| Introduction Having the courage to be a Protestant requires the courage to see Christ as the all-sufficient Savior. I will define what that is in a moment. For now, I want to say this is a concept that the Church of Jesus Christ struggles perennially with. We can see that in the history that eventually led to the Protestant Reformation. By the time the 1500's arrived, the Church had developed a complex system of sacraments (rituals) that were designed to complement Christ. In no period of the history of the Church she ever denied that faith in Christ was necessary for salvation. She did, however, deny that Jesus was the all-sufficient Savior. I. The Sacramental System A. The Church developed seven acts that apart from at least five of them a Christian could not obtain salvation from God. 1. Baptism – forgave original sin and all sins to the point of baptism. 2. Confirmation – allows someone to participate in the Eucharist. 3. Eucharist – necessary to partake often if any hope of heaven (now you still have chance if at least once a year). a. Doing particular activities prescribed by a priest following auricular confession. b. Indulgence is a purchased penance 5. Anointing of the sick – used to be called extreme unction, but too many people were surviving it. B. These were developed as additions to faith in Christ, but with time they virtually replaced faith in Christ in practice (not in official practice). C. When the Reformers turned to the Scriptures (sola scriptura), they realized that the idea of sacramental system was a devilish idea, and that salvation is in Christ alone – thus the doctrine solus christus. II. The Reformers just Stated What the Apostles Taught, Acts 4:5-12. A. Peter and John healed a lame man in the temple area and that was followed by a great commotion and Peter's second recorded sermon, 3:1-10. B. As a result of the commotion, the disciples were arrested, 4:1-4. C. The religious leaders (the Sanhedrin) proceeded to try them for healing the lame man in Jesus's name, 4:5-7. 1. Before we continue, it is important to note that first century Judaism had also added all kinds on performance requirements to faith in God to the point that faith in God was completely obfuscated. 2. They were in principle very much in line with the Church of the 1500's. D. Peter's defense is actually an attack to the core of what the religious leaders believed. 1. What we did in healing this man was good, 8-9. 2. What we do, we do in the name of Jesus, that is, by his authority and power, 10-11. a. You rejected him by crucifying him. b. God approved of him by raising him up. c. Peter confirms what he says in v. 10 by quoting Ps. 118:22 in v. 11. Ps. 118:22-24 – The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This was the Lord's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it. 1) The very person the religious rulers discarded became the foundational piece in order for the church to be built. 2) The expression chief cornerstone can mean either the stone that ties the foundation together or the stone that caps the building. 3) Either way the building cannot be completed without it. 3. But Jesus is not just the stone where things are built on – he is everything, 12. a. Peter declares that Jesus is the all-sufficient Savior. b. Notice how he repeats himself by referring to the name of Jesus. 1) The name represents all that Jesus is and all that Jesus has done. 2) But also it specifies that it is this name, not other names. a) It is true that all the religions lead to the same place. b) But that place is not salvation in God because only through Jesus that happens. "Salvation … is in Christ alone, because God has decreed that it should be so." John Calvin III. Jesus Christ Is the All-Sufficient Savior. A. The last recorded words of John Newton were written down by his young friend William Jay – "My memory is nearly gone, but I remember two things: that I am a great sinner and that Christ is a great Savior." 1. The greatest decision any human ever makes concerns the nature of Christ. a. Jesus asked the Pharisees, "What do you think about the Christ? Whose Son is He?" and the same question is pushed before every one of us (Mt. 22:42). b. What are we going to do with Christ? 1) Everything hinges on that decision, with eternity in the balance. 2) On the basis of how we respond to the Bible's truth about Christ, God will deal with us. 2. This is why the Christian life is about Christ, as Paul says, "to live is Christ," Phil. 1:21). B. In his all-sufficiency, Christ is precious. 1 Pt. 2:4–7 – Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God andprecious, you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Therefore it is also contained in the Scripture, "Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame." Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient, "The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone…." 1. Nothing can be added to his perfections and his completed work. 2. In him, all our guilt is cancelled and blotted and swallowed up, and all our sins are sunk in his precious blood. C. This all-sufficiency of Christ is demonstrated in his relationships to the Christian as described by at six titles the Bible gives to him – Shepherd, Husband, Prophet, Priest, King, and Friend. 1. Christ is the all-sufficient Shepherd who delivers his sheep. Heb. 13:20-21 – Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. a. The sinner, bound in slavery to his own sin, is delivered by miracle and shed blood, freed to walk —sustained by God—along a path toward the eternal rest of the Promised Land. b. In this path, Christians walk together, never far from our Good Shepherd who leads and guides us in even the darkest nights in the desert. c. Left to ourselves we wander off into thistles and danger, but the Good Shepherd promises to watch over us, and nothing less can tame our anxieties and insecurities. 2. Christ is the all-sufficient Husband who willingly weds himself to us. a. On the one hand, he has taken full responsibility for all our debts. b. On the other hand, his honor and riches and the immeasurable value of his eternal glory are now all ours. c. He now deals with us with great affection, as is proper toward his bride, and we are given his great love and tenderness, and sympathy. 3. Christ is the all-sufficient Prophet that speaks to us. a. In sin, humankind suppresses the truth, becomes futile and foolish in its thinking, forgets God, and worships creation instead. b. This was the state of humanity when Christ became a Prophet. c. Christ is the all-sufficient Prophet who has disclosed the invisible God to us (John 1:9, 18). Jn. 1:14, 18 – And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth…. No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him. d. The precious jewels of divine revelation are locked up and they must be unlocked and opened for the true value to be discovered. e. This is the work of Christ. f. As the Prophet, he is the door that opens the riches of divine truth in Scripture to the eyes and the heart of the Christian. 4. Christ is the pure and all-sufficient Priest who died the criminal's death. a. He is the priest and at the same time he is the sacrifice. b. He comes before a holy God on our behalf on the basis of his own blood. Heb. 10:11-14 – And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us; for after He had said before, "This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them," then He adds, "Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more." Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin. c. Because of that, there is one ultimate and final Mediator who acts between God and men—Christ Jesus. 1 Tim. 2:5 – For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus…. d. Christ is the Lamb who absorbed the full wrath of God and because of that he is the eternal focal point of all worship (Revelation 5). 5. Christ now reigns as the all-sufficient King. a. He fought, he bled, he died; but in dying, he conquered. b. He destroyed death, and disarmed it of its sting and through the cross, the King has won. c. Christ is the King over the cosmos, bringing all things under his control (Eph. 1:10; Col. 1:20). 1) Kings and politicians may be ignorant of his reign, but their ignorance makes his dominion no less real. 2) Christ is the King in charge of all political elections and processes. 3) The collapse of kingdoms and the commotion of revolutions all unfold according to a wisely determined plan that has as its final cause the kingdom of God in Christ. 6. Christ is the all-sufficient Friend who protects us. a. He condescends to seek sinners who are poor and puny. b. No weakness in his friends withholds Christ's free and endless love, and no illustration shows this more clearly than in Christ's free willingness to ransom his life for his friends. c. Christ is a Friend who finds the sinner wandering a God-less desert, tripping toward eternal death. d. Christ steps in not only to save him, but also to give him eternal joy and comfort—true friendship in all its dimensions. e. We are forgetful and faithless and disloyal, but our neglect and distrust and disobedience does not diminish his love for us.
To speak of the all-sufficiency of Christ is inevitably to see weaknesses in the present and to foresee hopes in the future. Apart from this ultimate hope, the created world would be a dungeon of despair for God's children. But faith stimulates our lives with an anticipation of the presence and glory of Christ. We will not find our full and permanent happiness here. Nor will we find Christian joy automatically. God intends for us to find joy in action, as we work out our faith with fear and trembling, as we fight the good fight of faith, as we worship, fellowship, and engage in all the various dynamics of the Christian life together. But even in this, our hope of eternal joy sobers our expectations for the joy we can expect to experience in this life. So we keep on looking to Christ and him alone, shedding anything that we might be tempted to add to him because, after all to live is Christ.
http://olympiabp.blogspot.com/2017/10/solus-christus-acts-45-12.html
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