NO OTHER NAME
ACTS 4:1-12 PRINCETON CHRISTIAN CHURCH 13 MARCH 2022
People often look for different ways to find salvation in the world today. We may attempt to find salvation in certain people. We may look to well-known scholars for guidance and help toward salvation. Their opinions and philosophic reasoning receive great respect. We may feel that we have found salvation in their wisdom.
We look for, and find, salvation in material things. All those shiny trinkets that surround us and provide for us. We think a certain amount of security is present through them. These material things, though always lead to a false sense of salvation. They seem to give us a feeling that “nothing can touch me now because I have found my salvation and I have it made.”
Those who seek salvation in the ways I have just mentioned are not fully aware of what true salvation is about. What does God’s Word have to say about where we can find this true and lasting salvation?
We can turn to Acts Chapter 4, verses 1-12 to examine the truth about salvation which is vital and alive, lasting, and life-changing. Read Acts 4:1-12. We will focus on verse 12.
“Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”
The Name referred to there is, of course, the One Peter is speaking of just before in verse 10: “…let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead – by this name this man stands here before you in good health.”
The religious leaders were questioning Peter and john concerning the healing of the crippled beggar. They were asking, “By what power or what name did you do this?” Peter answers them, “It is by the NAME of Jesus Christ of Nazareth that the man was healed.” Peter goes on to say that salvation (or healing from the spiritual disease of sin) is found n where else, except in the name of Jesus Christ. We might say today that this healing, this power, coming through Jesus is one of a kind. We know today that anything which is one of a kind is something that has value. Jesus is one of a kind, and He is extremely valuable.
That fact remains today. The power of Jesus Christ to save is equally as strong now as it was then. Whatever or whomever we seek salvation in cannot stand or measure up when compared to the salvation which Jesus Christ offers.
Looking for salvation in all the wrong places leaves us without fulfillment and meaning in our lives. Only a temporary happiness exists. Life looks grand for a while. Things really seem to be turning around. And then ---- the thing or person in which we have found salvation fails! What then?
Faith is shattered and we are lost! We are hopeless! We are back where we started from. We have to come back to the One in who salvation – true deliverance and preservation can be found --- Jesus Christ.
We can find comfort in his salvation because His salvation brings us none of those disappointments. Hebrews 13:8 assures us of this when the writer tells us: “He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.”
Let us ask ourselves a question: “Why is He qualified to grant us salvation? Why is He able to deliver us from sin sickness, and able to preserve us to the end?” Here are some answers to the question:
1. He is victorious over temptation and trial.
Hebrews 4:15: “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.”
Even when trials, temptations, and sufferings come our way, Jesus Christ is still there. When we sin and fail Him, H awaits our coming to Him with a repentant heart. When we experience joy, He rejoices with us, rather than displaying a jealous heart as would any other ordinary form of salvation we might indulge in.
There is no sin in Him. He stood accused of sin according to the religious leaders. His sin was that of claiming He was the Son of God in their minds. As He was judges, the governor Pilate came to this conclusion – I find no basis for such a charge upon this man.” In other words, there is no sin found in this man. And no one else has ever found any sin to be in Him. Because of His purity and victory over sin and temptation. He is fully qualified to give us salvation today.
2. He practiced what He preached.
His message, of course, was one of Love. On every occasion, He encountered the lives of people. He met them and their needs, individually, with a loving understanding of their specific situation. He practiced the kind of love He desires that we all have toward others.
Forgiveness is another area in which He taught much. His encounter with the woman caught in adultery is a good example. Others were condemning her. And if anyone had a right to condemn her, Jesus surely did. But He knew these men – the accusers – were sinners too. Jesus’ attitude toward her was on of forgiveness. He was willing to forgive her if she was willing to go and sin no more. By that means she could be forgiven and made whole.
His example shines through also in the area of unselfishness. He came to give His all. Everything He was He laid it on the line to be given in service to His Father as needed and required. His entire life was given over to the needs of others. He gave it all. Giving was all He knew. He knew very little of receiving for Himself. His unselfish attitude extended even to the cross and His own death.
Jesus came to the earth with the purpose of saving the lost. In order to do that, He had to identify with us, but He also had to allow us to see Him living those things He was professing. In short, what He did was to demonstrate with His life the truth of His words. He put His preaching into the practice of His life. He is, without a doubt, qualified to save us.
3. He has conquered death.
The Gospel can be summed up in what we hear Paul say in 1 Corinthians 15:3-5: “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.”
Others have died and been brought back to life. But the unique feature of Christ’s death and resurrection is that His resurrection is permanent. He is alive forever! Others who were raised eventually died again. Jesus is as much alive today as He was then. He is still serving as the Mediator between God and man. He still pardons, forgives, and shows mercy.
Let’s think again about what Acts 4:12 teaches us: “And there is salvation in no one else for there is no other name under heaven that been given among men by which we must be saved.”
Now, He is qualified to bring us salvation. He can deliver us from sin and sickness. He can preserve us from the awful punishment we so much deserve. We know what part Jesus plays in our salvation. But what about us? What is our part in all of this? Can we be any of these things that qualify Jesus as our Savior? Can we be victorious over temptations and trials? Can we practice what we preach by the way we live? Can we conquer death? The answer to all these questions is, of course, YES!. We overcome temptation by communicating with the One who is able to overcome everything, even death. We practice what we preach by knowing fully the One in whom we believe and have placed our trust. We conquer death by living in Him, knowing that physical death only brings us closer to real life – that is, life in Jesus Christ eternally.
I will close with this illustration:
In World War I a sinking Nazi ship was approached by a British rescue vessel. The Nazi sailors spit at the British sailors who could have been their rescuers. They refused to be saved.
Today, as sinners, we have the option to refuse to be saved. We can allow the lifeboat to sail on. But what a sad choice that would be. Even God will not impose life on an unwilling sinner. We cannot keep life in what, or who is determined to die.
Man must respond to the loving outreach of God, through His Son, for His grace, forgiveness, and salvation to be effective by His redemptive power.
Gary K Fair