Sola fide wasn’t a 16th century invention

Protestants and Catholics for five centuries have debated the Reformation doctrine of justification by faith. In Long Before Luther: Tracing the Heart of the Gospel from Christ to the Reformation, Nathan Busenitz shows that theologians such as Origen, Augustine, Anselm, and Bernard of Clairvaux, who all preceded Martin Luther, understood that we are saved by God’s grace. The following excerpt, courtesy of Moody Publishers, shows clearly that Luther and other Reformers did not invent sola fide, the doctrine of justification by grace through “faith alone”—they recovered it. Please read on. Busenitz is the dean of faculty and an associate professor of theology at The Master’s Seminary in Los Angeles, and Long Before Luther was on WORLD’s short list for 2017 Book of the Year in the Accessible Theology category. —Marvin Olasky

Chapter One: An Invention or a Recovery?

The doctrine of justification by grace through “faith alone” (expressed by the Latin phrase sola fide) is central to a right understanding of the gospel. Stated negatively, it denies any notion that forgiveness for sin and a right standing before God can be attained through human effort or moral virtue on the part of the sinner. Stated positively, it affirms that God’s gift of salvation is based completely on the finished work of Christ, which is received solely by grace through faith in Him. Salvation is not predicated, even in part, on the sinner’s good works. That is why when the Philippian jailer asked Paul and Silas, “What must I do to be saved,” the appropriate response was simply, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:30–31, emphasis added).

“Faith alone” was one of the main rallying cries of the Protestant Reformation. The Reformers recognized that it stands at the heart of the gospel, which is why Martin Luther famously said of this doctrine, “If this article [of justification] stands, the church stands; if this article collapses, the church collapses.” Along with “grace alone” (sola gratia), “Christ alone” (solus Christus), and “for the glory of God alone” (soli Deo Gloria), sola fide expressed the Reformers’ conviction that salvation is entirely by God’s grace through faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Through faith in Him, believers receive both pardon from sin (because He bore their punishment on the cross) and justifying righteousness (because His righteousness is credited to their account). As a result, they can take no credit for their salvation. All the glory goes to God.

It is important to note that in their emphasis on “faith alone,” the Reformers did not deny the importance of good works in the lives of believers. They taught that saving faith is a repentant faith and they stressed obedience to the commands of Christ. Nonetheless, they insisted that good works ought to be viewed only as the fruit or consequence of salvation, rather than the root or cause of it. Thus, they could assert that although believers are saved by grace through faith alone, saving faith is never alone. True faith always gives evidence of itself through fruits of repentance and obedience.

True faith always gives evidence of itself through fruits of repentance and obedience.

In the sixteenth century, the Protestant understanding of sola fide stood in contrast to the Roman Catholic emphasis on sacramental works and good deeds as being necessary for justification. Catholicism viewed justification as a lifelong process that depended, at least in part, on how a person lived. Reformers like Martin Luther, Philip Melanchthon, and John Calvin rejected the Catholic view, teaching instead that justification was the sole work of God in which He declared believers to be instantly righteous, not because of their good deeds, but because they were clothed with the perfect righteousness of Christ.

In response to the Reformers’ teaching, Roman Catholics in the sixteenth century accused Protestant theologians of inventing a new version of the gospel. The Council of Trent (1545–1563) anathematized any who taught justification through faith alone. Since that time, numerous Roman Catholic writers have denounced sola fide as a heretical novelty. Popular Roman Catholic apologist Dave Armstrong provides one such example. He writes, “Distinctively Protestant tenets such as sola fide (‘faith alone’) … were virtually nonexistent through Church history.” He goes on to assert, “Protestantism per se didn’t exist until 1517 A.D.” Further, “Radically new doctrines such as sola fide … were sheer novelties, rather than reforms, supposedly harkening back to the alleged state of affairs in the early Church. But they simply cannot be found in the early Church.”

By contrast, Protestant scholars have defended sola fide as representing a return to both biblical and historic Christian orthodoxy. The doctrine of justification by faith, then, was not an invention but a recovery of theological truth that had been obscured. R. C. Sproul summarizes the traditional Protestant view: “The sixteenth-century Reformers were not interested in creating a new religion. They were interested, not in innovation, but in renovation. They were reformers, not revolutionaries.” The Reformers themselves would have agreed with Sproul’s assessment. The sole authoritative basis for their teachings was the Word of God (the idea captured by the phrase “Scripture alone”). Yet, they also appealed in a secondary sense to the church fathers—the Christian leaders of earlier centuries—to demonstrate historical affirmation for their views. As John Calvin (1509–1564) explains in the 1536 preface to his Institutes of the Christian Religion, “We do not despise the fathers; in fact, if it were to our present purpose, I could with no trouble at all prove that the greater part of what we are saying today meets their approval.” Martin Luther’s colleague, Philip Melanchthon (1497–1560), likewise argued that the Reformation represented a return to the pure teachings of earlier generations. He denied any allegation that he and his fellow Reformers had departed from the teachings of the early church, insisting instead that he was defending “just that which Ambrose and Augustine have taught.”

Protestant scholars have defended sola fide as representing a return to both biblical and historic Christian orthodoxy.

Later Protestant works on justification by theologians like Martin Chemnitz (1522–1586), John Owen (1616– 1683), Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758), George Stanley Faber (1773–1854), and James Buchanan (1804–1870) echoed those same Reformation claims. Of these, Buchanan is perhaps the most dogmatic in his assertions “that the Protestant doctrine of Justification was not a ‘novelty’ introduced for the first time by Luther and Calvin,—it was held and taught, more or less explicitly, by some in every successive age,—and that there is no truth in the allegation that it had been unknown for fourteen hundred years before the Reformation.” …

Chapter Eleven: Coming Full Circle

At the beginning of this book, we set out to determine whether the Reformation understanding of justification by faith alone was a sixteenth-century invention. The answer, as we’ve seen from our survey of church history, is conclusively no. From the homilies and commentaries of the church fathers to the writings and prayers of medieval church leaders, examples abound of authors who used the language of “faith alone” to describe salvation. Additionally, we’ve detected clear instances of a forensic understanding of justification, a distinction between justification and sanctification, and the teaching that Christ’s righteousness is imputed to believers. And all of this coming from long before Luther and other leading Reformers.

The Reformers were convinced that the doctrine of justification by faith alone stands at the heart of the gospel. They understood its vital importance, which is why they took such a bold stand on this issue. They defended their position, first and foremost, by appealing to Scripture. Their commitment to biblical authority undergirded their commitment to gospel purity, the latter being built on the authoritative foundation of the former. Yet they also looked to church history for secondary affirmation of their views. Though they recognized that theologians from earlier periods of church history sometimes spoke about justification in ways that lacked consistent clarity, the Reformers nonetheless maintained that anticipations of sola fide could be found throughout pre-Reformation history—especially in the patristic age.

Many of the church fathers spoke about salvation in general, and justification in particular, in ways that parallel later Reformation teachings.

We found that the Reformers were right to look to the patristic era for support. Many of the church fathers spoke about salvation in general, and justification in particular, in ways that parallel later Reformation teachings. We also discovered that Augustine—whose teaching on justification is strongly debated—may indeed be seen as a theological forefather of the Reformers. To be sure, Augustine introduced confusion into the study of justification through his interpretation of the word iustificare, which he took to mean “to make righteous” rather than “to declare righteous.” Yet he also identifies aspects of justification that parallel closely the teachings of the Reformers—and more importantly, reflected what the Reformers saw in Scripture. That is why the Reformers appealed to him more than any other figure in post–New Testament history. Recognizing and appreciating those areas of continuity treats Augustine in a more balanced way and better fits the Reformers’ attitude and indebtedness toward him.

We also found anticipations of the distinctive characteristics of sola fide in various post-Augustinian writers. In our survey of the eleven centuries between Augustine and the Reformers, two Christian leaders stood out more than any other: Anselm of Canterbury and Bernard of Clairvaux. Along with Anselm’s satisfaction theory of the atonement, we considered his devotional works, such as his Meditations and Prayers, in which he personalized and expanded on his understanding of salvation. We focused on times when he spoke about salvation using forensic language and places where he anticipated the “great exchange” of the gospel—in which the guilt of the sinner is transferred to Christ while the perfect merit of Christ is credited to the sinner. Of all of the medievals, however, Bernard is arguably the most notable example of a writer who anticipated Reformation teaching. Bernard used the language of justification by faith alone, and also taught the imputation of Christ’s righteousness to the believer. The Reformers were highly influenced by Bernard’s writings and held him in high regard, even if they did not accept everything he wrote.

Of all of the medievals … Bernard is arguably the most notable example of a writer who anticipated Reformation teaching.

Based on the totality of our historical survey, it simply cannot be maintained that the Reformation understanding of justification was a theological innovation never before anticipated in church history. In keeping with the perspective of the Reformers, contemporary evangelicals can take solace in knowing that the doctrine of justification sola fide is anchored in the teaching of God’s Word. Protestant evangelical theology rightly defines the gospel in terms of justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, because that is what Scripture teaches. For that reason, our primary defense of the gospel should be a biblical one. Yet as this study has demonstrated, it is also appropriate for evangelicals to appeal to church history for the sake of secondary affirmation. Clear anticipation of justification by faith alone can be found throughout the pre-Reformation period, both in the patristic era and in the Middle Ages. Consequently, evangelicals today can be greatly encouraged to know that the gospel they cherish is not a sixteenth-century invention. The truth of sola fide is authoritatively established in the Word of God and it is also affirmed throughout church history.

Taken from Long Before Luther: Tracing the Heart of the Gospel from Christ to the Reformation by Nathan Busenitz (©2017). Published by Moody Publishers. Used by permission.