SOLUS CHRISTUS (Christ Alone)  

Last week we looked at the first of the Five Solas of the Reformation, ‘Sola Scriptura’ or scripture alone. The Bible being sufficient for all we need in the way of Salvation records the truth of Jesus’s own words in the gospel of John, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.’ (Jn.14:6) The second solas is ‘Solus Christus’ which states that salvation is only through Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ alone. There is no other way to get to the Father except through Jesus and He doesn’t need any of our help to get us there. He is totally sufficient.

During the Reformation period, the church’s greatest need was to regain its focus on Christ as the head of the church. With that accomplished through Luther and the rest of the Reformers, the next step was to ensure the teaching of Scripture that Christ alone through faith was the only necessary means of salvation. Scripture confirms that Jesus is fully God and fully man making it possible for Him to be the only bridge between God and man. It was important for the Reformers to establish the Divine nature of Christ and His Human nature. The Reformers affirmed “The statement of faith made by the Council of Chalcedon (451). It reaffirms the Christological definitions of Nicaea and Constantinople and formally repudiates the errors of Nestorius and Eutyches. It declares Christ to be one Person in two natures, the Divine of the same substance as the Father, the human of the same substance as us; these are united unconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, and inseparably.” (1)

Jesus as the only Savior, and the only way to God is the predicted Messiah in the Old Testament who was to come. The Hebrew word for Messiah is ‘mashiach,’ which means ‘anointed one.’ ‘Mashiach’ translated into Greek as ‘christos” translated into English as ‘Christ.’ Therefore Jesus Christ is the ‘Anointed One, Jesus the Messiah, the Savior.’

Note some verses from Scripture stating ‘Christ alone’ in Salvation. Jesus says to Thomas, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.” (Jn. 14:6 nlt) And Jesus speaking to Nathanael after He called him to be His disciple said to him, “I tell you the truth, you will all see heaven open and the angels of God going up and down on the Son of Man, the one who is the stairway between heaven and earth.” (Jn. 1:51 nlt) Jesus is referring to the book of Genesis and Jacob’s dream of a ladder descending from heaven. Jesus, the Messiah, is the ladder for access between God and man.

All of us are lost in our sin estranged from God with no help of reconciliation on our own. The prophet Isaiah wrote, “All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the LORD laid on him the sins of us all.” (Is. 53:6 nlt) The Reformers witnessed the church falsely instructing people to secure their Salvation through indulgences and human works. Salvation is only available when full payment for our sin is paid for by the only one able to do so, Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the sinless Son of God. And by faith in Christ (the ladder) and His death and resurrection, we have forgiveness of our sin and eternal life. ‘Solus Christus’ Christ alone is all sufficient for our Salvation.

(1) https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095600808