Sola Fide
Sola Gratia
Sola Scriptura
That's what we're about here at Hope. These are the hallmarks of what it means to be a Lutheran. These short statements describe the only things we need to answer the big questions of life. By faith alone(sola fide) God places the gift of salvation in our hearts. By his grace alone (sola gratia) God sent his Son Jesus to save us. And by Scripture alone (sola scriptura) does God reveal all of this to us.
This Sunday we celebrate a festival called "reformation." It's a day that remembers a German monk named Martin Luther as over 500 years ago he nailed a sheet of paper with 95 statements to the door of his church.
But I want you to know that as we celebrate reformation, we’re certainly not celebrating a man. We’re not celebrating his achievements, we’re not celebrating his courage, and we’re not celebrating his bravado. We’re doing two things. We’re stepping off life’s treadmill of trying to justify ourselves, trying to earn or figure out rightness and goodness for ourselves. And we’re praising a God who has done so much better than given us a list of things that we can do. He has given us himself. God’s justification is the end of trying. It’s the end of trying to make professionalism, parenting, beauty, or morality our crown. It’s time to stop trying and to start believing. It’s time to believe that Jesus truly is our righteousness, our life, and our crown.
