Solus Christus

Christ Alone - Only Christ

by Sam Hughey

     "When man will not accept the absolute and objective standard for salvation in "Christ Alone", he will create his own truth and his own subjective standard of morality and salvation.   He will, in essence, become a god unto himself and will worship his own personal standard of righteousness".

(Author Anonymous)

     "As the evangelical faith becomes secularized its interests have been blurred with those of the culture. The result is a loss of absolute values, permissive individualism, and a substitution of wholeness for holiness, recovery for repentance, intuition for truth, feeling for belief, chance for providence, and immediate gratification for enduring hope. Christ and his cross have moved from the center of our vision." (Cambridge Declaration 1996).

     When Christ’s atonement is at the center of our theological focus we are constrained to take seriously God’s holiness and our sinfulness. However, when the evangelical view of Christ is reduced to little more than a Pelagian model of propriety with Christ merely an example of goodness, then we have lost any Biblical sense of redemption; and the church substitutes recovery in place of salvation. The evangelical church constituency often approaches the ‘church event’ as a consumer looking for whatever it is that will meet their felt needs. The clerics have themselves often promoted this mentality having forsaken the role of preacher, for that of counselor or social worker. Jesus is the Answer has become nothing more than another marketing slogan. But, for what is he the answer? With our Christology having been reduced to marketing techniques, like the Campus Crusade for Christ’s I Found It! campaign of the ‘70’s what are we to do when the ad campaign fails? Jesus Saves - a sound bite religion - a shallow theology for a shallow people!

     The Christian church responds to the unbeliever as though they are asking the right questions when in fact they are often oblivious to the true condition of their souls. "Jesus came to save us from God’s wrath and to reconcile us to our offended Creator." But how can the sinner turn to Christ and find salvation if he or she is unaware of from what it is that Jesus is saving them? The fact is, God in Christ is saving men from himself. He brings men into judgment and he alone can save them from it. However, in an age of relativism, preaching to men about their condemnation under the law of God seems spiritually archaic. The layman in the pew wants seven painless steps to successful living, whether its Christianity or some other equally valid spiritual solution. But, it is impossible to have any sort of proper Christology without an adequate understanding of the Law of God; a law which condemns to hell all outside of the grace of God. The Law always precedes grace. If there is no law which indicts there is no need of a savior to exculpate.

     A Biblical Christology must minimally include the substance of the three Christological creeds of the church, namely the Nicene, Apostolic and Athanasius creeds as well as the following doctrines:

     Jesus is the only mediator between God and man and as such he is Prophet, Priest, and King. He is savior and head of the church. It is through him alone that from all eternity he ordained a people to be his very own through redemption, calling, justification, sanctification and glorification. Jesus is the second person in the Trinity being of one substance and equal with the Father and at the same time wholly man thus the "…distinct natures of God and man were inseparably joined together in one person, without conversion, composition, or confusion" (Westminster Confession).

     It must exclude any view of Christ in which his substitutionary work is not declared and faith in Christ and his work is not enjoined.

     Salvation is accomplished only by the mediatorial work of the historical Christ. It is his sinless life and substitutionary atonement which are solely sufficient for our justification and reconciliation to the Father. It is anathema to add to his work the twelve step program, the aerobics for Christ small group, mass marketing for messiah, or whatever else might be in vogue. It is not Christ plus my counselor’s coaching which delivers me from addictive behavior which justifies me before God, it is Christ alone!

     Hebrews 12 speaks of a great cloud of witnesses which testify to both the purpose and direction of history. They foresaw the Lord Jesus Christ who would provide salvation for them. These witnesses were reliable in their testimony regarding the salvific character of God 2 Pet 116ff. Habakkuk wanted to know when God, who being good and righteous, was going to deliver them from a pagan enemy (Hab 12). He learned to look to God in faith (Hab 24) for a future day of deliverance (Hab 32,17ff) and in this he was not disappointed. This faith is rooted in Christ who is its author and perfecter.

     We are admonished to look to Christ alone for he is the mediator of a new covenant of grace. He is God’s final word to man. There is no other means where men might propitiate the wrath of God. Jesus alone satisfies the requirements of God Almighty, because Jesus alone is the true expression of God’s love.

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