Thanks for joining us for our next installment of the WORD in Music! This is part four of our trip through the five solas. The five solas being the five statements from the protestant reformation that countered the growing distortion of salvation within the church. First, we confirmed that salvation doesn’t come from any merit or great quality within us, but by grace alone. Second, we are not saved by anything we can accomplish, but through faith alone. Finally, there is only one person who can grant us salvation, and that is in Christ Alone. Yet how do we know these things? What do we have to confirm the events from over thousands of years ago? How do we know what our God is telling us to do in response to our salvation? It is according to Scripture alone! As the graphic below communicates, scripture is foundational to all we know about God and our salvation.
“How firm a foundation, you saints of the Lord, / Is laid for your faith in His excellent word! / What more can He say than to you He has said, / To you who for refuge to Jesus have fled?” The first verse of our first song, How Firm a Foundation unknown author, performed by Norton Hall Band and Southern Seminary, says it all. We have a firm foundation in God’s word! There are three key points I want to camp on, in this rich verse. First the Word of God is a firm foundation that will not shift or be shaken (Luke 6:47-48) and will last forever (Isaiah 40:8). This is not like Charlie Brown and Lucy. God has not called you in to then watch you wipe out. And it also is not a fad like tie dye, fidget spinners, or mullets (lets hope this newest wave of mullets goes away quicker than the first). God’s word stood true thousands of years ago, stands true today, and will remain so forever!
Second, we spend far too much time looking to ourselves and to others, even Christian authors, for answers rather than seeking his word. We are obsessed with how we can be happier, rather than seeking how we can please our heavenly father. And yet we are often flummoxed when trying to discern God’s will. What does he want from us? But God has said, “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.” All we must do is look to his excellent word! Not as a guarantee of happiness and prosperity, but a guarantee that if we trust in faith in His word, it will not return void.
Third, rather than seeking what the scripture says about God, we tend to try to make God fit what we imagine him to be. “What more can He say than to you he hath said!” There is nothing outside of scripture needed to see who God really is. Deuteronomy 4 tells us, “You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God that I command you.” (Deuteronomy 4:2). It is all sufficient, of the highest authority, and completely without error. That should be a great comfort to us, God did not send us a treasure map out of Pirates of the Caribbean, with spinning wheels, missing pieces, or invisible ink that needs to be assembled by a master cryptographer to find out what God says. One needs only to read his word! This doesn’t mean using biblical commentary is bad, but we can cause great damage when we trust the words of those who were created by God in the place of God himself.
“From the breaking of the dawn to the setting of the sun / I will stand on ev’ry promise of Your Word / Words of power, strong to save, that will never pass away / I will stand on ev’ry promise of Your Word” The first two verses of our second song, Every Promise of Your Word by Keith and Kristyn Getty, echo Isaiah 40:8 where he says, “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.” Praise God his word is reliable and stands the test of time.
“For Your covenant is sure / And on this I am secure / can stand on ev’ry promise of Your Word” We can be secure in all things by looking at the word of God, as Isaiah says, “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:10-11, emphasis added).
God’s word will not return empty! Praise the Lord!
Now there’s a lot in both these songs we didn’t get into. So I’ll leave you with a couple of things. First, listen to these songs a couple of times, they are full of the reminders of God faithfulness. Let it inspire you to dig into His word to find hope, meaning, and purpose. And Second, I’ll leave you with the second verse from How Firm a Foundation, “Fear not, I am with thee; oh be not dismayed / For I am thy God and will still give thee aid / I’ll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand / Upheld by My righteous, omnipotent hand”
Next time we will look at the final sola that the other four solas point to. Until next time keep listening for the WORD in Music! #CultivatingFaithOrg