Table of Contents
Parent: JesusWordsOnly
Final Thoughts
We can now finish the battle that the Reformers courageously began for Christ. However, we no longer can permit ourselves to turn a blind eye to the error in the Roman Catholic tradition that sees Paul too as an apostle of Jesus Christ. This was not the view of the earliest church when the question was squarely faced in 207 A.D. We can also now see Jesus gave us significant warnings of the "ravening wolf' from the tribe of Benjamin, not only through Moses and Ezekiel but also during His earthly ministry.
We must no longer be distracted from following our Lord's teachings. We can now take the first step to a thorough-going reformation. This one will examine all doctrine in the exclusive light of Jesus' words. Even doctrines that solely rely upon Paul.
When the Reformation started in 1517, there was a great advantage in using Paul to strike a blow at the Catholic doctrine of indulgences. Clearly, the Catholic church was selling a work of obedience as a means of salvation. An indulgence was a payment by a loved one to obtain a papal certificate for a deceased relative, whereupon the deceased was supposedly released from purgatory. They were now free to enter heaven. Certainly, such a doctrine violated Paul's teaching that works of obedience can never contribute toward salvation. ((Eph. 2:8-9); (Rom. 4:3-5).)
However, Luther overlooked that an indulgence was a work not required by Jesus. It was a tradition. Moreover, unlike Jesus' doctrine of salvation, the indulgence doctrine taught salvation was achieved without any personal repentance of the person allegedly in purgatory. The indulgence doctrine negated Jesus' salvation Gospel. His Gospel emphasized the centrality of repentance from sin. ((Mark 9:42-47).) The Catholic doctrine of indulgences also depended on belief in a place called purgatory. However, it nowhere appears in Jesus' words or any inspired Scripture. It too only had support in Catholic tradition based on the Apocrypha.
Thus, the young Luther overlooked a better strategy than relying upon Paul. Luther could have instead relied upon the Jesus' Words Only doctrine. With it, Luther would have easily blasted as unwarranted such traditions of the Roman Catholic church, including the notions of purgatory, indulgences, and countless other innovations. Luther did not realize he had a better weapon in hand than Paul. He had the weapon of the Exclusive Authority of Jesus over His church that neither popes, priests, nor ministers can claim to hold.
Unfortunately, Luther's emphasis on Paul and failure to use Jesus' Words Only to attack indulgences has had a terrible consequence. It has led to a teaching even more horrible than the doctrine of indulgences. We have taken any of Jesus' doctrine which does not comport with Paul, and found ways to ignore it and suppress it. When that would not work, we altogether dismissed such conflicting doctrine from Jesus as belonging to a supposedly defunct dispensation. 63 We have thereby drained Christianity of Christ's teachings. We have consequently arrived at a "Christianity without Christ" to borrow Bonhoeffer's expression.
- See "Does Jesus End up Marginalized To Make Room For Paul?" on page 367 et seq.
However, I now look forward to the renovation which Bonhoeffer first let us glimpse. Not a word of Paul influenced him to depart from his loyalty to the words of Christ. Every word of The Cost of Discipleship (1937) is a testament to a man convicted by God of the verity of the Jesus' Words Only proposition. He did so bravely. Bonhoeffer died a hero as well as a martyr, suffering being murdered by the Nazis. Thus, let Christ be victorious for you as well, as He was in the end for Bonhoefffer. MacArthur likewise gives us hope that evangelicals and Calvinists will realize that Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life, and "no man comes to the Father but through me." (John 14:6.) Soon I trust we will no longer teach the lost about a pathway to Christ other than what Christ Himself taught. All who come up by a different path than what Jesus taught are "thieves and robbers." (John 10:1).
This change in our pathway to God, based on what Jesus alone taught, can never possibly end up with a dangerous doctrine of salvation. This is because we are solely relying upon what Jesus said was required for salvation. We are still saved and justified solely by grace. But God's conditions for grace is not solely a one-time faith. Rather, as Bonhoeffer clearly explained, Jesus insisted upon a costly grace. Jesus rejected any notion of a cheap grace.
But when will we know we have a tangible victory for Christ based on Jesus' Words only? When no Christian during devotions treats Paul as a director of doctrine, but relies instead upon Our Lord's words alone. Then this battle is won. When no Christian would think of buying a Bible any longer that contains the words of a false apostle and false prophet, we will have grasped a victory for our Lord. When Paul is treated just like the Apocrypha, which Christians pressured the King James Bible in 1825 to drop from canon, we will have seen a tangible result. When all Christians relinquish every doctrine not of Jesus Christ, we know the Church has finally given glory where the glory belongs.
Is making this change all that hard? Tony Coffey in Once A Catholic made an interesting statement. In appealing to Catholics to focus on Jesus, and jettison Catholic traditions, he said he had a "heart filled with the conviction that if we follow Jesus Christ, we will never be lost." 64
I wholeheartedly agree. If Protestants can tell a Catholic this is true for the Catholic about their traditions, then Protestants should agree it is true about their own traditions. A Protestant should agree there is nothing dangerous in following Jesus' words alone. There is, in fact, only danger in not doing so.
- Tony Coffey, Once A Catholic: What Yon Need to Know About Roman Catholicism (Eugene, Oregon: Harvest House, 1984) at 15.