Solus Christus was one of the key cries of the Protestant Reformation. As church historians evaluate that incredibly significant time in the life of the church in the 1500’s when the gospel was recovered after centuries in darkness, Solus Christus will be one of the most significant themes.
I want to discuss the issue about counseling and Christ alone and the relationship that all of that has to the Protestant Reformation. When you think about the four other Solas of the Protestant Reformation it becomes clear after a moment of reflection that Jesus Christ is the person behind each of the other solos. If you take, for example, Sola Gratia (that salvation is all of the grace) Jesus Christ is the God man right behind that sola. In Romans 5:15, it says the free gift is not like the transgression, for if by the transgression of the one of many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abound to many. It is the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ. The grace of God is located on one person and his name is Jesus. Sola Gratia only makes sense with Solus Christus.
Then there is Sola Scriptura, scripture alone is the authority for the Christian in their life and practice. Jesus Christ is the person behind that sola. Solus Christus is behind Sola Scriptura because the word of God which is our sole authority is ultimately a revelation about Jesus Christ. In Colossians 3:16, the Bible is called the Word of Christ. It is the Word of Jesus. When we are talking about the Bible we are talking about the Word of Christ, who is the Word made flesh. Solus Christus stands immediately behind Sola Scriptura.
We can talk about Sola Fide, faith alone. Of course, Jesus Christ is right behind Sola Fide because the faith alone that saves is faith in Jesus Christ. In Romans 3:22, we are told that even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe. Our belief is founded in Jesus Christ. Our faith is in the one man Jesus and indeed the Apostle Paul will say there is no other name given among men by which they must be saved. Sola Fide is inextricably connected with Solus Christus.
Then there is Soli Deo Gloria, the glory of God alone. The life of the Christian, the life of everyone indeed, is lived for the glory of God alone. But it’s Christians who know it. What we find out from the New Testament is that the glory of God is located specifically in the person and in the work of Jesus Christ. In 2 Corinthians 4:6, it says “God who said light shall shine out of darkness is the one who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” There it is again – the glory of God, which shines out in the face of Jesus. When you see Jesus and look to him, the full glory of God is made known.
With Sola Deo Gloria, Sola Fide, Sola Scriptura and Sola Gratia, Jesus Christ- Solus Christus, he is the man; he is the person who stands right behind each of these other solas. It is impossible to conceive of the Reformation without him just as it is impossible to conceive of the Bible and of life itself without this person, Jesus Christ, who stands at the center and the apex of all of human history.
At ACBC, we believe that just as Jesus Christ is at the center of history, just as he is at the center of the Word of God, just as he is at the center of God’s plan of redemption, just as he is at the center of the reformation; Jesus Christ is at the center of counseling. If there is one thing that I would say is “the” descriptor of ACBC and of the biblical counseling movement in general, I would say, “It is Jesus Christ. He is at the center of what we do because Jesus is at the center of life. Jesus is at the center of all of life, he is also at the center of the conversations when our life is in trouble”.
It is absolutely impossible for us to think of counseling rightly and leave off Jesus. Yet, people do it all the time. We need to have a conference on the Protestant Reformation and on Solus Christus because it is all too common for Christians to leave off Jesus in counseling conversations. Christians can leave off Jesus in two very different ways.
One way that you can forget that Jesus is the person right underneath the surface of every counseling conversation is by rejecting biblical counseling, by advocating Christian psychology or integration or transformational psychology or levels of explanation – some other approach that argues that it is acceptable to have a counseling conversation where Jesus Christ is optional. That is not true. Christians may not advocate leaving Jesus out of the counseling room. Jesus out of counseling conversations is not allowed. At ACBC we are committed to saying that over and over again.
Our standards of counseling doctrine, article 14 of the ACBC doctrine of the Great Commission says, “the church has been called into the world to the task of evangelism and discipleship.” In giving this Commission Jesus requires his people to use their conversation to point people to Christ in evangelism and to build people up in Christ in discipleship. The Great Commission necessitates that all faithful counseling conversations must have Jesus Christ as their ultimate goal. Our Lord and Savior does not give believers the option to avoid counseling conversations or to avoid directing those conversations towards Jesus.
The commitment of Christians to the Great Commission and to faithful biblical counseling is, therefore, one in the same. This is a very bold statement, but also a very clear statement. It’s also a statement that is very clearly consistent with the words of Scripture. The reality is for a Christian to not speak of Jesus in a conversation just because that conversation gets the label of counseling or psychotherapy. Christians who say this, and there are many who do, honestly from the bottom of my heart, should repent from that and turn to Jesus and magnify the Christ at the center of Scripture and at the center of the Reformation.
This is not the only way Jesus can be left out of the counseling room. Jesus Christ can be left out by people committed to biblical counseling drifting into legalism where we are encouraging people even with Bible verses or proof texts that they need to do this good thing or that good thing. Of course, the Bible does make many moral commands. Many imperatives are found throughout the pages of scripture and we better not ever leave those off. We also better not ever speak about those moral imperatives as though they are possible apart from Jesus Christ.
When we do that our counseling becomes unbiblical, even if we can quote Scripture when we do it because Scripture is made possible in the life of the believer by the grace of Jesus Christ. We always have to remember that. In fact, our ACBC Standards of Conduct speak to this. In our statement of methodology, our commitment to the counseling process, article 8A says this: biblical counselors must be committed to the truth that the fundamental key to the process of biblical counseling is the person and work of Jesus Christ. We point counselees to the person and work of Jesus Christ and then teach them how to grow in His grace. Biblical counselors work to point all persons towards repentance towards God and faith in Jesus Christ to find forgiveness in their sin and comfort in their pain.
When you speak about the Bible and the moral commands of the Bible without speaking about the person of Jesus Christ to make it possible, it’s like knowing the words to a song without knowing the tune. When we point people to the moral commands of God instead of the grace of God found in Jesus Christ, even people who are committed to scripture, in general, are guilty and we need to repent of that. We need to be more like Christ and magnify Christ more in our counseling by putting him at the heart and soul of Scripture which is right where he belongs. Jesus Christ is at the heart of the Protestant Reformation because Jesus Christ is at the heart and soul of all of life. Jesus is at the heart and soul and center of conversations about life and the biblical counseling movement exists and our conference is going to happen in the fall so we can say over and over again that any person who denies that has denied the most central reality of Christianity and should repent and point more to Jesus than they did before.
