home > articles > The Five Pillars of Biblical Christianity > Part 2 Solo Christo

PART 2 Denominations are generally waning in this “post-modern” era. Along with the rise of non-denominationally aligned churches has been a growing doctrinal vacuum as preachers become life-coaches and the emphasis is on making the Bible a “How to…” book. A casual reading of some of these churches doctrinal statements reveals some glaring departures with historic Christianity, which should cause us to wonder how or why they differ so much with the 5 Pillars of Biblical Christianity…

SOLO CHRISTO

“Christ Alone!” The cry of the Reformers was that salvation was revealed in the Scriptures alone (Sola Scriptura) which is based on the work of Christ alone.

…that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away.”
Second Corinthians 3:14

When we say ‘Christ alone’, we are emphatically stating that Scripture reveals salvation in and through no one other than Christ.

“And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
Acts 4:12

Salvation is not possible through any one other than Jesus Christ. Jesus Himself said that eternal life was only possible by knowing God the Father andJesus Christ-

And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
John 17:3

Solo Christo is not primarily a declaration of Christ’s uniqueness – although He is altogether unique (unlike any other who may only be unique in personality and appearance).

Here is a man who was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another obscure village, where He worked in a carpenter shop until He was thirty, and then for three years He was an itinerant preacher. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never owned a home. He never had a family. He never went to college. He never put his foot inside a big city. He never traveled two hundred miles from the place where He was born. He never did one of the things that usually accompany greatness. He had no credentials but Himself. He had nothing to do with this world except the naked power of His divine manhood. While still a young man, the tide of public opinion turned against Him. His friends ran away. One of them denied Him. He was turned over to His enemies. He went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed to a cross between two thieves. His executioners gambled for the only piece of property He had on earth while He was dying—and that was his coat. When he was dead He was taken down and laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend. Nineteen wide centuries have come and gone and today He is the center-piece of the human race and the leader of the column of progress. I am far within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched, and all the navies that ever were built, and all the parliaments that ever sat, all the kings that ever reigned, put together have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as has that One Solitary Life.
James Allan Francis (1864–1928), “One Solitary Life”, pp. 1–7

The Reformers could have simply echoed the message of their day which nearly offered salvation through membership with, and obedience to, the Church. This would have been sola ecclesia. But this is not the message that Christ, the apostles, or the New Testament proclaimed.

Today there are some who promote something that sounds like Solo Christo, when in fact they are promoting an illogical, non-sensical, imitation of the real Christ. They do this by proclaiming “Jesus Only”. And by this they mean that Jesus was His own Father, and is now the Holy Spirit. This false doctrine completely undermines the work of the Cross (since He gave His life as a ransom [payment] to His Father for the sins of the world. It also makes a mockery of Christ crying out to His Father when He was dying on the Cross as if He was just maintaining a charade of an imaginary relationship. And it makes the baptismal ‘formula’ given by Christ in Matthew 28:19-20 a hoax.

When we say Solo Christo we are stating our belief that salvation (the forgiveness of our sins and a new and right relationship with God) is possible only by the work of Christ being merited to us. Salvation is not through the Church, Mary, the Saints, or our own efforts.

If we could only grasp Solo Christo better we would have less distrust for His Church since our expectations of what the Church is about would be made subordinate to that of Christ.

THE ATONEMENT ONLY THROUGH CHRIST

It is only through Christ that we are saved. For some, this salvation includes the composite of all God’s grace towards us (healing, provision, deliverance). That is, for some, salvation is not just about spiritual new birth. For those who regard the Atonement (the death of Christ on the Cross) as the full expression of God’s grace, they are likely to view eternal life as just one of those graces made possible through the atonement. To express this, such phrases as “healing is in the atonement“, “prosperity is in the atonement” (or the misquoted Scripture- Jesus became poor to make us rich), “the baptism in the Spirit is in the Atonement” are employed. It is highly doubtful that this is what the Reformers ever intended the expression Solo Christo to mean.

But because we regard the atonement primarily for our redemption, and not the means for the graces of God to be made available to us, we are not saying that these graces are not available. Christ commissioned His followers to “lay hands on the sick and they will recover” (Mark 16:18). The basis for such healings seems to be the grace of God, not the atonement. In First Corinthians 12:28, healing is mentioned as one of the grace-gifts which Christ has bestowed on the Church through the Holy Spirit (which is why they are referred to as “spiritual gifts”). These spiritual gifts were not the purpose of the Cross (The Atonement). Neither are they directly the result of the Cross.

Some appeal to such Scriptures as “by His stripes we are (were) healed” (1Peter 2:24). But an examination of the context of that verse seems to reveal that Peter is referring to our healed relationship with God through Christ’s atonement- not our physically healed bodies as a result.

He Himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.
First Peter 2:24

The grace of healing or provision was available before the Cross, and one might argue that it could be provided by God to us even if there was no Cross. But the same cannot be said of our redemption. Without the Cross, there is no means of salvation and there would be no atonement. Before the Cross, Christ healed the sick but did not regenerate anyone. This point alone makes should cause people to realise that God’s grace of healing, provision and deliverance were possible without the Cross- but our atonement wasn’t.

When the Reformers cried Solo Christo they not only declared that it was His exclusive work of atonement on the Cross that provides the basis of our spiritual regeneration through the Holy Spirit’s agency, but that it had to be Christ who died to provide that atonement. No angel. No created being. No mortal. Christ alone. “He alone is worthy.” (Rev. 5:12). If Christ be not God in the flesh, then there would eternally be the doubt that God was “beatable”. But since Christ has conquered death there is no longer any doubt that God is supreme over every foe.

The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
First Corinthians 15:26

Solo Christo!

Amen.

Next…PART 3, Sola Gratia
Previous: Part 1, Sola Scriptura

This article may be copied and distributed if due credit is given to the author, the article is not altered, and the website- https://www.findingtruthmatters.org – is hyperlinked or referenced.