| “SALVATION IN CHRIST ALONE” Acts 4:1-12; Romans 3:21-26; 4:13-25 Olivet Covenant Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, PA © Rev. Linda Jaymes, 3/29/09 NINTH IN A SERIES ON REFORMED DOCTRINE |
Today we come to the ninth and final sermon in this series on Reformed Doctrine. That doesn’t mean we have covered all
the doctrines that make up Reformed Christianity, but the ones we have covered in this series are among the most important
ones if not the most important ones. Those of you who were here nine weeks ago will (hopefully!) remember that we started
off the series with the Reformed view of scripture, and we had a little Latin lesson that actually triggered the formation of a
Latin class that has met twice and will continue to meet on the 2nd and 4th Monday evenings of each month.
In that first sermon in the series, I mentioned that the Reformation itself centered upon five essential doctrines that the
Reformers were willing to stand up for and in some cases, even die for. These essentials are the five “Solas” of the
Reformation, known in Latin as
• “Sola Scriptura” (Scripture alone)
• “Sola Gratia” (Salvation by Grace alone)
• “Sola Fide” (Salvation through Faith alone)
• “Solus Christus” (Salvation in Christ alone)
• “Soli Deo Gloria” (For the Glory of God alone)
and today we are going to look at the doctrine of “Salvation in Christ Alone” and touch on “Grace Alone” and “Faith Alone” as
well. These three doctrines are so closely tied together that it is difficult to speak of one of them without including the others.
The reformed understanding of Salvation is that it comes to us by God’s grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.
Grace alone means that we have done nothing to deserve or earn salvation. On the contrary, what we have earned is eternal
damnation because of our sin against our holy God. In truth, humanity has disturbed the perfect balance of the original
creation. But because of God’s great love for us and desire to be in fellowship and relationship with us, He has taken the
initiative to come to us in the person of Jesus Christ and suffer in his own body the consequences for our sin, which are eternal
suffering and death. It is through Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross that God has provided the only way to restore the perfection or
balance of the creation, which will not be complete until Jesus returns.
If you remember last week’s sermon on the Atonement, I explained that we sinful human beings are in no position to pay
for the consequences of our sins. No amount of human suffering or financial resources or good works or prison time can ever
be enough to cover or balance the books or pay for the offense our sin has perpetrated against a righteous and holy God. An
eternity of human effort could not accomplish it. Only someone who is God’s equal in power and strength and righteousness
can do that, but at the same time, only someone who is human can pay for human sin. And therein is the dilemma. All of
humankind is tainted with sin and therefore does not meet God’s righteousness requirement, and because humans are not equal
with God, no amount of suffering or punishment could ever be enough to satisfy the magnitude of the consequences of human
sin that a holy God requires and deserves in repayment.
As I also said last week, God had to solve this dilemma Himself, and that’s where Jesus comes in. Because Jesus, the only
begotten Son of God, is both fully human and fully God, He can meet all the requirements necessary to satisfy a holy and
righteous and all-powerful God. Jesus accomplished that work on the Cross, suffering our consequences or paying our debts
once and for all. And since we will soon celebrate another Holy Week let me remind us that just because God did this for us in
a single afternoon does not mean it was easy or cheap. The suffering Jesus endured He endured as a human in a human body.
This was a very costly, painful and humiliating sacrifice that our holy God made on our behalf. He did it purely out of love; not
because we are especially lovable, or smart or beautiful or anything else, but out of love. And that’s grace, the “grace alone” of
our Reformed faith.
Given this context for grace and grace alone, perhaps we can understand why the Reformers said that salvation must be in
Christ alone. This is where we part ways with the “world,” which often tells us that all roads lead to God or that there are
other ways to get to God besides Christ. But that’s illogical, as well as sadistic. If humans could be reconciled to God some
other way, apart from the sacrifice Jesus made on the Cross, then Jesus’ suffering and death were unnecessary, and this holy,
righteous and supposedly loving God of ours is uncaring, cruel, and utterly sadistic. But we know that this is not true.
Scripture tells us and shows us over and over again, especially in the life and death of Jesus, that God cares for us. He has
compassion on us and He loves us unconditionally—even though we sin. And so when Jesus offered Himself up as a sacrifice
in our place, He did it because He knew that there was no other way to reconcile us with the Father. If there were, surely the
Lord would have told us. But He didn’t. What He told us was “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life; no one comes to the
Father but by me.” This is why we, along with the reformers like Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, Knox and others, believe that
salvation is not only by grace alone but in Christ alone, as we receive and respond to this Good News through faith alone.
Today’s scripture lessons come at this truth in a number of ways. First, from the Acts of the Apostles, we see how Peter
and John were out preaching this Good News because they could not contain themselves. They could not keep it inside them—
whether the authorities liked it or not. These two simple fishermen, without any formal seminary training, were out spreading
the Good News of Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection, and the salvation that can be found through faith in Him. Peter
summed it up in one simple sentence: “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to
men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12) That name is Jesus, the Christ of Calvary, and salvation is found in Christ
alone.
Paul’s way of explaining it is of course, quite a bit wordier. (After all, he went to seminary!) He studied at the foot of
Gamaliel, the best rabbi of that time. As a Pharisee, Paul was an expert in the Law of Moses. But he also had had a personal
and life-changing encounter with Jesus while on his way to arrest and persecute Christians. And transformed by Christ, Paul
came to a more accurate understanding of why God gave Jews the Law in the first place and what its proper role was to be
now that it had been fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
In Romans 3, Paul explains that in Christ there is salvation or righteousness now available to human beings apart from the
Law of Moses. The Law and the words of the prophets both point toward this saving righteousness, but in and of themselves
they cannot provide it, because no one can perfectly obey the Law no matter how hard they try. Paul tells us that true
righteousness is from God, and by that Paul means it is a gift. That’s grace again, grace alone. And how do we get this
righteousness? Paul says it very clearly: “…through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.” (Romans 3:21-22) In other
words, salvation or righteousness comes to us by God’s grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone.
Paul fleshes this out further in chapter 4 of Romans where he reminds us that Abraham, father of all the people of God’s
promise, did not receive this righteousness or “rightness” with God (which is another way of thinking of salvation) through the
Law. Moses and the Law didn’t come along until about 600 years after the time of Abraham—and yet Abraham was right with
God. But why—and how? The answer is because of his faith. Abraham believed God when God told him that he would
become the father of many nations. And Abraham clung to that promise for 25 years, even when he sometimes disobeyed God
and tried to make it happen before God’s perfect timing.
Paul says that Abraham “…did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his
faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.” (Romans 4:20-21)
Abraham was “justified” by faith, his faith being credited to him as righteousness. And by the way, thtat doesn’t mean that
Abraham was righteous—but only that God looked upon him as if he were righteous (there’s that grace again!), and God did so
simply because of Abraham’s faith. Paul then closes that chapter by saying, “The words ‘it was credited to him’ were written
not for [Abraham] alone, but also for us, to whom God will [also] credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who
raised Jesus from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.” And we
can think of justification by faith as God looking upon us “just as if” we were righteous—the same way God looked upon
Abraham.
It was this realization—that salvation comes by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone—that set Martin Luther, the
great reformer, free from the anxiety and depression that plagued him even though he was a priest. Yet he felt like nothing he
did—not all his good works or prayers or self-denial were able to make him acceptable to God. Well, he was right! And it’s
the same for us. We can’t work our way or earn our way or bribe our way back to God. It’s hopeless—unless we accept
God’s free gift of forgiveness through faith in Christ and Christ alone. If we will do that, God will look upon us just-as-if we
had never sinned in the first place. When we put our faith in Christ alone, God sees us through the lens of Christ’s blood, and
accepts his sacrifice on the Cross on our behalf. That’s the only way we can be reconciled to God—by grace alone, through
faith alone, in Christ alone.
The hymn that Amy sang this morning says it so beautifully. It is actually a contemporary hymn—written in 2001—in the
style of the great hymns of the past which tell us who God is, what He is like and what He has done for us in Jesus Christ. In
some ways, singing those old hymns is the best theological training we will ever get. And so I am very excited about this new
hymn, written in modern language that teaches us the very solid and hope-filled theology that shapes our faith. Listen to the
words once again:
In Christ Alone
Keith Getty & Stuart Townend
Copyright 2001 Thankyou Music
IN CHRIST ALONE my hope is found,
He is my light, my strength, my song;
This Cornerstone, this solid Ground,
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm.
What heights of love, what depths of peace,
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease!
My Comforter, my All in All,
Here in the love of Christ I stand.
In Christ alone! - who took on flesh,
Fullness of God in helpless babe!
This gift of love and righteousness,
Scorned by the ones He came to save:
Till on that cross as Jesus died,
The wrath of God was satisfied
For every sin on Him was laid;
Here in the death of Christ I live.
There in the ground His body lay,
Light of the world by darkness slain:
Then bursting forth in glorious Day
Up from the grave He rose again!
And as He stands in victory
Sin’s curse has lost its grip on me,
For I am His and He is mine
Bought with the precious blood of Christ.
No guilt in life, no fear in death,
This is the power of Christ in me;
From life’s first cry to final breath,
Jesus commands my destiny.
No power of hell, no scheme of man,
Can ever pluck me from His hand;
Till He returns or calls me home,
Here in the power of Christ I’ll stand!
My hope and prayer is that all of us will stand in that power of Christ, especially when the wind and storms of our
culture—and sometimes even the Church—beat at us and mock us and accuse us of being foolish or arrogant or intolerant
because we believe what scripture tells us, that our salvation comes to us by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.
May we respond to those attacks and to any of the hardships we face in life with the same love and grace and compassion that
Christ demonstrated for us on the Cross, which alone can reconcile us with our righteous and holy and loving God.
Let us pray.
the doctrines that make up Reformed Christianity, but the ones we have covered in this series are among the most important
ones if not the most important ones. Those of you who were here nine weeks ago will (hopefully!) remember that we started
off the series with the Reformed view of scripture, and we had a little Latin lesson that actually triggered the formation of a
Latin class that has met twice and will continue to meet on the 2nd and 4th Monday evenings of each month.
In that first sermon in the series, I mentioned that the Reformation itself centered upon five essential doctrines that the
Reformers were willing to stand up for and in some cases, even die for. These essentials are the five “Solas” of the
Reformation, known in Latin as
• “Sola Scriptura” (Scripture alone)
• “Sola Gratia” (Salvation by Grace alone)
• “Sola Fide” (Salvation through Faith alone)
• “Solus Christus” (Salvation in Christ alone)
• “Soli Deo Gloria” (For the Glory of God alone)
and today we are going to look at the doctrine of “Salvation in Christ Alone” and touch on “Grace Alone” and “Faith Alone” as
well. These three doctrines are so closely tied together that it is difficult to speak of one of them without including the others.
The reformed understanding of Salvation is that it comes to us by God’s grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.
Grace alone means that we have done nothing to deserve or earn salvation. On the contrary, what we have earned is eternal
damnation because of our sin against our holy God. In truth, humanity has disturbed the perfect balance of the original
creation. But because of God’s great love for us and desire to be in fellowship and relationship with us, He has taken the
initiative to come to us in the person of Jesus Christ and suffer in his own body the consequences for our sin, which are eternal
suffering and death. It is through Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross that God has provided the only way to restore the perfection or
balance of the creation, which will not be complete until Jesus returns.
If you remember last week’s sermon on the Atonement, I explained that we sinful human beings are in no position to pay
for the consequences of our sins. No amount of human suffering or financial resources or good works or prison time can ever
be enough to cover or balance the books or pay for the offense our sin has perpetrated against a righteous and holy God. An
eternity of human effort could not accomplish it. Only someone who is God’s equal in power and strength and righteousness
can do that, but at the same time, only someone who is human can pay for human sin. And therein is the dilemma. All of
humankind is tainted with sin and therefore does not meet God’s righteousness requirement, and because humans are not equal
with God, no amount of suffering or punishment could ever be enough to satisfy the magnitude of the consequences of human
sin that a holy God requires and deserves in repayment.
As I also said last week, God had to solve this dilemma Himself, and that’s where Jesus comes in. Because Jesus, the only
begotten Son of God, is both fully human and fully God, He can meet all the requirements necessary to satisfy a holy and
righteous and all-powerful God. Jesus accomplished that work on the Cross, suffering our consequences or paying our debts
once and for all. And since we will soon celebrate another Holy Week let me remind us that just because God did this for us in
a single afternoon does not mean it was easy or cheap. The suffering Jesus endured He endured as a human in a human body.
This was a very costly, painful and humiliating sacrifice that our holy God made on our behalf. He did it purely out of love; not
because we are especially lovable, or smart or beautiful or anything else, but out of love. And that’s grace, the “grace alone” of
our Reformed faith.
Given this context for grace and grace alone, perhaps we can understand why the Reformers said that salvation must be in
Christ alone. This is where we part ways with the “world,” which often tells us that all roads lead to God or that there are
other ways to get to God besides Christ. But that’s illogical, as well as sadistic. If humans could be reconciled to God some
other way, apart from the sacrifice Jesus made on the Cross, then Jesus’ suffering and death were unnecessary, and this holy,
righteous and supposedly loving God of ours is uncaring, cruel, and utterly sadistic. But we know that this is not true.
Scripture tells us and shows us over and over again, especially in the life and death of Jesus, that God cares for us. He has
compassion on us and He loves us unconditionally—even though we sin. And so when Jesus offered Himself up as a sacrifice
in our place, He did it because He knew that there was no other way to reconcile us with the Father. If there were, surely the
Lord would have told us. But He didn’t. What He told us was “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life; no one comes to the
Father but by me.” This is why we, along with the reformers like Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, Knox and others, believe that
salvation is not only by grace alone but in Christ alone, as we receive and respond to this Good News through faith alone.
Today’s scripture lessons come at this truth in a number of ways. First, from the Acts of the Apostles, we see how Peter
and John were out preaching this Good News because they could not contain themselves. They could not keep it inside them—
whether the authorities liked it or not. These two simple fishermen, without any formal seminary training, were out spreading
the Good News of Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection, and the salvation that can be found through faith in Him. Peter
summed it up in one simple sentence: “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to
men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12) That name is Jesus, the Christ of Calvary, and salvation is found in Christ
alone.
Paul’s way of explaining it is of course, quite a bit wordier. (After all, he went to seminary!) He studied at the foot of
Gamaliel, the best rabbi of that time. As a Pharisee, Paul was an expert in the Law of Moses. But he also had had a personal
and life-changing encounter with Jesus while on his way to arrest and persecute Christians. And transformed by Christ, Paul
came to a more accurate understanding of why God gave Jews the Law in the first place and what its proper role was to be
now that it had been fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
In Romans 3, Paul explains that in Christ there is salvation or righteousness now available to human beings apart from the
Law of Moses. The Law and the words of the prophets both point toward this saving righteousness, but in and of themselves
they cannot provide it, because no one can perfectly obey the Law no matter how hard they try. Paul tells us that true
righteousness is from God, and by that Paul means it is a gift. That’s grace again, grace alone. And how do we get this
righteousness? Paul says it very clearly: “…through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.” (Romans 3:21-22) In other
words, salvation or righteousness comes to us by God’s grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone.
Paul fleshes this out further in chapter 4 of Romans where he reminds us that Abraham, father of all the people of God’s
promise, did not receive this righteousness or “rightness” with God (which is another way of thinking of salvation) through the
Law. Moses and the Law didn’t come along until about 600 years after the time of Abraham—and yet Abraham was right with
God. But why—and how? The answer is because of his faith. Abraham believed God when God told him that he would
become the father of many nations. And Abraham clung to that promise for 25 years, even when he sometimes disobeyed God
and tried to make it happen before God’s perfect timing.
Paul says that Abraham “…did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his
faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.” (Romans 4:20-21)
Abraham was “justified” by faith, his faith being credited to him as righteousness. And by the way, thtat doesn’t mean that
Abraham was righteous—but only that God looked upon him as if he were righteous (there’s that grace again!), and God did so
simply because of Abraham’s faith. Paul then closes that chapter by saying, “The words ‘it was credited to him’ were written
not for [Abraham] alone, but also for us, to whom God will [also] credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who
raised Jesus from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.” And we
can think of justification by faith as God looking upon us “just as if” we were righteous—the same way God looked upon
Abraham.
It was this realization—that salvation comes by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone—that set Martin Luther, the
great reformer, free from the anxiety and depression that plagued him even though he was a priest. Yet he felt like nothing he
did—not all his good works or prayers or self-denial were able to make him acceptable to God. Well, he was right! And it’s
the same for us. We can’t work our way or earn our way or bribe our way back to God. It’s hopeless—unless we accept
God’s free gift of forgiveness through faith in Christ and Christ alone. If we will do that, God will look upon us just-as-if we
had never sinned in the first place. When we put our faith in Christ alone, God sees us through the lens of Christ’s blood, and
accepts his sacrifice on the Cross on our behalf. That’s the only way we can be reconciled to God—by grace alone, through
faith alone, in Christ alone.
The hymn that Amy sang this morning says it so beautifully. It is actually a contemporary hymn—written in 2001—in the
style of the great hymns of the past which tell us who God is, what He is like and what He has done for us in Jesus Christ. In
some ways, singing those old hymns is the best theological training we will ever get. And so I am very excited about this new
hymn, written in modern language that teaches us the very solid and hope-filled theology that shapes our faith. Listen to the
words once again:
In Christ Alone
Keith Getty & Stuart Townend
Copyright 2001 Thankyou Music
IN CHRIST ALONE my hope is found,
He is my light, my strength, my song;
This Cornerstone, this solid Ground,
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm.
What heights of love, what depths of peace,
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease!
My Comforter, my All in All,
Here in the love of Christ I stand.
In Christ alone! - who took on flesh,
Fullness of God in helpless babe!
This gift of love and righteousness,
Scorned by the ones He came to save:
Till on that cross as Jesus died,
The wrath of God was satisfied
For every sin on Him was laid;
Here in the death of Christ I live.
There in the ground His body lay,
Light of the world by darkness slain:
Then bursting forth in glorious Day
Up from the grave He rose again!
And as He stands in victory
Sin’s curse has lost its grip on me,
For I am His and He is mine
Bought with the precious blood of Christ.
No guilt in life, no fear in death,
This is the power of Christ in me;
From life’s first cry to final breath,
Jesus commands my destiny.
No power of hell, no scheme of man,
Can ever pluck me from His hand;
Till He returns or calls me home,
Here in the power of Christ I’ll stand!
My hope and prayer is that all of us will stand in that power of Christ, especially when the wind and storms of our
culture—and sometimes even the Church—beat at us and mock us and accuse us of being foolish or arrogant or intolerant
because we believe what scripture tells us, that our salvation comes to us by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.
May we respond to those attacks and to any of the hardships we face in life with the same love and grace and compassion that
Christ demonstrated for us on the Cross, which alone can reconcile us with our righteous and holy and loving God.
Let us pray.
