How I love Your instruction! It is my meditation all day long. Your commands make me wiser than my enemies, for they are always with me. I have more insight than all my teachers because Your decrees are my meditation. I understand more than the elders because I obey Your precepts. Psalm 119:97–100 HCSB

A simple layman armed with Scripture possesses greater wisdom than any throne, chair, or title that stands without it.

h/t to Martin Luther (1483–1546), who expressed this sentiment: “A simple layman armed with Scripture is greater than the mightiest Pope without it.”

You can be forgiven for thinking you read that somewhere before. It is our post from yesterday. After we posted it, we came across a brief conversation on X that was delicious for its clarity. Herewith:

Post One:
“Regardless of if you’re Catholic or Protestant, you should not celebrate the Reformation. It split the Body of Christ and damaged Christian unity. This is nothing to celebrate.”

Post Two:
“The Reformation is the most important event in human history since the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We should always celebrate a return to biblical Christianity.”

Post Three:
“The Reformation was not a theological preference. It was a necessity. When the authority of Scripture is replaced by the authority of Rome, when justification by faith alone is replaced by a system of sacramental works, when Christ’s finished work is obscured by an earthly priesthood and repeated sacrifice, and when created things are elevated into objects of religious devotion, biblical Christianity has been abandoned. The Reformers did not need to invent a new Christianity. They needed to recover the Christianity of the Bible. Sola Scriptura. Sola Fide. Solus Christus. Sola Gratia. Soli Deo Gloria. Rome is not merely a different denomination with some minor doctrinal disagreements. Where Rome officially denies the biblical gospel, it is apostate.”

Christian unity is precious. But Christian unity cannot be purchased at the expense of Christian truth. The question is not whether the Reformation divided the visible Church. It plainly did. The question is whether the truths for which the Reformers contended required reformation. (See The Five Solas here: https://bit.ly/4wCNfhI)

And that brings us back to the simple man and his Bible. The dispute ultimately reaches two questions of eternal consequence: Who has the final authority – Scripture or the Church? And how is a sinner justified before a holy God?

On the second question, the alternatives cannot simply be harmonized. Rome does not teach that man saves himself by his own works. It teaches that justification begins entirely by the grace of God. But Rome also expressly rejects justification by faith alone and teaches a sacramental understanding of justification in which the Believer, enabled by grace, cooperates with that grace.

The Reformers contended for something fundamentally different: that the ungodly sinner is justified by the grace of God alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. Not because of any righteousness inherent in him, nor because of works performed by him, but because the righteousness of Christ is credited to him through faith. With no room for boasting.

Sola Fide is not an obscure theological distinction reserved for professors, priests, and pastors. Salvation hangs in the balance. So do not take Luther’s word for it. Do not take Rome’s word for it. For that matter, do not take ours. Be like the Bereans:

“They received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.” Acts 17:11 ESV

Open the Word of God. Read it. Test the claims against Scripture. See whether these things are so. There may be no more important thing you do today.