I first learned the Five Solas of the Reformation in college, only a few years after coming to know Christ: Sola Fide (Faith Alone), Sola Scriptura (Scripture Alone), Solus Christus (Christ Alone), Sola Gratia (Grace Alone), Soli Deo Gloria (Glory to God Alone). As someone who was not raised in the Church and with zero biblical knowledge, I soaked them in like a sponge, as they concisely captured the true path to salvation.  

Twenty-plus years later, I am learning that Christ Alone offers not only the way to salvation, but also the path to true freedom. In a culture replete with idols that loudly overpromise and consistently underdeliver, the clarion cry of Solus Christus offers both salvation through Christ alone and satisfaction in Christ alone. Orthodoxy (right doctrine) ought to always lead to orthopraxy (right living/right practice). We cannot love what we do not know, but our knowing should always shape our living.

Orthodoxy: Learning Christ Alone

Christ’s disciples were “uneducated, common men” whose chief distinction was they “they had been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13). When looking for the simplest definition of complex truths, I like to start with these simple men who were utterly transformed by the good news of the gospel.  Peter and James, newly sealed by the indwelling Spirit, were brought before authorities and religious experts to answer for the miraculous healing of a lame man. The intimidating authorities asked them, “By what power or by what name did you do this?” Their response offers clear yet compelling insight into what the Reformers later termed Solus Christus.

“Let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ 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 no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4: 10–12).

No Other Savior

The Reformation merely uncovered gospel realities that had been mired and buried by man. Salvation through faith in the life, death, and resurrection of Christ alone has always been the cry of the church! Hidden in these few verses, we see the Incarnation of Christ (Jesus Christ of Nazareth: a real man born to real mother living in a real time and place), the crucifixion of Christ, and the resurrection of Christ as the way of salvation. The disciples were clear that man’s salvation rested solely upon the person and work of Christ. Filled with the Spirit, Peter boldly stood upon Christ alone for salvation (Acts 4:7). Peter did not preach a salvation of Christ plus additional works; rather, he offered the completed work of Christ as the path to salvation.

No Other Mediator

While the disciples offer us a quick glance into Christ alone, the concept of Christ Alone can be traced throughout the entirety of the Scriptures. Long before the Second Person of the Trinity became Incarnate to mediate between God and man, Job longed for such a mediator: “For he is not a man, as I am, that I might answer him, that we should come to trail together. There is no arbiter between us, who might lay his hand on us both” (Job 9: 32–33). Through faith, Job understood that man could not save himself—salvation necessitated a perfect mediator who was both God and man. Only through the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, who is fully man and fully God, can sinful mankind have access to a holy God.

Paul picks up this same thread of thinking on the other side of the cross, when writing to his protégé, Timothy: “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time” (1 Timothy 2: 5–6).

Christ alone means there is one mediator between God and man: Jesus Christ. We need no other intermediary, no other intercessor, no other good works. We rest our salvation and our hope solely on the completed work of the Savior.

No Other Name

When Peter told the authorities “There is no other name,” he meant so much more than our modern minds comprehend. The concept of name means much less to us now than it did to people in the first century. Name implies much more than a collection of letters attached to an email or a sticky nametag. To them, name meant the collection of the power, authority, the character, and the essence of the person named.  When writing to the Philippians, the Apostle Paul expounded on the salvation offered us in Christ, who, though being in very nature God, emptied himself and took on the form of a servant (Philippians 2:6–7). He goes on to talk about the power in the name of Jesus Christ:

“Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:9–11).

There is one Savior, one mediator, one name through whom men can be saved. One day, every tongue will confess, and every knee will bow before Christ alone. As believers, we would do well to practice now what we will be doing for all eternity!

Orthopraxy: Living Christ Alone

Our mouths may confess quickly, but aligning our lives to the great reality of Christ alone will take a lifetime. While it may be easy to rattle off the five Solas of the Reformation, it is much more difficult to wrap our lives around them. Living by faith alone in a largely materialist culture that only trusts what it can taste, see, feel, or measure takes the empowerment of the Holy Spirit and ongoing effort in the fight of faith (1 Timothy 6: 12). Living by grace alone in a culture that enthrones self and swears by grit and grind requires both humility and a sobriety toward self. Living through Christ alone in a culture that clings to countless idols requires constant repentance and realignment. The world says, “By self alone through self alone to self alone,” and the flesh gladly follows along; however, believers in Christ sing and march to a very different tune: “For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen” (Romans 11: 36).

We learn to live by Christ alone when we can say with David, “I say to the Lord, ‘You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you’” (Psalm 16: 2). We learn to live to Christ alone when we say with the psalmist, “Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory!” (Psalm 115: 1). We learn to live by Christ alone when we begin to obey through abiding (John 15: 5).

Those who live by Christ alone can be carefully doing good works without depending upon them for salvation. Those who live satisfied in Christ alone can find contentment in poverty or riches, in feast or fallow (Philippians 4:11–13).