REFORMATION CHALLENGE!
Week 3 - Sola Gratia
Week 3 - Sola Gratia
Sola Gratia - Salvation comes by Divine grace only, not because of merit. I feel like we as believers constantly fight against grace as we still continue "to do" things to earn God's favor. We think, "if I would only read my Bible and pray more or sing through the hymnal (haha!) that God will somehow look upon me as if I am better than I am." .... FALSE! God looks upon us as enemies and sinners, BUT JESUS has made a way and imputed His righteousness to us even as our sin was imputed to Him. We cannot please God with our merit. The best news is that God has given us something we don't deserve, grace. Jesus pleased God perfectly and completely. We can rest in His amazing grace. Are you trusting in grace that God gives to save your, or are you trusting His grace plus your merit? The Bible teaches that it is only by grace that we have been saved (Ephesians 2:8-9). This gives us GREAT reason to sing!
Here are some song suggestions for you:
- Amazing Grace (John Newton)
- Grace that is Greater than All Our Sin
- My Lord I did Not Choose You - a difficult text for some to swallow, but so good to remember that it is God who does ALL the saving.
- God Moves in a Mysterious Way - you can sing this text to many different tunes. Here is a tune that I sing to this text (sorry the words are not with it, but you can hear the tune at least).
My Lord I did Not Choose You
You took the sin that stained me,
You cleansed me, made me new;
Of old You have ordained me,
That I should live in You.
Unless Your grace had called me
And taught my opening mind,
The world would have enthralled me,
To heavenly glories blind.
My heart knows none above You;
For Your rich grace I thirst;
I know that if I love You,
You must have loved me first.
Chorus:
My Lord, I did not choose You,
For that could never be;
My heart would still refuse You,
Had You not chosen me.
- Josiah Conder
In honor of the 500th anniversary of the reformation and the resurgence of congregational singing, my family and I are doing something special each day this month. Every evening, we are singing A Mighty Fortress is Our God (Martin Luther). It is our goal that our children (even our two year old) will be able to sing all four stanzas by Reformation Day at the end of the month. Even if you don't have children, commit to singing this text every day. It will be good for your soul. I hope you will do this challenge along with us! We will post a video of us singing together on Reformation Day. I'd loveto see our feeds full of this wonderful text! My 4 and 5 year old can sing all four stanzas now, and my two year old is chiming in on the first stanza. Keep singing!
Resource Corner
Jonathan Edwards said:
"[you] contribute nothing to your salvation except the sin that made it necessary."
Here is a great book for children. It can be read a page at a time for younger children. Beautifully illustrated and written. These would make great Christmas gifts if you are looking for solid books for your family or grandchildren. It is great to have books like this to learn about maybe some of the "lesser" knowns of the reformation. Jonathan Edwards gives us some of the American reformation history that came a bit later than Europe. There are many biographies you can find on him if you don't know much about him.
- Five Reasons to Teach your children about the Reformation
- How the Protestant Reformation Started
- Keller, Piper, and Carson on why the Reformation matters today
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