Christ Alone...Continued from page 1

What about sola gratia, "grace alone?" Grace is unmerited favor, undeserved blessing. When the Reformers said "by grace alone," they meant that salvation was God's free gift for undeserving sinners. God does not owe us anything except wrath. Nevertheless, He has saved us by his grace. If we ask, How has God shown us this grace?-the answer is that He has given us His grace in Jesus Christ, especially in His death on the cross for sinners. Jesus Christ is God's gracious gift to sinners. The reason that salvation is by grace alone is because it is offered in Christ alone.
This brings us to sola fide, "faith alone." If there were a way for us to contribute to our own salvation; if it depended on our own merits; if there were something we could do to earn it or deserve it—then we would not be justified by faith alone; we would be justified by faith plus works. But salvation is God's free gift. It is all by grace! There is nothing we can possibly add to what God has already done to save us in Jesus Christ. Therefore, the only thing we need to do or even can do is to hold on to Jesus and His cross, which is what the Reformers meant when they said "faith alone." It is because salvation was accomplished by Christ alone that it is accepted by faith alone, without the addition of any works of our own. Martin Luther said that the cross of Christ is nothing else than "forsaking everything and clinging with the heart's faith to Christ alone."

Christ alone-that is another great Reformation doctrine that finds its meaning in the cross. James Boice explained it like this: "The Reformers taught that salvation is by and through the work of Jesus Christ only, which is what the slogan solus Christus refers to. It means that [through the cross and the empty tomb] Jesus has done it all so that now no merit on the part of man, no merit of the saints, no works of ours performed either here or in purgatory can add to his completed saving work."
All of this is for the glory of God alone: soli Deo gloria. When we give praise to Christ for his work on the cross, we are giving glory to God, for Jesus Christ is God incarnate. Since we are saved by Christ alone, and not by ourselves, all the honor and glory of our salvation returns to God, and to him alone.
The reason that we are taking the time to talk about these great Reformation doctrines-and also to sing about them—is not because we want to live in the past. We are not holding this hymn festival because we have an antiquarian interest in church history. No, we are celebrating these doctrines because they are biblical truths of eternal significance and perpetual importance. Indeed, these doctrines, which find their meaning in the cross of Christ, are a matter of spiritual life and death. What we need to know is exactly the same thing that Paul resolved to know, and what the Reformers wanted to know, and that is Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
We need to know the crucified Christ for two reasons: First, because this knowledge is essential for our own salvation. An example of what it means to trust in Christ alone for your salvation comes from the life of Donald Smarto, a national leader in prison ministry. Before he came to Christ, Smarto was in seminary, preparing to enter the Roman Catholic priesthood. He had developed a fascination with all the trappings of Catholic religion-the sacred rituals and the ornate vestments. One night he went out to the movies, where he saw a scene that shocked him: A bishop dressed in sacred robes was caught by a gust of wind that parted his garments to reveal what was underneath: a rotted skeleton. At that instant, Smarto's conscience cried out, "That's me!" But as he soon as he said it, he tried to deny it. He drove back to the seminary, and the whole way back he was muttering, "That's not me. It can't be me. I'm a good person!"
Frantically Smarto rehearsed his many pious deeds-his fasting, his penance, his prayers-searching for some assurance of his salvation, finding none, he went out into the corn fields, where he wandered for hours. Eventually the moon clouded over and the night became so black that he could not even see his hand in front of his face. He began to panic, and in his fear he cried out for a sign from God. As he waited, panting in the black darkness, he heard a faint humming sound. Slowly he walked toward it, until he bumped into a hard, rough, wooden post. He put his hands out to feel it. "Of course!" he said to himself. "It's a telephone pole!" As he stood there, the clouds parted, and he was able to see again. He looked up, and there, silhouetted against the moon, was the wooden crossbar that supported the phone lines. He was standing at the foot of a giant cross.