Justification by Faith ALONE: Sola Fide in the Fathers

In times past, during periods of doctrinal defection and moral declension, God raised up prophets to call His people back to the faith and practice of their forefathers. In response to their calls to repentance and reformation the prophets were often put down as innovators and troublemakers in Israel. Nevertheless, through the prophets God continued to preserve a people for Himself, and though weak and despised by those who were powerful and wise in their own eyes, they overcame the world and through them the church was preserved. Even though such things were written aforetime for our instruction (Romans 15), the same thing has been seen over and over again in church history.

When Athanasius, in the aftermath of the Council of Nicea, contended for the absolute ontological equality of the Son with the Father over against a church that had largely succumbed to subordinationism (and which, in eventually gaining the ear of the emperor, came to use the coercive arm of the state to enforce heresy), he was told that his calls for reformation were going against the consensus of the faithful and disturbing the peace of the church. In spite of fierce persecution, God strengthened Athanasius and once again used the weak and despised to shame the strong, preserve His sheep, and put heresy to flight.

The same thing has been seen many other times in church history, not the least of which was during the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century. When God raised up men like Martin Luther, Ulrich Zwingli, and John Calvin to call the church back to the purity of the faith, inclusive of that great doctrine on which the church stands or falls (namely that sinners are justified before God, not on account of their works, nor on the basis of anything wrought in them or done by them, but solely on account of the active and passive obedience of Christ, the Son of God, which is imputed to them and received through faith alone), they were charged with innovating and disturbing the peace of the church.

In this livestream, on the anniversary of the Reformation, we will look at the doctrine of justification through faith alone with a special eye to the claim that the Reformers were guilty of innovation for proclaiming that:

- justification is a legal verdict or declaration of right standing before God which delivers from wrath and gives one a title to eternal life

- the sole moving or efficient cause of justification is the grace of God, understood as His favorable disposition toward sinners

- the sole procuring cause or meritorious grounds of justification is the atoning death and perfect obedience of Christ, imputed to sinners

- the sole instrumental cause or means of receiving Christ's death-procuring pardon and obedience-procuring righteousness is faith in Him.

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[sanghakado]

Anthony is truly a blessing for us…as a new believer I am feeling blessed by your teaching.
Thank you.

[CoranceLChandler]

Always come back every few months to listen to this again

[Habakkuk]

Yesss Anthony bringing the heat and spitting TRUTH ! ✊SOLA FIDE - the article by which we stand or fall. Blessings, Happy Reformation anniversary everyone 🙏

[mike_AD]

Brother i cried at the presentation of Christ's sufficiency after your testimony of your younger years... thank you for defending the only hope of salvation

[Mike]

Anthony isn't a man pleaser. His aim is to please Christ! He is doing what we should all be doing and that's spreading the Gospel! Thank you Anthony Rogers! God bless you!

[ajam]

Brother Anthony, we a bless to have you in the body of Christ. God bless you bro. 🙏🏾🙏🏾

[jotink]

Wow brother this was Spirit anointed. Christ alone saves everything else are trifles. Amen.

[mosespsalm_]

Justification by FAITH ALONE! Like Anthony said, those thumbs down would be very shocked on D-day. Their human pride would be shattered into smithereens.

[michaelsowerby]

Such a lovely way to spend almost three hours. Thank you so much Mr Rogers.

[rickyachaval]

I'm happy to see that you are not afraid to speak against the catholic church. You will lose some subscribers, but ultimately what matters is to tell the truth.

[Ttcopprt]

Put the nail in the coffin. The wide range of references did the talking... Excellent session 🙌

[J.R.Cardenas]

Faith without works is dead, work without faith is toil. Faith inspires works and works are a measurement of a mans faith.

[hotwings]

God Bless you Brother Rodgers 🙏🏽 very few are willing to put in the work you do.

[MrNobodylj]

This session was fantastic…. It was amazing to hear John chrysostom and other church fathers on this ….amazing testimony to the truth of the solas … would love to see more super dives into church history…

[mukongo-pc]

One of the most meaty sessions I’ve ever heard in my life. God bless you Anthony, a true servant of Christ with a pure heart. May you and your work continuously be blessed in Jesus name, Amen❤️❤️💯✝️

[philblagden]

To our Catholic and Orthodox friends who try to deny sola fide, by making a distinction between works and "works of the law" please note that Ephesians 2:8-10 makes no such distinction. So you cannot use this to deny that the bible explicitly denies in multiple passages that works can save us. We are saved by grace alone through faith alone because of the merit of Christ alone. Furthermore please note that Romans says we are justified "freely" by his grace and calls salvation a "free gift". Paul points out in Romans 4 that if you have to work for something then what you receive in return is not a gift but a wage. If you insist even one act of good works must precede justification then you are calling Paul a liar and denying that salvation is a gift.

[eternaljunker]

Nice, that he mentioned Martin Chemnitz, one of the main authors of the Formula of Concord.

[sandrajohnson]

Another great session, Anthony! The words of writers you mentioned were great boosters to faith in Christ! Thank you so much for that. I've been on a search for writings from some of the ones you read. A lot harder than you'd think if you want the actual book and not to read it from the computer.

[coffeebreaktheology]

The robber on the cross who recognised that Jesus was sinless, was promised to be in paradise. He did not have time to do any works.

[BornAgainRN]

55:20. The start of quotations of early church fathers who taught justification by faith alone. Tagging this for future reference. Thanks Anthony! God bless!