Solus Christus: Swazi Lecture

Introduction

The solas of the Reformation give us the foundation to know completely the true gospel of Jesus Christ. All 5 of them are entirely necessary and are co-dependent on one another. If you take away one of them, you lose them all.

But, I’d like to think of them as a tree. Sola scriptura would be like the trunk of the tree that enables us to see clearly the might and power, mercy and grace of God revealed for us to love and know. Sola fide and sola gratia would be like the branches and leaves working in concert with one another to demonstrate the glory of the tree. Soli deo gloria would be like the fruit that comes to bear on the truth, testifying to the health of the tree and to the effect of having the true gospel discovered as a sinner exactly as God revealed it. But, solus Christus is like the roots. Every thing that is seen and loved, everything that is worshipped and discovered, everything that is known and worth knowing finds it’s strength in Christ and Christ alone. If Jesus is not the Son of God that atoned for our sin, then the Scriptures have no Good News for us. If Jesus is anything other than as the Scriptures describe him, then there is no one in whom to place our faith and there is no grace to cover us as sinners. If Jesus is not the God-man sent to justify sinners, then God has been unjust in his forbearance with sinners and is something less than God, unworthy of praise and glory. If we lose the true Jesus, we don’t just have a lesser tree; we have no tree at all!

“Solus Christus stands at the center of the other four solas, connecting them into a coherent theological system by which the Reformers declared the glory of God.” Wellum