Solus Christus! Sola Fide

You may have heard someone describing their conception or rather their misconception of Christianity something like this: Christianity is taking the ten things you like to do most and stop doing them and taking the ten things you like to do least and start doing them.

How can you explain this kind of misconception of a life of faith in Christ? It is most likely because they have received their idea of Christianity from the rulebook for Christians. They have come in contact with the kind of institutionalized religion similar to the legalism that Paul is writing against in Galatians.

New Christians in Galatia were being persuaded that faith alone was not enough. They were being told by certain people that they needed to add certain works of the law in order to be saved. That was a step backward in their spiritual growth.

Paul argued that if we could earn our way back to God by our own efforts, Christ would not have had to die for our unrighteousness. Adding human works to faith would be the same as setting God’s grace aside. It would be hypocritical. We can’t do anything to earn our salvation. We can’t be justified or declared righteous on our own merits. We are justified by faith. The law can’t give us salvation. Only faith in Christ can give us salvation.