Christ Alone Series

Scripture

During this fall, we are focusing our attention on the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. The Reformation began when an Augustinian monk named Martin Luther nailed Ninety-Five Theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg. His propositions sparked a debate that eventually gave us five key Reformation doctrines, and are usually referred to by their Latin names: sola Scriptura (Scripture alone), solus Christus (Christ alone), sola gratia (grace alone), sola fide (faith alone), and soli deo Gloria (glory to God alone). Today, I would like to examine Christ alone.

Let’s read 1 Peter 3:18:

18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit…. (1 Peter 3:18)

Introduction

In his book titled Christ Alone—the Uniqueness of Jesus as Savior: What the Reformers Taught…and Why It Still Matters, Stephen Wellum writes:

Reformation theology is often summarized by the five solas. Scripture alone (sola Scriptura) stands as the formal principle of the Reformation and the foundation of all theology. God’s glory alone (soli Deo gloria) functions as a capstone for all Reformation theology, connecting its various parts to God’s one purpose for creating this world and humanity in it. In between these two solas, the other three emphasize that God has chosen and acted to save us by his sovereign grace alone (sola gratia), through faith alone (sola fide), which is grounded in and through Christ alone (solus Christus).

All the solas are interrelated. They are connected to each other, and you cannot have one without the others. However, solus Christus stands at the center of the other four solas. J. I. Packer said, “Christology is the true hub round which the wheel of theology revolves, and to which its separate spokes must each be correctly anchored if the wheel is not to get bent.” And theologian Michael Reeves said that “the center, the cornerstone, the jewel in the crown of Christianity is not an idea, a system or a thing; it is not even ‘the gospel’ as such. It is Jesus Christ.”

The Reformers restated the exclusive identity of Christ and the sufficiency of his work. James Montgomery Boice writes:

Justification because of Christ alone (solus Christus) means that Jesus has done the necessary work of salvation utterly and completely, so that no merit on the part of man, no merit of the saints, no works of ours performed either here or later in purgatory, can add to his completed work. In fact, any attempt to add to Christ’s work is a perversion of the gospel and indeed is no gospel at all (Gal. 1:6-9). To proclaim Christ alone is to proclaim him as the Christian’s one and only sufficient Prophet, Priest, and King. We need no other prophets to reveal God’s word or will. We need no other priests to mediate God’s salvation and blessing. We need no other kings to control the thinking and lives of believers. Jesus is everything to us and for us in the gospel.

At the center of Christ’s work of salvation is the cross of Christ. Again, notice what Boice writes:

It is impossible to overestimate the importance of Christ’s Cross. For whether we are thinking about the necessity of the Cross, the meaning of the Cross, the preaching of the Cross, the offense of the Cross, or the way of the Cross—however we may think about it—in every case we are saying, and must be saying, is that the Cross is central to Christianity. Indeed, we are saying more. We are saying that without the Cross of Jesus Christ there is no true Christianity at all.

Boice suggests that the way to look at the cross of Jesus Christ is by examining three important words.

Lesson

We shall examine three words that are important to understand what the cross is about.

Let’s use the following outline:

1. The Cross as Satisfaction

2. The Cross as Sacrifice

3. The Cross as Substitution

I. The Cross as Satisfaction

First, let’s look at the cross as satisfaction.

God created Adam and placed him in the Garden of Eden. Then, God created Eve to be a helper fit for Adam. Sadly, they eventually rebelled against God by disobeying his command not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And from that time on all human beings—with the exception of Jesus Christ—have broken God’s commandments. Moreover, instead of people evolving into greater obedience to God, people have instead devolved into greater disobedience to God. So, the Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 1:18, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.”

God is rightly wrathful at the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. His holy Law has been—and continues to be—broken by our sin.