Soli Deo Gloria: Embracing God's Exclusive Role in Our Salvation

Ever wondered who truly deserves the credit for the miracle of salvation? Our riveting conclusion to the five-part series on the five solas of the Reformation brings to light the profound principle of "soli Deo gloria"—that all glory should be directed to God alone. We navigate through the intricacies of this concept by dissecting the monergistic approach to salvation, which stands in stark contrast to the synergistic theology proposed by the Roman Catholic Church. As we traverse the pivotal scriptures in Romans 8, we uncover the awe-inspiring truth that from start to finish, the journey of salvation is an exclusive act of God, leaving no room for human boasting.

Why should it matter that Christ alone is the architect and finisher of our faith? In the heart of this episode, we make it clear that our admiration, our worship, and indeed, our very lives must be an ode to the glory of God. We challenge each other to examine the role of human constructs like creeds and church figures, reaffirming that their purpose is not to garner praise but to direct it towards the Almighty. Prepare to be inspired to live out your faith with the sole purpose of magnifying His name, as we come together in the spirit of Romans 11:36, dedicating every thought, word, and deed to His sovereign glory. Join us for this empowering conversation that promises to reshape your understanding of salvation and worship.

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As always, thank you for watching Gospel Grit, where we seek to apply the Word of God, to the people of God, to the glory of God.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:04

All right, welcome everyone to this episode of Gospel Grit. This is episode 21, and it is a special one because in this episode we conclude our five-part series on the five solas of the Reformation, the series that I have entitled Roman Catholic Schism. We bring this to a close and we do so in the most glorious way. So tonight, as we seek to glorify God particularly, soli deo gloria, glory to God alone we want to do that by applying the word of God to the people of God for the glory of God. And, ultimately, what we want to focus on tonight is that it's the glory of God that sustains and upholds all things, that it is exactly the ground that we stand on with all other doctrines that we ever believe as Christians. So tonight, as we wrap this one up, as we wrap up part five of Roman Catholicism, the first place to remember, and the first thing to remember, rather, is that this doctrine, now that we have covered faith alone, grace alone, christ alone covered faith alone, grace alone, christ alone, scripture alone, we come to the glory of God alone, which is the penultimate reason for anything that exists whatsoever in the world. So I have three major points tonight that I want to kind of break down as we just give ourselves something to think about as we wrap this series up. So, in a nutshell, soli Deo Gloria is the doctrine that permeated the Reformation and it's the one that permeates the Reformation faith to this day. The predecessors of the Reformers and those who came after them all believed.

Speaker 1: 2:03

Ultimately and this is what I'm going to try to argue tonight the Roman Catholic Church patently denied that the glory of salvation, that the glory of creation, that the glory of God's sustaining power and His goodness and His mercy and love in our life is ultimately to His glory and to His glory alone is ultimately to His glory and to His glory alone that there is no equivocation, there is no sharing of His glory. My glory will I not share with another, as he says in the Old Testament multiple times. So the easiest and most obvious place to start this is point number one, which is the glory of God alone in salvation, and the great doctrines of justification. Not only justification, but the concepts of election or predestination, the concepts of God bringing about the justification of His saints, but before doing that, even that he regenerates us, that he brings us back from the dead, that he sanctifies us, that he's carrying out the process of conforming us to the image of Christ and, ultimately, that he brings about our glorification. All of those cut right to the core of the fact that salvation is by God and it's by God alone. There is no part of salvation that is done and enacted by man. It is not a cooperative effort, it is monergistic through and through, from beginning to the penultimate end. Every bit of our salvation has been done by God. It's been wrought by God.

Speaker 1: 3:49

Right, romans 8 is a perfect example of this. As we look at Romans 8 and I turn here I'll just read a few verses for you so that you get a flavor of exactly what we're talking about, so that we can see that God is the one doing all of these things. Right, verse 28,. Romans 8, 28,. We all know this verse, but we'll start there for our context. And we know that those who love God and we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose. So the next verse because those whom he foreknew he foreknew emphasis active on him because those whom he foreknew he also predestined to become conformed to the image of his son, sanctification, so that he would be the firstborn among many brothers and those whom he predestined, again going back in eternity past. He also called again those he called. He also justified Justification right. So now we're talking about, in time and space, the process of salvation justification, justificare in Latin and those whom he justified, he also glorified, which of course is in reference to the sanctification process reaching its penultimate conclusion of glorification.

Speaker 1: 5:24

Every bit of those verses I just read, and many others, indicate that salvation is by God alone and to His glory alone. No man deserves credit for their salvation, no man deserves credit for leading someone to the Lord, no man deserves credit for any salvation that is wrought in their ministry. God and God alone saves people. God has designed salvation in eternity past. God the Father crafted and orchestrated the plan, if you will, for redemption. God the Son took on humanity For redemption. God the Son took on humanity, took on flesh tabernacled amongst us, so that when he became a man, he enacted the plan that God the Father formulated. And God the Son is applying the work of Christ. So the Father crafted, the Son enacted, and the Holy Spirit is, thank the Lord, enacted and the Holy Spirit is, thank the Lord, at this very moment, applying the work of Christ and transforming us into His image. All of that was done without seeking man's approval or input.

Speaker 1: 6:32

God, the Father, god the Son and God the Holy Spirit deserve all glory.

Speaker 1: 6:36

When it comes to salvation, there is none besides Him. He will not share His glory with another, and that includes me or you. Ultimately, this is what the Roman Catholic Church denies. It denies this no matter how much it stamps its foot and no matter how much it shakes its ecclesiastical sabers to try to threaten and make people back down. Ultimately, all of Roman Catholic theology is synergistic. Every bit of it is meant to be a cooperative effort between you and God for your salvation. There's nothing about the Roman Catholic system that has as its root the desire to glorify God and glorify Him alone. Oh sure they'll throw God a bone and oh sure they'll talk about all the wonders of His hands and all the things he's done and His death on the cross. But it's always something for you to do. Every bit of it is always something for you to do. And, friends, if you have to do something, then you deserve part of the credit.

Speaker 1: 7:34

And Romans 4 is a lie If you read Romans 4, and I won't take the time to do that at this moment, but I encourage you to go read it. It talks there, in reference to Genesis 15, 6, that Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. When you look at Genesis 15, 6, and you look at Habakkuk 2, 4, and you look at Romans 1, 17, and you look at Romans 4, 6, when you look at all these verses, it's very clear that that which is not worked for and is given as a gift is the greatest form of grace. I don't thank someone for a paycheck when I earned it, when I worked for it. Those are my earned and rightful wages. But with God and in the gospel, there is no such thing as a rightful wage. There is no such thing as you doing anything to earn glory. You are not cooperating, you are not engaging, you are not infusing grace into your soul whatsoever. None of this is at all possible for us to understand, apart from God and God alone deserving all of the glory. Okay, so that's number one glory to God alone in salvation. Number two is glory to God alone, all of grace.

Speaker 1: 8:48

Okay, so we spent a whole week and a whole session three weeks ago talking about excuse me, talking about grace alone and sola gratia, that this Latin phrase, that grace and by grace, being amazing. How amazing really is grace? Well, it depends on whether it's for and done by God alone and for His glory alone, and my resounding answer would be yes, every bit of it is that if we were dead in our trespasses and sins, as we talked about, if we had nothing to commend ourselves to God for, on the basis of, then we have no ability to claim any power or any right to any glory. Think about God sharing for eternity some of His glory with the collective of redeemed mankind. That he would take 99% of the credit but you had 1% for all of human history, and that forever he would split worship time throughout history 99% would go to Him, but the other 1% for all of eternity, which would still be eternal. 1% of eternity would still be infinitely greater than all of time and space. That angels and redeemed human beings would spend time glorifying and worshiping me and you, for our part, in the death, burial and resurrection of the Son of God, the plan ordained from eternity past by the Father, enacted by the Son and applied by the Spirit.

Speaker 1: 10:15

That is absurd and the reason we all know it's absurd when we think theologically is because we know the Bible is all about God being the hero and us being part of the group of villains. We all know that Christ is the one who deserves all glory and honor and praise. And when Philippians 2 says that he has a name that is above every name and that his name, every knee, will bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and then in Matthew 28 at the Great Commission, in Acts 1, when he says very clearly that all authority has been given to Him in heaven and on earth and we are therefore to go and make disciples in His name, baptizing them in His name, teaching them to obey all that he has commanded them, that this is ultimately for His glory, there is nothing that we work for, there is nothing we do as Christians, ladies and gentlemen, that at all indicates that we are working for us, that we are building our own kingdom. If that is what you think is going on, that God is making much of you, you have missed the gospel. I'm not saying that you're not saved. What I am saying is you need to recalibrate your focus with the word of God, empowered by the spirit of God. You need to remember that it is all of grace.

Speaker 1: 11:37

God has sought us out. I just read Romans 8. Romans 9 makes that even more clear that God has sought us out. He has sought us when we were strangers wandering from the fold of God, that he came down to seek and save the lost. And he came down to find the prodigal son. He came down to find the one sheep that has strayed from the 99, that he is the good physician. The whole point is he came down to save us. We did not come to him to be saved. God saves us.

Speaker 1: 12:11

There is no cooperation in a salvation or rescue attempt If you are dead at the bottom of the sea of sin, not breathing, with no heartbeat. It is not synergism, it is not cooperation. We are not cooperating with God. He deserves all the glory Forever and ever, for all of eternity. We will bow down before the throne of the Lamb. He deserves all glory and honor and praise To Him. Be the praise and glory forever. God is glorified in us. Right God is glorified in us by the believing of the gospel and trusting that His grace is sufficient for us. It's not just sufficient in the good times, it's not just sufficient in the bad times. It is sufficient. Grace has led me this far and grace will lead me home. Everything that I do believe, everything that I glory in, is His glory. It's not mine and he doesn't share it. What a terrible universe it would be if God was asking me to do certain things to help save myself, to aid in the process. What a terrible, terrible universe it would be. I can't imagine a universe where men deserve one shred of God's glory.

Speaker 1: 13:31

Roman Catholicism, I don't care what you guys say in the comments, I don't care what you guys, how. You mock me as you often do in the comments. You, you Roman Catholic people who get on this video, if you even listen this far. My appeal to you is your gospel. If it brings one shred of glory to man that belongs to Christ, or one shred of glory to man, period. You have a false gospel. You have erred, and it may be at sola fide and it may be at sola gratia and it may be at sola scriptura and it may be at solus Christus, and it certainly is at soli Deo gloria that the glory of God is our peace, the glory of God is our joy, and the glory of God is the end to which all of the universe has been created.

Speaker 1: 14:24

And lastly, the third point glory to God alone, who is sovereign over all. God could not demand, and nay would not demand, any glory for Himself if it were not on the basis of the fact that he is deserving of it, because he is the one who can put it together. He is the one who earned the rightful glory, he is the one to whom it is owed and no one else. God ordains all that comes to pass, according to verses like Ephesians 1.11, that he is working all things with the counsel of his own will, as God asks Job. That who can thwart his plans? Who darkens wisdom with words without knowledge? We don't know. We are but of yesterday and we have no clue what we talk about.

Speaker 1: 15:20

God is not just controlling and ordaining all things that come to pass and therefore he deserves glory for all things that come to pass, as he waves and molds all of the threads of the universe, simultaneously and always for our good we read that earlier Romans 8, 28, and ultimately for His glory. This is the meaning of all of the universe. This is why this is the most interesting, powerful and glorious of all the solas, because it encapsulates every other sola and every reason for anything ever existing the glory of God alone. God ordains all things that come to pass, but not only that. He ordains and controls all of the outcomes. He's not just working in the means, he's also working in the ends. He's working about in the ends through the means, and we see this over and over and over again. God controls all outcomes and all that he does is good. He deserves glory because he offers no violence and no injustice to any creature who has ever existed. He is perfectly righteous and perfectly holy and perfectly good and perfectly just and perfectly forgiving and perfectly merciful and perfectly omniscient and perfectly omnibenevolent and perfectly omnipotent and omnipresent, on and on and on all of the multiplicities of his perfections. That's why we call his characteristics and his attributes his perfections, because he is perfect in whatever he is and does. He alone, ladies and gentlemen, as we land this plane on episode 21, is worthy. There is no one else.

Speaker 1: 17:10

I urge you, I implore you, whether you are Protestant, whether you've loved every bit of this series, whether you've not loved every bit, whether you have hated my guts and whether you want me to move on to a new subject because you think you can support me on other things I am. I'm moving on to a new subject after tonight, but please hear me before we move on. My appeal to you is this Come to Christ. Come to the Christ who demands, who screams from every mountaintop, both inside of man's heart and from every shred of this cosmos. Every square inch, every atom of this universe is screaming for His glory, because he deserves it. The rocks will cry out if you don't.

Speaker 1: 17:51

He is the one who deserves all credit, not a preacher, not a man, not a commentary, not some book or some text, not a catechism, not a creed, not Mary, not transubstantiation, not indulgences, not penance, not purgatory. All of those things are meant to edify and glorify and exalt man, and there is no such thing as exaltation of man that does not come through the Lord Jesus Christ. May I remind you, ladies and gentlemen, that he is the beginning and the end of all of salvation. He is the alpha and the omega, and I leave you as a reminder on this verse Soli Deo Gloria is tattooed on my arm and it's a burning bush, because the raging and passionate glory of God is the end to which I should do think and say everything that I ever do think and say in this life and the one to come Romans 11, 36, calvin's favorite verse, perfect place to end this. For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen. I hope you, with a hearty amen, agree with me as we bring this, like I said, to a close.

Speaker 1: 19:11

This has been Gospel Grit. We're a little under 20 minutes. I hope that we have achieved our goal tonight in some small or great measure, and that the Lord uses this in your life, as we have used the Word of God to glorify the people of God. Not only that, but to bring ultimately God glory. That we glory His saints collectively. Glory in Him. That we apply the Word of God to the people of God for the glory of God. It's why this channel exists, it's why I exist, it's why you exist and it's why everything in the universe exists. I love you guys. I'll see you on episode 22. No-transcript.