Only Jesus

“Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.” Acts 4:12

“Religion is like tennis shoes,” my friend explained as we chatted on her couch. “You can find several pairs in your size that are all good shoes, but the one that fits the best is right for you. It’s the same way with the way to God.” My friend is not alone in what she thinks. The vast majority of people in America agree with her assessment. But most doesn’t mean right, and according to God’s eternal Word of authority, my friend (and many millions of others) are wrong. “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved”(Acts 4:12).

Peter didn’t state this fact to a bunch of hell-raisin’ heathen who didn’t know better; he declared it to the top spiritual gurus of his day. After offering a helping hand and divine healing to a lame beggar by the temple gate, Peter and John had been arrested and detained because the Sadducees (a groups of religious guys who had it wrong about God) “were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead”(Acts 4:2). The next day, everybody who was anybody in the world of Jewish religion met in Jerusalem to sort out the ruckus and stop any trouble. As soon as Peter, John, and the ex-lame guy were brought before them, they began. “By what power or what name did you do this?”(Acts 4:7).

Bold because of God’s Spirit, Peter stared them down and set them straight. “If we’re here because we were kind to a cripple and you’re wondering how his healing happened, ‘then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved’”(Acts 4:10,12).

No other name. Only Jesus. You can’t get to God any other way. Adherence to Buddhism’s Eight-Fold Path won’t get you to Him. Devotion to Hinduism’s 330 million gods won’t get you to Him. Obedience to Mohammed’s Koran and Hadith won’t get you to Him. Being as good as most and better than many won’t get you to Him. Belief in anything or anyone else, no matter how fervent and sincere, won’t get you to Him. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me”(John 14:6). Only by believing and by believing only that Jesus died on the cross to pay for our sins and rose again to give us eternal life are we saved from a forever without God and saved for a forever with Him. Trust in Jesus is the absolute essential for a relationship with God. No matter how much we would like to hope or think differently, there is no other way.

To claim this fact in our day and age is to be considered intolerant and narrow-minded. Let them label as they will. You keep loving and keep living the truth of Jesus. Don’t be ugly or arrogant (God’s grace is the only thing saving you); instead be gracious and patient as you look them in the eye and share truth from God’s heart.

For over two millennia, many have tried to sabotage faith in Christ through threats, terror, trials, and troubles, but the truth remains and will never change—there is no other name.

Only Jesus.