Sola Fide: Faith Alone

At the heart of the Reformation is the question of justification. How is the believer declared righteous before God. The Roman Catholic church taught, and still teaches, that faith must be aided by good works; that God declares a person righteous only when righteousness is inherent within their every act and action. Out of this teaching comes an insistence on good works to complete justification, also the teaching of purgatory is linked to this teaching as is the insistence that no one can have assurance of salvation in this life.

The Reformers, on the other hand, taught that justification is by faith and that the righteousness required to justify the believer is Christ's righteousness imputed to him. We believe the Bible teaches a double imputation, that my sins have been transferred to Christ's account and he has paid for them on the cross and Christ's righteousness has been transferred to my account and I am declared righteous in him. This is not the reward for some work I have done, but the free gift of grace received by faith.

In this sermon, we consider the tension between the teaching of Paul in Romans 4 and the teaching of James in James 2. Does James really mean for us to add work to our faith? Or is something else able to explain this seeming contradiction in our Bible?