When we say we believe in ‘Christ Alone,’ we mean that Christ’s doing, dying and rising again constitute our only basis of acceptance before God. He alone is our Substitute and Surety. He alone has fully satisfied the just demands of the eternal majesty. Christ alone, therefore, is all our hope.
Furthermore, when we hold to ‘Christ Alone, we believe that Christ’s finished work was altogether sufficient to secure the acquittal of His people. This is good news indeed. There is nothing that needs to be added to Christ’s work, and nothing must be subtracted (Ecclesiastes 3:14). Because of the finished work of Christ, Divine justice regards the elect as having already been punished in the person of their substitute. Our salvation has been secured by one man, the God/Man. The very mention of His name is music and health to the believer.
It’s no wonder that John Newton wrote, “How sweet the name of Jesus sounds In the believer’s ear It soothes his sorrows Heals his wounds And drives away his fears.”
Christ alone brings us to God (1 Peter 3:18) and brings God to us. He is the only one who is able to do this since He suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust. When we believe in ‘Christ Alone’ we have confidence that outside of Him there is no salvation. For the believer, Christ alone is the source and content of salvation. In salvation, Christ alone gets the credit, and we get the gift!
He saved us.
No church saved us.
No religious act on our part saved us.
We were, are and will be entirely saved by Christ alone.
We are saved by free, unconditional, invincible grace. For when we were without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet perhaps for a good man, someone would even dare to die. But God commends His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life (see Romans 5:6-10).
Christ's sinless life and atoning death have been accepted by the Father as ours. His doing and dying of two thousand years ago is the only ground of our acceptance with God today. This is what we mean when we say we believe in Christ Alone.
“Here we have a firm foundation; Here the refuge of the lost; Christ's the Rock of our salvation, His the name of which we boast.
Lamb of God, for sinners wounded, Sacrifice to cancel guilt!
None shall ever be confounded Who on Him their hope have built.”
Thomas Kelly
Christ alone has been found pleasing in the Father’s sight. So, since repetition is the price of learning, let’s say it again….There is but one reason only for our acceptance with God—Christ Alone!
There are no other ways to God but in Christ alone. Let us not forget this, Jesus unashamedly claimed to be God in human flesh appearing. Now, if the one true and living God has come for our salvation, what other way to God can there be? Since Christ alone is God, we can ruthlessly and immediately dispense with all other supposed ways of salvation. They are all fabrications of men’s imaginations and devising. There is only one salvation, and it comes to us in Christ alone.
And that’s the Gospel Truth!