ectypal.net

The first-generation reformers were generally at their most lucid—and unified—in explaining what justification was not: it was not a reward for human merit (de congruo or otherwise); it was not a result of the believer’s cooperation with the gift of grace (synteresis); it was not regulated by the church’s sacrament of penance. Indeed, the vaunted solas of Reformation theology—sola fide, sola gratia, solus Christus, and even sola scriptura—are all negative assertions; that is, they seek to isolate certain key terms from specific theological contexts in which they had become embedded. Thus, they function not so much as summaries of Protestant belief but as rallying cries against specific Catholic teachings or practices.