refused to affirm and to follow, now that which was odious to us in our state of spiritual death while we were still in the flesh, we now have the nature of the Spirit. And the whole rest of the Christian life is a war between the flesh, the old man, and the Spirit, the new man who gives birth to faith, so that we are regenerated unto faith and unto justification. When Paul gives an abbreviated list of the order of Salvation In Romans 8, he talks about those who were foreknown that he also predestined. And those whom he predestined, did he also call.
Speaker B [:And those whom he called, he justified, those whom he justified, glorified. Now, in that sequence, it's clear that all who are in the category of the foreknown are also in the category of the predestined, and all in the category the predestina. In the category the judge finds all, and, and excuse me, all in the category of the call are in the category of the justified. So obviously there Paul is talking about a calling that is not the outer call. We talk about the outside call where we preach the gospel of people. Some respond yes, some respond no. But in Roman saying, Paul is talking about a calling in which all who are called in a certain sense are justified. And calling there in that order, precedes justification.
Speaker B [:And so calling is what we talk about as respect. With respect to regeneration, the effectual inward call of God by which we are brought to a faith that is a living faith through which. And by which we are justified.
Scott Keffer [:There you go. All right, so write down inside the question reminder. Somebody are more confused.
Speaker B [:Okay.
Scott Keffer [:So they would use Abraham. No, that's good. That was good, right? That he had faith even in that moment.
Speaker B [:Right?
Scott Keffer [:Justified. Justified. And he's saying justified before and right. Standing with God. He said justified in terms of fruit or vindication or evidence. Right. Evidence of.
Speaker B [:Right.
Scott Keffer [:Evidence of. Right. Other insights, questions. Got to think on this one. RC Sp Just put it in the pipe. It's like Piper, you know, put it in a pipe. I got to smoke that for a little while. Kind of think on that.
Scott Keffer [:That's what he's saying. This is James. Justified by works, vindicated by work. Showing the evidence of. This is the fruit of faith, right? It's the. It's the outward external evidence. This is how you're justified before a holy God. This is the basis.
Scott Keffer [:Well, for your peace with God. The basis is faith, right? This is the evidence of it. So that the two are complementary, not contradictory. Right? The two are complementary, but not contradictory. Of course, Jesus said in. In the body of. In the body, the church, you won't know. There'll be wheat and there'll be heirs, and it ain't your job to figure out which one's which.
Scott Keffer [:Just understand that you know them by their fruit. Right? There will be evidence, external evidence. Right.
Lesson [:The.
Scott Keffer [:This is saved. Four works right forwards. And these are works prepared when beforehand by God. So reminder. He says in first Corinthians, but by his doing are you in Christ Jesus. He has become our wisdom from God, our righteousness, our sanctification and our redemption. What else is there? Nothing. Why does he do that? That no man may boast before God at the end of days, even the fruit is his.
Scott Keffer [:Even the fruit is the gift from His. Yes, it requires obedience and cooperation with the Spirit of God. But in the end, no man may boast. You can't say, wow, here's my fruit. Yeah, I said the fruit. Even the faith to believe. We believe. It's all a gift from Him.
Scott Keffer [:And. And as we go back into Romans in the fall, and the question will be, when was that calling carried out before the foundation of the world? Grace of Almighty God poured out upon us through the Lord Jesus Christ, we should be stunned every day by his grace. Should be stunned by his grace. And he said, if you abide in Me, and I in you, he who abides in me and I in you he bears much fruit. He says, for apart from me you can do nothing, right? You, apart from me, you can do. The vine doesn't boast. The vine doesn't boast. Hey, look at my fruit, right? The vine is just.
Scott Keffer [:It's the, the life of the vine flowing through the branches. The branch, right? We're branches. He's the true vine, right? The branch doesn't boast, right? It bears the fruit. It just bears the fruit. So he is flow his life. It's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me, in the life which I now live by faith I live by or that now live in the flesh. I live by faith. And the Son of God who loved me, delivered himself up for me.
Scott Keffer [:So we'll continue to go deeper. But this was the, the. The primary and first by faith alone, this sola was the right. This was the sola fide. This was sort of the stake in the ground. Is it by faith alone and how to works company, right?
Speaker B [:They.
Scott Keffer [:They are. They accompany the faith that justifies, right? It's the outward evidence of the internal regeneration that God has brought about. So we'll continue to dig deep on this and hopefully there's some insight for you as we go through here. So let's give thanks to the Lord, Father. What, what else can we say but thank you? What else can we do but be blown away by your grace? For you are gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in loving kindness and truth and keeping loving kindness for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin, and all that you have brought about. We bless you because you blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as you. You chose us before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless and beyond reproach and in love. You predestined us to adoption as sons through the Lord Jesus Christ according to the kind intention of your will.
Scott Keffer [:To the praise of the glory of your grace. To the praise of the glory of your grace. And so we bless you today, Heavenly Father. We bless you, Lord Jesus Christ, for all that we have in you. Bless you, Father, for placing us in your son and all that we have. We're just deeply grateful for it.
Lesson [:So we.
Scott Keffer [:We give you thanks today. May he who blessed you, May he cause his face to shine upon you, and may he grant you his shalom deep in your soul. May he bless you, keep you as you walk in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the works that he has prepared before all time for his glory. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thanks for listening. I hope you have greater hope, assurance and confidence in your life and a deeper trust in the God of the Bible, in His Son, Jesus Christ.
Scott Keffer [:Until next time. May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. And may the Lord lift up his countenance on you and give you his peace, his shalom in your soul and in your life. Until next time. May God bless you and keep you.
