Solus Christus: Unpacking the Sole Sufficiency of Christ in Salvation

Could the key to eternal salvation possibly be found in two words: 'Christ alone'? That's the transformative revelation we unpack in the third installment of our Roman Catholicism series, an episode that's as much a celebration of faith as it is a theological deep-dive. Join the Gospel Grit family as we share our heartfelt gratitude for the support that's been the lifeblood of this journey, fueling our passion project and fortifying the community we've built together.

This episode isn't just another discourse; it's an invitation to affirm the complete, transformative work of Christ in our lives. We scrutinize the sufficiency of Christ's sacrifice, contrast Protestant and Roman Catholic viewpoints, and articulate why the act of salvation is exclusive to the work of Jesus, void of any additional human deeds. Furthermore, we challenge the traditional need for mediators beyond Christ Himself, emphasizing the priesthood of all believers and the direct connection we share with God. It's an exploration into the foundations of our doctrine, celebrating the immense power and sufficiency at the heart of 'solus Christus.' Join us in a profound affirmation of our shared belief, where we find strength and unity in the cornerstone of our faith—Christ Himself.

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As always, thank you for watching Gospel Grit, where we seek to apply the Word of God, to the people of God, to the glory of God.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:03

Welcome everybody to Gospel Grit, hopefully one of your new favorite channels. This is episode 17,. I believe that's crazy to think about. I wanted to start off by saying thank you guys for all the views and the shares and the support. Thanks for talking to me in person about this channel and how it's benefiting your life. It seems, in some small at least, that we are achieving our goal to apply the Word of God to the people of God for the glory of God, and so I just wanted to share my encouragement. I'm not doing this for money. These videos are not monetized. I'm doing this as a hobby and I appreciate all the love and the support that I get, both verbally and sharing online and just tuning in and watching the comments. Every bit of it, sharing the videos, word of mouth I appreciate all of it. I just wanted you guys to know I love you and I appreciate you.

Speaker 1: 0:54

This is the episode that is part three of our Roman Catholicism series. It's called Christ Alone, solus Christus right, and this doctrine is basically that Jesus is the center and the crux and core and cornerstone of everything that we are as Christians, everything we believe as Christians and everything that we hold dear that it is accessed through Christ and Christ alone. Like I said, this is part three. So part one was sola fide faith alone. Part two is sola gratia grace alone.

Speaker 1: 1:32

Now we're coming to what I think we all would understand would be the core and central point of the disagreement in this Roman Catholicism series. So let's jump right into this. I'm going to keep this to 10 to 12 minutes. I've got my timer set here, so I'm going to talk fast. I've got a lot to cover, four main points. Point number one is this Christ plus no work period outside of His. So Christ is sufficient to save us in everything that he has done. God the Father saw him as an acceptable sacrifice, substitutionary atonement right. He saw what Christ did as an acceptable sacrifice on our behalf, so that we have to do no more meritorious work, so that God the Father accepts us. That's a key, key point here. So within the Roman Catholic system, christ is elevated. He's the second person of the Trinity within this system.

Speaker 1: 2:34

But the problem is, as with most of these doctrines, it's always something added to his work, right? So you still have things you need to do to cooperate with that grace, as we spoke about last week, that grace that's infused in your soul. You still have works to complete so that that grace is efficacious and applied to you, right? So the Protestant view is that we have the completed, finalized, finished tetelestai work of Christ and that is good enough for us, right? Christ needs no help in saving me on my behalf, right?

Speaker 1: 3:15

It's one of the reasons that I believe that a consistent view of the atonement and a consistent view of the doctrine and person and work of Christ is that I'm a monergist, right? I don't believe that God needs my help in saving me. I got myself into this mess, and so did Adam in original sin. But I got myself into this mess. I am dead, spiritually, morally unresponsive, unable to come to God, unwilling to come to God, unresponsive, unable to come to God, unwilling to come to God, and because of that, god must do everything. It is a work of sovereign grace from beginning to end, and my salvation, even more than the rest of it, is a testament to that. So Christ doesn't need me to do anything by way of works to make sure that he gets me to my intended destination. None of that at all. Make sure that he gets me to my intended destination, none of that at all. That's number one. Point number one, in summary, is Christ plus no work equals his glory or salvation. Again, so much of this is boiled down to small pebbles here. Number two Christ plus no other mediator. So what I mean by this is I don't need a priest. I don't need a priesthood because, as a Christian, I am already in a royal priesthood according to Peter. I don't need a priestly intervention or intercessory system where other people mediate my relationship to God the Father. So I don't need somehow a priest to absolve me of sins. Te absolvo. Now let me be totally fair.

Speaker 1: 4:59

It wasn't the assertion of the Roman Catholic Church in the Middle Ages, nor is it their assertion technically, now, that the priest is forgiving you. A lot of Protestants believe that that is not what the Roman Catholic system believes. The idea of the Roman Catholic system, though, with the priesthood and one of the issues that it presents, is that it does assert that through the mediation of the church, and only through the mediation of the priesthood of the church, are we allowed to have temporal forgiveness and remission of sins. So it views the priesthood as absolutely integral and essential towards the remission of sins process granted to you by the work of Christ. I would say that they don't actually believe in the finished work of Christ, but they do believe in the work of Christ.

Speaker 1: 5:53

The second point within this major heading would be the idea of the confessional, the Roman Catholic view of confessional, and again this goes with the priesthood, but the idea that I need to confess my sins to a priest who has the authority granted to him by Christ as part of the clergy representing Christ as the high priest, that he then has the ability to say te absolvo, and that I need to be a part of a confessional. Luther had this giant issue with this in his own personal life as he was an Augustinian monk there in the early 1500s, because he would constantly feel that he needed to report every piccadillo, every small sin in confessional, because it's implicit within the system that you perpetually need cleansing. It's not a once-for-all sacrifice and we'll get to that in a second on the major point three. But the third sub-point, under Christ plus no mediator, would be that there's no merit but His. This is the Protestant view. There's no merit but what Christ offers us. The only thing that is sufficient or satisfactory under the biblical and, I believe, protestant view is that what Christ has done is totally sufficient. Therefore, I don't need any merit of my own, because any merit added to his perfect merit is sullying, insulting, blasphemous and heretical. Ultimately, he has done it all. I don't need to appropriate through any means this is outside of faith. This is the principal cause of the Reformation and what the argument in large part was about was faith is the way that I appropriate that, and that's even a gift granted to me by God. So I'm appropriating the gift of His merit to me because he is sufficient. Hail Mary. Intercessory prayers of saints Again, these could all be their own videos, but the idea that I am appealing to Mary so that she can bring my prayers to Christ, that she is the mediatrix, that she is able to intercede on my behalf, not only to Jesus but also to God, the Father, and that there are saints who have gone before me and some of them can hear prayers and confessions, this is absolute nonsense. Not only is it not biblical, but it strikes in my belief. It just strikes a direct blow at the finished mediatorial work of Christ. He doesn't need a co mediator, he doesn't need a priest as a mediator. He doesn't need a pastor. He certainly doesn't need his mother. He does not need the saints as mediators, co-mediators of his covenant that he cut with his blood. So no mediator and no priest but him. That's major point number two. We've got two major ones left. Point three Christ plus no sacrifice. So again, I just feel compelled to say it could be its own video.

Speaker 1: 8:58

But the idea of the mass a lot of Protestants don't understand this. With transubstantiation, this was doubled down and reinforced at the Council of Trent. There in the 1540s to the 1560s. It has never been repealed. The idea of the mass is a bloodless, fresh, weekly, open sacrifice that they are re-sacrificing Christ afresh, that His work needs to be repeated. And we do that with a bloodless sacrifice within the Mass, which again is a direct blow at His sacrifice being once and for all sufficient, as the book of Hebrews talks about. So they're putting Christ to open. Shame, as Hebrews also talks about, because we are re-sacrificing him. This is the reason you see him on the cross, for example, in Catholic crucifixes. This is the whole idea that we are re-sacrificing him because he needs to be re-sacrificed.

Speaker 1: 9:54

And so, in line with the meritorious ideas here, the Catholic view of purgatory goes right along with the idea of Christ's sacrifice, because purgatory, again is not a place for the righteous saints who have made it into heaven. Right, thomas Aquinas, and on and on and on it goes. St Teresa, there are certain people, many, many, many of them within the Roman Catholic tradition, who have enough condign or inherent merit within themselves that they can make it into heaven straight away. Purgatory is for people who go to heaven, not for people who go to hell. But the idea that your sins need to be purged is a direct blow at the sacrifice of Christ, saying that he is not sufficient. The idea of purgatory is hell adjacent. That you're purging your sin for 10,000 years, 1,000 years, 500 years, 50 years, whatever it may be, it doesn't matter. All of it is saying what Christ has done is truly and utterly insufficient.

Speaker 1: 10:57

The Protestant and biblical view, I would argue, is that Christ's sacrifice is not only sufficient but it is totally finished. When he said tetelestai, he meant it's over, it's done. You need add nothing to it. You need cooperate in no way except through faith with it. The fourth one is Christ plus no Pope. I've got about a minute Christ plus no Pope.

Speaker 1: 11:24

Luther argued famously in the Babylonian captivity of the church in 1520 that the Pope was the Antichrist. And if you're looking for the Antichrist, look no further than Rome itself, look no further than St Peter's. So no spiritual father other than God. Jesus said that in the Gospels Don't call anyone father. You have one father. He is in heaven.

Speaker 1: 11:49

The idea that there is a head of the church other than Christ is blasphemous. That he's the vicar of Christ, that he stands as his representative, that he is somehow making him obvious and clear to the world based upon how he presents himself, is straight up blasphemy. There is no head of the church but Christ. There is no unquestioned authority but him. This is the whole idea that will lead us into next week as we bring this to a close, as we draw this to a close, when we talk about Scripture alone being our sole authority, as I've argued many times in the comment section, this is the crux of the matter, because if there is no authority but Christ and he has spoken through His Word, I need only believe the Bible.

Speaker 1: 12:38

And if someone, anyone, no matter what garbs they wear or what authority they claim to have, is in direct or indirect violation of the teachings, the plain teachings of Scripture, then I am obligated. Not only am I somehow um enabled to disobey. But I am obligated to disobey because Christ alone is the head of the church. He died, shed his blood to cut the new covenant. That is fully and finally his. Everything about the church is owed to him and his work and to no one else. Therefore, anybody claiming his position is not only not Christ, they are anti -Christ themselves. So I love you guys. We'll draw this to a close. Thank you for joining me on episode 17,. Solus Christus. See you guys on episode 18, the Problem of Pain. Tune in share like comment. Love you guys. See you on that next one.