The teaching of Christ alone is very hard for proud human beings to take. They want to find some wisdom for themselves and want to contribute something to salvation. The hardest thing for a human being is for his or her pride to cast out pride or for his or her self to cast out self. In fact, this is impossible. A proud person is too proud to admit of much pride and so will never cast it out. A person focused on self will never even try to cast self out unless it is in the interests of self, which shows that self is not really cast out. For a person to rest in Christ alone in reality and not just give assent to a creed that asserts it is for the person to repent of pride and any trust in self at all. It is to repent of the wisdom of self which is so hard on pride. It is to repent of the strength of self-will which is crushing to pride. It is to be turned from the love of self to the love of God which is a turning from self in terms of intent and motive. Christ alone is a teaching that is devastating to pride and self when it is seen and understood that it means Christ alone and nothing of self. It is a painful path to be turned from a heart that loves and trusts in self to one that dies to self in order to follow Christ.
The beauty of Christ alone is seen in its relation to how God exists and operates within the Trinity. The Father does all that He does out of love for the Son and out of love for His own glory shining out in the Son. It is Christ alone in our search for wisdom because Christ is the shining forth of the glory of the wisdom of God. It is Christ alone for righteousness because Christ is the shining forth of the perfect righteousness of God and while in a human body He earned a perfect righteousness for His people. It is Christ alone for sanctification because it is in the Father’s love for the Son that God’s holiness consists and it is the life of Christ in the believer and the work of the Spirit of Christ in giving believers a love for God that a believer grows in holiness or sanctification. It is Christ alone for redemption because Christ is the shining forth of the self-sufficiency of God in paying the price for the redemption of the slaves of sin and of darkness and no one else can pay the price for a sinner and rescue sinners from the just wrath of God. But again, it is so hard for a proud heart to accept that not only is it that Christ saves sinners with His work on the cross, but that He sanctifies sinners by His work in the heart.
The beauty and glory of God shines in the Gospel, sanctification, holiness, the life of the believer and in all things that are holy and good through Christ. We tend to think of Christ alone as being focused on the Gospel for sinners alone, but that is simply incorrect. Ephesians 3:16-21 sets this forth for us: “that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. 20 Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, 21 to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.”
The above text points out that Christ dwells in hearts by faith and so believers are rooted and grounded in love. It is in knowing the love of Christ that one is filled up to all the fullness of God. It is in being rooted in love that a believer is able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth of the love of God. Romans 8:39 fits this well: “nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” We must see that the saving love of God is in Christ and only for those who are in Christ. We must stand for the biblical truth that the saving love of God is in Christ alone. All spiritual blessings are in Christ alone. All spiritual knowledge of God is in Christ alone. All eternal life is in Christ alone. God has shone forth the glory of Himself in Christ and it is in Christ alone that a sinner can come to and know God. It is in that shining forth of His love in Christ that a sinner may come to know the love of God.
The teaching of Christ alone is that all of the spiritual blessings and knowledge of God are in Christ. This means that nothing depends on us and our own strength but it all depends on Christ. This teaching is actually denied by various theologies that want to leave room for self, but also by many in the Reformed camp as well. There the teaching is upheld in the creeds but not really held in the heart or practice. To truly hold to Christ alone we must hold this from the depths of our hearts and love it from the love of God in our hearts. To truly hold to Christ alone is to love the glory of God in Christ in reality and not just intellectually believe the doctrine. To really believe this is to give up all hope in self and look to the grace and love of God found in Christ alone for His sake alone.
God Loves... Himself 
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