Archive article 23

What do we mean when we say: “Christ alone”

These two words, often expressed in latin ‘solus Christus’ sound so religious, pompous and distant. And yet these were the words that in the 1500’s captured the minds and hearts of the Reformers giving a new hope and a new joy.

If the bible verse written in the New Testament the Gospel of John 14:6 so many centuries ago is true: “Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life: no one comes to the Father except through me”, it is also true that even today “Jesus of Nazareth” continues to fascinate millions of people. And even if the scholars continue to debate the role Jesus had in the foundation of Christianity, it’s very obvious that he’s connected to Christianity in a unique way. Not only. He’s also admired and highly esteemed by other religions too – ‘ a great prophet’, ‘an outstanding teacher’, ‘a moral-example-for-everyone’, just for a start!

Although Jesus of Nazareth is all of these, he is chiefly ‘the Christ of God’ – and as soon as we use this phrase we are touching three great themes in the Bible: Creation, the Fall, and Redemption. Taken together, these three strands form a basis on which everything can be explained, and which, when referred to Jesus mean that Christ is the incarnate God (who took human form when he became man and in a substitutionary way died on the cross). He is the actual centre of history itself. The biography of Jesus, spanning a brief but turbulent 33 years, starting in Bethlehem and ending outside Jerusalem, is the heart of the History of salvation which runs through the entire Bible from Genesis to Revelation – the garden of Eden to the New heavens and a New earth.

Nobody, and certainly no institution or rite, has the capacity to mediate between self-referential humanity and God. Jesus alone is the mediator. Through his life and death he reconciled a rebellious humanity with God through what is theologically called “Propitiation and Atonement” (the anger of God is satisfied by substitutionary payment for sin on the cross). He alone is the object of a faith which can save and he is the perfect substitution for every sinner who believes.

This is confirmed by the Church which has always insisted that Jesus is the one who rose from the dead ushering in a new era and a new society. And this foundation of the Christian faith isn’t something new as some critical scholars have insinuated affirming that it’s only something which has been added on by later generations. No, from the very beginning, the traditional belief and conviction goes back to Jesus Christ, true God and true man, who became man so as to die and rise again. This is the heart of authentic Christianity and of a living faith which transforms us when we believe. That’s why Christians have always affirmed their belief in Christ and in Him alone.

There are no other options. Every invented alternative breaks down at some point. The only way to know God personally is through these two magnificent words: “Christ alone”.

                                                                                             Pastore Paul Finch