What is “Soli Deo Gloria”?

Author:

James R. White and George Bryson

Article ID:

DD802-1

Updated: 

Jul 31, 2022

Published:

Apr 16, 2009

The following is an excerpt from article DD802-1 from the Christian Research Journal. The full article can be read by following the link below the excerpt.


Soli Deo Gloria

Soli Deo Gloria—“to God alone be the glory.” This was one of the “solas” of the Reformation. Like sola scriptura, sola gratia, and sola fide, this credo of the Reformation has fallen on hard times. Today many who benefit from the work of the Reformers stand firmly against what the Reformers believed about the sovereignty and glory of God as they pertain to salvation and the spiritual deadness of sinful man. While the Reformers openly proclaimed a God-glorifying monergism (the belief that God’s grace alone is able to raise dead, rebellious sinners to spiritual life without their cooperation), many now take the position of the Reformers’ opponents by preaching synergism, the concept that God’s grace is incapable of accomplishing salvation without the assistance and cooperation of man.

As a Reformed Baptist, I firmly believe in God’s absolute sovereignty over all things,1 man’s slavery to sin (including our inability to please God, as well as our spiritual deadness in sin),2 and the inevitable result of these truths, which is the unconditional electing grace of God. In light of God’s timeless sovereignty over all creation and man’s corruption in sin, God’s election of a people unto salvation must result, as Scripture says, in election finding its basis not in the creature but in the merciful purpose of God alone.

Loading
Share This