Over the last few months we have revisited the faith convictions that stand at the heart of our believing community. They are “confessional” convictions. They are based in the inherited faith of the church of Jesus Christ throughout the centuries and around the world, reflected in the “creeds” and “confessions” of the Christian church. Confessional communities do not invent convictions like these; we inherit them; we “confess” them. Convictions like these root communities like ours in the established witness of the ages.
We have organized our reflections around three Reformation “solas”: we are saved only by grace, only through faith, as we know it by the singular, sure witness of Scripture. A fourth “sola” is often added to these three – a trusting confidence that lies beneath them, you might say. It is fundamentally different from the other three: they are convictions about the way that God operates in the world and makes salvation known. The fourth “sola,” however, is not another conviction. It is a Person.
Jesus is the inner spring of our faith: Jesus is the indispensable motor. Only Jesus! Solus Christus! Jesus is Life for the dead, Light for our darkness, Truth for our wavering hearts, and the dependable Way to the Father. Jesus is the Conquering Lamb of Calvary. He is the Great and Coming King. Jesus is the Eternal Son of God, the Wonderful Redeemer, the great Lover of our souls.
Most of all, our Confessions remind us, Jesus is “a mirror of the Father’s heart” (LC II, 65).1 “We could never come to recognize the Father’s favor and grace were it not for the Lord Christ, who is a mirror of the Father’s heart. Apart from him we see nothing but an angry and terrible Judge.” In Jesus Christ we see that God “has completely given himself to us, withholding nothing” (LC II, 26). At the center of our faith, there is room for only One. There is one Door into God’s fold. There is one “Mirror” into God’s heart. It is a Person. It is Jesus Christ. There can be no other.
The doctrine of Jesus Christ, our Confessions insist, is “The Chief and First Article” of our faith (SA, II, I). “Of this article nothing can be yielded or surrendered… though heaven and earth, and whatever will not abide, should sink to ruin” (SA, II, I, 5).
We affirm “only Scripture.” But the affirmation is aimless without the “chief article.” The Scripture is filled with Jesus Christ, from first to last. The Scripture points always to Jesus.
We affirm “only by grace.” But grace is effected and made available in the life and the work of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the basis of grace. If we are interested in living in the grace of God, or sharing it perhaps with others, we will find it and share it in Jesus.
We affirm “only through faith.” Yet our faith, if it is Christian faith, is always clearly directed: it is directed to the Lord Jesus Christ. It is Jesus who creates faith in our hearts. In faith our hearts are directed always to him.
“Christ must be everything,” Martin Luther explains, “the beginning, the middle, and the end of our salvation. We must lay him down as the first or foundation stone, rest the others and intermediate ones on him, and also attach the rafters or the roof to him. He is the first, the middle, and the last rung in the ladder to heaven (Genesis 28). Through him we must begin, must continue, and must complete our progress to life” (WLS, 545).2
It is said that Martin Luther’s theology is coextensive with his Christology. His ecclesiology is Christology. His missiology is Christology. Luther knew what he knew about God, church, heaven, sin, redemption – and Christian mission in the world – in and through his encounter with Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the indispensable key to understanding Scripture, formulating doctrine, living a Christian life, resting in Christian hope, participating in God’s mission, and enjoying eternity at Christ’s side.
“Everything depends on the article of Christ, and everything is involved in it,” Luther said. “Whoever has this article has everything” (WLS, 438). “For God has made everything depend on this Man, has directed everything, has turned everything, has given everything into his hand. He who has him is to have all; he who does not have him is to have nothing. So matters stand” (WLS, 589).
The Holy Spirit is like a lute player, Luther once surmised. But he is a special kind of player: he sounds but one note, on one string only. Everywhere and always, he sounds the note of Jesus (WLS, 436).
This should be the “tune” of our believing community, as well. Our spiritual health is not based in psychology. Our effectiveness in service is not based in missiology. Our salvation is not based in theology. And our confessional integrity is not based in our confessions. There is one fundamental “Note” that ties our hearts and lives together. It is none other than the Savior of the world.
1 Find our Confessions online at http://projectwittenberg.org/
2 Luther references from What Luther Says (St. Louis: Concordia, 1959), a classic three-volume series of pithy Luther sayings.
Other posts in this Lutheran series:
I’ve so appreciated this entire series, Chuck! It is so very well done. Thank you. We’re blessed by it!
Thanks for your encouragement, Paul. We have a wonderful inheritance from old Dr. Luther, that is sure…