Sola - A 5-Day Devotional through Five Solas of the ReformationExemplo

Christ Alone   

As complicated as Rome’s view of salvation may be, her debate with the Reformer’s came down to one word: “alone.” Sure, Rome believed that salvation was based upon the work of Christ, but she would not say that salvation was based upon the work of Christ alone. Christ alone, or solus Christus in Latin, may seem like a very small difference—one word!—but for the Reformer’s, it was all the difference in the world. Upon this one word (alone) the whole gospel depended.

There were several ways in which the Reformers rediscovered “Christ alone.” First, with the New Testament freshly translated from the Greek (rather than from the Latin), the Reformers stared at the text long enough to realize that when Paul referred to justification, he did not have in mind a process by which one is made inherently righteous by an internal, moral renewal. Justification, rather, is a legal matter. It is God’s gracious and judicial declaration that we sinners are no longer guilty but righteous.

Second, this new legal status is not based upon anything in us or anything that we do but is entirely based upon what Christ has done for us. He has not only paid the penalty for our sins in full on the cross, but also lived a life of perfect obedience. Upon faith alone in Christ alone, not only is our sin forgiven in full, but Christ’s flawless righteous status is imputed or reckoned to our account. Rome’s belief that man needs an infusion of grace is a teaching without biblical foundation. What every guilty sinner needs is not an infusion but an imputation.

Third, when the Reformers rediscovered this biblical doctrine of justification, everything Rome taught was thrown into question. Sinners do not need to perform works of satisfaction to pay the temporal penalty for their sin; Christ paid that penalty in full on the cross. Sinners do not need to save up their monies to purchase an indulgence to receive the merits of the saints; Christ has obeyed the law on the sinner’s behalf and given His perfect righteousness to sinners free of charge. One need not run to the priest for absolution; Christ is our high priest so that “if anyone does sin,” he has “an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1).15 And one need not run to the Mass presuming, said Calvin, “to sacrifice Christ anew!”; Christ’s sacrifice is “never to be repeated,” for it paid for our sin in full.

And so, the Reformers boldly concluded, with the threat of execution hanging over their heads, that the ungodly are justified by grace alone (sola gratia), through faith alone (sola fide), on the basis of Christ alone (solus Christus).

Is “Christ alone” a sola that we find in the Scriptures? Yes, but to see it, we must, in contrast to Rome, start with a very different picture of man’s nature.

There are few doctrines so fundamental to the story line of Scripture as man’s pervasive depravity. It frames the entire story line of the Bible from Adam to Christ, it is central to the good news of a Savior announced at the opening of the Gospel narratives, and yet it is predictably evasive in the hands of the modern man. The reason is ironic: We don’t think we are really as bad as Scripture says we are. We’ve convinced ourselves that we have made some “mistakes” here and there but that we surely are not as bad as others we see around us. 

In the book of Romans, the apostle Paul addresses this deception, a lie we live and have persuaded ourselves is true. The reason such logic fails is because we are judging ourselves by the wrong standard. We look out on the world, find someone who has done something worse than us, and feel confident, reassuring ourselves we’re not that bad in the end. But that is not how God looks at us. He does not compare us to others, but instead exposes the darkness of our hearts in the full brightness and blinding purity of His holiness. When we are examined according to the perfection of His moral character, what does He find?