Many of us are familiar with that great hymn by John Newton, Amazing Grace,

and the line, Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.

So we know that the grace of God is amazing, but is it essential?

Hi, I'm Nathan W. Bingham, and thanks for joining us for this Tuesday edition of Renewing Your Mind.

This week, R.C. Sprawl has begun taking us through a series, looking at five essential gospel truths

that were rediscovered and reaffirmed during the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century,

truths that we as Christians must never compromise.

Today, he's going to remind us that our salvation is by grace alone.

Here's Dr. Sprole.

We're going to continue with our series of study on the five solas of the Protestant

Reformation. We've already had messages on the question of sola Fide or justification by faith alone,

which was the material or the substantial issue over which the

reformation was fought. And closely related to the doctrine of Sola Fide is the doctrine of

Sola Grazie, or Gradia, however you want to pronounce it, which means literally

by grace alone. Now, in the Middle Ages, in the Roman Catholic Church, of course, the leading

theologian was St. Thomas Aquinas, and the church since that time

has referred to Thomas as the angelic doctor, the doctor Angelicus, the doctor of the angels.

They have another nickname for the great St. Augustine, who ministered at the end of the fourth century

and into the beginning of the fifth century, and Augustine's nickname is Dr. Grazie.

That is, he's known as the Doctor of Grace in church history, because he is the one who first formulated this idea of Sola

Grazie. And that notion that Augustine articulated was recovered and recaptured in the Reformation

by his two main disciples of that period, Martin Luther,

...