Solus Christus

Imagine a time when Christ was not sufficient to save. The Roman Catholic Church historically defined the priest or the church as the means of grace. So Christ's finished work on our behalf--or the idea of being united with Christ, of having His righteousness as sufficient and imputed into our account to justify us by faith--was not enough to save.

Let's follow this logic:

You are a sinner. 

Sinners need grace.

You can’t get grace without someone offering you grace (by definition grace is getting what we don’t deserve).

God offers grace.

You can’t get God’s grace without His representatives offering you grace.

The priest, or Mary, or one of the saints, or a representative of the church can stand in your place and mediate between you and God, so you must stay connected to the church to receive forgiveness and grace.

Unless you are aligned with the church, you can’t get grace.

The Reformers said no! You've completely missed the understanding of Christ's work on our behalf on the cross.

Ligonier Ministries points out:

Jesus’ sacrifice took place once only, but He still continues as our great High Priest, the One through whom all acceptable prayer and praise are made to God. In heavenly places, He remains our constant Intercessor and Advocate (Rom. 8:34; 1 John 2:1). Little wonder, then, that Paul calls for glory to be given to God “through Jesus Christ for ever” (Rom. 16:27). We can grow in our enjoyment of access to God only by a deepening reliance on Him as our Sacrifice and Intercessor.

The Reformers saw that. And thus the idea of Solus Christus was recaptured. Solus Christus is a Latin phrase that means Christ alone is sufficient to save. Jesus is the sole mediator, the go-between, the middle-man. We are the priesthood of believers--all connected to Jesus without another intermediary. We can obtain grace because Christ alone has paid the price and offers us grace today.

This thought was tacitly rejected by the Catholic Church. They upheld the Pope as Christ's representative head of the Church on earth, they promoted the concept of meritorious works, and they maintained the belief in a treasury of the merits of the saints. 

Even today, Catholics reject Solus Christus. 

In 2017, the website “the Catholic Exchange” says this about the Protestant “error” of Solus Christus:

The argument is that we need Christ alone — no interference or assistance from the saints, priests, popes, or Mary. But the practical effect of this false teaching is that devotion to the saints and Mary and obedience to priests and popes is eliminated from the life of the Christian.

Solus Christus affirms the Biblical truth that there is only one mediator: I don’t need a priest or a Pope as my means of grace, I just need Jesus.

1 Timothy 2:5-7 declares "For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,6 who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time. 7 For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth."

Now in context, Paul exhorts Timothy to have men pray together, with the subject of their prayers including all people--kings and presidents and mayors and people in authority--so that we can live a peaceful quiet life. And this good type of prayer pleases our Saving God who wants to save people and bring them into a knowledge of His truth.

Now note the theological reasons for God’s inclusive salvation:

1. There is only one God. 

2. There is only one way to God through the Messiah 

3. There is only one means of salvation: the finished sacrificial offering of the sinless Lamb of God, Jesus.

So if there were other gods, there would be other saviors. As it stands, there is one God (Monotheism), and Christianity attests to the plurality--the unity-in-oneness of our Trinitarian God. God exists in loving relational community as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We don’t believe in three Gods, but One God in three persons.

And the mediator, the middle-man, the go-between, according to Paul, is only Jesus.

People go to a mediator when they need something agreed upon. A mediator is a person who brings two people or groups together by identifying with both sides and establishing a relationship between them that would not otherwise exist. Who else could mediate between sinful humans than God who put on human flesh? Who else could appropriate divine grace other than one who was perfectly divine Himself?

Jesus was able to bring us back to God because he became ‘the man Christ Jesus’ (v. 5) and gave himself as ‘a ransom for all’ (v. 6). ‘Ransom’ was a word used to describe the price paid to secure a slave’s freedom. This is a powerful picture of the way that Jesus has brought about salvation. Men and women are like slaves, captive to sin and helpless to do anything to save themselves. A price had to be paid because God has to punish sin, otherwise he would be neither holy nor consistent with His nature. So Jesus took the punishment upon himself, bringing forgiveness for sin and freedom from its power.

Salvation and sanctification cannot be achieved by any other means.

Galatians 2:21 says "I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose."

This was an incredibly important concept in Martin Luther's day. Who do I pray to? Who is sufficient to save? Will I need to go to purgatory and have my sins expiated through some other means apart from Christ? What must I do to be saved? It's the religious idea of "Get to Work" opposed to Christ's word on the Cross tetelestia, which means "It is finished!"

Luther said, "I must listen to the gospel. It tells me not what I must do, but what Jesus Christ the Son of God has done for me." The Gospel is good news precisely because it doesn't include us. It is not about us, it is about Jesus.

B.B. Warfield says, "There is nothing in us or done by us, at any stage of our earthly development, because of which we are acceptable to God. We must always be accepted for Christ’s sake, or we cannot ever be accepted at all. This is not true of us only when we believe. It is just as true after we have believed. It will continue to be trust as long as we live. Our need of Christ does not cease with our believing; nor does the nature of our relation to Him or to God through Him ever alter, no matter what our attainments in Christian graces or our achievements in behavior may be. It is always on His blood and righteousness alone that we can rest."

Solus Christus emphasizes that the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is not only necessary for salvation but sufficient to save to the uttermost. That means no amount of human works or merit can contribute to Christ's finished priestly work. Christ’s all-sufficiency means, by implication, that we are insufficient of ourselves. We can do nothing to save ourselves. That means we need a Mediator.

But if we abandon Solus Christus, we now abandon salvation. We must now be saved by good works--which are powerless to save.

Why is this important for the church today? In Revelation 3 Jesus address the church of Laodicea who had essentially kicked Christ out of the building. We see Him standing outside of the church knocking to get back in. Ironically the church in Laodicea's self-assessment was that it was rich and blessed and had no need of anything. But Jesus' indictment was scathing:

"For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked" (Revelation 3:17). 

Jesus said you are neither hot nor cold--but lukewarm--and leading Him to sickness. The church with no need of Christ is neither hot nor cold, but sickeningly lukewarm. Sadly, this is very descriptive of the modern church. We need a robust return to the Christ who is the Word made flesh and for Bible meditation, reading, and sermons that highlight the centerpiece of the Bible. We need a gospel that has at its center not our human effort or worth but the worth and work of Jesus Christ. And we need a church that completely relies on the person and work of Jesus for its effectiveness.

One man has said:

The church has failed to tell me that I am a sinner. The church has failed to deal with me as a lost individual. The church has failed to offer me salvation in Jesus Christ alone. The church has failed to tell me of the horrible consequences of sin, the certainty of hell, and the fact that Jesus Christ alone can save. We need more of the last judgment and less of the Golden Rule, more of the living God and the living devil as well, more of a heaven to gain and a hell to shun. The church must bring me not a message of cultivation but of rebirth. I might fail that kind of church, but that kind of church will not fail me.

It isn't more people, programs, or power that will make a church successful. It isn't buildings, budgets, or business principles. It isn't esteem in the world's eyes, or how dialed in their production seems. A church is only as healthy as its reliance upon the Word of God and the Lord Jesus Christ. So we must preach on the person and work of Christ often. We must submit to Christ as the head of the church. We must life with an intentionally Christ-like redemption with Christ's redeemed people, and we grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We root out both unrighteousness as well as self-righteousness in our own lives, and in the lives of Christ's redeemed. May we return to the simplicity of Christ alone in our churches!