Tweaking the Def

I just spent over an hour stewing over the right way to word the definition of solus Christus posted on Monday. I wasn’t satisfied with any of the definitions I came across in my preparations for that post so I made up my own, but I wasn’t quite satisfied with that one either. Tonight I worked on my definition to close up a couple of possible loopholes left with the previous wording. This the result of the fine-tuning:

solus Christus
Literally, “Christ alone.” The reformation slogan meaning that salvation is based exclusively in the mediatorial work of Christ; that his sinless life and substitutionary death are the sufficient and sole grounds on which those who are being saved receive every benefit included in the process of salvation.

I think I’m satisfied with that, but who knows? Tomorrow I may look at it and think it needs more work.   

Comments

[Kim from Hiraeth]

That definition looks worthy of John Murray or Louis Berkhof!

And you're right. Words mean something and we have to hold tight to correct definitions--in all of life, but especially in theology.

[Mark Olson]

Christ alone? What happened to Father and the Spirit, do they not have anything to do with our salvation?

[rebecca]

What happened to Father and the Spirit, do they not have anything to do with our salvation?

Yes, all three persons in the Trinity have a role in our salvation. But Christ provides the whole grounds or basis on which the Father is propitious toward us and the Spirit works within us.

One of changes I made was putting in the word based in the first sentence to (hopefully) make more clear the sort of work it is that Christ does and the way in which his work is "alone."

[Mark Olson]

Sorry, it took a while to check back.

When I asked about the Father, it is not just that it is the basis on which He is propitious toward us that is of concern regarding Christ's atonement. But the Father sent the son. "Thy will be done", and so on. If Christ was fulfilling the Father's will, then how is it Christ alone?

If I ask my daughter to do a thing, and dutifully she does it. Is that thing then done by her alone? or not? for without my bidding it would not have been done.

[rebecca]

When I asked about the Father, it is not just that it is the basis on which He is propitious toward us that is of concern

But solus Christus is dealing with the basis or grounds of our salvation. It is answering the question, "On what grounds is God propitious towards those who are being saved?" And the answer is, "God is propitious toward us on the grounds of Christ's work and no other work, for Christ's work provides complete justification for God's forgiveness." (Romans 3) Or in sloganish shorthand, "in Christ alone."

If Christ was fulfilling the Father's will, then how is it Christ alone?

It's not saying that Christ is alone—that he did his work apart from the Father's planning and sending. It isn't speaking to that issue at all. (Some of the other solas—grace and to God the glory—speak to the roles of the Spirit and the Father in salvation.) Rather, it's saying that our salvation is "in Christ alone." His work--his obedient life and sacrificial death--provided sufficient grounds for our justification. No other grounds are needed; indeed, there are no other possible grounds.

Solus Christus is simply speaking to the sufficiency (the complete adequacy) of Christ's work against the teaching that we provide any of the grounds for our salvation by our own merit, or that any of the saints provide partial grounds by interceding for us on the basis their own merit, or that we need another priest representing us before God in addition to him. Instead of us meriting any benefits of salvation for ourselves, or the saints meriting any of them for us, or a priest paving the way to God for us, it is Christ who merits every benefit of salvation for us through his work and Christ who continually intercedes for us with the Father on the basis of his completed work.

Christ's work is alone in this way: When we stand before God at the judgment, it will be enough that we are forgiven through his death and clothed in his righteousness. We will need to plead nothing but "Christ alone."

I need no other argument, I need no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died and that he died for me .