Solus Christus | #TheSolae
Hello, and welcome back to the next installment of the Solae series. It has been a few weeks since we last (virtually) met, and I am glad to be reunited with you guys.
It’s been a tough number of weeks for us all, with the coronavirus ravaging the world and changing our rhythms of life. We can’t meet physically, and acts of love such as a hug or a kiss could be harmful to us. It’s a very interesting period of history to be in. Still, what can we do other than place our trust in Christ and in God, for in Him all questions have answers; if not answered now, they will in due time. Let’s make that a thread of hope to hold on to during this time.
This is going to be the first Easter weekend that many of us will spend away from family and friends (myself included). We usually associate it with the people we will meet, the fun times we will have, and of course the welcome break from a tedious work schedule.
As much as all these are good things (rest, family bonding and iron sharpening iron), I think it gives us an opportunity to return back to the ultimate thing, or person in this case; the real reason for the Easter holiday, the man Jesus Christ.
2000-odd years ago, a man carried a wooden cross up a hill known in the Judean region as the Skull, a popular execution point for the then reigning Roman empire. He was nailed to the cross, as was the Roman style, and hung up to die. Not only was this the worst kind of execution at its time, reserved for the worst of criminals, it was the most tortuous. A crucified man would be hung up in such a way that he would slowly suffocate, and eventually, to speed up death, the Romans would break the man’s legs as an act of mercy. Yes, it was that horrendous.
What was this man’s crime? To the Roman, and maybe everyday Hebrew at the time, he was a radical, a teacher who had amassed a great following by making greater claims about Himself; that He was the Son of God, present at creation, with and sent from the Father, along with astonishing miracles to show that it was so.
The teachers of the Law felt quite unsettled by this man’s teachings, not because they were wrong, but because they showed them the extent to which the Law they taught required obedience; down to the heart, an obedience stemming from love for God and not as a checklist to prove how righteous one was.
And the truth always will cause an unsettling. So the teachers then planned to have Him dealt with once and for all. They portrayed Him as a dissident to the Romans, carrying out a series of back and forth kangaroo courts, before finally having a violent murderer released just so He could die. The lengths we humans go to…
He died, and was thought to be dealt with once and for all. But surprise, He didn’t stay dead. The grave borrowed for Him to be laid in was found open, His body missing. After brief confusion, He appeared to His followers, alive, but apparently more alive than He had been. And to one who didn’t believe, He had the marks of the crucifixion to prove that it was indeed Him and none other.
He then finally rose up back to heaven where he had come from 33 years prior, with a promise to return and take with Him all who placed their full trust in who He claimed to be.
Solus Christus. Christ alone. The fourth pillar of the Reformation stood to show that it is faith placed in this man alone that saves us. What was the prevalent ideology at the time? People were saved by intermediaries, like venerated saints and Mary, who they believed were daily before the throne of God pleading for the lives of people. Jesus Christ, meh, He was one of them.
However, the Reformation sought to clarify that He wasn’t the one of the many intermediaries; He was the only intermediary.
For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.
1 Timothy 2:5-6 ESV
What makes Him the sole intermediary? Well, for starters, He alone lived a sinless life, that is, He perfectly loved God with His entirety, and loved people as He did Himself. That was the entirety of the Law, which He fully obeyed to the tee.
All the others, saints or otherwise, were human, and as such, subject to failure and disobedience. He, however, was human and God at the same time, meaning He was tempted as we are in every way, but did not succumb to them, whether in action, thought or words.
No one else in the history of the world had been able to achieve such a feat; able to live in the world with all its wickedness and still obey God fully. What the Israelites had done was to sacrifice an innocent animal many times as a means of forgiveness. The animal had done no wrong, but took the place of the person who has offended God. Its substitutionary death atoned for the person’s sin.
However, this was a ritual that would have gone on forever and ever, knowing the depth of the human condition. What Jesus did was step in, not just as the substitution for one person, but for all who had, and eventually would, place their faith in Him as who He said He was. His death would act as a one time act, ending the need for ritualistic sacrifices and offerings for atonement.
And it indeed was enough. His death was marked by the tearing of the veil that separated the innermost temple chamber (Holy of Holies), symbolic that now anyone, not just a select group of people, could approach the presence of God without fear of death.
Any person granted the faith to believe that Jesus is the Son of God who alone took all the sins of mankind (including their own), died and rose again and now stands before God as our only mediator who understands our trials fully and completely is assured of their salvation.
But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Saviour appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.But when the
Titus 3:4-7 ESV
the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
Romans 3:22-24 ESV
Martin Luther said, ‘I must listen to the Gospel, for it tells me not what I must do, but what Christ has done for me.‘ What a profound resolution, that nothing we can do will merit our own salvation; our seemingly good works are stained with the stench of sin, but by the blood of Christ shed on the hill those many years ago, we are washed, made clean and renewed. Hence, we look to Him alone as the basis of our salvation.
As we enter into the season of Easter, my personal desire is to be renewed in my view of who Christ is; that even though the salvation He offers is free, it wasn’t cheap.
How vast is His love for God and the human race, that He would willingly lay down His life to reconcile us back to the Father. I pray we don’t lose that wonder and awe, and that we daily seek Him to teach us and instruct us.
One last leg of the journey remains. Thank you for bearing with my erratic posting schedule. See you all soon!
Sidenote: I got great things coming up for the future of this blog. I will give more details after we are done with the next post, but trust me; it’s gonna be amazing.