The Reformation and Your Church: New Interview

Recently Matthew Barrett, executive editor of Credo Magazine, was interviewed by 9 Marks about the solas of the Reformation. You can read the entire interview in the 9 Marks Journal: “The Reformation and Your Church.”

Here is the middle of the interview where Barrett talks about why the solas go together and something surprising he learned from writing his book on sola scriptura:

How do all five solas fit together as an inseparable whole?

All five books (and solas) fit together and are inseparable from one another. It’s only on the basis of the work of Christ alone that sinners receive the perfect righteousness of Christ and the total forgiveness of sins. Reception of this imputed righteousness, however, isn’t by works but through faith alone in Christ alone.

But even our faith is a gift from God. Therefore, it’s by God’s grace alone that we’re raised from spiritual death to life, that our eyes are opened to our sin and our desperate need for a Savior. It’s precisely because salvation is by grace alone that all glory goes to God alone.

So, how do we know about this good news? Through the Scriptures alone! Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, Melanchthon, and many others cried sola scriptura, which means that only Scripture, as God’s inspired Word, is the church’s inerrant, sufficient, and final authority. Scripture read, preached, and proclaimed feeds the sheep with the good news, the gospel of Jesus Christ. To paraphrase Luther, the Scriptures are the swaddling clothes in which we’re presented with Jesus, our Savior.

What’s something surprising you learned from writing your book, God’s Word Alone?

God’s Word is inherently and invariably Trinitarian in nature. Throughout redemptive history, each person of the Trinity participates in the delivery of divine revelation, yet it’s the Holy Spirit in particular who takes on a central role, carrying along the biblical authors so they speak from God (2 Pet 1:21).

Additionally, God’s Word, though communicated in a variety of ways, is undeniably covenantal in character. God communicates who he is and what he will do via divinely initiated covenants—and Scripture itself is a covenantal document. It’s the constitution of the covenant between God and his people. To reject God’s Word is to reject his covenant. Redemptive history demonstrates that the covenantal Word of the triune God proves true. His covenantal promises, both spoken and written, will not fail, and nowhere is this more evident than in the incarnation of Christ, the Word made flesh.

Read the rest of this interview today: The Solas

Other articles and interviews in the 9 Marks journal include:

Other articles and interviews in the 9 Marks journal include:

The Reformation and Your Church

The Reformation and the Nine Marks