Treasuring Sola Christus (Christ Alone)

"That Word above all earthly powers,
no thanks to them abideth,
the Spirit and the gifts are ours,
through Him who with us sideth,
let goods and kindred go,
this mortal life also,
the body they may kill,
God's truth abideth still,
His Kingdom is forever."
(A Mighty Fortress by Martin Luther)

There is nothing that is more weighty or delightful to the Christian believer than the person of Jesus Christ. It was once said of Christ that to be in heaven without Jesus would to be in hell, and to be in hell and have Jesus with us is to be in heaven. Christ is everything to the Christian. All the Christian's hopes lay in the person of Jesus, He is our sin absolver, our righteousness, and our exceeding great reward. Christ is so precious that the apostle Paul said:

"To live is Christ and die is gain" (Philippians 1)

To those who treasure Christ their lives are poured out for Him, and to die is gain, for to die is to be with Christ. Thus, Martin Luther in his hymn can say "let goods and kindred go this mortal life also..." for there is a treasure more precious to be had than earthly goods and even family. Jesus Christ is the world to the believer. Now, there is so much that can be written about the Person of Jesus, we could talk about His Divinity, His incarnation, His eternality, His Lordship, and at some point I will. The person of Christ deserves nothing less than infinite in depth studies (that is what heaven is for). However, I will in this post focus on those aspects of Sola Christus that surround the redemption of sinners.

Christ our Sin Bearer:

It is a truth that lies at the very heart of Christianity that Christ took the sins of men upon Himself. Underlying this truth is the fact that Christ became Man, and was without sin (Ex 12:5) and thus was able to stand in the place of the guilty and take the punishment they deserve. The backdrop of the crucifixion of Christ is the Jewish Passover. In all four gospels Christ is crucified on the Friday morning/afternoon proceeding the celebration of the Passover feast the preceding Thursday night. The point is that Christ is the Passover Lamb to all who are in Him.

"For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed." (1 Cor 5:7)

Jesus Christ through His death has suffered the punishment that rebellious sinners deserve, thus God can justly forgive and Passover the sins of those in Christ. For God to be holy and treat sin in a cavalier manner would be to compromise/negate that holiness, thus sin is taken very seriously by a thrice holy God. So then are all men doomed? For all have sinned and deserve the wrath of God. Yet here is Christ who takes our sins upon Himself so that God can both be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Christ:

" [Christ] whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus." (Rom 3:25-26)

Some so called Christians want to abandon this truth, it seems like Divine child abuse they say. Ah, but what know they of the heights of God's holiness and the depths to which He was willing to sink and suffer to redeem His bride. What know they the depths joy from the forgiveness springing from kneeling before Calvary to have our burdens of sin fall off our backs. What know they of the love of Jesus Christ?

"For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God." (2 Cor 5:21)

"For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh," (Rom 8:3)

"But as it is, He has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself...so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many" (Heb 9:26-28)

Christ is clearly portrayed as the sin bearer of His people in the scriptures, He became sin in their place to bear their guilt and justly pardon.

Christ our Righteousness:

As one may have seen particularly in 2 Cor 5:21 Christ not only became our guilt bearer but our righteousness. This is the "double exchange" that has happened to all who are in Christ. Christ not only has taken our guilt and sin and suffered the penalty due, but also has given us a righteousness that is not our own and we reap the rewards due to possessing a perfect righteousness.

"For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God." (2 Cor 5:21)

"For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us..."(Rom 8:3-4)

"and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith-- (Phil 3:9)

I have briefly addressed how the imputation of Christ's righteousness is being challenged by NT Wright and the "New Perspective" folks already. This truth is very precious to me, to know that I am clothed in the perfect righteousness of Jesus and that my standing before God is not damaged through my imperfections nor any better through my good frame. For Jesus Christ is my righteousness. To know that I do not have to defend myself and make myself look like I am something other than a beggar is very liberating. The truth of imputed righteousness frees us from all the idols of self-esteem and self righteousness. Puritan Thomas Watson writes wonderfully as to what it looks like to be wed to Christ and have our guilt covered by Christ's righteousness as Watson states:

"When the law brings indictments against you. When the law says, 'Here are so many debts to be paid.', and it demands satisfaction. Acknowledge the debt, but turn it all over to your Husband, Christ...Tell Satan when he accuses you, 'It is true that the debt is mine, but go to my Husband Christ, He will discharge it.' If we took this course we would relieve ourselves of much trouble. By faith we turn the debt over to our Husband...This is the believers triumph. When he is guilty in himself he is worthy in Christ. When he is spotted in himself, he is pure in his Head."

ultimately, by Christ being our righteousness all glory for our salvation belongs to Christ alone.

Christ Alone?:

As with all of the five solas of the Reformation the divergence from Rome lay in the sola (alone) aspect of the truth. Here in Sola Christus it is no different. Rome has and does hold to a system of merits and works based righteousness. Christ's death in the sinners place is part of the righteousness of the sinner but the sinner himself must also participate actively through masses, confession, sacraments, penances etc to store up a righteousness and cut down years in purgatory.

The problem for the guilty conscience is that how do we know when we have said enough prayers to saints? How do we know when we have confessed all our sins (even the ones from when I was 8 years old June 17th)? Martin Luther suffered tremendously under a guilty conscience and found no ease in any of this but only found himself to be condemned. It was the truth of Romans 1:17 "The just shall live by faith." that freed this man from a guilt stricken conscience. How? The faith we are to live by is faith in Christ. Christ and His finished work alone is the saints resting place. We find nothing in Scripture about asking Mary to intercede for us but we do find passages like these:

"Most assuredly I say to you that whoever believes in Me has eternal life." (John 6)

"For there is no other name under heaven by which men may be saved except the name of Christ Jesus" (Acts 4:12)

The point of these scriptures is that salvation is attatched to belief in the person of Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ alone. Jesus never prescribed a new law for us to live by and earn our salvation by adhering to. This is the fact that separates true Christianity from all the other worldviews that exist. Christianity is the only worldview that does not give man a ladder (rules) to climb and earn heaven, rather it says you can't earn it, but here is Christ look to Him, and Him alone. Christ is presented as the "Author and finisher of our faith", how can this be seen in any other way than that He alone is our hope?

"My hope is built on nothing less,
than Jesus' blood and righteousness,
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
but wholly lean on Jesus' name."