Roman Catholicism had people look to the Church for salvation. It dispensed grace by the sacraments and its indulgences. Luther and the Reformers went back to Scripture and saw that Scripture led people to Christ. Christ is grace to His people and Christ Himself is the food of the souls of His people. While Luther is famous for justification by faith alone (faith apart from works), the reason he taught that was to emphasize that people are saved by Christ alone. For salvation, men are to look to Christ alone for their one and only mediator, and as the one and only sacrifice for sins. Men are also to look to Christ alone as their righteousness, sanctification, wisdom, and redemption (I Corinthians 1:30). Jesus Christ alone is also the outshining of the glory of God (Hebrews 1:3) and the human body of Christ was the very tabernacle of the glory of God (John 1:14). There is no other name under heaven by which men may be saved (Acts 4:12) and there is no other way to the Father (John 14:6). There is also no other way to eternal life but by knowing the Father through Christ (John 17:3). In the Gospel of Christ alone we see that it is God that truly deserves all the glory and it is the Gospel of the glory of God in the face of Christ (II Corinthians 4:4, 6).
The tendency in modern denominations and teaching is really a tendency back to Rome or at least its teachings. The reason for a denomination or a people to depart from Christ alone in terms of the Gospel, salvation, and sanctification is because people are departing from Soli Deo Gloria and Sola Scriptura. The return to human reason happened in the times of the New Testament and certainly during many periods within the Church. When churches and men fall away from the glory of God and from the authority of Scripture, they do what makes sense to them and what appears as true in light of common sense. What has really happened in that sense is that man has turned to idols and departed from the living God. Holy Scripture knows of no way of salvation apart from a deep conviction (faith) in Jesus Christ alone. However, if the Word of God is seen as the words of men, then one can take the liberties one wants with those words. One can look back into history and change the meaning of those words as he or she wills. When the fundamental centrality of the glory of God in history and the Church is changed to be centered on man, then everything is seen in a different light.
The different light that is seen is that of the glory of God or that of the worth of man. The Gospel is the way that God maintains His glory and saves sinful man by His glory through Christ. The man-centered way is to think of man as worth saving and so it is hard to see that God would cast man into hell for the rest of eternity. The true nature of sin is lost and sin is no longer seen as a vile act of hatred against God but as simply a mistake. So man is able to make up for his little mistakes and Christ is seen as more of an example rather than as a substitute in the place of man to satisfy the wrath of God. When we think of Christ’s work on the cross as being more of a trade for man rather than by grace, there is really little need for the cross much longer. However, the Scripture thunders out that man is dead in sin and trespasses. The Scripture teaches that man is at enmity with God and that the wrath of God abides on man. There is nothing and no one but Christ and Christ alone who can deliver man from the wrath of God. It is utterly necessary and there is no hope apart from Christ.
During the time of the Reformation these great truths were discovered. Not only was the cross seen as the way of satisfying the wrath of God, but Christ was seen as earning righteousness in the place of sinners. Luther taught that God imputed (reckoning or crediting) the righteousness of Christ to sinners and that as the only acceptable righteousness. He called this an “alien righteousness” and taught that this was a free gift and not something that a man or woman could work to obtain. In this we see that the Gospel is of Christ and Christ alone.
Salvation is not something that can be obtained by buying penances or of being baptized or any other rite that man has come up with. The Gospel is the Gospel of Christ as the only Savior. He is the only way that the wrath of God may be satisfied and He has the only righteousness acceptable to God. That is why human beings must be married to Christ and be one with Him or they will perish. It is only when a human being is one with Christ is Christ then the Husband of the believer and He takes that sinner’s debts (sin) as His, and they are fully satisfied by the blood of the cross. He also gives His bride (the sinner) His righteousness and so that the sinner is able to enter heaven on the basis of Christ and Christ alone. To fall away from Christ alone is to fall away from the Gospel that is the display of the glory of God and the only Gospel that Scripture teaches.
God Loves... Himself 
Leave a comment