Sola Fide

The following is a mix of excerpts from Paul Helm with some of my own comments mixed in.  

On Sola Fide, the primary motivation for a Christian’s moral activity relates to what has happened, that he has been justified by an alien righteousness, so that the fundamental motivator is gratitude to God on account of what he has done.

Those that deny Sola Fide hold that one of the motivations for the Christian’s moral activity is that through it justification can be caused or completed or strengthened.  This is a fundamentally different type of motivator than Sola Fide, and seems essentially less God-centric.

A person in this position may justifiably reason 'If I do not live appropriately, I will not be accepted'.  On the Non-Sola Fide view, moral failure puts justification in peril and should spur one on to a renewed effort.  If one has deep concerns about divine acceptance, this results in a very harsh view of God.  If not, it results in an easy moralism.

On Sola Fide, moral failure does not put acceptance or justification in peril.  Instead, moral failure triggers a renewal of faith in Jesus and obedience to him.  This also seems to lead the Sola Fide view to appreciate a deeper aspect of sin, in that it alienates one from God.

The purpose of the gospel is not primarily to overcome conscious failure, but to recognize God’s love and forgiveness in Christ.  

So the doctrine of Sola Fide has important subjective and objective features.  Forgiveness is not conditional on sola fide, an objective feature.  This leads to important psychological effects.

The stance of someone who loves in order to be accepted is much different than one who loves God because he has been forgiven much.  And so the 'spiritual theology' arising from these two sorts of cases is likely to be very different as well.

These words declare that salvation does not come from looking at our own works of righteousness, but from looking outside ourselves to another, to the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Indeed, sola fide is vital because it reminds us of the grace of the gospel, testifying that our salvation—our standing and acceptance before God—is entirely from God. Human works cannot accomplish divine salvation. Thus sola fide ascribes all the glory to God, so that no one will boast in man (1 Cor. 1:31). It reminds us that everything we have is a gift

Faith is an instrumental cause of salvation:  We are saved by Christ’s merit through the instrument of a perceiving faith.  Still, faith is a virtue; but is not on account of this virtue that we are saved, but on the account of Christ’s merit - nor is this virtue a product of our own work, but given to us by God.

Ursinus: That not only all our merits, but that even faith itself may be excluded from that which is received by faith; so that when we say, we are justified by faith only, the sense is, that it is not by meriting, but only by receiving; as when it is said, This beggar is enriched only by receiving alms, all works and merits are excluded therefrom, yea, even the very acceptance of alms, in as far as it is viewed as a merit. It is for this reason, that Paul always says, that we are justified by faith, and through faith, as by an instrument; and never on account of faith, as the Papists will have it, who indeed admit both forms of expression, as if faith might be the application of Christ’s righteousness, and be also at the same time a certain work, or merit, by which we are counted worthy of being declared righteous, which is directly opposed to the very nature of faith. For if we were justified on account of our faith, then faith would no longer be the acceptance of the righteousness of another, but it would be the merit, and cause of our own righteousness; neither would it receive the satisfaction of another, for it would no longer stand in need of it.