1 The ZOnly Option - Keswick Ministries · - Carl R. Trueman, Grace Alone (Zondervan, ... Terry L....

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Keswick Wk. 3 - The Word@2:30: Dan Strange, Oak Hill College

The ‘Only’ Option The ‘Solas’ of the Reformation

Monday: ‘Captive to God’s Word’, (Sola Scriptura)

Tuesday: ‘Nothing in my hand I bring’, (Sola Gratia)

Wednesday: ‘Leaning my whole weight on Him’, (Sola Fide)

Thursday: ‘In Christ alone’, (Solus Christus)

Friday: ‘Living for God’s glory’, (Soli Deo Gloria)

Further Reading: ed. Matthew Barrett, The ‘5 Solas Series’: - Matthew Barrett, God’s Word Alone (Zondervan, 2016) - Carl R. Trueman, Grace Alone (Zondervan, 2017) - Thomas Schreiner, Faith Alone (Zondervan, 2015) - Stephen Wellum, Christ Alone (Zondervan, 2017) - David VanDrunen, God’s Glory Alone (Zondervan 2016) Terry L. Johnson, The Case for Traditional Protestantism (Banner of Truth, 2004) Daniel Strange & Michael Ovey, Confident: Why we can trust the Bible (Focus, 2015) Kevin Vanhoozer, Biblical Authority After Babel (Brazos 2016) Garry Williams, Why Protestant Truth Still Matters (PTS, 2014)

Intro: “Happy Birthday to us!”

Talkin' 'bout a Revolution (head, hands & heart)

- a reformation - a rediscovery - a retrieval - a revolution

theologically (God, humanity, salvation) ecclesiologically (the church) socially, politically, educationally, economically (the world)

What the ‘solas’ are:

1. Sola Scriptura, meaning “Scripture alone”: The Bible is the sole and final authority in all matters of life and godliness. The church looks to the Bible as its ultimate authority. 2. and 3. Sola Gratia, meaning “grace alone,” and Sola Fide, meaning “faith alone”: Salvation is by grace alone through faith alone. It is not by works; we come to Christ empty-handed. This is the great doctrine of justification by faith alone, the cornerstone of the Reformation. 4. Solus Christus, meaning “Christ alone”: There is no other mediator between God and sinful humanity than Christ. He alone, based on his work on the cross, grants access to the Father. 5. Soli Deo Gloria, meaning “the glory of God alone”: All of life can be lived for the glory of God; everything we do can and should be done for his glory. The Reformers called this the doctrine of vocation, viewing our work and all the roles we play in life as a calling.1

1 Stephen J. Nichols, The Reformation (Crossway, 2007)

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What the ‘solas’ do: a flag:

a fence:

a foundation:

a filter

“they are distinct emphases on the one essential truth of the gospel”2

The only option that makes all the difference

What the ‘solas’ mean for us 500 years on

1. ‘Captive to God’s Word’ - Sola Scriptura

Our gracious Queen: to keep your Majesty ever mindful of the Law and the Gospel of God as the Rule for the whole life and government of Christian Princes, we present you with this Book, the most valuable thing that this world affords. Here is Wisdom; This is the royal Law; These are the lively Oracles of God. (from the Coronation of Elizabeth II) For anyone religious or not, who cares about the continuity of culture and understanding, Gordon Campbell lets slip a remark to freeze the blood. A professor at Leicester University, he recalls that ‘When the name of Moses came up at the seminar I was leading, no one had any idea whom he might have been, though a Muslim student eventually asked if he was the same person as Musa in the Qur’an (which he is)’. (Boyd Tonkin, The Independent, on the subject of the KJV)

I stand ready to reject the Bible in favour of something that is more human, more humane, more life-giving, and dare I say, more god-like (Bishop John Selby Spong)

1. There He Stood Q: Whose authority is both final and flawless: God’s word or the Pope?

Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures and by clear reason (for I do not trust in the pope or councils alone, since it is well known that they have often erred and contradicted themselves), I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted. My conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not retract anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise. God help me. Amen.3

A: Scripture is norma normans (“the rule that rules”), while the Pope and Councils are norma normata (“a rule that is ruled”).

“For who begets his own parent? Who first brings forth his own maker” (Luther)

2 Graeme Goldworthy, Gospel-Centered Hermeneutics (IVP, 2006), 46. 3 Luther, 1521 LW32:112

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2. Scripture ALONE on Scripture ALONE (Mark 7:1-23)

Says who? Questions of Authority

Says Jesus: Jesus’ Authority

Jesus’ distinction

Undoing Jesus’ distinction

Why Jesus makes this distinction

God’s words (Isa. 48; Ps. 19:7-10; Is 55:10-11)

Our words

3. What sola Scriptura means

Scripture is both final and flawless providing light and sight

i) the authority of Scripture is shorthand for ‘the authority of God as he is speaks through Scripture,’ so the Bible is the Christian’s ultimate authority and is totally trustworthy and consistent because it has been inspired (or better ‘breathed out’) by a totally trustworthy and consistent God.

Just as old or bleary-eyed men and those with weak vision, if you thrust them before a most beautiful volume, even if they recognise it to be some sort of writing, yet can scarcely construe two words, but with the aid of spectacles will begin to read distinctly; so Scripture, gathering up the otherwise confused knowledge of God, having dispersed our dullness, clearly shows us the true God.4

ii) the self-attestation of Scripture (Heb. 6:13; 8:14): “God alone is a fit witness of himself in his Word, so also the Word will not find acceptance in men’s hearts before it is sealed by the inward testimony of the Spirit.” (Calvin, Institutes, (1.7.4)) iii) the principle of Scripture-interpreting-scripture.

4 John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, trans. Ford Lewis Battles, Library of Christian Classics, ed. John T. McNeill (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1960) 1.6.1.

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4. What sola Scriptura doesn’t mean

Divinizing the Bible

Distracting from Christ

Dismissing the ‘rule of faith’

Scripture as the ‘magisterial’ authority Reason, experience, tradition, creeds etc. as ‘ministerial’

Dividing the church Not anarchy but economy: the royal priesthood of all believers: “the church alone is the place where Christ rules over his kingdom and gives certain gifts for the building of his living temple”5

5. So what? 1. Love God by loving his Word "Blessed Lord, who hast caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning; grant that we may in such wise hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them … " “These books, therefore, ought to be much in our hands, in our eyes, in our ears, in our mouths, but most of all in our hearts.” (Cranmer)

2. Get things the right way round interpret the world through the Word and not the other way around 3. Recognise the comprehensiveness of Scripture Christians are just as much under obligation to obey God’s will in the most secular of their daily businesses as they are in their closet or at the communion table. They have no right to separate their life into two realms, and acknowledge different moral codes in each respectively -to say the Bible is a good rule for Sunday, but this is as week-day question; or the Scriptures are the right rule in matters of religion, but this is a question of business or of politics. God reigns over all everywhere. His will is the supreme law in all relations and actions. His inspired Word, loyally read, will inform us of his will in every relation and act of life, secular as well as religious; and they are traitors who refuse to walk therein with scrupulous care. The Kingdom of God on earth is not confined to the mere ecclesiastical sphere, but aims at absolute universality, and extends its supreme reign over every department of human life….It follows that it is the duty of every loyal subject to endeavor to bring all human society, social and political, as well as ecclesiastical, into obedience to its law of righteousness….It is our duty, as far as lies in our power, immediately to organize human society and all its institutions and organs upon a distinctively Christian basis. Indifference or impartiality here between the law of the Kingdom and the law of the world, or of its prince, the devil, is utter treason to the King

5 Kevin Vanhoozer, Biblical Authority after Babel (Brazos,2016), 29.

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of Righteousness. The Bible, the great statute-book of the kingdom, explicitly lays down principle which, when candidly applied, will regulate the action of every human being in all relations. There can be no compromise. The King said, with regard to all descriptions of moral agents in all spheres of activity, ‘He that is not with me is against me.’ If the national life in general is organized upon non-Christian principles, the churches which are embraced within the universal assimilating power of that nation will not long be able to preserve their integrity.”6

4. Have courage and be confident in God’s words

I paused last eve before the blacksmith’s door, And heard the anvil ring, the vesper’s chime, And looking in upon the floor Old hammers, worn with beating years of time. “How many anvils have you had?” said I, “to wear and batter all these hammers so?” “Just one” he answered. Then with twinkling eye: “The anvil wears the hammers out, you know.” And so, I thought, the anvil of God’s Word For ages skeptics’ blows have beat upon, But though the falling blows was heard, The anvil is unchanged, the hammers gone.

(John Clifford)

“All men are like grass, And all their glory is like the flowers of the field; The grass withers and the flowers fall, But the word of the Lord stands forever “ (1 Pet. 1:24-25a)

6 A. A. Hodge – An Outline of Evangelical Theology, 283-284.

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2. ‘Nothing in my hand I bring’ (Sola Gratia)

Introduction

Justification by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone

“the article of a standing or falling church” (Luther) “the main hinge on which religion turns” (Calvin)

“The best preparation for the study of this doctrine is neither great intellectual ability, nor much scholastic learning, but a conscience impressed with a sense of our actual condition as sinners in the sight of God.” (Buchanan)

DO VS DONE

1. Wrestling with grace

Nothing comes from nothing

Nothing ever could

So somewhere in my youth or childhood

I must have done something good. (Rodgers & Hammerstein)

“Grace is especially troublesome for control freaks – sinners curved in themselves, bent on securing their own existence and status.”7

Grace = God’s unmerited favour:

Common grace (restraining and preserving)

Special grace (saving in and through the work of Christ)

o Unmerited favour in the life of the church and the believer saved by grace

2. The problem: Dead means Dead

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the

ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are

disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh[a] and following

its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. 4 But because of his great love

for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions – it is

by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms

in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed

7 Vanhoozer, Biblical Authority after Babel, 40.

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ephesians+2%3A1-9#fen-NIVUK-29233a

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in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from

yourselves, it is the gift of God – 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. (Eph. 2:1-9)

"the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do. Those controlled by

the sinful nature cannot please God." (Rom. 8:7)

2. ‘Problems’ with the problem: Are we really that dead?

Pelagianism - Pelagius

CANON 1. If anyone denies that it is the whole man, that is, both body and soul, that was "changed for the worse" through the offence of Adam's sin, but believes that the freedom of the soul remains unimpaired and that only the body is subject to corruption, he is deceived by the error of Pelagius and contradicts the scripture ... CANON 4. If anyone maintains that God awaits our will to be cleansed from sin, but does not confess that even our will to be cleansed comes to us through the infusion and working of the Holy Spirit, he resists the Holy Spirit himself... (Council of Orange, 529)

Semi-Pelagianism – ‘Pre-reformation church and post-Reformation Trent’

God accepts the act of a person who does his very best as a basis for bestowing the first grace. This is not because of any obligation in justice, but because of his generosity. Now, when the soul removes the obstacle[to grace] (by ceasing from the act of sin, by ceasing to consent to it and by eliciting a good movement toward God as its principal and end) it does its very best. Therefore God, in his liberality, accepts this act of the removal of the obstacle and the good movement toward himself and infuses grace into the soul (Gabriel Biel, Comm. on Sentences 2.27.1)

i.e. If you do your best, God will do the rest.

IX. Whosoever shall say that the wicked is justified by faith alone, in such a sense that nothing else is required in the way of co-operation to obtain the grace of justification, and that it is in no respect necessary that he be prepared and disposed by the movement of his own will, let him be anathema. (Council of Trent, Session 6)

The Reformer’s problem with the problems to the problem (getting silly now….)

When by the singular kindness of God, the impiety of Pelagius was repudiated with the common consent of the ancient Church, they no longer dared to talk so pertly of human merit. They, however, devised a middle way, by which they might not give God the whole in justification, and yet give something.... Such indeed is their mode of prefacing, that at the outset they breathe nothing but Christ; but when they come to the subject, far are they from

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leaving him what is his own. Nay, their definition at length contains nothing else than the trite dogma of the schools: that men are justified partly by the grace of God and partly by their own works; thus only showing themselves somewhat more modest than Pelagius was. (Calvin, Antidote, on 6th session)

3. The ‘only’ solution: “But God…….”

26. The law says, "Do this," and it is never done. Grace says, "believe in this," and everything is already done. [Luther, Heidelberg Disp . 26]

‘God has surely promised his grace to the humbled: that is, to those who mourn over and despair of themselves. But a man cannot be thoroughly humbled till he realises that his salvation is utterly beyond his own powers, counsels, efforts, will and works, and depends absolutely on the will, counsel, pleasure and work of Another – God alone. As long as he is persuaded that he can make even the smallest contribution to his salvation, he remains self-confident and does not utterly despair of himself, and so is not humbled before God; but plans out for himself (or at least hopes and longs for) a position, an occasion, a work, which shall bring him final salvation. But he who is out of doubt that his destiny depends entirely of himself, chooses nothing for himself, but waits for God to work in him and such a man is very near to grace for his salvation.’ (Luther, Bondage of the Will p. 100)

The irresistibility of Grace

The sovereignty of Grace

1:8 "This... election took place, not on the basis of foreseen faith, of the obedience of faith, of holiness, or of any other good quality and disposition, as though it were based on a prerequisite cause or condition in the person to be chosen, but rather, for the purpose of faith, of the obedience of faith, of holiness, and so on. Accordingly, election is the source of each of the benefits of salvation. Faith, holiness, and other saving gifts, and at last eternal life itself, flow forth from election as its fruits and effects. As the apostle says, He chose us (not because we were, but) so that we should be holy and blameless before him in love (Eph 1:4)."

The costliness of Grace

“Sin is a violent lethal rebellion against God; and biblical grace is God’ violent, raw, and bloody response”8

4. So what?

Our Comfortable certainty in the grip of grace

I frankly confess that, for myself, even, if it could be, I should not want free-will to be given me, nor anything left in my own hands to enable me to endeavour after salvation; not merely because in face of so many dangers, and adversities, and assaults of devils, I could not stand my ground and hold fast to my ‘free-will’…but because, even were there no dangers, adversities or devils, I should still be forced to labour with no guarantee of success…But now that God has taken away my salvation out of the control of my own will, an put it under the control of his, and promised to save me, not according to my working or running, but according to his own grace and mercy, I have comfortable certainty that he is faithful and will not lie to me, and that he is also great and powerful, so that no devils or opposition can break him or pluck me from him. ‘No one’ he says, ‘shall pluck them out of my hand, because my Father which gave them to me is greater than all’ (Jn. 10:28-29). Furthermore, I have the comfortable certainty that I please God, not by reason of the merit of my works, but

8 Carl Trueman, Grace Alone (Zondervan, 2017), 31.

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by reason of his merciful favour promised to me; so that, if I work too little, or badly, he does not impute it to me, but with fatherly compassion pardons me and makes me better. This is the glorying of all the saints in their God. (Luther, The Bondage of the Will, 313f)

Chillax (a.k.a ‘Keep calm and carry on’) and engage with grace

Grace shapes our encounters with the world by first promising that nothing will ever harm us eternally and second, by motivating us to better things, better standards, better ways of thinking about the things we encounter. Where the law motivates with the threat of punishment, grace motivates with the promise of joy. We can step into the world with a sense of invitation. This is our Father’s world. What do we want to explore today? (Cosper, The Stories we tell p. 52f.)

Cherish the church as both an act and means of grace

A grace-alone church will be one that unashamedly declares God’s sovereign priority over all creation and

his sovereign priority over the church and her people. ..only in this way can pastors confidently counsel

people, knowing that, whatever the problem may be, our sovereign gracious God is in control. Only in this

way can the man whose wife of fifty years is descending into the fog of Alzheimer’s disease know that all

is still well and that, if not a sparrow drops to the grounds without the Lord knowing it, his agonies and

those of his wife are seen by the Lord and are under his control. (Carl Trueman, Grace Alone, 237.)

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3. ‘Leaning my whole weight on Him’, (Sola Fide)

Introduction

1. Justification – What does it mean?

a legal declaration of righteousness

Romans 4:5, Romans 8:33-34, Deuteronomy 25:1

2. Justification – How can it be?

‘since the judgement of God is according to truth, he cannot pronounce anyone just who is not really just.’ (Turretin)

We must now examine this question. How do we receive those benefits which the Father bestowed on his only-begotten Son–not for Christ’s own private use, but that He might enrich poor and needy men? First, we must understand that as long as Christ remains outside of us, and we are separated from Him, all that He has suffered and done for the salvation of the human race remains useless and of no value for us. Therefore, to share with us what He has received from the Father, He had to become ours and to dwell within us. For this reason, He is called ‘our Head’ (Eph. 4:15), and ‘the first-born among many brethren’ (Rom. 8:29). We also, in turn, are said to be ‘engrafted into Him’ (Rom. 11:17), and to ‘put on Christ’ (Gal. 3:27).For, as I have said, all that He possesses is nothing to us until we grow into one body with Him. It is true that we obtain this by faith. (Calvin, Institutes, 3.1.1)

Jesus: our big brother (Rom. 8:29)

2 Cor. 5:21

1 Tim. 3:16; Rom. 1:4; Rom. 4:25

Jesus: our perfect husband (Eph. 5:31-32)

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The third incomparable benefit of faith is that it unites the soul with Christ as a bride is united with her bridegroom. By this mystery, as the Apostle teaches, Christ and the soul become one flesh [Eph. 5:31-32]. And if they are one flesh and there is between them a true marriage indeed the most perfect of all marriages, since human marriages are but poor examples of this one true marriage it follows that everything they have they hold in common, the good as well as the evil. Accordingly the believing soul can boast of and glory in whatever Christ has as though it were its own, and whatever the soul has Christ claims as his own. Let us compare these and we shall see inestimable benefits. Christ is full of grace, life, and salvation. The soul is full of sins, death, and damnation. Now let faith come between them and sins, death, and damnation will be Christ’s, while grace, life, and salvation will be the soul’s; for if Christ is a bridegroom, he must take upon himself the things which are his bride’s and bestow upon her the things that are his. If he gives her his body and very self, how shall he not give her all that is his? And if he takes the body of the bride, how shall he not take all that is hers? Here we have a most pleasing vision not only of communion but of a blessed struggle and victory and salvation and redemption. Christ is God and man in one person. He has neither sinned nor died, and is not condemned, and he cannot sin, die, or be condemned; his righteousness, life, and salvation are unconquerable, eternal, omnipotent. By the wedding ring of faith he shares in the sins, death, and pains of hell which are his bride’s. As a matter of fact, he makes them his own and acts as if they were his own and as if he himself had sinned; he suffered, died, and descended into hell that he might overcome them all. Now since it was such a one who did all this, and death and hell could not swallow him up, these were necessarily swallowed up by him in a mighty duel; for his righteousness is greater than the sins of all men, his life stronger than death, his salvation more invincible than hell. Thus the believing soul by means of the pledge of its faith is free in Christ, its bridegroom, free from all sins, secure against death and hell, and is endowed with the eternal righteousness, life, and salvation of Christ its bridegroom. So he takes to himself a glorious bride, "without spot or wrinkle, cleansing her by the washing of water with the word" [Cf. Eph. 5:26-27] of life, that is, by faith in the Word of life, righteousness, and salvation. In this way he marries her in faith, steadfast love, and in mercies, righteousness, and justice, as Hos. 2 [:19-20] says. Who then can fully appreciate what this royal marriage means? Who can understand the riches of the glory of his grace? Here this rich and divine bridegroom Christ marries this poor wicked harlot, redeems her from all her evil, and adorns her with all his goodness. Her sins cannot now destroy her, since they are laid upon Christ and swallowed up by him. And she has that righteousness in Christ, her husband, of which she may boast as of her own and which she can confidently display alongside her sins in the face of death and hell and say, “If I have sinned, yet my Christ, in whom I believe, has not sinned, and all his is mine and all mine his”, as the bride in the Song of Solomon says (2:16) says, “My beloved is mine and I am his”. This is what Paul means when he says in 1 Corinthians 15, “Thanks be to God, who gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ,” that is, the victory over sin and death, as he also says there, “The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law”. (Martin Luther The Freedom of a Christian)

3. Faith Alone in Christ Alone

What saving faith is:

Knowledge

Conviction

Trust

What saving faith is not:

Our faith is not a work

Faith is not something that merits the favour of God. All the efficacy of salvation resides in the Saviour. As one has aptly put it and truly stated the case, it is not faith that saves but Christ that saves through faith; strictly

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speaking, it is not even faith in Christ that saves but Christ that saves through faith. Faith unites us to Christ in the bonds of abiding attachment and entrustment and it is this union which insures that the saving power, grace and virtue of the Saviour becomes operative in the believer. The specific character of faith is that it looks away from itself and finds its whole interest and object in Christ. He is the absorbing preoccupation of faith.” (John Murray, Redemption Accomplished and Applied, 112.)

So it’s not about how much

Our faith always works

“Faith justifies alone, but the faith that justifies is never alone.”

Christ was given to us by God’s generosity, to be grasped and possessed by us in faith. By partaking of him, we principally receive a double grace: namely, that being reconciled to God through Christ’s blamelessness, we may have in heaven instead of a judge a gracious Faith; and secondly, that sanctified by Christ’s spirit we may cultivate blamelessness and purity of life. (Calvin, Institutes, 3.11.1 )

4. So What?

Faith comes from hearing (Rom. 10:17)

So GO!

Are you united to Christ by faith alone?

So COME!

“But when we rise to the heavenly tribunal and place before our eyes that supreme Judge . . . then in an

instant the vain confidence of men perishes and falls and conscience is compelled . . . to confess that it has

nothing upon which it can rely before God.” (Francis Turretin, Institutes, 639)

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‘In Christ alone’, (Solus Christus)

Introduction: Who will rescue me from this body of death? 1. Solus Christus: Jesus, the Perfect Priest, is the only mediator

“For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim. 2:5)

“10 And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.11 Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, 13 and since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool. 14 For by one sacrifice he has made perfect for ever those who are being made holy.” (Heb. 10:10-14)

“Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)

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2. Solus Christus: Reformation Battlegrounds • Indulgences

33. Men must especially be on guard against those who say that the pope's pardons are that inestimable gift of God, by which man is reconciled to him. [He's saying this papal pardon doesn't get you salvation] 36. Any truly repentant Christian has a right to full remission of penalty and guilt, even without indulgence letters. 37. Any true Christian, whether living or dead, participates in all the blessings of Christ and the church; and this is granted him by God, even without indulgence letters. (Luther 95 Theses)

• Priests and the Mass

"..It is a most wicked infamy and unbearable blasphemy, both against Christ, and against the sacrifice which he made for us through his death on the cross, for anyone to suppose that by repeating the oblation [offering] he obtains pardon for sins, appeases God, and acquires righteousness....We also deny that they are a priest, in the sense that they, by such oblation, intercede before God for the people and, having appeased God, obtain atonement for sins. For Christ is the sole Pontiff [Pope] and Priest of the New Testament (cf. Heb. 9) to whom all priesthoods have been transferred and in whom they have been closed and terminated....

• Prayers to the Saints

Hail Mary, full of grace.The Lord is with thee.Blessed art thou among women,and blessed is the fruit of thy

womb,Jesus.Holy Mary, Mother of God,pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

...."But if we appeal to the consciences of all those who delight in the intercession of the saints, we shall find that this arises solely from the fact that they are burdened by anxiety; just as if Christ were insufficient or too severe. First, by this perplexity they dishonour Christ and strip him of the title of sole mediator which , as it has been given to him by the Father, as a unique privilege, ought not to be transferred to another. Also, by this very thing they obscure the glory of his birth and make void the cross; in fine, the strip and deprive of its praise all that he has done or suffered! For all these things lead to the conclusion that he alone is, and is to be deemed, The Mediator." (Calvin Institutes (3:20:21 p878-9)

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3. Solus Christus: Its relevance yesterday, today and forever

Rejoicing in that happy certainty

Q. What is your only comfort in life and in death? A. That I am not my own, but belong body and soul, in life and in death to my faithful Saviour, Jesus Christ. He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood, and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil. He also watches over me in such a way that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven; in fact, all things must work together for my salvation. Because I belong to him, Christ, by his Holy Spirit, assures me of eternal life and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him.

Connecting and Confronting our culture with Christ Alone “Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus.” (Acts 8:35, KJV) i) Christ Alone means we must be realistic about ‘religion’ and ‘spirituality’ and ‘searching’

It is accordingly no easier for sinners to accept God’s revelation in nature than to accept God’s revelation in Scripture. They are no more ready of themselves to do the one that to do the other. From the point of the view of the sinner, theism is as objectionable as Christianity. Theism that is worthy of the name is Christian theism. Christ said that no man can come to the Father but by him. No one can become a theist unless he becomes a Christian. Any God that is not the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is not God but an idol. It is therefore the Holy Spirit bearing witness by and with the Word in our hearts that alone effects the required Copernican revolution and makes us both Christians and theists.9

ii) Christ Alone is the answer to the world we all want.

Question: Given that we are all exclusive, which set of exclusive beliefs produces peaceful, loving, reconciling behaviour which can give us hope in a hope-less world? Answer: the unique good news of Christ Alone 1 John 4:1-12:

9 Cornelius Van Til, ‘Nature and Scripture,’ in The Infallible Word: A Symposium, eds., N.B. Stonehouse and Paul Woolley (Phillipsburg, N.J.: Presbyterian and Reformed, 1946), 280.

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origin of Jesus’ salvation – ‘come from God’ - somewhere else – other religions, human

founder - God himself purpose of Jesus’ salvation – ‘come in the flesh’ – transformation – liberation – escape –

redeem this world – get rid of what is wrong with the world. Christianity gives hope for ‘this’ world – what salvation

method of Jesus’ salvation – ‘not that we loved God but that he loved us’ in other religions – perform the truth – can’t do it – v. 10 Christian method opposite – Jesus is not mainly a teacher, but a saviour –

Christians know they are not saved because they are good – they are to be humble (not

about performance) Christians know they are to serve others because God’s creation matters (resurrection

shows this) Christians know that a self-sacrificing God must lead to self-sacrificing followers (not self-

righteous)

They think it’s all over……The Continuing Priestly work of Christ. i) Christ’s constant comfort to us (Heb. 2:17, 18; 4:14, 15) ii) Christ’s intercession for us (Heb. 7:25)

The priesthood of all believers and the dignity of ‘secular’ vocations We see that our whole salvation and all its parts are comprehended in Christ. We should therefore take care not to derive the least portion of it from anywhere else. If we seek salvation, we are taught by the very name of Jesus that it is "of him." If we seek any other gifts of the Spirit, they will be found in his anointing. If we seek strength, it lies in his dominion; if purity, in his conception; if gentleness, it appears in his birth. For by his birth he was made like us in all respects that he might learn to feel our pain. If we see redemption, it lies in his passion; if acquittal, in his condemnation; if remission of the curse, in his cross; if satisfaction, in his sacrifice; if purification, in his blood; if reconciliation, in his descent into hell; if mortification of the flesh, in his tomb; if newness of life, in his resurrection; if immortality, in the same; if inheritance of the Heavenly Kingdom, in his entrance into heaven; if protection, if security, if abundant supply of all blessings, in his Kingdom; if untroubled expectation of judgment, in the power given him to judge. In short, since rich store of every kind of good abounds in him, let us drink our fill from this fountain, and from no other. (Calvin, Inst., II.xvi.19)

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‘Living for God’s glory’, (Soli Deo Gloria)

Introduction: soli Deo

Gloria as a goal, glue

and a guard

Q. 1. What is the chief

and highest end of man?

A. Man's chief and

highest end is to glorify

God, and fully to enjoy him forever. (Westminster Larger Catechism)

Q: What’s the point? A: God is the point.

‘For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever, Amen’ (Rom.

11:36)

"I am the LORD; that is my name! I will not yield my glory to another or my praise to idols. (Is. 42:8)

“Vainglory is the excessive and disordered desire for recognition and approval from others.”10

self-centredness in the solas?

1. What God’s glory means:

God’s glory is the outward radiance of the intrinsic beauty and greatness of His

manifold perfections (John Piper)

10 Rebecca Konyndyk DeYoung, Glittering Vices (Brazos, 2009), 60.

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2. What God’s glory does not mean:

humans are worthless

‘the glory of God is man who is entirely alive.’11

God is a narcissistic egotistical megalomaniac

3. God’s glory in our salvation

There’s nothing you bring….

….it’s all about Him

4. God’s glory in our service

Whatever you do……

“So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” (1 Cor. 10:31)

Human Beings as Culture Builders

11 Against Heresies 4/20.

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The Cultural Mandate (Gen. 1:26-31; 2:18-25)

Now Paul’s doctrine proceeds on this principle, that there is no good thing, the possession of which is lawful, unless conscience testify that it is lawfully our own. And which of us would venture to claim for himself a single grain of wheat, if he were not taught by the word of God that he is the heir of the world? Common sense, indeed, pronounces, that the wealth of the world is naturally intended for our use; but, since dominion over the world was taken from us in Adam, everything that we touch of the gifts of God is defiled by our pollution; and, on the other hand, it is unclean to us, till God graciously come to our aid, and by ingrafting us into his Son, constitutes us anew to be lords of the world, that we may lawfully use as our own all the wealth with which he supplies us. Justly, therefore, does Paul connect lawful enjoyment with “the word”, by which alone we regain what was lost in Adam; for we must acknowledge God as our Father, that we may be his heirs, and Christ as our Head, that those things which are his may become ours. Hence it ought to be inferred that the use of all the gifts of God is unclean, unless it be accompanied by true knowledge and calling on the name of God; and that it is a beastly way of eating, when we sit down at table without any prayer; and, when we have eaten to the full, depart in utter forgetfulness of God.12

“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters.”

(Col. 3:23)

Don’t distract from God’s glory

If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they

should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus

Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen. (1 Pet. 4:11)

“I was but a pen in God’s hand and what praise is due a pen” (Baxter)

Not to us, Lord, not to us

but to your name be the glory,

because of your love and faithfulness (Ps. 115:1)

Be distracted by God’s glory

12 Calvin, Commentary on 1 Tim. 4:1-5.

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