(Go here for lead sheets and chord charts.)
Lyrics
By Your Word alone, our eyes have seen Your salvation;
Through faith alone, not by the works of our hands;
By Your grace alone, we’re purchased from every nation;
Through Christ alone, we stand.
To God alone be all the glory!
Lead us now, O King, in the worship of Your name;
Make us pure and clean,
Tune our hearts to sing Your praise.
Lord, we long to bring something worthy of Your fame:
Through Your Word, accept our praise;
Through Your Word, accept our praise.
Words & Music: Zac Hicks, 2010
©2011 Unbudding Fig Music (ASCAP)
Video Tutorial: How to Play “Sola”
About
I remember several years ago sitting in Christian Ethics class in seminary, hearing the professor ask the group of forty-plus students, “Can anyone name the five solas of the Reformation.” Collectively, as a group, we nailed three and squeezed out a fourth at the end. I was ashamed to call myself an aspiring evangelical Protestant pastor.
Are the five solas of the Reformation about being flag-waving, polemical anti-Catholics? No. In fact, I believe Protestants and Catholics serve the same Triune God, and I have many good Catholic friends whom I consider brothers and sisters in Christ. But the fact that the five solas emerged out of a polemical context does not diminish their importance in Christian life and faith. What are the five solas?
Sola fide (pronounced “FEE-day”) – faith alone
Sola gratia (pronounced “GRAT-see-ah”) – grace alone
Solus Christus (pronounced “KREE-stoos”) – Christ alone
Sola scriptura (pronounced “skrip-TOO-rah”) – Scripture alone
Soli Deo Gloria (pronounced “DEH-o GLOH-ree-ah”) – to God alone be the glory
Ironically, it is the Roman Catholic and Orthodox traditions which give us the model of art-as-education. The beautiful art (paintings, architecture, stained glass) of medieval cathedrals was intended not only to, as the Orthodox say, “see through” to the intended Object of those art works. Art was meant to educate, and it was meant to do that especially for non-readers. People could learn the biblical stories (creation, Jonah, feeding the five thousand) through art. People could learn theology (Trinity, divinity of Christ, eschatology, ecclesiology) through art.
So I chose to engage in the Christian practice of art-as-education through writing a song that worshiped God through the five solas of the Reformation. I’ve entitled the song “Sola”—subtle, clever, and artsy, isn’t it? It works very well as the first song in a worship set or liturgy—a song of entrance or gathering. In addition to the five solas, I wanted to convey something else at the beginning of worship that I don’t see in a lot of worship songs, namely, that Jesus is our worship leader. It’s a short, simple song.