“Solus Christus” - Christ Alone - Cameron Jungles - 10-9-2013 PM

“Solus Christus” - Christ Alone

Brief Historical Background

•  Development of centralized church authority and accumulation of church traditions 
•  Led to corruptions of the biblical gospel of salvation
•  Sacramental theology and the merits of human good works

Roman Catholic Justification

•  Begun in baptism
•  Regeneration through baptism
•  Original Sin forgiven
•  Christ’s merits mediated through sacrament – producing an indelible mark on the soul.
•  Maintained and Progressed by:
•  Church Sacraments (Penance)
•  Meritorious Good Works co-operating with faith.
•  Not forensic and final, but experiential and progressive
•  On the basis of the work of Christ, plus:
•  Church Sacraments
•  Faith co-operating w/ good works
•  Merits of the Saints

Reformers on Justification

•  Sinners are justified (declared righteous and forgiven before God) on the basis of the work of Christ alone by grace alone through faith alone.
•  Christ’s work alone is the basis.
•  By grace alone - not in co-operation with human effort.
•  Through faith alone – good works are the fruit of justification, not the maintenance or increase of it.
•  Justification is forensic and final, not experiential and progressive.

Basics of Solus Christus

•  No Human Merit – whether our own or those before or after us – can contribute in any way to our justification.
•  Only Jesus Christ – through his sinless life, sacrificial death, and resurrection – can earn our justification.
•  Christ’s merits are not mediated through the Church’s sacraments.

The Obedience of Christ

•  “Through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.” (Rom 5:19)
•  Both Christ’s law keeping obedience and his suffering obedience are necessary for our salvation and provide the sole basis for our justification.

The Obedience of Christ

•  By grace through faith…
•  Our sin and its penalty is imputed to Christ, which he bore on the cross.
•  His obedience is imputed to us, declaring us righteous.
•  “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Cor 5:21)

The Obedience of Christ

•  Satisfied the demands of God’s justice and righteousness
•  Propitiated God’s holy anger against sin
•  Sacrificially expiated our guilt
•  Vicariously bore our penalty
•  Reconciled us to God
•  Redeemed us from sin to God

God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood--to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished– he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.  (Rom. 3:25-26, NIV)

He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. (1 Jn. 2:2, ESV)

Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.  We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isa. 53:4-6, NIV)

The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! (Jn. 1:29, NIV)

Otherwise Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But he has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. (Heb. 9:26, NIV)

"He himself bore our sins" in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; "by his wounds you have been healed.”(1 Pet. 2:24, NIV)

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Co. 5:21, NIV)

For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. (1 Pet. 3:18, NIV)

And you were at one time strangers and enemies in your minds as expressed through your evil deeds, but now he has reconciled you by his physical body through death to present you holy, without blemish, and blameless before him– (Col. 1:21-22, NET)

For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. (1 Pet. 1:18-19, NIV)

Implications
 The cross of Christ is the focal point of the Christian gospel.
 Nothing can be added to what Christ has accomplished.
 No ritual or sacrament
 No human merit (past, present or future/yours or another’s)
 Any addition to Christ’s work is a distortion of the gospel.
 Good works are the fruit of justification; they do not maintain it or add to it.
 The cross of Christ will be an offense to an unbelieving world.

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. (1 Co. 1:18, NIV)

May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. (Gal. 6:14, NIV)