Christ Alone

‘Christ Alone has done all that is required for salvation to be available as a gift which is received by faith alone.’


‘Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus… let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.’ Hebrews 10:19-23

Intro
Have you ever lost something important, I mean really important?
I mean got home in the car and then realized that you left one child at the shopping centre?
I mean got to the airport and realized you had forgotten to take your passport?
Or even worse you remembered your passport, and as you boarded the plane you realized you forgot to get a visa – and not the credit card – I mean a travel visa, so you didn’t need to turn around and just come home again on the next flight..

I mean forgotten something really important like what ‘nil-by-mouth’ means?
Y’know, going in for day surgery and forgetting that you can’t eat before hand, so after your luxurious breakfast you are sent home, because the surgery can’t happen anymore that day.
And don’t even ask what kind of day you are having at hospital when you forget what ‘NFR’ means!

It’s staggering how easily you can forget the most essential things, going to the beach without cossies or even worse without sunscreen. It’s embarrassing, but we all have done it haven’t we, it just is human to sometimes forget the basics. Like how to spell ‘of’.

And in the middle ages, as staggering as it seems, the Roman Catholic forgot the essential and basic truths about Jesus Christ. They mislaid THE GREAT Christmas present, amongst a pile of entangled cheesy rapping paper and tinsel, of religious rituals, of the saints, and Mary, the Pope, indulgences, confession, the Mass, and services in Latin when people in Germany funnily enough only understood German.

Martin Luther asked a question of almost child like simplicity.
Excuse me, but Doesn’t the Bible teach Jesus death dealt with our sin problem before God?

Through reading Romans, this Roman Catholic Monk came back to this astounding and yet Simple truth of the Christian faith. Christ Alone Saves, because Christ Alone can save. No one and nothing else can save, and nothing else will!!

Well we are at the last of our four talks about the reformation teaching, and its’ central importance to the Christian faith. The truths about Christ that got re-found when the clutter of religious wrapping paper was disposed of, the Truth that:
‘Justification is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. Which is the heart of the Gospel message we learn from the Bible Alone.’

So today, we are at our last talk and there are two main points I want to make in regard to Christ Alone:
Firstly, The supremacy of Christ over all! and
Secondly, The Sufficiency of Christ for all!

The supremacy of Christ over all [How can salvation come from somewhere else!]
NIV Hebrews 1:1 In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. 3 The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. 4 So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs. 5 For to which of the angels did God ever say, "You are my Son; today I have become your Father"? Or again, "I will be his Father, and he will be my Son"?

The clear testimony of God in the scriptures, and in particular the New Testament book of Hebrews is that there is a profound and incomparable uniqueness of God’s purposes in Jesus Christ. All of God’s purposes in creation, in revelation, and in salvation, focus upon (and testify about) Jesus Christ. It is impossible to overstate the glory and the wonder and the enormity of who Jesus is.

Christ is Supreme in every single way, for God made the world through him, and for him, and for him alone it exists, and in him it has its being, Colossians 1 tells us.

Christ is Supreme in all things, but the passage we just read in Hebrews points out two particular ways Christ is supreme. Firstly, Christ is the supreme revelation of God. And Secondly, Christ is the supreme mediator between God and man.

Firstly, Christ is the supreme Revelation of God
Christ is the final and full revelation of God. As much as all that Moses and the Prophets had to say was the true word of God, from God himself, nothing told the world the truth about God and his purposes as clearly as the appearing of THE WORD of God in the flesh. The word of God incarnate Jesus Christ, the word of God now enscripturated for us in the Bible. Christ is ‘the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being’ Hebrews 1:3 tells us, & he is ‘in very nature God’ Philippians 2 tells us.

Christ is both the creator of the World, and he is the sustainer of the world, upholding it by his powerful word. He is far above all his creation as its creator, far above even the angels in the heavenly realm, the angels it was believed who held men accountable to the Law of Moses before God.

Christ is supreme over all, because Christ is God himself. All of God’s purposes for creation focus upon him, as we now learn from the Bible alone.

Christ is the supreme Revelation of God.

And if that is not enough for you, we discover the second great truth that:
Christ is the supreme mediator between God and man.
God the creator, entered into his own creation, to mediate and negotiate a peace between himself and mankind. Christ would mediate the salvation of mankind, because only Christ could. Because only Christ, God the creator, could become the obedient man Jesus Christ, who would live the life and then pay the penalty that mankind needed to pay.

Christ is the supreme mediator between God and man, because only Christ is the real High-priest on behalf of the people. And this is because only Christ could enter the heavenly temple to deal with God direct.
When you need action, you need to go to the decision maker don’t you?
Not some underling! ‘Ill have to check with my boss first!’.
Christ was the only one who was able to access the decision maker, by accessing the heavenly temple, and not some copy of the real thing.

Christ is the supreme mediator between God and man, because only Christ, the real High-priest, could offer the real and acceptable sacrifice of the perfect and obedient man, the one who had never broken relationship with God, the God Man.

Christ is the supreme mediator between God and man, because only he had the access to deal with the decision maker, and only he had the capacity to pay the debt required to negotiate the peace. Christ Alone saves, because Christ Alone can save.

God in Christ reconciled himself to us, though his brutal and unjust death upon a Roman cross. Christ Alone saves, because Christ Alone can save.

Christ is Supreme over all!

APPLICATION:
It means that if Christ is supreme over all, then Christ really is THE LORD, he is God over all. Christ is the LORD over the creation of the world and its sustaining, he is LORD over evil and the heavenly realms, both angels and demons, he is LORD over sickness, he is LORD over Sin and death, he is LORD over judgment, and consequently he is LORD over Salvation. Christ is LORD over you and me and we now no longer fear the things of this world, but we serve the LORD over all.

Christ is supreme, incomparable and unconquerable, Christ is LORD over all, he has paid all the penalty of sin in his death, he has crushed the power of sin in his resurrection, and he will soon deal with the presence of sin, when he returns.

Christ Alone can save, because Christ alone has the power to save, because Christ Alone has paid the great penalty it cost to redeem us from our sin.
Christ is Supreme over all!

And our second main point for today.
The sufficiency of Christ for all [by faith God’s riches become mine!]
Heb 10:19 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.

Christ is the grounds of our confidence of who God is, because Christ is God. Christ is the supreme revelation of God. But not only can we know God because of this, we can have confidence of God’s purposes for mankind, his purposes for you and me in Christ!

We can confidently answer the question, ‘How is God towards Me?’


Christ is the supreme mediator between God and man, because Christ is the true High-priest. The one mediator who has access to the true heavenly temple, the one mediator who could offer the true sacrifice for sin, offered once for all for mankind, of himself upon a cross. As we learned from Hebrews 9.

Christ’s revelation of God is sufficient for all, but more than that Christ’s mediatorial representation is sufficient for all, for all who would accept this gift by faith.

Faith is our simple and genuine ‘yes’ to God’s offer of ‘would we like Christ to set us free, by paying our debt for us?’. A debt we are unable to pay ourselves.


It seems appropriate at this point to let Martin Luther explain the sufficiency of Christ, ‘Jesus takes all the filth of my life, that is mine alone, and my doing and he makes it his at the Cross. Then he takes all the riches that he received from his father, because of his obedience, and he makes them mine’. Luther called it the great exchange. Christ’s great riches given by God are sufficient for all who would accept them. An acceptance that is by faith.

The reformers saw the bright light of the Bible’s teaching about Christ Alone. Christ alone could save, not Christ plus anything else, as well meaning as these other things may have been. No partaking in sacrifices of mass, or receiving indulgences and no other ritual observance ever added anything, all it did was take away. Take away the riches of Christ, and therefore take away any sense of personal assurance.

ILLUSTRATION:
It is crazy to think we add anything of value to Salvation in Christ. Christ who is supreme over all, and Christ who is sufficient for all.

It is as crazy as inheriting the federal reserves of gold, and you want to add your handful of tin foil from your Easter eggs to increase its worth.

It’s like inheriting the gift of the hope diamond, all 110 carots of the original thing and deciding to set it on a stainless steel ring surrounded by 110 diamontes!

It’s not only crazy, its just plain insulting.

The prayer book puts it this way in the 11 article of religion, ‘We are accounted righteous before God, only on the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by faith, and not by our own works or deservings: wherefore, that we are justified by faith only is a most wholesome doctrine and very full of comfort..’

Questions:
If the great treasures of Christ alone aren’t good enough, how can you be saved? Or More to the point how can you be ever be sure of where you stand before God?
How could you ever be sure of the answer to the question, ‘How is God towards me?’
Doesn’t sound much like the salvation the God of the Bible offers does it?
The one who says there is now no more condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

The reformation teaching reminds us of these great truths of our God given salvation, our new relationship with God our heavenly Father, that are indeed ‘wholesome and full of comfort!’. Great truths that assure us of how is God towards us’, that God is for us in Christ, that salvation is from God alone, the truths that:
‘Justification is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. Which is the heart of the Gospel message we learn from the Bible Alone.’