What is the end product of Sola Gratia and Sola Fide? A new and more pure relationship with God. Under Mosaic law, and with the dogmas of certain denominations, Christians perform good works not simply out of love for God, but also out of fear of condemnation and death. In this, men are considered to be “enslaved under sin.”
Romans 6:20: For when you were slaves to sin, you were free of obligation to righteousness. 21 What fruit did you reap at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed?
The curse of this sin is death; to avoid it, one traditionally had to become enslaved to the Law:
1 Corinthians 15:6: The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
Another issue stemming from the perversion of Mosaic law was the dysfunctional relationship many men had developed with “works-based” sanctification. A common, but spiritually dangerous perspective arising from misconstruing Mosaic law, began to spread throughout Old Testament. There were people who believed that following God’s law and performing good works was solely to end as a tool to escape hell and to further acquire righteousness for themselves. In this belief, their relationship with God became superfluous. Isaiah and Malachi provide good examples of this folly: people technically following sacraments and making sacrifices, but not respecting God or His values:
Isaiah 1:11: “What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the Lord; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams
and the fat of well-fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats.Malachi 1: 6 “A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is my fear? says the Lord of hosts to you, O priests, who despise my name. But you say, ‘How have we despised your name?’ 7 By offering polluted food upon my altar. But you say, ‘How have we polluted you?’ By saying that the Lord’s table may be despised. 8 When you offer blind animals in sacrifice, is that not evil? And when you offer those that are lame or sick, is that not evil? Present that to your governor; will he accept you or show you favor? says the Lord of hosts. 9 And now entreat the favor of God, that he may be gracious to us. With such a gift from your hand, will he show favor to any of you? says the Lord of hosts. 10 Oh that there were one among you who would shut the doors, that you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain! I have no pleasure in you, says the Lord of hosts, and I will not accept an offering from your hand.
This problem continued on with the Pharisees:
Luke 18:10 “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ 13 But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Of course, men were all incapable of perfectly fulfilling the Law, so men were constantly afflicted with the fear and sting of death. Note that this fear is not to be conflated with the just fear of an omnipotent and Sovereign God, but rather the fear of consequences of sin itself.
Romans 3:20: Therefore no one will be justified in His sight by works of the Law. For the Law merely brings awareness of sin.
Aware of this, instead of rightfully condemning us and starting anew, God sent His only son, Jesus, to die on the cross as the ultimate sacrifice. He paid for the sins of God’s Elect, freeing them from the curse of the law.
Romans 8:3: For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
Because of Jesus’ sacrifice, we can now set aside the fear of our own mortality and serve God, not to fearfully ensure our spiritual survival, but entirely because we love Him. Sin is no longer our master, only God:
Romans 6:14: For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law, but under grace.
Romans 7:4: Through our union with Christ, we have died to the law so that we are free to bear fruit for God in the Spirit.
The Christian who professes to Sola Fide and Sola Gratia still submits to God and strives for good works, but they do so without fear or enslavement to sin and Law. The reformed Christian walks according to Spirit purely because they love God. What does this look like under Jesus’ Gospel?
Galatians 5:13-14: “For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, ‘you shall love your neighbor as yourself.’
Galatians 5:16: But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.”
This fulfills the relationship God had always wanted with us; one based in love and respect:
Matthew 22:37-40: Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
John 14:21: Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”
Jeremiah 31:34: And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”