Solus Christus: Christ Alone
The Solas of the Reformation • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 4 viewsDelivered 10/27/24 at Formosa Baptist Church.
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Introduction:
In 1521, Martin Luther stood before the Diet of Worms, knowing he was about to face monumental consequences for his beliefs.
In 1517, Luther had sparked outrage amongst the clergy and the papacy when he nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the castle church at Wittenberg. He had criticized the sale of indulgences and, by extension, the pope himself. Luther had argued that Scripture Alone was the highest authority for believers, as we discussed last week.
But now, he had to put his money where his mouth was. The pope, Leo X, had issued a papal bull—an official notice—that described Luther as a “wild board in the Lord’s vineyard.” In the papal bull,
“...he ordered all books by Martin Luther to be burned; and he gave the rebellious friar, under the threat of the penalty of excommunication and the declaration of anathema, sixty days to submit to Roman authority.” --Justo L. González, The Story of Christianity: The Reformation to the Present Day, vol. 2, The Story of Christianity (HarperCollins, 2010).
Now, you must understand the significance of this. If Luther was officially declared a heretic, he could—and likely would—be burned at the stake. Furthermore, the Catholic church taught that the pope had the authority of Christ himself. To be excommunicated from the Catholic church, in the eyes of the papacy, was to be excommunicated from heaven.
When the bull got to Luther, he had a weighty decision to make. Would he recant or soften his stance? Or would he stand for what Scripture said? Luther made his position pretty clear when he publicly burned the official notice from the pope, along with other books that he declared to be the worst proponents of “popish doctrines.”
Eventually, Luther was summoned to appear before an Imperial court to answer for his beliefs. The purpose was to get him to recant, or to officially brand him as a heretic.
The Story of Christianity: Volume 2: The Reformation to the Present Day 2. Martin Luther: Pilgrimage to Reformation
At Worms, Luther was taken before the emperor and several of the great lords of the German Empire. The man in charge of the process showed him a number of books, and asked him if he had indeed written them. After examining them, Luther responded that such was the case, and that he had also written other books besides these. Then he was asked if he still held to what he had declared in those publications or wished to recant anything. This was a difficult moment for Luther, not so much because he feared imperial power but rather because he feared God. To dare to oppose the entire church and the emperor, whose authority had been ordained by God, was a dreadful act. Once again the friar trembled before the divine majesty, and asked for a day’s time in which to consider his answer.
By the next day it was widely known that Luther was to appear before the Diet, and the hall was filled.
The Story of Christianity: Volume 2: The Reformation to the Present Day 2. Martin Luther: Pilgrimage to Reformation
Once again, Luther was asked to recant. In the midst of a great hush, the friar answered that much of what he had written was basic Christian doctrine, held by both him and his opponents, and that therefore no one should expect him to repudiate such teaching. At some other points, he continued, his works dealt with the tyranny and injustice that the German people suffered. This too he could not recant, for such was not the purpose of the Diet, and in any case to withdraw such words would result in greater injustice. Third, in his works there were attacks against certain individuals, and points of doctrine that were at issue between him and his opponents. Perhaps, he confessed, some of these things had been said too harshly. But their truth he could not deny, unless someone could convince him that he was in error.
It was not the emperor’s purpose to engage in a debate on Luther’s teaching, and therefore he was asked once again, “Do you recant, or do you not?” To this Luther responded in German, therefore setting aside the Latin of traditional theological debate: “My conscience is a prisoner of God’s Word. I cannot and will not recant, for to disobey one’s conscience is neither just nor safe. God help me. Amen.”2 Then, with a gesture of victory, he left the hall and returned to his quarters.
The Story of Christianity: Volume 2: The Reformation to the Present Day 2. Martin Luther: Pilgrimage to Reformation
“My conscience is a prisoner of God’s Word. I cannot and will not recant, for to disobey one’s conscience is neither just nor safe. God help me. Amen.”
Last week, we talked about how Scripture Alone is our highest authority and source of truth. But this truth naturally forced Luther to wrestle with the issue of salvation. The Catholic Church taught that salvation could not be obtained outside its walls—salvation was through the church. But, if Scripture alone was his highest authority, then Christ Alone is the source of salvation.
So, turn with me in your Bibles this morning to Romans 10. I’m going to start with a few other verses, but eventually we’ll spend a good bit of time in Romans 10, so keep it open and ready. The first verse that I want to share with you, though, is probably the one that first comes to your mind. This verse will be kind of the theme verse for us today:
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Jesus is the only way to God.
Jesus is the only way to God.
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
This verse is very clear and very unambiguous in Greek.
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.
11 This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. 12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
This truth is so plainly clear in scripture that some of you are probably wondering why I even bother preaching on it.
But, in our society where many people believe that truth is subjective, we need to remind ourselves of bedrock truths like this.
Objection 1: What about those who genuinely believe another religion?
Objection 1: What about those who genuinely believe another religion?
Many argue that it doesn’t matter so much what you believe about God, so long as you’re sincere in your faith.
An old Buddhist or Hindu proverb argues that God is like an elephant, and each religion is like a blind man encountering the elephant for the first time. Each one touched a different part of the elephant. One felt the trunk and exclaimed, “Oh, an elephant is kind of like a snake!” Another felt the tusk and said, “No, the elephant is hard and smooth like marble.” Another grasped the leg and said, “It feels much more like a tree trunk to me!”
This story serves as a metaphor for religious pluralism. Pluralists argue that people experience and understand God differently, but we’re all grasping blindly in the dark and shouldn’t think that other religions are any more wrong than we are.
Of course, there are several problems with this line of thinking. 1) There is such a thing as an elephant, and we’re not free to just make up whatever description we want and tout it as truth. God is real. To argue that it doesn’t matter that religions disagree about what God is like is to reduce the importance of God to the level of personal opinions, like “which ice cream flavor is best”. There is such a thing as objective truth, and truth about God is the most important truth there is! 2) In the analogy, all the men are blind. While this is certainly true of other religions, the Bible is God’s revelation of himself to us. We are not blind, so long as we look to God’s own revelation of himself for our answers. 3) Ultimately, each of the men’s descriptions of the elephant were objectively wrong and dangerous. If you assume an elephant is a tree trunk, for example, you are likely to be crushed by it. Or as Jesus himself said,
17 But he looked directly at them and said, “What then is this that is written: “ ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone’? 18 Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.”
What we think about God matters. There is such a thing as truth. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. And if you get that wrong, you will be crushed.
“If you are falling off of a cliff, strong faith in a weak branch is fatally inferior to weak faith in a strong branch. Salvation is not finally based on the strength of your faith but on the object of your faith.”
—Tim Keller
Objection 2: What about Jews?
Objection 2: What about Jews?
Some have argued against evangelizing Jews because they are already the “chosen people of God.”
But hear what Paul had to say:
28 For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. 29 But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God.
1 Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. 2 For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. 3 For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. 4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
Paul’s implication is very clear: Jews who reject Christ will not be saved.
9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. 11 For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. 13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
Objection 3: What about “those who have never heard?”
Objection 3: What about “those who have never heard?”
14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? 15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” 16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” 17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
Paul builds a necessary succession of events that lead to salvation:
Road to Salvation: An evangelist is sent --> the gospel is preached --> unbelievers hear it --> unbelievers believe
Road to Salvation: An evangelist is sent --> the gospel is preached --> unbelievers hear it --> unbelievers believe
18 But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed they have, for “Their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.”
Paul argues that everyone has heard, and cites Ps. 19 as proof:
1 The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. 2 Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. 3 There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard. 4 Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them he has set a tent for the sun,
Paul drives this point home in the opening chapter of his letter to the Romans:
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
There is no such thing as “those who have never heard.” It is a made up category. Scripture is clear that all creation serves as a testimony to the existence of God. Look at what can be known about God just from Creation:
That he exists
His eternal attributes: his omnipotence and divinity
By extension, that God is an intelligent, personal being
That God is good (the beauty of the night sky, a sunset, the miracle of birth, the orderliness of creation, etc.)
That there is such a thing as right and wrong (conscience)
14 For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. 15 They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them 16 on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.
That God punishes wrongdoing (sickness, natural disasters, etc.). Every people group has a concept of divine wrath and punishment.
All of these things are known intuitively by all humans, whether they have heard the name Jesus or not.
So, “what about those who have never heard?” The fact is that they have heard, at least about God.
The reason people don’t believe is not because they haven’t heard of God, it is because they have suppressed the truth.
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. 24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
Some, however, have responded in faith to what they have seen and God has revealed himself to them:
20 Then Isaiah is so bold as to say, “I have been found by those who did not seek me; I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me.”
Scripture is filled with examples of people who did not have access to the full gospel, and yet had faith in God. How does God respond to such people? In Acts 10, God sends Peter to share the Gospel with a Gentile Roman centurion who has faith in God but no knowledge of Christ. Notice, that God didn’t say that his faith was acceptable without Christ as its object.
1 At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of what was known as the Italian Cohort, 2 a devout man who feared God with all his household, gave alms generously to the people, and prayed continually to God. 3 About the ninth hour of the day he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God come in and say to him, “Cornelius.” 4 And he stared at him in terror and said, “What is it, Lord?” And he said to him, “Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God. 5 And now send men to Joppa and bring one Simon who is called Peter.
God comes to Cornelius in a vision and tells him to get Peter. And what does Peter tell Cornelius?
34 So Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, 35 but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.
42 And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead. 43 To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”
And we could name a dozen other examples in Scripture: Balaam (to whom the Angel of the Lord appears), Saul’s Damascus road encounter with the risen Christ, and more.
And outside of Scripture, even to this day we hear stories—especially out of the Middle East—of Christ appearing in dreams and visions to Muslims who are seeking God.
In our own ministry in PNG, I think of my brother Rex Amadi.
Without faith in Christ, you cannot be saved.
Without faith in Christ, you cannot be saved.
6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
Being a member of a church won’t save you, no matter what denomination.
Tithing, being generous, being a “good person,” none of that will gain you forgiveness of sins and reconciliation with the Father.
2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.
There is a chasm of sin that separates us from the Father and eternal life in heaven. Even the best among us are not capable of bridging that gap.
You say, “But I’m not that bad. I’m a good person!”
By whose standards? This is what Jesus had to say to people who thought they were good enough:
15 And he said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.
There is only one who can bridge that gap:
5 For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.
8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); 9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. 11 For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. 13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
Closing Prayer