How to lead your worship service this Reformation Day – Solus Christus (Matthew Barrett)

In a post last week I mentioned what a great opportunity it can be to lead your congregation through the solas of the Reformation this October, especially if they are unfamiliar with these key doctrines. In that post I focused on last Sunday’s service, where the entire order of worship was focused around sola Scriptura, culminating in the sermon. This week at Fellowship Baptist Church, I will turn to solus Christus.

So, what will the service look like? After opening announcements and greetings, the service will begin with a song/hymn of worship, in this case “What Wondrous Love Is This?” followed by a reading and a prayer on behalf of the congregation. The reading is from The Heidelberg Catechism (1563), certainly one of the best catechisms from the sixteenth-century.

Question 1: What is thy only comfort in life and in death?
Answer: That I, with body and soul, both in life and in death, am not my own, but belong to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ, who with his precious blood has fully satisfied for all my sins, and redeemed me from all the power of the devil; and so preserves me that without the will of my Father in heaven not a hair can fall from my head; yea, that all things must work together for my salvation. Wherefore, by his Holy Spirit, he also assures me of eternal life, and makes me heartily willing and ready henceforth to live unto him.

As you can tell, this reading captures the cross of Christ and the redemption we have through him, providing us with great comfort in this life.

Next are two songs/hymns of worship: “O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing” and “In Christ Alone.” Again, both of these draw our eyes to the cross and the sufficiency of Christ’s death for sinners. For example, consider the following stanza from the latter:

In Christ alone, Who took on flesh,
Fullness of God in helpless babe!
This gift of love and righteousness,
Scorned by the ones He came to save.
Till on that cross as Jesus died,
The wrath of God was satisfied;
For ev’ry sin on Him was laid—
Here in the death of Christ I live.

After the offering, the sermon text is read from Hebrews 9:11-15, one of my favorite passages emphasizing the security of our redemption through the blood of Christ, who is our mediator and great high priest.

But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

The sermon will then be an exposition of the doctrine of solus Christus, pulling from the Reformers’ beliefs and context, only to move into the biblical and doctrinal implications of this doctrine for the Christian life.

Our church takes the Lord’s Supper the first Sunday of every month. So after the sermon I will stress the meaning of this meal, and what a better Sunday to do this than one in which we are learning about solus Christus? Sometimes, prior to taking the Lord’s Supper, I have a congregational reading through a catechism, like the Baptist Catechism, on the Lord’s Supper. This is a helpful way for the people to confess together, out loud, the significance and meaning of this meal. But since we are tying everything back to the Reformation, I will turn to Luther’s Larger Catechism (1529) instead. There we find this enriching paragraph:

The Lord’s Supper is given as a daily food and sustenance so that our faith may refresh and strengthen itself and not weaken in the struggle but grow continually stronger. For the new life should be one that continually develops and progresses. Meanwhile it must suffer much opposition. The devil is a furious enemy; when he sees that we resist him and attack the old man, and when he cannot rout us by force, he sneaks and skulks about everywhere, trying all kinds of tricks, and does not stop until he has finally worn us out so that we either renounce our faith or yield hand and foot and become indifferent or impatient. For such times, when our heart feels too sorely oppressed, this comfort of the Lord’s Supper is given to bring us new strength and refreshment.

You don’t have to hold to consubstantiation to appreciate Luther’s words here (and he does not bring in his view at this point anyway). Luther elegantly teaches us why this meal is necessary to refresh our faith in Christ in the midst of much opposition and oppression. This meal is a comfort to the weary soul.

The service concludes with a benevolence offering for the poor and needy, another song/hymn of worship, followed by a benediction. And yes, the closing benediction turns our attention to the sacrifice of Christ one last time:

Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders, if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by him this man is standing before you well. This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:8-12 ESV)

If you are thinking through ways in which you can teach your congregation Reformation theology, what I have provided is one example that I trust you will find helpful. Next week I will follow this up with our service on sola gratia.

Matthew Barrett (PhD, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) is Assistant Professor of Christian Studies at California Baptist University, as well as the founder and executive editor of Credo Magazine. Barrett is also Senior Pastor of Fellowship Baptist Church. He is the author and editor of several books, including Salvation by Grace: The Case for Effectual Calling and Regeneration. You can read about Barrett’s other publications at matthewmbarrett.com.