By Whose Name Must We Be Saved?

Tom: In this our Understanding the Scriptures segment, we are in the Book of Acts. We are in Acts 4—we finished verse 4, so we will pick up with verse 5. And we would encourage anyone at home—at home, not in the car, not behind the wheel—but if you have your Bible, we encourage you to follow along with us. Acts:4:5And it came to pass on the morrow, that their rulers, and elders, and scribes,
See All...: “And it came to pass on the morrow, that their rulers, and elders, and scribes, And Annas the high priest, and Caiaphas, and John, and Alexander, and as many as were of the kindred of the high priest, were gathered together at Jerusalem. And when they had set them in the midst, they asked, By what power, or by what name, have ye done this? Then Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, said unto them, Ye rulers of the people, and elders of Israel, If we this day be examined of the good deed done to the impotent man, by what means he is made whole; Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole. This is the stone—” well, Dave, before I go on, Peter is not messing around here. He is pretty bold in the Spirit and he’s just laying it out for them.

Dave: Exactly. Why don’t you go ahead and read through Verse 12.

Tom: Okay. “This is the stone which was set at naught of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” That’s such an important verse, Dave.

Dave: Pretty dogmatic—no one else, and it’s the only way. You must be saved by faith in Christ. If you’re not, you won’t be saved at all.

Something is going on here at the temple among the Jews—there’s quite an uprising! These people are saying, “Wait a minute, you know, there is salvation—this man that you have crucified, Jesus of Nazareth, He has risen from the dead, He’s alive! We believe it, and when we believed in Him, He came to live inside of us. And that was probably what spoke to really convict Saul of Tarsus, you know, when Stephen is stoned.

And Stephen, just like Jesus on the cross, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” Stephen, instead of striking back at these guys and hating them, or angry, or cursing them, he says, “O, God, I pray that you will not charge them with this sin.” And Saul was seeing Christ living in these people that he’s arresting and beating and having killed.

So, the high priest, I mean, this is—wow! “We’ve got to deal with this.” They get the whole gang together, and they bring Peter and John who have been arrested, those who just are joining us—by the power of Jesus, they have healed a man who was lame from his mother’s womb, who sat at the temple gate and begged—everybody knows him, and he’s been healed. He’s leaping and praising God, and all the people run together, and Peter says, ‘Wait a minute, it’s not by our power. We didn’t do it, but it was in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, whom you crucified.”

So now he is laying it out to the chief priest, and they’ve got to do something about this because this is undermining their authority. They don’t teach that you must believe in Jesus to be saved. I don’t know exactly what they are teaching except they are supposedly adhering to the Old Testament Levitical sacrifices, which could never take away sin. So, they meet and they call Peter and John in their midst and Peter is filled with the Holy Ghost.

Tom: And Dave, the result of that is—this is what really awes me here—he is so straightforward with regard to the issues. There is no kind of placating them or trying to manipulate or the situation, and so on. He just nails it.

Dave: There is no dialogue. Peter isn’t saying, “Well, guys, let’s discuss this. Maybe we can kind of meet halfway. I mean, you’ve got your beliefs, and I’ve got my beliefs, and let’s have an ecumenical alliance here.”

Tom: “Dialogue to consensus.”

Dave: “Right, and see if we can’t find certain things that we agree on.” No, there is no dialogue, there is no compromise, because this is the truth. It’s not that Peter is dogmatic. Look, if you go to a doctor—I’ve probably used this illustration hundreds of times—I’ve got my own little illustrations, Tom, you know.

Tom: We have new listeners all the time, they haven’t heard. I’m sure a few people out there haven’t heard.

Dave: You go to the doctor and he examines you, and you say, “Doc, what’s the diagnosis and the prognosis?”

He says, “Well, I wouldn’t be so narrow minded and dogmatic as to presume to come up with a definite diagnosis! What would you like? Open-heart surgery has been very popular lately—I could transplant a kidney. I think everyone is entitled to the operation of his choice.”

Well, you are, but hopefully you will have enough sense to consult a physician who could diagnose you accurately and prescribe the remedy that would heal your problem. We know it’s that way in every area of life, but when it comes to religion, so-called, or faith, you’ve got your faith, I’ve got my faith—let’s just all join together with people of faith, we’ll all work for a new world, and so forth. Jesus said, “I am THE way, THE truth, THE life, no man comes to the Father but by Me.” Jesus Christ is the only one who died for our sins. He’s the only God/man; He’s the only one who is God who became a man through the virgin birth and didn’t cease to be man. Now, He says that He is the only Savior, there is no other, and this is what Peter is saying.

Tom: Dave, let me quote that verse again, Acts:4:12Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.
See All.... If you’ve got your Bible, highlight this, put a big circle around it!

Dave: Memorize it.

Tom: Absolutely. “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we...” could be saved? no, “MUST be saved.”

Dave: Now, Tom, that’s pretty dogmatic. Is Peter saying that the Hindus are not saved? Hinduism was around long before Jesus came to this earth. Of course, the Muslims didn’t exist then—that was another 600 years, nearly, 500 and some. But is Peter daring to say that Muslims are not saved? That Science of Mind, or the Greek or Roman pagan polytheists, the idol worshipers, is he daring to say that they are not saved?

Yes, that’s exactly what He says. Because it’s true. You know, we have the old saying, Tom, “We are all taking different roads to get to the same place.” People like that; it sounds very broad minded—“Oh, take whatever road you want.”

But it’s more narrow minded and dogmatic than anything Jesus said, because what they are saying is there’s only one destination: “Take whatever road you want, but we’re all going to end up in the same place.” And by God’s grace, I am not going there.

Jesus wasn’t so narrow minded and dogmatic as to say there’s only one destination. He said there’s two. You take your pick. You’re not going to be forced to go to either one. But the road that leads to life, you must come through Jesus Christ; you must come by God’s rules. You’re not going to present yourself to heaven, storm the gates of heaven, and say, “I got just as much right as anybody else to be up here. I think I could get up here my own way!” No, God laid out the rules: “The soul that sinneth, it must die.” Sin has consequences. You can’t have a game without rules. Parents that don’t discipline their children, they just teach them, but they don’t mean what they say, and that they can run the show—God runs this universe and there are some rules. Sin separates us from God forever. The only way we can be brought back into a right relationship with Him is because Christ paid the full penalty for our sins, and we accept His pardon, accept Him as our Savior, and that’s the only way. So, this is what Peter is saying, and they don’t like it!

Tom: But they are impressed. Verse 13: “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, (they certainly didn’t have the benefits of the Pharisees, and Sadducees)…”

Dave: Well, they were fishermen.

Tom: Right. “…they marveled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.” We’ve got about 30 seconds left, Dave.

Dave: Well, you remember when they sent officers, John 8— we went through John just before we came to Acts—to take Jesus, to arrest Jesus, they were going to kill Him. They came back empty handed, and the Pharisees said, “How come you didn’t bring Him?”

They said, “Never man spake like this man.” There was something about Jesus that was convicting, that was powerful. “They take knowledge…” these guys have been with Jesus and they are sounding like Jesus, too. “Well, maybe He did rise from the dead, maybe He is living in them.” Now, I think their lives and their testimony gave evidence of that.