JOLLYBLOGGER: Carnival of the Reformation II

A Merry Christmas to all and a welcome to all as we celebrate our Savior's birth. This is our second Carnival of the Reformation, a themed carnival covering important doctrines in the Reformed tradition. For this carnival we are covering the theme "Solus Christus," or "Christ alone." This is the doctrine that says that our salvation is based on the merit of Christ alone.

As we begin this carnival, allow me to remind you that the doctrine of Solus Christus is "good news of great joy," from Luke 2:8-14

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
“Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.”
The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 . Zondervan: Grand Rapids

And now, on to the carnival:

Solus Christus - A Physicist's Perspective

We'll begin David Mobley from "A Physicists Perspective," and his entry "Solus Christus." This is a multi-faceted entry combining testimony, exegesis and theological reflection on Christ's work securing our salvation. Although David did not use this exact wording, it is a great description of Christ's merit vs our own merit. We all tend to think that we can merit our own salvation until God shows us that it is only through the merit of Christ that we can be saved. He closes with some applicatory thoughts for Christians from the good doctor - D. Martyn Lloyd Jones. Adrian Warnock would be proud of you David for quoting the good doctor.

The Purposes of Christ's Death #10 - Rebecca Writes

Awhile back, Rebecca Stark from Rebecca Writes did a 19 part series on the purposes of Christ's death (there were 17 purposes she dealt with and 2 summary posts). The title in itself speaks volume. Usually when speaking of Christ's death we ask questions about the purpose (singular) of Christ's death. This way of asking the question can give a false impression, as if there were only one purpose, but there are many purposes. In this entry, Rebecca summarizes things by saying that

Another of the purposes of Christ's death is that people would fulfill the requirements of the law through the work of the Spirit.

One of the classic points of debate between protestants and catholics has been the debate of imputation vs. infusion. Those in the reformed tradition believe that we are saved by an "imputed" righteousness. The righteousness of Christ is imputed, or credited to our account "while we were yet sinners." The Roman Catholic view says that we are saved by an "infused" righteousness - in other words, God makes us righteous and saves on the basis of that righteousness.

But, while the reformed tradition insists that our salvation is based on an imputation of righteousness, we no less affirm that there is an infusion of righteousness that occurs along with the imputation of Christ's righteousness. The difference is that we believe this infusion of righteousness is a result of our salvation, not a cause or basis of it. The infusion of righteousness takes place in the sanctification process, not as a part of the justification process.

In so many words, Rebecca hits on this here. The merits of Christ's death are imputed to us to secure our salvation, and at the same time, Christ's death secures our sanctification, by which, through the Spirit we are more and more enabled to fulfill the law.

Solus Christus and Colossians - John Dekker

Two of the perennial enemies of the gospel and libertinism and legalism. Libertinism's "enemy status" is pretty obvious to us, but legalism is a little more subtle. Often, legalism creeps in as a means of strengthening one's commitment to Christ. John Dekker deals with this in this post that looks at Solus Christus from Colossians. In Colossae (as at Galatia) several elements had creeped into the church that were ostensibly designed by their advocates to help one along in their walk with Christ. In Galatia it was Judaism, in Colossae it was gnosticism. In any case, whenever we add any kind of -ism to our doctrine of Christ alone we end up losing Christ. John's post here gives us some good encouragement in this regard.

It is Finished - Coffee Swirls

One of the great creedal statements in all of church history is the Apostle's Creed. Unfortunately, many of us in modern Christendom have missed out on it because of our anti-liturgical millieu. I myself spent most of my years in evangelical churches that did not use the creed. Then, when I was in seminary, I did some pulpit supply for a little church in Wauchula, FL, that recited the Apostles Creed every Sunday. As the preacher I had to lead it, yet I was probably the only one there who didn't have it memorized. I have since learned to appreciate it although I doubt I can quote it for your word for word.

But there is one line in the Apostles Creed that has given us fits for centuries - where it says "he descended into hell." As Rebecca Stark says so eloquently "Say What?????" Doug McHone at Coffee Swirls has taken up the task of interacting with this in this post for the Carnival. Doug's main point is that "hell" is the place reserved for the Antichrist and the False Prophet and a place where God's wrath is poured out on unbelievers. To say that Christ had to go there for some reason would be to negate Jesus' words on the cross that "it is finished."

I agree with Doug - I have always been puzzled by this phrase. I have heard some say that this doesn't mean that He descended into hell, as in the lake of fire. It is a way of speaking of His experience of death in the grave for three days. Rebecca's above referenced post has some good thoughts on this matter.

Having said that I have to agree with Doug when he says:

I say to remove that line from the creed or clarify it with other wording. If a church is to recite it as written, there must be clarification offered by the pastor responsible for the instruction of those God has placed under His care.

I don't think we need to remove it, but Doug is right - this statement should be clarified where it is used. In one church that I was a part of, they changed the phrase "holy catholic church" to "holy Christian church" in order to distance themselves from the Roman Catholic tradition. For myself I have no problem with the phrase "holy catholic church." Though I am not Roman Catholic, the word "catholic" in and of itself is a wonderful word, full of rich meaning. At the same time, this church I was a part of felt it needed to clarify the wording in that regard and I respect their reasons for doing so, though I would not have done it myself. Similarly, I think that those who use the creed today would be well served to offer some clarification as to exactly what they mean when they quote the words "he descended into hell."

Somebody's Missing - Crossroads

When I was a teenager, one of my friends told me a horrible little story that actually makes a great point. In this story, a young couple had a party to celebrate the birth of their new baby. All of their friends came and were told to go and put their coats in a certain bedroom. They all did this, but what they didn't know was that the first person had inadvertently thrown their coat over the baby and had smothered him.

As I said, that is a horrible story, and I don't share it in church due to the fact that I know I could run across someone who has experienced a similar tragedy. And, I offer my apologies to anyone who may have come across this little story and has experienced such a tragedy, if this has brought back some bad memories.

On the other hand, the horror you may feel at such a story is akin to the horror that we should all feel when Jesus is left out of His church.

In this post, Diane Roberts notices that Jesus is missing from much contemporary church life. She doesn't go into it and I won't much, but nowhere is that more evident than in the Christmas season. If there is one thing that is frequently left out of Christmas, it is Christ.

Diane's post is polemical, she names names here. She may have named the names of people you respect, but I hope you will take what she says to heart. It is very easy to get wrapped up in Christendom and miss Christ. And by the way, that goes for me and all of my reformed friends. I will acknowledge that I can be guilty of missing Christ in pushing reformed theology. At it's best, reformed theology is a signpost, pointing to Christ. When it becomes a shrine, then it causes us to miss Christ.

Romans 10, Inclusivism, and Universalism - Parableman

A few years ago there was a spate of books out complaining about the lack of a Christian mind in evangelical circles. The Christian Mind and Recovering the Christian Mind by Harry Blamires were on point, then there was The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind by Mark Noll and Fit Bodies, Fat Minds, by Os Guinness. In the blogosphere, Jeremy Pierce is doing about the finest job of anyone I know of of recovering the Christian mind. You will need to put your thinking cap on as you read this post and follow a bit of sophisticated reasoning and exegesis here.

Jeremy is interacting with a Christian universalist in this post and he distinguishes between inclusivism, which is a belief that all men will go to heaven on the basis of the tenets of their own religion, and Christian universalism, which believes that all men will go to heaven based upon Christ's atonement.

He argues, rightly I believe, that the Christian universalist would not necessarily deny Solus Christus. The better thinkers among Christian universalists will argue that belief in Christ is necessary for salvation, and that salvation is based on faith in His atoning work, but that belief could come after death. Christian universalists may deny that men will spend an eternity in hell, but they do so for different reasons than annihilationists.

Christian universalists do not deny Solus Christus, at least in their own estimation, but their opponents in reformed circles would say that they deny the reformed formulation of this doctrine, mainly because the reformed would tie their belief in Solus Christus together with their view of limited atonement. But, Christian universalists would not think the two have to go together.

The bulk of this post is spent examining Romans 10:13-15, wherein Jeremy finds that Christian universalism is unbiblical because it denies the necessity of sending someone to preach to those who haven't heard. I'll stop there and let you read the rest for his explanation. And read it you should.

Its all about you Jesus - Adrian Warnock

My good friend and partner in blogging, Adrian Warnock offers us an apt post for a carnival on Solus Christus - It's All About You Jesus. Adrian has been blogging on the TULIP recently, the book of Acts and assurance of salvation and in this post he shows that all of these things are ultimately pointers to Jesus. They are all about Jesus, first and foremost. As I mentioned in my comments on Diane's post, we all often get wrapped up in things that take our mind and attention away fromm Christ.

What Adrian does here is show that Christ is the essence of these doctrines we hold dear, He is the essential answer to all of our questions. It is Christ who is the answer to our total depravity, it is Christ who unconditionally elects us, it is Christ who atones for our sin, it is Christ who irresistibly calls us and it is Christ who perseveres with us to enable us to persevere with Him.

It is all about Jesus . . .

On Solus Christus - Pseudo-Polymath

I won't say as much about this post by Mark Olson as I did about the others, but don't let that cause you to think that this post is any less worth your reading than the others.

If I may paraphrase Mark's point in his post, he seems to be saying "where's the controversy about Solus Christus?" Mark contends that the truth that we are saved through the merits of Christ alone is so patently obvious from Scripture that there is really no need to even argue it. I am sure that Mark would be all for defending this doctrine against counter arguments, but his point is that it is a doctrine that really needs no defense.

With Men It is Impossible - Wittenberg Gate

There is an old story of a man who goes to an orthodox priest and asks the question "are we saved by faith or by works." The priest answers "neither, we are saved by Christ." I thought of that when I read these opening words to Dory's post:

If you were asked, "Why are you saved?" would your answer begin, "Because I...", or would it begin, "Because Jesus...?"

Solus Christus affirms that we are saved by Christ alone. It is impossible for man to save Himself, only Christ can save us. Dory does a good job of showing that verbal affirmation of Solus Christus is not enough - it must shape our whole way of thinking about the Christian life.

Immanuel, God with Us - Jollyblogger

My own entry for the carnival picks up on a Christmas theme, where I discuss the implications of Jesus' name being "Immanuel - God With Us." I emphasize that being "with us" is not merely something that Jesus does, it is at the heart of who He is.

The Sufficiency of Christ - The Crusty Curmudgeon

And we'll finish off the carnival with this excellent and thorough post by Scott McClare, which looks at Solus Christus through the lens of Christ's atonement, His merit, and His mediatorial role.

Scott does a good job of combining exegesis and theologizing in this post. In particular he bounces back and forth between the Old Testament (particularly the book of Leviticus, and more particularly the guidelines for the Day of Atonement) and the book of Hebrews to explain and illustrate his three main points.

I don't want to make Scott's head swell too much here, but this does remind me of the teaching methodology of Sinclair Ferguson. I had one class with him in seminary, he came as a visiting prof for a one week class on the doctrine of the church. What made his teaching so powerful was that he would state a doctrine and explain it from Genesis to Revelation, showing how it was foreshadowed or begun in the Old Testament and fulfilled in the New Testament.

Scott does a good job here and reminds us that Solus Christus is a doctrine that is found in the entire Scripture.

So, with that, we bring our second Carnival of the Reformation to a close. As you go into the Christmas week, let me offer you a prayer for the week which is an excerpt from a prayer called "The Gift of Gifts" in The Valley of Vision.

O God, take me in spirit to the watchful shepherds,
   and enlarge my mind
let me hear good tidings of great joy,
   and hearing, believe, rejoice, praise, adore,
   my conscience bathed in an ocean of repose,
   my eyes uplifted to a reconciled Father.
place me with ox, ass, camel, goat,
   to look with them on my Redeemer's face,
   and in him account myself delivered from sin;
let me with Simeon clasp the newborn child to my heart,
   embrace him with undying faith,
   exalting that he is mine and I am his.
In him thou hast given me so much that heaven can give no more.

5 Comments

Sorry I missed this carnival. :(
I quess I wasn't paying attention. Christmas is a busy time.

God Bless,
brad

Posted by: brad | December 21, 2004 at 12:37 AM

I commented today on my blog about your comment on my naming names. It's a good question which I think Christians should discuss. The post name at my blog is entitled "Naming Names?"

Posted by: Diane R | December 21, 2004 at 10:54 AM