We're used to people seeking high office making very great claims about themselves. We're also used to people who are trying to sell us things making great claims for their products: 'It'll change the way you live!' - when in truth all it does is change your bank balance!
But doesn't the same thing happen in religion too? They all make great claims. Who are you to believe? Is it just a case of picking the one you think will suit you best? Or is there one that is right?
In the Bible, and in this passage, a great claim is made, an exclusive claim. It tells us that salvation is found in no one other than Jesus. Let's see what this great claim is all about.
1. It's about 'Salvation'
But what is this 'salvation'? Is it just a mystical religious experience that some people claim to have had? Is it 'getting religion'? Is it just a state of mind that makes a person happy?
In this scene in Acts 3,4, a cripple has just been healed. The word 'salvation' is used about that healing in v.9. So 'salvation' means 'healing'? Yes, but it means more than that.
When Peter speaks to the crowd following the healing of this man, to tells them of what God has promised to do through Jesus (3:19-21). There we see 3 aspects of salvation that are illustrated in the healing of the crippled man:
- Salvation means the blotting out of sin (v.19a) - i.e. forgiveness by God.
- Salvation involves spiritual refreshment (v.19b) - i.e. relief, rest & peace with God.
- Salvation involves this world being restored (v.21)
Those 3 aspects of salvation are illustrated in the healing of the cripple: Why is there disease and sickness in the world? Because of sin. When the man is healed, you see a man who knows he is forgiven and made right with God. Here now is someone who is refreshed in his relationship with God and someone whose body bears witness to the promise of God that through Jesus this broken world is going to be restored.
Here is salvation: not a state of mind or a new hobby or some mystical experience for those of a religious bent, but God acting to bring forgiveness and healing and blessing into this broken, sinful world.
2. Salvation - found in no-one else
Now the great claim says that this salvation, this great deliverance, this healing for a broken world, this forgiveness full & free, is found in no-one else.
What a claim that is! It is saying that the only hope for the whole world is found in Jesus and in Jesus alone. No other religion can bring this salvation, nor any system of thought, nor any efforts of man's part, nor all the policies and actions of politicians.
Many react to this claim by saying it is arrogant beyond belief. Maybe that's your response too. But this is the message of the bible, from beginning to end: there is only one true God, he has revealed himself in Jesus Christ his Son and through him he has made a way of escape for people in every place, in every age.
Now, that may sound to you, to many others, like arrogance and bigotry. But the claim is substantiated in what we read in the Bible and in this verse we're looking at. Let's see how the claim is backed up.
3. Why salvation is found in no-one else: for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved
i) There is no other name - that sounds quite strange to our ears. What does it mean?
In Bible times, as well as since then, names were used to describe who and what you were. For example, in England, Mr Cooper was a barrel maker, Mr Smith worked with iron and Mr Baker was your bread man!
So too with Jesus. Salvation is firmly tied to who he is and what he has done. And in this passage we're told a number of very important things about this Jesus which show why salvation is found in no-one else.
- Jesus Christ of Nazareth (4:10) - a real man
- A prophet (3:22) - he spoke from God
- Holy and Righteous (3:14) - his life was blameless; he is qualified to take the place of others
- The Christ (3:20) - the one sent by God to rescue his people, with all the power of God
- The offspring of Abraham (3:25) - the one through whom God's promise to bless the whole world would come true
- The author of life (3:15) - the Creator and the one who gives eternal life
- The servant of God (3:13,26) - the one sent to God to suffer in the place of others (cf. Is 53) so that they might be forgiven and made new.
That is quite a list of qualifications. But how do you know it's true? Wasn't he just a failed Messiah, put to death on a cross, rejected by his own people?
Yes, that is so. In fact, Peter reminds the people of that (3:14) but he is also clear and strong on this point: God showed that Jesus was his Son, his promised Saviour, for the whole world, by raising him from the dead (3:15). They had rejected him but God had accepted him and his work.
It is the God who made us and all things who came personally into this world in Jesus Christ to save us, to make a way back from our rebellion, from our shame. Jesus is the way, the only way, to God, because he is the one effective sacrifice for sin. And God has shown that by raising him to new life.
ii) You need to respond to this claim - Such a claim is vast in its scope and compelling in its call to us. There is no other way of escape. But God, the one we have offended, has made it possible for us to be saved. He has given this name to men and women for their blessing.
How do you come to share in this wonderful blessing? By repenting of your sin (3:19) and putting your trust in Jesus alone (3:16). It means taking God at his word.
And as you do so you will prove the glory and the power and the wonder of this amazing claim. It isn't arrogance; it isn't bigotry. It's the love and mercy and grace of God. Please turn and trust.
