What a great joy it was to regather on Sunday! It was so good to see each other and worship together for the first time in nearly 5 months!

Thank you for being flexible in our new venue, for all the help you put in to make it happen, and for your joy and enthusiasm in returning!

We took time on Sunday to know our history and story by looking at the Reformation. The catch-cry of the Reformation is just as relevant today and we ought never take it for granted! You can listen to the sermon here: www.sgparra.org.au/sermons

-       Sola Sciptura –Bible Alone

-       Sola Gratia – Grace Alone

-       Sola Fide – Faith Alone

-       Solus Christus – Christ Alone

-       Soli Deo Gloria – To The Glory of God Alone

As the reformers would say: justification is by grace alone through faith alone because of Christ alone to the glory of God alone!

As promised, here is the quote from Luther from when he realized what Romans 1:16-17 really meant, that I skipped in the sermon:

“My situation was that, although an impeccable monk, I stood before God as a sinner troubled in conscience, and I had no confidence that my merit would assuage him. Therefore I did not love a just and angry God, but rather hated and murmured against him. Yet I clung to the dear Paul and had a great yearning to know what he meant. Night and day I pondered until I saw the connection between the justice of God and the statement that “the just shall live by his faith.” Then I grasped that the justice of God is that righteousness by which through grace and sheer mercy God justifies us through faith. Thereupon I felt myself to be reborn and to have gone through open doors into paradise. The whole of Scripture took on a new meaning, and whereas before the “justice of God” had filled me with hate, now it became to me inexpressibly sweet in greater love. This passage of Paul became to me a gate to heaven. . .”

Martin Luther: