Sola Christus – Christ Alone

The third in our series on the Five Solas of Protestant Christianity.

“I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.” (John 11:25,26)

“For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” (1 Corinthians 3:11)

“Redemption and the suffering on the cross must be seen as separate. Otherwise the human mind gets wrecked as a ship does on sandbars or rocks, causing the loss of the ship, the helmsman, the captain, and the sailors. It goes astray in everything having to do with salvation by the Lord.” (True Christian Religion, paragraph 127)

“… Surely, though, everyone with decent reasoning enlightened by the Word can see that God is compassion and mercy itself. He is absolute love and absolute goodness … It is a contradiction to say that compassion itself or absolute goodness could look at the human race with anger and lock us all into damnation, and still keep its divine essence. Attitudes and actions of that kind belong to a wicked person, not a virtuous one. They belong to a spirit from hell, not an angel of heaven. It is horrendous to attribute them to God.” (True Christian Religion, paragraph 132, section 2)

[Commenting upon] “I tell you, You Are Peter, and on this rock I will build My Church, …” Matthew 16:18-19. “… It is … evident to anyone who thinks properly that the power to open heaven and close hell …, is the Lord’s alone, … One who thinks properly may also conclude that the Lord’s Church has not been built on some person, thus not on Peter, but on the Lord Himself, that is, on faith in Him. [4] … One can see why leaders of the Church are all too ready to seize on the idea that such power was given to Peter and consequently to those who call themselves his successors, for that idea lends support to what is in their heart.” (Heavenly Secrets, paragraph 8581, from sections 3 & 4)

“When that internal good and truth are present in a person he has the Lord’s kingdom within him and he is consequently the Church; and together with those who are very similar to him he constitutes the Church at large.” (Heavenly Secrets, paragraph 5826, section 2)

“If the individual person in particular were not the Church, no Church in general could exist. The expression Church is used in everyday language to describe a congregation in general; but each member of the congregation must be a Church if that greater Church is to exist. Every general whole incorporates parts that are like that whole.” (Heavenly Secrets, paragraph 4292)