"Christ alone (Sola Christi)" by Rod Bayley, 15 June 2008, Heb. 9:1-28, Col. 1:15-23, 1 Tim 2:5-6, Heb. 4:14-16

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Catholic World Youth Day is approaching when it is estimated that
there will be 125,000 registered pilgrims from overseas and a further
100,000 from all parts of Australia that's more visitors than the
2000 Olympics. The NSW government estimates that the gross value
added to the NSW economy will be in the order of $150 million. Of
course there has been a lot of media coverage about the cost as well.
The Sydney Morning Herald stated in an article back in March that the
Sydney Catholic church had disclosed that the cost of staging World
Youth Day in Sydney had escalated, climbing to $150 million after
originally being budgeted to cost $100 million. The new estimates
include government cash grants but not provision of in kind services
including visa processing for pilgrims, the Pope's security, policing,
sleeping accommodation at public schools and emergency health care
worth more than $20 million. Nor does it include the $41 million in
compensation provided by the NSW and federal governments to the
Australian Jockey Club and the racing industry to secure the use of
Randwick Racecourse for the overnight vigil Mass. So the cost appears
to be more in the order of $210 million dollars.

The media has also highlighted traffic issues. The State Government is
urging residents to flee Sydney during World Youth Day to avoid
traffic chaos as it revealed that the Harbour Bridge will be closed
for 12 hours on Saturday 19 July and there will be road closures
throughout the eastern suburbs. Other major roads will also be closed
for the pilgrimage, prompting fears of a repeat of the chaos last year
when the city's transport system collapsed under the pressure of huge
crowds wanting to see the Queen Mary 2 and the Queen Elizabeth 2 in
Sydney Harbour.

Well, I am not interested in such criticism, and I’m not drawing your
attention to World Youth Day to attack it or Catholic people. As we
commence this series, our aim is to ‘rediscover’ four fundamental
biblical truths which have shaped Protestant churches, so that we
might be clearer on our own beliefs. Hopefully this will highlight
for us where Catholic beliefs, and perhaps our own, have departed from
what the bible says, and help prepare us to better engage with our
Catholic friends and others. My problem with World Youth Day is that
it highlights a theological issue. It’s largely focussed on a person,
Pope Benedict XVI, the head of the Roman Catholic church. He will be
the central figure in the events, as God’s representative on earth, in
the line of apostolic succession from the apostle Peter it is claimed.
The papal arrival will be by boat-a-cade on Sydney Harbour, and then
he will have a motorcade, and will act as a priestly mediator for the
Catholic believers at the Randwick mass, along with the cardinals.

This raises an important theological question: Do we need a human
mediator to relate properly to God? There were priests under the old
covenant - can’t we have priests today? Isn’t this just a
continuation of what God laid down for his people Israel? If not, how
would we address this question from the bible? Turn with me to
Hebrews 9, verses 6 to 10, which state:
“When everything had been arranged like this, the priests entered
regularly into the outer room to carry on their ministry. 7But only
the high priest entered the inner room, and that only once a year, and
never without blood, which he offered for himself and for the sins the
people had committed in ignorance. 8The Holy Spirit was showing by
this that the way into the Most Holy Place had not yet been disclosed
as long as the first tabernacle was still standing. 9This is an
illustration for the present time, indicating that the gifts and
sacrifices being offered were not able to clear the conscience of the
worshiper. 10They are only a matter of food and drink and various
ceremonial washings - external regulations applying until the time of
the new order.”

In verses 6 and 7 we have a short description of the priestly ministry
under the old covenant - here are people who were set aside for the
special task of representing the people of God to God, of offering
sacrifices for sins. There was a distance from God for the people,
and the priest stood in the gap, although only the high priest got to
enter the inner room, the holy of holies that represented God’s
presence, and then only once a year. Even the priests were somewhat
distant mediators. The writer points out in verse 8 that God
deliberately created this system to show that people could not enter
his presence. Moreover, in verse 9 the sacrificial system which God
had laid down was also unsatisfactory - it was designed to point
forward to something greater. The conscience of the worshiper was not
cleared by this system of human mediators - they still experienced
guilt, and sensed that they were not forgiven. As verse 10 tells us,
all the external regulations of the old covenant were just that - they
anticipated a new order which would be satisfactory, which would
cleanse the conscience.

Did you know that there are approximately 300,000 prisoners of
conscience around the world today - largely political prisoners who
have expressed views or beliefs which are contrary to the ruling
regime in their country. I put it to you, however, that there are
millions more whose worship is unable to clear the conscience, whose
human mediators or priests bring them no assurance before God, just as
the Israelites struggled under the old covenant.

But the writer to the Hebrews tells us that a new way of relating to
God had come, a new system of mediation. Look with me again, at what
verses 14 and 15 state:
“How much more then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal
Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences
from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!
15For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those
who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance - now that
he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under
the first covenant.”

In these verses Christ is both the mediator or priest, and the
sacrifice. He enters God’s very presence once for all, by shedding
his blood, once for all. The result is that his death and
resurrection, a ransom to set us free from sin, has ushered in a new
covenant. His sacrifice does cleanse our consciences, the way has
been opened to God by our superior high priest. There is a continuity
with the old covenant, in that ‘without the shedding of blood there is
no forgiveness’ (v22), and so Christ’s blood is shed for us - he must
die to pay for our sin. However, there is also discontinuity with the
past - human mediators are now obsolete as the risen Christ appears
for us before God the Father, in His very presence in heaven (v24).
Neither does Christ need to be sacrificed for us again and again in
verses 26 to 28, as the Catholic mass insists. There is no need for
the bread and wine to be turned into his body and bread, that the
sacrifice of the Cross be recreated again and again, because our sin
was dealt with in the one sacrifice. He will come back in verse 28,
but not to the communion table - rather it will be to bring
salvation. At his second coming he will collect those who have placed
their trust in Him as their one true mediator.

The Catholic mass is part of a whole sacramental system, it’s one of
seven sacraments, whereby God’s grace is mediated to the individual
through signs and rituals conducted by priests. Rather than God’s
grace coming through Christ alone, it is mediated through human go-
betweens, who must be present to represent the average Christian
before God. But such an approach is to continue old covenant
practices which Christ made obsolete. As the writer to the Hebrews
states in 10:11-12: “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. 12But when this priest (that is
Jesus) had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at
the right hand of God.”

In September of 1520, Luther published one of his many tracts,
entitled ‘The Babylonian captivity,’ which dealt with the sacraments
and priests as mediators of them. He rejected five of the seven
sacraments, leaving only the Lord’s Supper and Baptism. One of the
five rejected was that of ‘ordination’, by which the Catholic church
believed that the person is transformed in character and thus on a
higher moral plane, and so can perform the role of administering the
sacraments, which was exclusively limited to priests. Luther had this
to say: “... counterfeit spiritualities ... serve God without Christ
the mediator.” What Hebrews 9 and 10 make clear to us is that Christ
replaces all other mediators - human mediators are superseded, because
Christ alone, through his death and resurrection, has brokered a peace
deal with God and speaks on our behalf, intercedes for us in heaven.

That brings us to our second point - Christ the ‘super supreme.’ Turn
with me to Colossians 1:15-23, which was read for us earlier. Notice
again what verses 15 and 16 say:
“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all
creation. 16For by him all things were created: things in heaven and
on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or ruler or
authorities; all things were created by him and for him.”

This is arguably the most powerful discussion of Christ’s divinity -
his divine sonship. Not only is Jesus the exact image or likeness of
the Father, he is described as the creator and sustainer of all
things, and in verse 19 God’s fulness dwells in him. He is also fully
man, but he is here most definitely presented as fully God. And as
the eternal Son, the second person of the trinity, we see in verses 15
to 18 that he is supreme over creation. Not only were all things
created by him, but they are for him, and he rules over his people,
the church. But not only is he supreme over creation, but he is
supreme in salvation - it is his finished work that saves and brings
us back into a right relationship with God the Father. Notice again
what verses 20 to 22 state:
“And through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on
earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on
the cross. 21Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in
your minds because of your evil behaviour. 22But now he has
reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you
holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation.”

It is very clear here that we are reconciled to God the Father,
through the death of God the Son on the Cross. We move from alienated
enemies of God, to holy children by faith through the shedding of his
blood alone. In verse 22, those in Christ are ‘without blemish and
free from accusation. The only way we can blemish what is
unblemished, the only way a guilty conscience and lack of assurance
can replace the knowledge of being free from accusation, is if we put
our trust in anyone other than Christ, or in addition to the One who
has accomplished all that is necessary. The clear application is that
Christ alone saves. That was a point that Hebrews 9 also made, but it
is hammered home here by the apostle Paul. The one who is fully God,
has done everything necessary - there is no other mediator that can
add to or supplement our salvation.

Well, how does this foundational doctrine, this reformation slogan of
‘Christ alone affect our Christian walk today? How do we live out our
belief in ‘Christ alone’ today?

Firstly, as we saw in the first point, Christ is the final mediator -
there are no other mediators or middle men needed. Christ has
superseded all human priests and made such a system of representation
before God the Father obsolete. The apostle Paul writes elsewhere in
1 Timothy 2, verses 5 and 6:
“For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man
Jesus Christ, 6who gave himself as a ransom for all men - the
testimony given in its proper time.”

Only the one who has died in your place, who has paid the ransom, can
effectively mediate between you and I, hopeless sinners, and a holy
God. Therefore we do not look to human intermediaries - they cannot
represent us properly, they have nothing to offer. I don’t need to
confess my sin to a priest to receive absolution, I don’t need him to
re-enact the crucifixion for me through communion, and so present an
acceptable sacrifice for me again and again. My mediator Jesus has
addressed these things once and for all.

Secondly, living out our belief in the biblical slogan ‘Christ alone’
will mean that we realise that we have direct access to God in
prayer. The writer to the Hebrews expresses this in chapter 4, verses
14 to 16:

“Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the
heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we
profess. 15For we do not have a high priest who is unable to
sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted
in every way, just as we are - yet was without sin. 16Let us then
approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive
mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”
We have a representative in heaven, at the right hand of the Father.
The phrase “throne of grace” in verse 16 refers to the fact that we
have direct access into the presence of God through prayer. The
“throne” speaks of Jesus’ kingship as the exalted Son, and refers to
the completion of His work, which was first noted in chapter 1 verse 3
of Hebrews, where the writer states: having “provided purification for
sins” in his death on the Cross, “he sat down at the right hand of the
Majesty in heaven.” But notice that it is a throne “of grace”, which
refers to God’s willing reception of our prayers, based on Christ’s
death on our behalf, and His understanding of our weaknesses. This is
why we can approach the Father through our high priest Jesus with
“confidence.” We don’t pray nervously, unsure if our prayers will be
heard or considered.

When we pray to God with uncertainty, or a sort of crouching fear,
with set phrases, we need to be rebuked. We are dishonouring Jesus
and the free access to pray what is on our heart, which He has won for
us. We cannot get more direct access then we have - there is no value
in praying to Mary or some past saint, because they are in no stronger
relationship with God then we are, and we have Christ as our one and
only intermediary. It’s not only useless to pray through a human, but
it is idolatrous. We are basically denying that we have a
representative in Jesus. We are not coming to a tyrant - “confidence”
is what is becoming in a Christian. We are approaching the King of
Kings, yes, yet we can do it with “confidence.”

In June of 1970, my parents-in-law won an invitation to a garden party
at Buckingham Palace. As they got out of their old car at the palace,
an Austin A40, a large piece of rust fell out of the door. My father-
in-law hurriedly pushed it under the car and undaunted they strode
in. After a tour of the palace, the several hundred guests were
arranged on the back lawn, in horse-shoe shaped groups of about 40
people, in readiness to meet the Queen and the royal family. My
parents-in-law were in the second group, but to the disappointment of
my mother-in-law, she didn’t get to speak to the Queen, with only some
of the group selected for a brief word. Undaunted by the officials
who were controlling proceedings, she confidently snuck into the next
group to get a further opportunity to speak to the monarch. Upon the
same result, she confidently slipped into yet a third group. This is
the sort of confidence with which we are instructed to approach our
ruler, King Jesus, in prayer.

The word “confidence,” which can also be translated “boldness”, refers
to freedom without constraint. You have the liberty to speak your
mind freely, to speak all your heart, your weaknesses, wants, fears
and grievances - we don’t have to restrain ourselves, but can freely
speak all that our trials require. It was said of Martin Luther, that
when he prayed, it was with as much reverence as if he were praying to
an infinite God, and with as much familiarity as if he were speaking
to his nearest friend.

Thirdly, and finally, holding to the biblical slogan of ‘Christ alone’
will mean that we have assurance of our salvation. In the passage in
Colossians 1 which we considered earlier, Paul states in verse 23 that
the Colossians will remain reconciled and holy in God’s sight “if you
continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope
held out in the gospel.” See, we will only lack assurance if we move
away from the gospel, from faith in Christ alone, the one true
mediator between God the Father and mankind. Having supplementary
mediators, depending on human middle men can only lead to doubt. How
can I be friends with God? The truth remains that it is by coming to
him through Jesus Christ alone.