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“Sine Qua Non” – The Indispensable Christ

Latin is a dead language as linguists view things, meaning that it is obsolete and no longer in active functional use. That doesn’t prevent us, however, from importing words and expressions from Latin into modern English vernacular, when those words and expressions help us say things in a more effective way. Take the Latin phrase “sine qua non“. Translated literally into English, it means “without which, not.” In general terms, it signifies something that is absolutely essential and indispensable, a thing without which something else could not exist, or be possible. The following are some things that are essential and indispensable:

1) Oxygen is “sine qua non” for physical life – without it, we cannot exist as living organisms. There are many things we enjoy, or that make our existence on earth more pleasant, interesting, or meaningful, but which, if we lacked them, we could fare perfectly well without. Oxygen is not such an optional thing. It is “sine qua non” – that without which, we are not.

2) To the greatest and highest degree, Jesus Christ is “sine qua non” – That our Lord is “sine qua non” for our very existence is one of the central affirmations of Scripture: “All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made” (John 1:3). Him whom we know as Jesus is the preexistent and preeminent Word of God (John 1:1). Thus, when the Psalmist writes, “By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth” (Psalm 33:6). That “Word” is Christ Himself.

3) Not only was Christ essential to our creation, He is “sine qua non” for our continued survival – “And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist” (Colossians 1:17). The word “consist” in this context means “to be put together, to have parts united in a whole.” Without Jesus, then, all things as we know them – including ourselves – would unravel, as He is the force by which we are held together. As Paul told the philosophers of Athens, “In Him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28).

4) Christ is “sine qua non” for our relationship with God – Christ tells us, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). This runs contrary to human thinking, which seeks to justify any road or path to God that a person may choose, regardless of its ultimate validity. “All roads lead to Rome” in proverb – though anyone who has ever driven recognizes how impractical this proverb is – but all spiritual roads do not lead to the Creator of all. “Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either; he who acknowledges the Son has the Father also” (1 John 2:23).

5) Jesus is “sine qua non” for our salvation – God’s Word demands a singular path to redemption: “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Christ alone is the bedrock of our salvation: “For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 3:11). Others may sell alternative remedies for the dilemma of humanity like the huckster peddles snake oil, but only Jesus truly saves (Matthew 1:21; Acts 10:43).

6) Jesus is “sine qua non” for eternal life – His apostles recognized that He was the source of that which no other could provide (John 6:68). We likewise must come to accept the inspired declaration: “And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life” (1 John 5:11-12).

“Sine qua non” — “without which, not.” Without Christ, we are not! Could words more perfectly describe Him on whom we depend for our very being, and our hope of eternity?