Reformed Baptists (RB) have had her detractors from the very beginning. Whether people did not like the idea of us being “Baptist” or us being “Reformed”, we have always had to defend our belief. This is actually good for the movement as it grants us an opportunity to handle misconceptions and clarify confusing points. That is why it is important that we RBs keep clarifying what we believe and to keep in mind these basic truths.
We believe, as Reformed Baptists, in something called “Sola Gratia”. This latin phrase simply means, “Grace Alone”. In other words, we believe that salvation is given to us by grace, not because we “earned” salvation, did the “right things”, are “good people” or accomplished some other work. The Cambridge Declaration says this:
“Unwarranted confidence in human ability is a product of fallen human nature. This false confidence now fills the evangelical world; from the self-esteem gospel, to the health and wealth gospel, from those who have transformed the gospel into a product to be sold and sinners into consumers who want to buy, to others who treat Christian faith as being true simply because it works. This silences the doctrine of justification regardless of the official commitments of our churches.
God's grace in Christ is not merely necessary but is the sole efficient cause of salvation. We confess that human beings are born spiritually dead and are incapable even of cooperating with regenerating grace.”
The Cambridge declaration is correct. Ultimately, our belief rests in the idea that we are sinners in need of salvation. We are lost and our only hope is that the Lord Jesus Christ would reach out and save us by His grace.
In Ephesians 2:8, we read Paul’s famous statement, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works so that no one may boast” (ESV).
Paul anticipates some of the problems the church will face in the coming days concerning our “works” and noted the detriment of adding works to salvation, being emphatic that our salvation was not from works. Twice, Paul notes that our salvation was not based upon anything we do, “this is not your own doing” and, “not a result of works”. He is emphatic that our salvation is of Grace, the gift of God.
The question then comes about, how did the Lord save us? I believe Ephesians clearly answers this question when it says,
“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— “ (Ephesians 2:1-4 ESV).
The Bible says that we were “dead” in sins and trespasses. Some believe we were merely sick, in need of a little assistance, but that is not what the Bible says. We were more than sick but we were “dead”. Grace and mercy is what made us alive. As the text says, “even when we were dead in our trespasses, [God] made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved.” In other words, what brought us from being dead to life is God’s grace.
Let me ask a simple question, how much work could a dead person do to make himself alive again? Imagine, for a moment, the dead person’s body is laying on a table at room temperature and a physician comes into the room in an attempt to revive him. All of a sudden, the doctor’s work stops and the corpse heart begins to beat, his eyes are opened, and his mouth begins to talk. Then he moves and finally he walks around. What was once a corpse is now alive. Did the opening of the eyes or the walking around the room save this person? No, these were merely reactions to being made alive. The physician’s work of grace and mercy is what made this man alive. The dead person put no work in his own resurrection but was the beneficiary of the Doctor’s work of grace and mercy.
The Doctor is like our Lord God. God performs the entire work of grace upon you, the dead person. You are the recipient of this great act of mercy and you only respond to God’s gracious action upon your life.
Many are probably asking where faith comes into this entire discussion. That will be the topic of our next discussion. Yet, this does show that our salvation is totally dependent upon God’s grace.
