The current issue of
Jubilee (Fall 2017) contains an article by Andrew Sandlin entitled
"Solus Christus: Redemption & the Trouble with Being 'Cross-Centered'." Here is one particularly poignant piece:
Jesus Christ’s work in history is the intersecting point of what I call the four segments of
the Christian quadrilateral: history, doctrine,
experience, and community. You can’t take away
one of these factors and still have Christianity,
but more important than any of them is the One
around whom the entire scheme revolves — our
Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. When we lose
this Christocentric (Christ-centered) focus, we
begin to lose the Faith itself. We then think, for
example, that the Faith is mainly about abstract
theological propositions; if we can just dot our
theological t’s and cross our dogmatic i’s, we will
be all right. Or, on the other hand, if we can just
capture that “greater experience” — that feeling
closeness to God, that lling of the Spirit, or what
have you — we will have reached the Christian
summit. Or, if we can just get into the right (perfect) church, with the right community of saints
who love and care for God and for each other,
we will have arrived. History, doctrine, experience, and community are essential to the Faith,
but they are not the Faith. Jesus Christ Himself is
the Faith. Intelligent people often get sucked into
a dogmatically-centered faith. Emotional people
often get sucked into an experience-centered
faith. Relational people often get sucked into a
community-centered faith. Dogma, experience
and community are good in their place, and
those places are essential — there can be no true
Christianity without them.
But they are not the foundation of our Faith.
Jesus Christ in his Person and Work is the foundation of our Faith (Eph. 2:20). is is why the
New Testament apostles so relentlessly preached
faith in the crucified and risen Lord as man’s
only hope (1 Cor. 2:2; 15:1-4; 1 Jn. 5:12). From
this Christocentricity flows changed individuals,
families, churches, societies, nations, and civilizations. The worldwide transformation predicted
by the Old Testament prophets is the result of a
worldwide Christ-centeredness (Phil. 2:5-
11). The answer to the world’s evil and sin,
therefore, is not more shrewd, glossy evangelistic or political strategies; or more precise, academic theology; or greater Christian emotion and experience. A changed
world is a result of changing the focus of
the entire world to the One by Whom it
consists, or is held together (Col. 1:15-17).
For man made in the image of God, solus
Christus (Christ alone) will — and must —
suffice. (p. 13)
