In our day the primary enemies that seeks to once again eclipse the gospel are seemingly diverse so-called churches and church movements such as the Purpose Driven paradigm or seeker-sensitivity and gospel contextualization, which remove essential parts of the gospel in order to not offend the “unchurched.” Then there is the Emergent church, which has taken on a definite New Age spiritualism bent. The movers and shakers in this movement consistently deny sola fide and sola scriptura as essentials for the gospel and the health of the church.

The Doctrine of Justification by Faith alone, or sola fide, was the key of the Protestant Reformation. Its recovery was from the darkness created by the dominance of man-made religiosity, which held that justification was accomplished through faith plus good works. This grew into people being required to do religious acts in order to be considered righteous. The driving force of the Reformation was captured by the Latin phrase Post tenbras lux (After darkness, light).

The darkness, of course, referred to the eclipse of the gospel that occurred in the late Middle Ages. We often make the mistake of assuming that this darkness became manifest at the end of the 1st Century A.D., however, the fact is that it came about through a gradual process of darkening which reached its nadir as the Middle Ages ground to an uneasy end. Then history witnessed the firestorm of the Protestant Reformation, which was ignited by God in the hearts of the reformers who burned to recover the Doctrine of Justification by Faith alone.

Martin Luther called Justification by Faith Alone “the article upon which the church stands or falls.” He based this bold statement as he identified Justification by Faith Alone with the gospel. The controversy with the Roman Catholic Church was primarily based within the differences between how its declaration of justification differed from how the Reformers proclaimed how the benefits of Christ’s work are appropriated by, in, and for the believer. In other words, the issue became “how justification and salvation are received.” Luther’s insistence on sola fide was based on his conviction that the “how” of justification is integral and essential to the gospel itself.1

Since the gospel stands at the heart of Christian faith, Luther and other Reformers regarded the debate concerning justification as one involving an essential truth of Christianity, a doctrine no less essential than the Trinity or the dual natures of Christ. Without the gospel the church falls. Without the gospel the church is no longer the church.2

The logic followed by the Reformers is this:

1. Justification by faith alone is essential to the gospel.

2. The gospel is essential to Christianity and to salvation.

3. The gospel is essential to a church’s being a true church.

4. To reject justification by faith alone is to reject the gospel and to fall as a church.3

My brethren, I prayerfully ask each one reading this to take a long hard look at how your church handles the gospel. The Reformers saw their role in the Reformation as a rescue of the gospel itself from impending danger of total eclipse. Never forget my brethren, a total eclipse only blocks the light from the Sun, it does no harm to it.

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