This year marks the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther nailing his 95 Theses to the doors of the Wittenburg Church in Germany. That event was a defining moment in the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. Over the month of October, I invite you to see the doctrines that sparked the Reformation - the Five Solas.
First, we start with Sola Scriptura - Scripture Alone. A key passage for this doctrine is 2 Peter 1:16-21. Here are a few thoughts:
We shouldn't miss the context of 16-21. The immediate context is 12-15. Peter wants to stir us up and how does he stir us up? By reminder. Reminding us how? Scripture. Why talk about Scripture? Because Scripture reveals Christ. Every page whispers his name.
Why do we need to tie our lives to Scripture? Because without Scripture we don’t know Jesus. There are many Jesus’ in the world, but only one Jesus of Scripture. Many mythological pictures of Jesus, but only one true Jesus who saves. How do we know the saving Jesus from any other Jesus? Scripture. Scripture is the authority. If your Jesus doesn’t match Scripture, then you have to abandon your Jesus, that is if you want the way, the truth, and the life. There is salvation in no one else. For there is only one name given under heaven by which we must be saved.
Why does Peter seek to ground us in Scripture? He had the first-hand experience that left to himself he would get it wrong. Let’s think back to Peter’s best moment. When Peter confessed Christ and got his new name at Caesarea-Philippi what happened? Peter says You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. But listen closely to what Jesus says. Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 16:16-17) Peter didn’t come to this conclusion on his own. Not even because Jesus was standing right in front of him. The Father revealed it, he heard it – seeing isn’t believing, hearing is believing. Just a few verses later, in verses 21-23, Jesus has to call Peter Satan! And then in the next chapter, Peter is up with Jesus on the Mt. of Transfiguration, which is what he is talking about in 2 Peter and he gets interrupted by the Father. Peter wants to build three tents, again confusing who the Son is, and the Father says, Listen to him.
You can’t know Jesus apart from Scripture. CAN’T. This is why Peter says we are in a better position than he was. After the Cross and Resurrection, after the Spirit, everything changed. Not that the message wasn’t there before, but we didn’t know the message. We had echoes and clues but we didn’t know what we were looking at. There’s one passage in Scripture that, when the first read has seems so mystical and mysterious. Luke 24. After the crucifixion, after the resurrection, Jesus appears to two of his disciples on the road to Emmaus. The text says, their eyes were kept from recognizing him. Why? So that he could point them to Scripture. Flesh and blood were right in front of them, but Jesus wants them to see him, and you can’t see him without Scripture. Jesus says to them Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory? And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. Later when he breaks bread with them their eyes are opened, and they say, Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures? (Luke 24:26-27, 32)
This is why Peter says we are in a better place. We have Scripture; we have the key to Scripture to which we will do well to pay attention. Once you see Jesus, you can’t not see Jesus. Look at verse 19. The word is more confirmed because the lamp has shone and the morning star is rising. That reference is from Numbers and talks about the day coming when Jesus comes and crushes his enemies, the hope of our future with God. This is why Scripture is not a matter of one’s interpretation – it stands in authority over us, we don’t stand in authority over it.
When you abandon Scripture, you forfeit hope. Listen, over the next few weeks there is one sentence that I am going to give you that we will be unpacking. This sentence rises from Scripture and is the sentence that forms the bedrock of the Reformation.
Salvation (our only hope in life and death), according to Scripture, is through Christ alone, by grace alone, through faith alone, to God’s glory alone.
So how are building your life? On solid ground or sinking sand? The Bible is the inerrant, infallible, authority. Don’t abandon Scripture, build your life on the firm foundation of God’s Word.