Are you ready to brush up on your Latin?  Here we go. What does Sola Fide mean?  Okay, I admit I don’t know Latin like most of you, but in one of my seminary classes, I learned what this Reformation phrase meant and its reality has changed my life!  Sola Fide means “faith alone.”  This will be our focus today on this 500th Reformation Sunday. The big idea is that genuine Christians are justified by faith alone.  The reformer Martin Luther said this is “. . .the chiefest article of all Christian doctrine.”  If you’re thinking, “I already have this figured out,” this message is especially for you.  The reason is because the Apostle Peter thought he already had this figured out as well, yet Paul had to confront Peter in what seems like a fight in the fellowship hall, a clash of the titans, if you will.

  Although Peter would not have formally subscribed to the false gospel that Christians are justified by faith + works of the law, his actions towards the Gentile Christians in Antioch showed how he functionally was out of step with the truths of the gospel.

Do we really understand what faith is?  Are we clear on the relationship of faith to justification?  Do we grasp the importance of justification by faith alone?  How do these doctrines affect our relational behavior towards brothers and sisters in Christ?  What does unbelief do to our souls, even as Christians?  What is the cure?  May God open the eyes of our hearts to see.

 Mr. Daniel Ray