Sola gratia

Sola gratia is one of the Five solae propounded to summarise the Reformers basic beliefs during the Protestant
Reformation; it is a Latin term meaning grace alone.
Protestant reformers believed that this emphasis was
in contradistinction to the teaching of the Roman
Catholic Church, though the Catholic Church had explicitly armed the doctrine of sola gratia in the year
529 in the Council of Orange, which condemned the
Pelagian heresy.[1] As a response to this misunderstanding, Catholic doctrine was further claried in the Council
of Trent-- the Council explained that salvation is made
possible only by grace; the faith and works of men are
secondary means that have their origins in and are sustained by grace.

presses a far-reaching consensus in regard to the theological controversy which was a major cause of the split in
Western churches in the 16th century over salvation by
grace alone or by grace and good works.
Some conservative Protestants still believe the dierences
between their views and those of the Catholics remain
substantial, however. They insist that this agreement does
not fully reconcile the dierences between the Reformist
and Roman Catholic viewpoints on this subject.[3]

2 See also
Christian view of the Old Testament Law

During the Reformation, Protestant leaders and

theologians generally believed the Roman Catholic view
of the means of salvation to be a mixture of reliance
upon the grace of God, and condence in the merits
of ones own works performed in love, pejoratively
called Legalism. The Reformers posited that salvation is
entirely comprehended in Gods gifts (that is, Gods act
of free grace), dispensed by the Holy Spirit according to
the redemptive work of Jesus Christ alone.

Law and Gospel

Expounding of the Law

3 References
[1] White, R. A., Sola Gratia, Solo Christo: The Roman
Catholic Doctrine of Justication, http://www.bringyou.
to/apologetics/a134.htm

Consequently, they argued that a sinner is not accepted

by God on account of the change wrought in the believer
by Gods grace, and indeed, that the believer is accepted
without any regard for the merit of his worksfor no one
deserves salvation, a concept that some take to the extreme of Antinomianism, a doctrine that argues that if
someone is saved, he/she has no need to live a holy life,
given that salvation is already in the bag.

[2] Joint declaration on the doctrine of justication, by the

Lutheran World Federation and the Catholic Church on
The Holy See home page
[3] An Appeal to Evangelicals, by the Alliance of Confessing
Evangelicals, Inc.

Sola gratia is one of the Protestant Reformation's Five

Solas and is also linked to the ve points of Calvinism.

4 External links
Articles on the ve solas from a conservative Protestant perspective

Recent activity

In November 1999, the Lutheran World Federation and

the Pontical Council for Promoting Christian Unity issued the "Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justication" that said, By grace alone, in faith in Christs saving work and not because of any merit on our part, we
are accepted by God and receive the Holy Spirit, who renews our hearts while equipping us and calling us to good
works.[2]
On July 18, 2006, delegates to the World Methodist
Conference voted unanimously to adopt the declaration.
The Methodists resolution said the 1999 agreement ex1

5 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

5.1

Text

Sola gratia Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sola_gratia?oldid=669113671 Contributors: Emperorbma, Rursus, DocWatson42, MistToys, Flex, D6, Paul foord, Kingje, C.Fred, T J McKenzie, Stephensuleeman, Srnec, Cybercobra, Simonapro, CapitalR, Cydebot, Julian
Mendez, DBaba, Thijs!bot, NJPharris, Josh777, Qwerty Binary, Dulcimerist, Afaprof01, PStrait, Nwbeeson, Pastordavid, Rei-bot, Synthebot, SieBot, StAnselm, Gbms86, Ecjmartin, ClueBot, Kathleen.wright5, Addbot, Amirobot, Givbatad, LilHelpa, DSisyphBot, Glacier2009,
Lukemiddleton, Jimtaip, Marcocapelle and Anonymous: 13

5.2

Images

File:Sola_gratia.ogg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/37/Sola_gratia.ogg License: CC-BY-SA-3.0 Contributors:

Derivative of Sola gratia Original artist: Speaker: T J McKenzie
Sola gratia
File:Sound-icon.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/47/Sound-icon.svg License:
Derivative work from Silsor's versio Original artist: Crystal SVG icon set

5.3

Content license

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