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Reading Romans 3:21-26 as we go through the five solas of the Protestant Reformation, continuing with solus Christus, in Christ alone. Visit wwutt.com for all our videos!
The Apostle Peter preached there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven, given among men, by which we must be saved, but the name of Christ alone, when we understand the text.
This is When We Understand the Text, a daily study of God's Word, that we may be filled with the knowledge of His will. For questions and comments, send us an email to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.
Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe.
Thank you, Becky. We continue our study of the five solas of the Reformation, those five foundational truths that are essential to a doctrine of salvation. So far this week, we've talked about sola scriptura, by Scripture alone, for it is only by the Word of God, the Bible, that we know the way of salvation through Jesus Christ and how we are to walk in this world as imitators of Christ.
On Tuesday, we considered sola fide, by faith alone. It is by faith that we receive the blessings of salvation, believing in Christ and His finished work. Yesterday, we considered sola gratia, by grace alone.
We are saved by grace through faith. Faith is the instrument by which God transmits His grace to us, and we are saved not by any work that we have done, but because God is gracious and has done that work through His Son.
Today, we are going to be talking about His Son, the doctrine solus Christus, or in Christ alone. It is only in Christ that we receive the gifts of salvation. Let's come again to our text. In Romans 3, beginning in verse 21, the Apostle Paul writes,.
But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.
For there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by His grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood to be received by faith.
This was to show God's righteousness, because in His divine forbearance He had passed over former sins. It was to show His righteousness at the present time, so that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
So once again, it is through faith in Jesus Christ that we receive the righteousness of God. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We are not righteous. We are guilty before God. Every single human being has inherited the guilt of Adam, and we stand before God condemned, but we are justified by His grace as a gift, declared innocent because God is gracious to us.
This is verse 24. Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, redeemed, meaning that we have been bought. We have been paid for. Not just that our sins have been forgiven, but we've been purchased.
We are actually Christ's inheritance. God has given to His Son all those whom He has purchased by His blood. That's what it means to say that we have been redeemed. It's not simply that our sins have been expunged and now we can just kind of go our own merry way, but rather we belong to Christ, and so therefore we are to do the things that Christ has commanded us to do.
We are to live as one who belongs to Jesus. This is the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. God put forward His Son as a propitiation by His blood. Verse 25, propitiation simply means that our sins have been atoned for.
The wrath of God that was burning against our unrighteousness has been satisfied in the blood of Christ. We talked about that earlier this week when I mentioned that Martin Luther, in reading Romans 1 .17, was not elated with that verse.
He hated that verse because when he read that the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, he thought the righteousness of God was God's wrath. So that wasn't good news for him, particularly where Luther was in his life at that time feeling so darkened and depraved because of his sinfulness compared to a holy God.
But then when he read in Romans 3 about Christ being the propitiation for our sins, that He is our atonement place, that we meet God through the cross of Christ. That was when the gospel was opened up to Luther for the very first time and he saw the wonder and the glory and the grace and the love of God through his Son.
Jesus is our propitiation. He died on the cross for our sins. He shed His blood to cover over and wash us of our wickedness. It is only by the shedding of blood that sins can be forgiven. That's talked about in the book of Hebrews in addition to being in the law of Moses.
And remember here in verse 21 that it said that the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it. And that is in reference to Jesus Christ.
The law and the prophets bear witness to Christ. Jesus said in Matthew 5, I did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. Jesus kept the law perfectly. He was our substitute even in life, living the perfect life that we could not live.
He was the perfect spotless Lamb who laid down His own life, shedding His blood for our sins. And only He could have done that. We could not have shed our own blood for our sins. We had tainted blood.
We are guilty and wicked before God. But Jesus was innocent. So He was that perfect sacrifice and His righteousness was transmitted to us. Our sins placed upon Him on the cross and we received His righteousness.
Second Corinthians 5, 21, for our sake, God made Him to be sin who knew no sin so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. This is the exclusivity of the forgiveness that we receive in Christ alone and no other way.
We've already talked about how it is not by our works that we are saved. Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, by grace, you are saved through faith and this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of works so that no one may boast.
I remember hearing a preacher preach on that one time. I can't even remember who this was now, but I remember hearing someone preach on Ephesians 2, 8 and 9 and then he said, now I want you to know you are saved by works.
It's just not your works that you're saved by. It is the work of Christ. So when Paul is saying there that we are saved by grace and not of works, it's our works that we're not saved by, but we are absolutely saved by the work of Christ and His work alone.
He is the propitiation, His blood that was shed for the forgiveness of sins. That's what he said to his disciples in the upper room when he shared with them the last supper, what would become the Lord's supper, communion that we regularly practice in the church now.
He passed the cup and he said, this is my blood, which is spilled for the forgiveness of sins. And when you read this account in John, Jesus washes his disciples feet and says to them, what I am doing for you now, you do not understand, but you soon will understand.
And this was the same with the Lord's table as well. As he broke bread, as he passed the cup, they did not understand what he meant when he said, this is my body broken for you. This is my blood, which is spilled for the forgiveness of sins.
The disciples weren't there receiving the bread and drinking the cup going, well, this is exactly your flesh, Jesus. Oh my goodness. This is exactly your blood, which is what the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church teaches.
And in some kind of a mitigated way, even the Lutheran church. But the body and the blood, the bread and the cup do not transform into anything other than bread and a cup. They are symbols of the fellowship that we now have with God because of the broken body of Christ and his shed blood for our sins.
It's still just bread and juice or wine if you're not attending a Southern Baptist or a fundamentalist church. So these are the reminders that we have of the fellowship that we now have with God through Christ.
And this is what Luther learned, that Jesus is our atonement place. He is the place where we now have fellowship with God. We're not separated from him because of his wrath. We're no longer objects of his wrath.
We are objects of his love and his affection because of what Christ has done. God put forward his own son, John 3, 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only son and whoever believes in him will not perish, but have everlasting life.
God and his love put forward his son as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith. We don't stand under the cross and get sprinkled with his blood, okay? No actual blood needs to be poured out upon us or even needs to be shed for us in the present sense.
It's already been done. Christ did it. His blood was shed once for the forgiveness of sins, says in Romans and also in Hebrews. He will never die again and we receive what has been paid for by that blood 2 ,000 years ago on a cross at Calvary by faith.
That's how you receive the forgiveness of sins that is given by the blood of Christ. And this was to show God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance, he had passed over former sins. Now what this means was God looked past our sinful state to the righteousness of his son and he receives us and loves us because of what Christ did.
So you think of, like we talked about earlier this week, Christ receiving us from the foundation of the world. We were chosen to be saved in him before the beginning of time and yet we're all sinful and wicked.
All of us who are descended from Adam, we're evil. We're just like those whom Paul describes in Ephesians 2, 1 through 3. Those who were like children of wrath who followed the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience.
You were once dead in your sins and your trespasses just like they were. So just because God predestined for us salvation does not mean for those of us who are in Christ Jesus that we were born with that salvation.
You were physically born with that salvation. You're born again into that salvation. But because we were chosen from the foundation of the world, God looked past the sinfulness that we were born into.
He looked past that toward the righteousness of his son that we were going to receive because God predestined that we were going to receive it. Is this all making sense? That's what it means when we read that in his divine forbearance, in his great patience, he looked past our sinfulness to the righteousness of Christ.
And this was to show God's righteousness because it is all for his glory. And that's what we're going to get to tomorrow when we talk about solideo gloria. It is all to the glory of God. Let's go to Acts chapter 3.
Let me read a story for you here to to further encapsulate this understanding of salvation in Christ alone. Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour, and a man lame from birth was being carried, whom they laid at the gate of the temple that is called the beautiful gate to ask alms of those entering the temple.
Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked to receive alms. And Peter directed his gaze at him, as did John, and said, look at us. And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them.
But Peter said, I have no silver and gold, but what I do have, I give to you in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. And he took him by the right hand and raised him up. And immediately his feet and ankles were made strong and leaping up.
He stood and began to walk and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God and recognized him as the one who sat at the beautiful gate of the temple asking for alms.
And they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. While he clung to Peter and John, all the people, utterly astounded, ran together to them in the portico called Solomon's. And when Peter saw it, he addressed the people, men of Israel, why do you wonder at this or why do you stare at us as though by our own power or piety we have made him walk?
The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus, whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate when he had decided to release him.
But you denied the holy and righteous one and asked for a murderer to be granted to you. And you killed the author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses. And his name, by faith in his name, has made this man strong, whom you see and know.
And the faith that is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all. And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled.
Repent therefore and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago.
Moses said, The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. You shall listen to him in whatever he tells you. And it shall be that every soul who does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people.
And all the prophets who have spoken from Samuel and those who came after him also proclaimed these days. You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, And in your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.
God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness. This is chapter four now. And as they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them, greatly annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead.
And they arrested them and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening. But many of those who had heard the word believed. And the number of the men came to about five thousand.
On the next day, their rulers and elders and scribes gathered together in Jerusalem with Annas the high priest and Caiaphas and John and Alexander and all who were of the high priestly family. And when they had set them in their midst, they inquired, By what power or by what name did you do this?
They're talking again to Peter and John. Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, Rulers of the people and elders, if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed.
Let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead by him, this man is standing before you. Well, this Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you.
The builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. There's the exclusive claim of salvation in Christ alone right there again.
Acts 4 12. There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. In Matthew, chapter 16, Jesus said to his disciples, who do people say that the son of man is?
And they said, well, some say that you're Elijah or Jeremiah or another prophet. And Jesus said, but who do you say that I am? And Peter is the one that spoke up and said, you are the Christ, the son of the living God.
And Jesus said, blessed are you, Simon bar Jonah, for flesh and blood is not revealed this to you, but my father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter. And on this rock, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. And whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. The rock upon which Christ would build his church was the truth claim that Peter made.
Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the son of God. The Roman Catholic Church would have you believe that the church is built upon Peter, whose name means rock. His birth name was Simon, but he earned the name Peter for being the first to answer the question that Jesus asked.
But Jesus was referring to Peter as a smaller stone. And the testimony of himself was the solid rock. The Catholic Church is built on the wrong foundation. They've chosen a lesser stone. The church is not built on Peter.
And the Pope does not represent an apostle in some sort of continued successive line from Peter until Pope Francis today. The church is built on the rock of Christ Jesus. Peter does not have some sort of exclusive claim to apostleship.
Because in fact, Peter said that even Paul's writings were just as authoritative as the rest of scripture. That's in second Peter 3 16. And Paul rebuked Peter to his face because Peter sinned against the Gentiles, favoring the Jews rather than fellowshipping with the Gentiles.
And Paul rebuked him for that. So Peter did not have some superior apostolic claim. And yet the Catholic Church teaches that in that succession of apostolic authority, which comes all the way to the Pope, that if a person rejects the teaching of the Pope, they are anathema.
According to the First Vatican Council, Session 4, Chapter 4, should anyone which God forbid have the temerity to reject this definition of the Pope's infallibility, let him be anathema. In other words, if you don't submit to the Pope, you are cursed to hell, according to the Roman Catholic Church.
But salvation is not in a recognition of the Pope, nor is salvation according to baptism. That's Catholic Catechism 1257. Baptism is necessary for salvation. Salvation is not by attending the Catholic Church.
That's Catholic Catechism 846, basing itself on scripture and tradition. The council teaches that the church, a pilgrim now on Earth, is necessary for salvation. Our only way to salvation is in Christ alone.
The work that he did not in any work that we do, not in the work that the Pope does, not in the work that the Roman Catholic Church does. Our salvation is in Christ alone. And this fundamentally important doctrine that was a foundational truth proclaimed during the Protestant Reformation is a scripture truth claim that existed long before the Protestant Reformation in 1517, or at least around the time that it began with Luther's theses on the door of All Saints Church.
The truth claim existed in scripture for 1500 years before that, and has continued in scripture even to this day. And yet there are many who have forgotten this. There are many yet who reject the exclusivity of Christ for our salvation.
Jesus said in John 14 6, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes into the Father, but by me. In an interview with Carl Lentz, pastor of Hillsong Church in New York City, Oprah Winfrey asked, Do you believe that only Christians can be in relationship with God?
And without a hesitation, Lentz said, No, I believe that when Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life, the way I read that, Jesus said, I'm the road marker. He is the map. In the same troubling answer, Lentz said, I believe God loves people.
And that's what this whole gospel is based on. It's love. Right. I agree with Lentz that the whole gospel is based on love, but it is unloving to tell a person that they can attain eternal life in any other way but through Christ, because to do so would be to tell them something heretical.
It would be to tell them something that would lead them to damnation and hell, not to the truth of of who God is and what he has done through his son, Jesus Christ. It is only in Christ that men are saved.
There is no other name under heaven that we can be saved. But through Jesus Christ, Romans eight, one through three, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.
For God has done what the law weakened by the flesh could not do by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin. He condemned sin in the flesh only through Christ. And again, Romans five, verses one and two, which I've I've read a couple of times this week already.
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through him. We have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God given to us in Christ alone.
Let us pray. Our Lord God, we thank you for giving us your son, that through him we would be forgiven our sins and have eternal life with you. And I do pray for forgiveness. I pray that we would be convicted of our sin, that we might look to Christ.
We look to the cross, the place where blood was shed for the forgiveness of sins. And we realize this is our meeting place with God. It is the cross that has bridged the gap that is caused by our sin that separated us from God.
And now we may cross to be there with you through the cross of Christ, through the blood that was shed. And we now have access to God and a promise of eternity. And that is our hope that we look forward to the promise that has been given to us in Christ alone.
And I pray that we would preach the message of Christ to the nations, just as we witnessed Peter and John doing in the story that we read today, that we would be so filled and convicted with the truth of who Christ is, that we must share this name.
And there is nothing that can keep us silent, for there is no other name by which men can be saved, but through Christ alone. And it is in his name that we pray. Amen.
Thank you for listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. If you'd like to support this ministry, visit our website, www .wutt .com, and click on the Give tab in the top right corner of the page.
Join us again tomorrow as we continue our Bible study, When We Understand the Text. Amen.