David Bahn – Reflections

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Acts 4:1-12

And as they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them, ² greatly annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. ³ And they arrested them and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening. ⁴ But many of those who had heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to about five thousand.

⁵ On the next day their rulers and elders and scribes gathered together in Jerusalem, ⁶ with Annas the high priest and Caiaphas and John and Alexander, and all who were of the high-priestly family. ⁷ And when they had set them in the midst, they inquired, “By what power or by what name did you do this?” ⁸ Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders, ⁹ if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, ¹⁰ 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. ¹¹ This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. ¹² 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.”

God is clear. Through the prophet Isaiah he declares: “I am the LORD; that is my name! I will not yield my glory to another or my praise to idols” (Isaiah 42:8). He makes it clear in the First Commandment: “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3). Jesus faced down Satan in keeping with this truth. When tempted by Satan, he responded, “You shall worship the LORD your God and him only shall you serve” (Matthew 4:10). 

So when Peter proclaims, “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 4:12), he is making a claim for Jesus that is both exclusive as well as being extraordinary. It is obviously exclusive: no other name… But it is also extraordinary: Jesus must be God in the flesh if he is receiving this kind of glory and honor. God said it long before Jesus was born, “I, I myself will search for my sheep and seek them out” (Ezekiel 34:11).

Jesus, the Good Shepherd, fulfilled that promise. And now, because of his faithful life, his sacrificial death, and glorious resurrection he is properly called, “Lord and God” (cf. John 20:28; Philippians 2:11). Peter is reflecting that truth here when he says that there is salvation in no other name than Jesus. He is applying these profound realities:

• No one else died for the sins of the world.
• No one else totally defeated death and the devil.
• No one else has made the promise that whoever comes to him, he will never turn away (John 6:37).

No one else prayed that the cup would pass from him (that he would not have to die for the sins of the world), and have that request denied. Either God is a cruel, evil and sadistic God if there was another way than Jesus’ death, or there was no other way than Jesus’ death for our redemption and salvation.

Jesus prayed that God would glorify him with the glory he had before the world was created (John 17:5).

There is no other way, no other God, no other hope than Jesus. I hope I can learn what that means each day of my life here, and I look forward to experiencing it with God in the life of the world to come.