Well, tonight, we're continuing on in the five solas series, the five big themes of the Protestant Reformation, which are sola scriptura. What does this mean? Scripture alone, sola gratia, what's this mean? Sola fide. We come now to solus Christus, or in other words, Christ alone is what this means. That is tonight, Lord willing. Next week, Pastor Andrew will do the penultimate study, soli deo gloria, to the glory of God alone. I say penultimate because it's not the last one. There'll be one more after that on semper reformanda, which means always reforming. But tonight, as we look at solus Christus, I want to, in a sense, do something different. I want to start with my conclusion. I'm going to restate it, but I want to state it first to show you where we're going, why this matters so much.
When we turn to solus Christus, we turn to the linchpin, the hub, the apex, and the center of all Reformation theology, indeed the center of all doctrine together. Christ is the glory of sola scriptura, for He alone is the Word made flesh, and He alone is the interpretive end of all Scripture. Christ is the glory of sola gratia, for He alone is the grace of God personified. Christ is the glory of sola fide, for He alone is the object of saving faith. And Christ is the glory of soli deo gloria, for He alone is the radiance of the glory of God. That's where we're going. I now want to make an argument to get there. And to get there, I want to use the book of Hebrews chapter 1. What were you guessing? Oh, okay. Yeah. That would be a good one. I'm the way, the truth, and the life. That's great.
We're going Hebrews chapter 1, verse 1 to 4. Sorry for the letdown. But this one's just as good. So the author of Hebrews, whoever it was in these first four verses, brings his readers quickly to the main point. Jesus is better. Jesus is better than all that's come before. Specifically, for us, as we look into these four verses, I have three points to bring to you tonight to show you the glory of solus Christus, of Christ alone. Jesus as prophet, priest, and king. Jesus as prophet, priest, and king. It's in that order in verse 1 to 4 in Hebrews chapter 1. Historically, John Calvin would call these three offices of Christ the menus triplex. He was the first one in all of church history to give these three titles a label and kind of grouped them together. Ever since then, we have been minded to see this.
It's not he didn't invent this. He just kind of made the categorizations and gave it the label, and it's stuck ever since, and there's glorious reasons for it. So let's see first. prophet. This is, well gosh, let me read our text and then we'll get into it. Hebrews 1 1 to 4 says this, long ago at many times and in many ways God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom he also created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.
See first, Jesus as prophet. In the first two verses of Hebrews we see a great deal, not of what man has done to get to God, but what God has done to reveal himself to man. It's here where we see Jesus as prophet. Long ago at many times in many ways God spoke. This means God is not a silent God. God is a God who speaks. If God had remained silent, nothing that has been made would have been made. Yet into the dark void of Genesis 1 2 came God's strong and creative word, the power of his word. Genesis 1 3, let there be light, and there was light. God not only spoke all creation into existence, but as the author of Hebrews says here, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. This means that the same voice that crafted the world called out to God's people through the prophetic office. The calling of the prophet then was to stand in the gap between God and his people as God's representative to speak to the people.
This was the role of the prophet. God would reveal his secret counsel to the prophet and then they would reveal the same to God's people. The prophet was not to edit, alter, amend, improve, or remove anything from the message to any degree. They were to give the message as is. This the prophets did in many ways from Moses to Malachi, whether in writing, proclaiming, miracles, or visions. This was how it worked. God revealed himself to his people by his word through his prophet. But in verse 2, notice the transition. In verse 2, there's a transition to something new. But in these last days, God has spoken to us by his Son. So notice firsthand that the author of Hebrews believes that we're not waiting for a future period of time called the last days. No, the author believes that the last days have clearly already begun.
Specifically, the event that marked the transition into the last days. God, who once spoke by the prophets, began speaking and spoke through His Son." So here we see that God reveals Himself to His people in two stages according to Hebrews 1. First, to His old covenant people by the prophets, and now to His new covenant church by His Son. We generally could say that these two stages correspond to what we call the Old and New Testament or the Old and New Covenant. God's divine revelation then is progressive. I don't mean the idea that God evolves from one generation to the next. Of course not. God's the same forever and ever. I also do not mean that revelation progresses from something less true to more true, less worthy to more worthy, less mature to more mature. The progression of God's divine revelation from Old Testament to New Testament is a progression from promise to fulfillment or shadow to reality.
So there is a true progression here, but be sure to note that God's progression and how He reveals Himself to His people is a progression that leads to Christ. And yet, it's a progression that leads no further than Christ. Prophet after prophet was sent by God to God's people with messages of hope, justice, mercy, judgment, and the promise of a coming Redeemer. Well, when that Redeemer came, God spoke through His Son, the full and final word. The contrast being made in verse 1 and 2 is vast. It is great. God once spoke, once spoke in many ways to Israel by the prophets. God now speaks in one way to the church by His Son. Once the prophets spoke the Word of God to God's people, now Jesus Christ is the very Word of God come to God's people. Therefore, Christ is the perfect, full, and final revelation of who God is and what God requires of man.
Or we could just say it, Jesus is true prophet. Hebrews doesn't end there. We now see Jesus as true priest. This picks up in the remainder of verse 2 and in the beginning of verse 3. Here we also learn a great deal, not of what man has done to become right with God, but what God has done to make man right with Himself. This is where we see Jesus stand forth in the text as priest. But before we get to the great priestly statement at the end of verse 3, look at how it begins at the end of verse 2, whom He appointed, the heir of all things, through whom He also created the world. He, Christ, is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature. He upholds the universe by the Word of His power. These identity statements about who Christ is are loaded with life-altering reality.
So loaded, in fact, that to do justice to this, we could give one sermon on each of these phrases and that would not be enough. For our purposes tonight, we'll just notice them briefly. Who is Jesus Christ? What does Jesus do? Answer, Jesus is the heir of all things. For his father owns everything and has given everything into his hands. Jesus is the creator of the world, for he is the very word of God, which was God and was with God in the beginning. Jesus is the radiance of the glory of God, for he is the ultimate display of the God we meet in Exodus 3 in the burning bush moment. He is the exact imprint of God's nature. For Jesus, God the Father, was pleased to have all the fullness of the deity dwell in Jesus bodily. And lastly, Jesus is the upholder of the universe, for he is not only the powerful word which made the world, he is the powerful word which sustains the world.
This Christ, who created all, sustains all, is fully God, is majestic, is sovereign. This is the one who acted as our priest. You see how that all leads to priest? At the end of verse 3, he and he alone made purification for sins. Now we come to the great priestly work of Christ, and we can make a contrast with prophet and priest. As the prophet was God's representative to the people, so to the priest, just reverse the trajectory, was the people's representative to God. They both stood in the gap, but one was representing God to the people, that's prophet, then priest representing people to God. That is the role of priest. And being the representative of the people, the priest would have to make sacrifices. Sacrifices for their own sins, sacrifices for the people's sins, sacrifices on feast days, on festival days, sacrifice upon sacrifice, standing in the gap for the people of God before God.
This was the calling, the duty, and the privilege of the priest. And in this work, we see the glory of the priestly work of Christ, for he too made a sacrifice for sin. He too stood in the gap between God and man, but he made no sacrifice for his own sins. He didn't have any, and he didn't make repeated sacrifices. He made one, and the glory of his sacrifice is that he was the sacrifice. He didn't just offer something else. He was the sacrifice. Two massive realities stand forth here. First, his sacrifice is a one-time event, which covers all the sin of all God's people for all time. He was the sacrifice for the people, as we've mentioned. The Westminster Shorter Catechism quotes it like this, our Redeemer, as our Redeemer Christ served in the office of priest in his once offering up of himself a sacrifice.
to satisfy divine justice and reconcile us to God and in making continual intercession for us. So this great high priest, Jesus, not only created the heavens, but came down from the heavens to make new creations out of us. He not only sustains and upholds the universe by the word of His power, but He allowed Himself to be prevailed upon so that we would know the power of the cross. He and He alone stood in the gap between the holy God and sinful man and He and He alone bridged the gap by offering up Himself a sacrifice to satisfy divine justice for sins. In other words, He alone is the true priest. But notice what follows right on the heels in Hebrews 1 of this prophet-priest description. We find Jesus as King right there at the end of verse 3 and 4. After He made purification for sins, what did He do?
He sat down. He sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, having become as much superior to the angels as the name He has inherited is more excellent than theirs. It's worth noting that in the instructions, we're going to get here, Lord willing, one day, TBD on how fast we're going to move through this section of Exodus, but when we get the instruction for the furniture and all the furnishings of the tabernacle and the temple, there is no instruction to make a seat for the high priest. There's no instruction to make a seat for the high priest. It's because He was always up and He was always working, making all kinds of various sacrifices for all kinds of sins that the people and Himself were committing. But here we see something different with Christ. After He made purification for sins once for all, He sat down.
Why did He sit down? It was a physical way of showing what He just said verbally. After all His suffering, right before death, He said, it is finished. And then after that verbal statement and the three days in the tomb, He ascends and sits down to show His work as Redeemer is finished. He didn't sit down in a lawn chair or a lazy boy. He sat on a throne. And not just any throne, it was God's throne. What does this mean? He's the King. It means He's the King. Christ is not just true prophet, not just true priest, He is true King. The King that anyone and everyone has always desired. And of course, no surprise, this makes me think of Tolkien's third book in the trilogy, The Return of the King. This moment when all the storylines are coming to a conclusion and all the heroes, they have labored and toiled and they have fought to aid Frodo and Sam in getting the ring into the fires of Mount Doom to destroy the enemy.
That all happened, but what happened then after the enemy and his ring were destroyed? Aragorn took his rightful place as King in the city of Gondor and sat down on the throne. What was the result of him being enthroned as King, as really the King of man in Middle-earth? Peace came to all the lands of men, of elves, and dwarves. As wonderful as that is, the events of Hebrews 1, 1-4 are infinitely greater. When we see Christ the King put the devil to an open shame in His crucifixion and resurrection and in His death and in His resurrection, in His ascension, in His enthronement and in His session, His rule over all things, this is a deeper peace that comes from the greatest King of all, reigning over all. creation. This is Christ the King, prophet, priest, king. All the offices, you could say, were instituted in the Old Testament because they really mattered and they played a role for the time and the context that they were first given in, but the ultimate purpose for the role of prophet and priest and king was to prepare the way for the greatest prophet, priest, and king.
For every prophet, priest, and king of old, either sinned, was a failure, or was not enough on their own. Only Jesus perfectly, fully, and finally, flawlessly executed all these roles and they all find the pinnacle in Him. So, soulless Christus still matters. As I've done every time, I have ended with an illustration from Martin Luther's life. Let's do another one tonight to answer this question about why soulless Christus is still important. Once Martin Luther began seeing the power of the gospel, grace, and the powerlessness of his own works to save, he was very young at this time. He had just, well, he had not done it yet, but he was still learning these things. He heard of a famous preacher coming to town and he just arrived in Wittenberg and was setting up a stage and his name was John Tetzel.
Tetzel came into the town square and he would preach a message like this. Martin Luther would hear this firsthand. Good people of Wittenberg, have you not at one time or another burned your hand in the fire and felt it torment you day and night? How greatly you ought to fear then the fires of hell, which are able to burn and torment your soul for all eternity. Your Pope, Pope Leo X offers you grace for the building of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. Tonight and only tonight, you can snatch any loved one or rescue yourself from the fires of hell for a few coins. For when a coin in the coffer rings, a soul from purgatory springs. This was Tetzel's sermon, short to the point and entirely heretical. The technical term for this is an indulgence and Tetzel just so happened to be the most famous indulgence preacher of the 16th century, leading up to the times of the Reformation.
Luther heard this firsthand and was vexed in his soul. Why? Because Tetzel's message was clear. Give money to the Pope for the building of this new building and you will be saved. In response to Tetzel's preaching, Luther wrote his famous 95 Theses and posted it on the church door in Wittenberg and he wrote many other numerous books against the preaching of John Tetzel and the wicked doctrines of the Pope's past and present. For writing 95 Theses and all the other books that he did, Pope Leo X sent Luther a written warning called a papal bull, a warning that if you do not repent or recant of your writings, you will be excommunicated from the Holy Catholic Church. Luther responded after receiving this letter by publicly burning the letter. Very Luther-like, right? In the following Sunday, after burning this letter publicly before the townspeople, he said this in his sermon, yes, you've heard it's true, I've been summoned to Rome.
While I'm gone, remember, we obsess about indulgences. God is not an angry God who only wants your money. Those who see God as angry do not see Him rightly. If we truly believe that Christ is our Savior and we have a God of love and to see God in faith is to look on His friendly heart. So when the devil throws your sins in your face and declares that you deserve death and hell, tell him this, I admit that I deserve death and hell. what of it? For I know one who suffered and made satisfaction in my behalf. His name is Jesus Christ, Son of God, and where he is one day I shall be also." So you see how in Luther's sermon his response to the indulgence preaching of John Tetzel was to say that Christ's work and nothing that we do, Christ's work alone saves. Now why does this still matter today? You may think that the preaching of indulgences was a thing of the past, but you would be mistaken.
The Roman Catholic Church not only still uses and still offers indulgences of all kinds, but the current Pope still upholds the practice. Remember, when an indulgence is offered, what's being communicated is that if you do this, if you go here on this pilgrimage, if you give this amount or that amount of money, you will be saved from the fires and the torment of hell. There seems in this theology no place for Christ standing forth as true prophet, true priest, and true king. The center of Tetzel's preaching is that you save yourself when you contribute money to the Pope. In 1992, Joseph Carl Ratzinger, or Pope Benedict, rewrote the Catholic's official catechism. He did not remove the whole section on indulgences, that was affirmed throughout the ages, and he rewrote it, put it in. It's still affirmed today.
To date, the Roman Catholic Church has never denied the preaching or teaching or practice of the indulgence. Luther heard this and it vexed his soul, because the work of Christ was put aside for the work of man. And the same is true today in one of the largest so-called Christian denominations in the world. It ought to vex us that the work of Christ is thrust aside for the work of man. He alone is true prophet, true king, and true priest. We need to return to solus Christus. So what I said in the beginning, I say again, when we turn to this particular sola of the five, we come to the linchpin, the hub, the apex, and the center of all Reformation and biblical theology. Christ is the glory of sola scriptura, for he alone is the Word made flesh, and he alone is the interpretive end of all Scripture.
Christ is the glory of sola gratia, for he alone is the grace of God personified. Christ is the glory of sola fide, for he alone is the object of saving faith, and Christ is the glory of sola Deo gloria, for he alone is the radiance of the glory of God. Far be it from any of us to think that the Reformation or any theology that comes out of it boasts a label of Reformed or Luther or Calvin or any other famous man or woman of history. We need to be vexed if any man-centeredness comes into our doctrine, because if it comes in the middle of it, it removes Christ from it. It's his work and his work alone that brings us back to God. We have no need for any other prophet to provide us with new revelation. We have no need for any other priest to mediate between us and God, and we have no need for any other king to rule God's church, for Christ is prophet, priest, and king.
He alone stands at the center of God's eternal purposes, and thus Christ and Christ alone must stand at the center of all of our life and doctrine in the church. Amen.
