Welcome back to the WORD in Music! We continue our five-part exploration of the five Solas. So far, we have determined that there is no quality within us that grants us favor before the LORD (but by grace alone), and there is nothing we are able to do that will grant us salvation (but through faith alone). If we are not saved by these two means, this might lead us to believe that through someone else, we can receive the gift of restoration with our creator. Outside the namesake of this post, there is not a single person nor a plurality of persons that can intercede for us, nor can we call on those that God has previously worked through; they can somehow do something to save us. It is Christ Alone!
Before moving on I would like to focus on something for a brief moment. As the above graphic illustrates, salvation in Christ alone is central to the Five Solas. Christ’s life, death, and resurrection, the gospel itself, is what salvation is all about. This concept is the very gift that God has graciously given to man and the very thing we hold faith in (John 3:16, Romans 3:21-26). In the following posts, we will dive into the final two solas and how they play their part. And now, let us dive into our songs for this post!
“In Christ alone who took on flesh / Fullness of God in helpless babe / This gift of love and righteousness / Scorned by the ones He came to save / Till on that cross as Jesus died / The wrath of God was satisfied / For every sin on Him was laid / Here in the death of Christ I live.” I start with the second verse of Keith Getty and Stuart Townsend’s Hymn, In Christ Alone, for it dives straight into the work of Christ in redeeming God’s people. The sin of man demands a price (Romans 6:23)! The wrath of God can seem contradictory when set against the gracious love of God, but as our post, The Simple, points out, God’s attributes are not portions of his whole but rather he is his attributes! For God to be both loving and just, he cannot stand for or with sin (Exodus 36:6-8)!
What an amazing and faithful God we serve! After millennia of God’s creation failing to keep up their part of the covenants that God makes with them, we will curse God for “failing” us and, in the same breath cry for blessings. Yet, he still delivers. A beautiful picture of this can be found in Genesis 15:1-20. God makes a covenant with Abraham (then known as Abram) and his descendants. Abraham prepares a covenant ritual of the time where animals are split in two and the one making an oath would walk barefoot through the blood as a sign of commitment and as well as a curse if not fulfilled as they would become like the dead animals 1 …well, this part may not be too pretty, but in the latter part of this story (vs. 17), we read that God took Abraham’s place, taking the punishment on himself if they failed to keep their part of the deal. Spoiler alert, Abraham and his descendants failed. EPICALLY! What we see on the cross is God taking on the penalty for our sin! Verse three beautifully illustrates this. “There in the ground His body lay / Light of the world by darkness slain / Then bursting forth in glorious day / Up from the grave He rose again / And as He stands in victory / Sin’s curse has lost its grip on me / For I am His and He is mine / Bought with the precious blood of Christ”
This ought to inspire us and give us hope (Psalm 20:5; 33:18-19; 51:12). “What truth can calm the troubled soul? / God is good, God is good / Where is his grace and goodness known? / In our great Redeemer’s blood / Who holds our faith when fears arise? / Who stands above the stormy trial? / Who sends the waves that bring us nigh / Unto the shore, the rock of Christ?” This second verse is from Christ our Hope in Life and Death by The Getty’s, Matt Papas, and Matt Boswell. How do I know that God will sustain and deliver me through trials and tough times? Christ! We have hope in the present because of what Christ has done as the ultimate example of God’s faithfulness.
What if we are not delivered and we approach death seemingly without deliverance? Even then we can look to the work Christ! The third verse of Christ our Hope in Life and Death “Unto the grave, what will we sing? / “Christ, he lives; Christ, he lives!” / And what reward will heaven bring? / Everlasting life with him / And we will rise to meet the Lord / Then sin and death will be destroyed / And we will feast in endless joy / When Christ is ours forevermore.” David sings of his confidence in the saving power of God in Psalm 16. These generations before Christ trusted that the Lord would save him from Death. “Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also dwells secure. For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol or let your holy one see corruption.” (Psalm 16: 9-10).
This cannot be understated that the most important requirement for Christianity, as the name implies, is faith in the life, death, and resurrection of Christ Jesus (Romans 4:24). If this is not true, then the entirety of the Christian faith is for naught (1 Corinthians 15:14). Knowledge of creation, the end times, the nature of God’s foreknowledge, the nuance of discerning a good bible translation, all these concepts are but rubbish compared to the understanding that Christ lived a perfect life, died as the propitiation for our sins, and that after being dead for three days was raised to life conquering sin and death. Now clearly, we place value in these other concepts, but ultimately faith in Christ Alone is what saves us!
I will conclude with the first verse from Christ our Hope in Life and Death, and some questions. “What is our hope in life and death? / Christ alone, Christ alone / What is our only confidence? / That our souls to him belong / Who holds our days within his hand? / What comes, apart from his command? / And what will keep us to the end? / The love of Christ, in which we stand.” As you listen to these songs again, take time to consider your faith in Christ. For those reading that do not know Christ. How does it change your view on life knowing that there is someone who loved you enough to die for you? That the burden is not on you to save yourself? What is keeping you from receiving God’s free gift? For the believers reading, how does it shape how we view God and how we view others? How does it give us purpose and meaning? What has filled the central part of your faith instead of Christ? Next time we will look into the fourth Sola, According to Scripture alone. Until next time, keep listening for the WORD in Music! #CultivatingFaithOrg
Photo by Akira Hojo on Unsplash