Phil Johnson: Sola Fide – Echo Zoe Ministries

This month Phil Johnson returns to discuss the Reformation doctrine of Sola Fide with me. Phil is the executive director of Grace to You, the tape and radio ministry that features the teachings of John MacArthur, a member of the Fellowship of Independent Reformed Evangelicals (FIRE), founder and blogger at Pyromaniacs, and curator of The Spurgeon Archive.

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An outline of the interview is as follows:

Phil explained Sola Fide, or “Faith Alone,” as a respones to Roman Catholic doctrine, which blends justification and sanctification, and enslaves followers in a system of works-righteousness. Sola Fide declares that justification comes by faith alone, and is a one-time, instantaneous event, not an ongoing process.
Sacerdotalism and its relation to Sola Fide. Sacerdotalism is a sort of “priest-craft” that places a human mediator between man and Christ.
James 2:17 is often used to challenge Sola Fide, and to argue that works are important. We discuss the context of this verse, and the response to those to who would use it to challenge Sola Fide.
Legalism vs. Antinomianism. Paul's writings often challenge legalism, whereas James' epistle refutes antinomianism. While legalism and antinomianism or commonly seen as opposite extremes, this isn't always the case, Phil often sees the two working together, hand-in-hand.
We discuss “The New Perspective on Paul,” an attempt to make Paul's teaching more politically correct, shifting the question away from one's standing before God and toward the question of who is a member of the Covenant Community.
We discuss the relationship between the Doctrine of Election and Sola Fide. This led to a short discussion about the nature of faith itself, and the beliefs of Arminianism, Palagianism, and Semi-Palagianism.
The failure to see the distinction between justification and sanctification leads to Roman Catholic works-righteousness. The Lutheran phrase (in Latin) is Simil Iustus et Peccator, or “simultaneously justified and sinful.” Justification is not a process, but a legal standing before God, whereas sanctification is a process, the working out of our salvation. It is the process of bringing our state of being into alignment with the legal standing that has been given to us in Christ. Phil uses the analogy of marriage: Justification is like the pronouncement of marriage by the minister at the ceremony, whereas sanctification is analogous to the rest of the lives of the bride and groom, living out their marriage. Roman Catholics had to invent purgatory to explain how someone who dies in a state of imperfection can still be saved because of this failure to distinguish between justification and sanctification.
We are sanctified by faith, but not by faith alone, at least not in the same sense that we are justified by faith alone. The Arminian and Palagian misunderstanding of justification leads to a doctrine of perfectionism, which makes justification a process and sanctification an instantaneous event, rather than the other way around.
Every false cult and man-made religion, in some way, involves a denial of the doctrine of Sola Fide.
Rob Bell's denial of Hell, and quasi-universalism theatens the doctrine of Justification by Faith Alone (Sola Fide) because he declares that faith in Jesus Christ isn't ultimately necessary at all for salvation.
I asked Phil to relate to relate Sola Fide to the other four Solas. They all tie together naturally, but he believes Sola Fide to be the most important to understand, along with Sola Scriptura. Sola Scriptura and Sola Fide were known as the formal and the material principles of the Reformation, respectively. Sola Scriptura being the basis by which the rest of the Solas were derived.