Editing Five solae (section)

==={{anchor|Solus Christus}}''Solus Christus'' or ''solo Christo'' ("Christ alone" or "through Christ alone")===
{{Main|Solus Christus}}
''Solus Christus'', or "only [[Christ (title)|Christ]]", excludes the priestly class as necessary for sacraments. ''Solus Christus'' is the teaching that [[Jesus in Christianity|Christ]] is the only mediator between God and man,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Bible Gateway passage: 1 Timothy 2:5 - New International Version |url=https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Timothy%202%3A5&version=NIV |access-date=2022-06-30 |website=Bible Gateway |language=en}}</ref> and that there is salvation through no other. For this reason, the phrase is sometimes rendered in the [[ablative case]], ''solo Christo'', meaning that salvation is "by Christ alone".

With regard to Lutheran theology, while rejecting all other mediators between God and man, classical Lutheranism continues to honor the memory of the Virgin Mary and other exemplary saints.{{according to whom|date=January 2022}} This principle rejects [[sacerdotalism]], the belief that there are no sacraments in the church without the services of priests ordained by [[apostolic succession]].{{citation needed|date=January 2022}} [[Martin Luther]] taught the "general priesthood of the baptized", which was modified in later [[Lutheranism]] and classical [[Protestant]] theology into "the [[priesthood of all believers]]", denying the exclusive use of the title "priest" ([[Latin]] ''sacerdos'') to the clergy.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Luther |first=Martin |title=Selected Psalms II in Luther's Works |publisher=Fortress Press |year=1955 |editor-last=Pelikan |editor-first=Jaroslav |location=St Louis: Concordia and Philadelphia |pages=13:332 |editor-last2=Lehmann |editor-first2=Helmut T.}}</ref> This principle does not deny the office of the holy ministry to which is committed the public proclamation of the Gospel and the administration of the sacraments.{{according to whom|date=January 2022}} In this way, Luther in his ''[[Luther's Small Catechism|Small Catechism]]'' could speak of the role of "a confessor" to confer sacramental [[absolution]] on a penitent; the section in this catechism known as "The Office of the Keys" (not written by Luther but added with his approval) identifies the "called ministers of Christ" as being the ones who exercise the [[binding and loosing]] of [[absolution]] and [[excommunication]] through [[Law and Gospel]] ministry.{{citation needed|date=January 2022}}

This [[binding and loosing]] is laid out in the Lutheran formula of holy absolution: the "called and ordained servant of the Word" forgives penitents' sins (speaks Christ's words of forgiveness: "I forgive you all your sins") without any addition of penances or satisfactions and not as an interceding or mediating "priest", but "by virtue of [his] office as a called and ordained servant of the Word" and "in the stead and by the command of [his] Lord Jesus Christ".<ref>''The Lutheran Hymnal'', St. Louis: [[Concordia Publishing House]], 1941, p.&nbsp;16</ref>{{Original research inline|date=January 2022}} In this tradition absolution reconciles the penitent with God directly through faith in Christ's forgiveness rather than with the priest and the church as mediating entities between the penitent and God.{{according to whom|date=January 2022}}