Solas Cristus

Sacrifice He doesn’t desire

Psalm 40:6–8 ESV

In sacrifice and offering you have not delighted, but you have given me an open ear. Burnt offering and sin offering you have not required. Then I said, “Behold, I have come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me: I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.”

Obedience to the Law

Matthew 23:2–4 ESV

“The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat, so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger.

Matthew 23:23–24 ESV

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!

The Pharisees and the scribes were trying to control God through obedience to the Law and they were trying to subordinate God’s people by their ability to dictate how God wanted His lay obeyed.

False Piety

Luther’s Works, Volume 44 Treatise on Good Works

At the very outset of the treatise Luther takes issue with the prevalent understanding of good works. This understanding regarded good works as those prescribed by the church and voluntarily assumed by the faithful: fasting, pilgrimages, fixed prayer recitation, going to mass, etc. Such a concept established a false dichotomy of works. It led quite easily to the idea that there is a distinction in works in God’s sight, by which certain works are superior or religious and therefore more acceptable to God, whereas others are inferior or secular and therefore less acceptable. To this Luther says unequivocally that there are no good works save those which God has commanded; that the first and most precious good work is faith in Christ; that in this faith one work is like another because there is no distinction between them; and that this faith is the source from which all truly good works issue.

Luther is dealing with the Catholic Church pre-Vatican I When the idea of pious works and church doctrine were more relevant for salvation than anything. The direct problem being they were trying to impress the Pope rather than Jesus.

ONE Man

John 6:28–29 ESV

Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”

Romans 5:12–17 ESV

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.

Dancing with Josie

I don’t want you to think that somehow you have the ability to hold on to your faith in Jesus, no more than you have the ability to keep to all the promises you made to your spouse at your wedding. Rather, think of it like this.

When I was dating Brittany I told her I had this idea that I was raised on, I would watch my parents in the evening, mom might be getting dinner ready or doing something in the kitchen or vise versa and the other would come take there hand and they would dance in the kitchen. It looked like love to me.... I told Brittany thats what I wanted and she wrote me a song about it. Im telling you that because its embarrassing, & you should ask her to play it for you. Now, Brittany has never been one to be a romantic or into that mushy stuff, but lately there has been a new lady who has taken great interest in dancing in the kitchen with me. My 7 year old, Jocelyn. @ Oktoberfest I taught her the two step and she has asked multiple times since to dance with me. I put my arm around her and she put her arm around me and we begin to two-step. She hangs her head, staring at her feet trying to stay together, and I hold on. We move around the room, back and forth, sometimes she trips or stumbles, and I hold on. Then she is ready to make a show of it, and she leaves my arms and starts spinning away twirling and whirling and when she’s dizzy and tired I guide her back to me because through all her adventures I hold on.

Thats how this journey is with Jesus, we dance on his shoes, he teaches us the steps, we twirl and whirl - but he always holds on.