Solus Christus #2

Welcome to The Truth Pulpit with Don Green, Founding Pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Hello again, I'm Bill Wright. It is our joy to continue our commitment to teaching God's people God's Word. Today Don is continuing with the second part of a message we started last time.

So let's get right to it. Open your Bible as we join Don now in The Truth Pulpit. Look at the book of Colossians chapter 2 verse 8. Where the Apostle Paul said, See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. For in Him all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority. And what has Christ done? Verse 14.

He's canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us, and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. His crosswork and the efficacy, the effectiveness, in other words, of His crosswork is tied into the reality of who His person is. All the fullness of deity dwells in Him in bodily form. Only Christ is fully God and fully man. He shares the essence of both God and man, and that is why He is uniquely and alone and exclusively able to save. It's because He has within His person the nature of God and the nature of man which enables Him to save guilty sinners like you. His person makes that possible, and His person is unique. It cannot be duplicated.

There is no one else like Him. And so as we proclaim the full deity and the full humanity of Christ, we automatically exclude any other claimants to the role of Savior. Mary isn't God, even though they're trying to add her to the Godhead. Buddha, Mohammed, none of these people are God, and they can't save. And faith in them, faith in their teachings is misplaced. Trying to cross the bridge from man to God on them, that bridge collapses. The first moment a man tries to put his weight and trust in that bridge, it collapses underneath him. Trying to walk to God on your own self-righteousness, it's a bridge that collapses.

It's toothpicks trying to uphold a runaway freight train. And so the person of Christ alone is the strong and sturdy bridge that we need to bridge the gap between us and God. Not only, not only, beloved, not only the gap that sin creates, because that is fatal, that is lethal in and of itself, but also just to recognize the difference in essence, that as a man we cannot reach the essence of undiminished deity.

We need deity to bring us to deity. And so the person of Christ does just that. As I've said so many times as we've gone through this series, what you should find welling up in your heart is a great reverence toward Christ growing ever deeper, broader, and greater in your heart. To reverence Him, to love Him, to fear Him, to submit to Him, to own Him, to gladly identify with Him, to love Him more than life itself. Christ spoke of that, didn't He? When I am lifted up, I'll draw men to myself.

That's what we're trying to do here this evening. In the simplicity and inadequacy of our feeble human words, we're trying to lift up Christ. That's all we care about. Now secondly, let's consider the work of Christ and why His work means that only Christ could be the Savior. We are saved because of Christ alone, because He alone has done what is necessary to save man from his sin. He alone has fulfilled what God requires, and He has done what no one else could do. He is what no one else could be.

He has done what no one else could do. Solus Christus, Christ alone. And His work is necessary because our sin incurs a debt to God that we cannot pay.

We have an infinite debt and we are bankrupt, and we cannot pay it on our own. And God requires payment, and it requires a high price indeed. If you look at the book of Hebrews chapter 9 with me, if you will. Hebrews chapter 9. Hebrews chapter 9 in verse 22.

Hebrews 9 verse 22. According to the law, one may almost say that all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sin. What's the price of sin? What does sin require as its payment?

Blood. Righteous blood. Righteous infinite blood alone can wash away our sins. And as a result of God's requirement for a blood sacrifice, a blood payment, that puts the cross of Jesus Christ at the center of everything about true Christianity. There is, beloved, there is no Christianity apart from the cross. You cannot take away the cross and try to keep the morality and say you've got Christian morality, but to deny the substitutionary atonement of the cross. You take away the cross, you take away the penal substitution of Christ on the cross, and you have thrust a dagger into the heart of Christianity.

You have killed it when you remove the cross and the work of Christ on the cross from your message. Look at verse 27 of Hebrews chapter 9. Well, actually go to verse 24 where it says, Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God for us.

You see the substitutionary nature, you see how he represents us, how he carries us as it were to God in his person and in his work. Apart from that, there is no access to the holy of holies. Apart from that, there is no access to heaven. Verse 27, in as much as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment, so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await him. Christ is coming back for those who have believed in him. The ones who will welcome his coming are the ones who will have put sola fide in solus Christus.

Faith alone in Christ alone. And it was his one time sacrifice on the cross that bore our sins and paid the price that God requires. Look at 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 18.

And we'll look at a few passages here in 1 Peter. This work of Christ paying the debt through his shed blood on the cross. This work of the Christ substituting on behalf of sinners who believe with him. This work of Christ paying and shedding the blood that alone can bring about the forgiveness of sin.

1 Peter chapter 1 verse 18. You are not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood. As of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. The lamb being the picture of that earlier sacrifice which pointed forward to Christ. An unblemished lamb in innocence.

An unblemished lamb offered in substitute of the one who offered it. The blood of the lamb providing the meeting place where God could be met. Providing the sacrifice that God accepted for fellowship with him. The blood of Christ providing the single solitary meeting place where sinners can find their way to God. Look at chapter 2 verse 24 of 1 Peter. 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 24. He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness for by his wounds you were healed.

Notice the emphasis beloved in verse 24. He himself, he and no other did this work. He alone bore our sins in his body on the cross.

No one else. And as we said last year in our series on Roman Catholicism. It is blasphemy. And it is a sin of highest order and magnitude for the Roman Catholic Church to pretend to re-offer Christ in their mass time after time after time again. As if a little wafer could actually turn into Christ. As if literal wine could turn into literal human blood without changing its appearance.

It's just superstition. But even beyond that to say that we must re-offer Christ again and again and again in order to pay for sin is again is to take a dagger to the real meaning of the cross. Where Christ scripture says repeatedly once for all he offered himself for our sins. Chapter 3 verse 18 of 1 Peter. Christ also died for sins once for all. The just for the unjust so that he might bring us to God.

Look at it again. Look at the sweetness of those words and look at how the doctrine of solace Christus just radiates out. Like the sun against a brilliant sky. Christ died for sins once for all the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God. And so at the cross Christ was acting as our substitute. He paid the price that God required and he paid it in blood like God required. Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin. Christ shed that blood and when we put our faith alone in him alone the full merit of that blood is applied to our account. Cleansing us, washing us, satisfying everything that God's justice requires against sin. All satisfied in that singular act on the cross when Christ offered himself up the just for the unjust.

That would be magnificent enough wouldn't it? But go just a little bit further and remember why he did it. Why he did it. For God so loved the world that whoever would believe in him would not perish but have eternal life. Again you see the exclusivity of Christ in John 3 16 don't you? Whoever would believe in him would not perish. But why do we have a savior? Why did Christ do this? Because it is his nature to love and to give of himself for his people. He gladly bore your sin on the cross. Galatians 2 20, he loved me and gave himself up for me.

And not a love of feeling sentiment but a love of self-sacrifice where he laid down his life for you at the cross. In love he received the wrath of God your sin required. In love he had the father pour out righteous anger on him so that it would not be poured out on you.

In love he cared for your soul enough to bear the price himself so that you could go free. In love, in love, in love, in love, in love, in love, he bore the taunts of sinful men against him. In love he bore the crown of thorns. In love he bore the nails. In love he bore the wrath. In love he prays and says, Father forgive them for they don't know what they're doing. In the height of his agony, in love, he's praying for the very ones who crucified him.

What manner of love is this? What manner of God is this that does this for his people? Look at all the gods that men have made up in Greek mythology and throughout the course of time and it's God's demanding something from the people. In Christianity you see God doing something for his people. In love going to the cross, going to the crucifixion, going to the supreme instrument of torture and execution ever known to man.

So severe, so harsh that Constantine outlawed it as a future means of punishment when he ascended to the throne. In love, solus Christus. And when we think, beloved, about our response to him, where our highest affection is, we could say it in this way.

What's the highest affection of your heart? Solus Christus. Who else? Christ alone. Who else died for my soul? Who else loved me like he did? Not the best spouse, not the most loving child, not a brother, not a sister.

No one loved me like that. And so, beloved, only at the cross was the wrath of God poured out to satisfy the justice of God. There is no other place where that work could be done. It was once for all, therefore it must be solus Christus. And understand that his work of substitution is effective. It did the job because of his person. His humanity enabled him to offer innocent human blood for human sin. His deity provided an infinite merit that can save many, that can save any that come to him by faith. One writer puts it this way, and I quote, Christ died that he might bear our griefs and carry our sorrows. He was pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities. Christ died for us.

He was delivered up for us. The sacrifice of Christ was a propitiating, justice satisfying, wrath quenching event. By his death, the justice of God was satisfied, end quote. His person, his work, lead us to this conclusion of solus Christus. Solus Christus means that Christ alone is the only mediator with God. In 1 Timothy 2, I'll just read it for the sake of time. 1 Timothy 2 verses 5 and 6, there is one God and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all. One mediator, the man Christ Jesus.

Don't you see? In the biblical arithmetic of this, the biblical numerology on this stops at one. When you count the number of ways to God, you only have to count to one. When you count the number of individuals who could actually save you from sin, you only have to count to one. Don't even try to count to two, that would deny the one. And as I said earlier, beloved, please hear this.

Write this down or remember it. Jesus Christ and him alone, solus Christus means this. No one else is qualified because no one else has his person. No one else has done the work. There was one work sufficient at the cross.

And beloved, here's the thing that I would have you see. In addition to all of that, also see this, no one else ever could. No one else did. No one else will.

No one else ever could. Because no one else will be the God man. No one else will be God in human flesh. No one else will ever go to a cross like Jesus did. And the perfection of his person, the perfection of his righteousness, the perfection of his shed blood cannot be duplicated. It cannot be repeated.

There is no one else. If this were the last message I ever preached, this would be a great note to go out on. I don't intend it to be, just to be clear. But if it were, we could just take the chariot and go straight to heaven on this, the truth that we're talking about here today. So what are the implications of these great truths?

I've been weaving this in and out throughout, but let's just draw it to a close with this. Solus Christus means that we utterly, completely, and defiantly reject the Catholic priesthood and their claims of the intercession of Mary as though we needed other mediators with God. The very existence of those doctrines and those men who try to serve in that capacity denies Solus Christus and is a blasphemy of the rankest, darkest order possible against our blessed Lord Jesus. Christ calls us to come through him alone. And what kind of pride and arrogance when Christ speaks directly to the sinner through his word and says, come to me and find rest? What kind of blasphemous, satanic, demonically controlled contrivance would seek to intervene and to put themselves in between the sinner and Christ?

No way. And how grateful we are for the memories of those men who stood and opposed it in the Reformation, which we're doing this series to remember the implications of Reformation doctrine. How grateful we are for John Knox and Zwingli and John Calvin and Martin Luther and Wycliffe and great men like them who at great personal cost with far fewer shoulders to stand on than what we have today, took their stand on sola scriptura, proclaimed sola gratia, sola fide, solus Christus to the glory of God alone. So solus Christus means we reject that Catholic abomination. Solus Christus means that we reject the modern notion that all religions lead to God. We come solus Christus. Solus Christus means that we are not saved by any righteousness of our own.

Do you see that? Solus Christus doesn't simply rebuke and refute institutions and philosophies. The great power of this great doctrine rebukes our own soul and instructs us that we ourselves have no merit. We come through Christ alone. We don't come as equal partners in our salvation. We don't come with checked baggage that helps us get to the destination.

We don't come with a carry on. We come with nothing. We come to God solus Christus and not of ourselves, not of our own righteousness, not in our own boasting.

Solus Christus means that we look forward to eternity. We do not fear death. We have no fear of purgatory. There is no such thing. Sins are not paid for in purgatory.

They are not burned off. Purgatory is a fiction. It is a contradiction of solus Christus. The debt of sin was paid in full by Christ alone, and therefore we come through Christ alone. Solus Christus means that no one will go to heaven apart from Christ.

Man, woman, boy, and girl, you can only come to God through faith alone in Christ alone. Solus Christus reveals, as I've already said, the great love of God for sinners. Listen to this verse from 2 Thessalonians. In chapter 2, verse 16, Paul says, Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us eternal comfort and good hope by grace, comfort and strengthen your hearts in every good work and word. Solus Christus tells us that our God has loved us and that our God does love us, that our God has taken care of our sin guilt and our sin condemnation, and all of that has been taken away so that we now have free, bold, and loving, confident access into His presence through Christ alone.

Well is it that Christians for a very long time have sung, Amazing love, how can it be that thou, my God, shouldst die for me? Father, we praise you for Christ alone. He alone is our righteousness. In Christ alone, we find the righteousness which satisfies a holy God. In Christ alone, we find the shed blood that paid the price of sin. In Christ alone, we find our highest affections. In Christ alone, we find our all in all.

Father, may these things captivate our affections. May the exclusivity of Christ find its rightful place in the exclusive highest affections of the throne room of our heart. And Father, for those who are in the room apart from Christ, for those hearing this message on subsequent media apart from Christ, Father, I pray for a work of your Holy Spirit that would so work in their hearts and take away the heart of stone, the cold, lifeless heart through which they have viewed Christ. And now, Father, in this moment, give them that heart of flesh to see the greatness of Christ, Father, and that they might flee to Christ knowing that He freely invites them, that they can freely come, that they can come now and believe in Him and receive Him, and that all of the infinite merit and all of the infinite benefits of Christ could be theirs by personal possession without delay. Oh, the greatness of the gospel and the greatness of our Christ, oh God, how we thank you.

In Jesus' name, amen. That's Don Green here on The Truth Pulpit. And here's Don again with some closing thoughts. Well, thank you, Bill. Just before we close, my friends, I just want to let you know that this podcast is made possible for you by the generous support of many friends of our ministry.

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Know that our love and prayers are with you. Thank you for joining us. We'll see you next time as we continue to study God's word together here on The Truth Pulpit. That's Don Green, founding pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. Thank you so much for listening to The Truth Pulpit. Join us next time for more as we continue teaching God's people God's word.