Sola - A 5-Day Devotional through Five Solas of the ReformationSýnishorn

Faith Alone

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith’” (Rom. 1:16–17).

Paul is not ashamed of the gospel, for the gospel is good news. While the gospel will always be offensive in a troubled world that regards it as foolishness, it is indeed good, as the word “gospel” means “good news.” In this sense, the gospel transcends opinion and stands apart from evaluation. As philosopher Roger Scruton remarks, this is why medieval theologian Thomas Aquinas counted things from God that are true, beautiful, and good as “transcendentals,” meaning that some gifts from God are more real than the world can comprehend and, thus, that their goodness does not change, but that we change to comprehend them.

Paul is not ashamed of the gospel, for the gospel is for all peoples. He makes the point that the gospel came not only to the Jews, but also to the non-Jews. When God told Abraham one night to look up and number the stars, for that is the number of his offspring (Gen. 15:5), God revealed that He had a plan to provide salvation for all the nations of the earth. Thus, Paul can declare that in Christ Jesus, Abraham’s offspring, there is “neither Jew nor Greek” (Gal. 3:28) and give hope to everyone created in the image of God, regardless of where they were born or who are their parents.

  In verse 17, by contrast, Paul gives a positive expression, explaining what is in the gospel for those who believe.

In the gospel, God’s righteousness is given. As we will see, the phrase “righteousness of God” was a stumbling block for Martin Luther and might be for many others as well. Some have thought Paul is merely declaring that God is righteous—that righteousness is His divine and perfect attribute—and thus distant and removed from sinful humanity. That is, Paul is declaring how God has revealed Himself as right and good and perfect, which He is, and that He demands such from His creation, but without any remedy for the contrasting wrong and evil humanity. However, upon a closer look, we see that the meaning here is that God’s righteousness, perfect and unstained, is transferred, shared, and given to sinful humanity. How can a sinful man be made right before a perfect God? Paul is declaring here in verse 17 that in Christ, God gives His own righteousness and thus meets all His demands for perfection. As Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:21, God made Jesus to be sin “so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” And in Philippians 3:9, he shares that human beings actually can receive God’s perfect righteousness “through faith in Christ.” Jesus Christ lived a perfect life, died to provide a perfect sacrifice, and thereby paid the perfect price to provide a transfer of the perfection God requires to sinful humanity.

In the gospel, faith alone is the vessel. How does this transfer happen? How does God’s righteousness, the very thing we need most, become ours? Paul explains, by faith alone (sola fide). What then is faith? Faith in the New Testament is something that is given by God and is not present in every human being from birth. When it comes to thinking about faith, as the term is often used outside of a biblical understanding, many metaphors abound, but most are not helpful. 

Faith is not some lighter or easier path than the law. Oftentimes, Christians think that faith is the New Testament “Plan B” for the failed Old Testament “Plan A.” God’s people could not fulfill or keep the law, and, therefore, God provided a new plan around the law, “by faith.” This is a common thought, but it is not consistent with the teaching of the entire Bible. In the Bible, we see that the law is good and is fulfilled perfectly in Christ. Believers in Christ meet the demands of the law through faith in him. By faith, they enter a relationship with God through the law, not around it, in Christ.

Faith is not what is required for salvation. Christians often mistakenly think what they need is simply more faith. This treats faith like a sizeable commodity and ultimately makes faith a work—and salvation comes not by works but through faith (Eph. 2:9). Faith is the opposite of legalism or trying to earn or work our way to God’s righteousness. God’s righteousness is given through faith alone, and faith itself is not what justifies us. Christ’s righteousness is what makes us right and that comes through faith. Put another way, through faith alone we are made righteous, and that new righteousness produces fruit and good works and allows us then to live “by faith” after we are saved “through faith.” Good works follow faith alone. A more helpful metaphor is to think of faith as a bridge. Faith is the bridge over which we cross to salvation. It is the channel through which we sail, or the vessel on which we travel to salvation. In Romans 1:17, Paul’s use of the phrase “from faith for faith” could be translated as “by faith to faith”—that is, God reveals His righteousness by the faith He gives to our faith. In other words, God’s righteousness comes as a gift from God, and we are saved by Christ through this gift of faith alone.