Salvation Exclusive But Comprehensive
Canon Liddon. Acts 4:12 Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. I. THE NATURE OF THIS SALVATION. St. Peter might well have meant — 1. Salvation from physical discomfort and pain. The circumstance was the healing of the cripple which the judges thought was effected by magic, but which the apostles ascribed to the name of Jesus, who had simply employed them. Pain and discomfort, although they may be transfigured by resignation, may yet crush out heart and hope, and our business in imitating God is to cure it if we can. Our Lord did by His apostles what He still does by generous hearts. The inspiring force of our hospital system is the grace and charity of Christ. 2. National salvation. This was the point of the reference to Psalm 118. Christ's way of delivering the nation was by becoming the corner-stone of its hope. For Israel was the real cripple. As a political body the Roman power had broken it. Still more was it crippled morally. The devotion of prophets and psalmist had died away, and in its place were Pharisees, Sadducees, and Herodians. The old heart had been eaten out. What Israel wanted was new life, and its only Saviour was He who had healed the cripple. 3. Spiritual salvation. This was implied by the national, and the spiritual salvation of the nation implied that of the majority of its members. A nation is but an aggregate of individuals seen as such by God. To save men they must be taken one by one. Did not the Redeemer, who gave Himself a ransom for all, love me and give Himself for me? Does not the Spirit, by whom the whole Church is governed and sanctified, dwell in each separate soul? Does not a mother deal with her children personally? So Christ dealt with Peter, Thomas, Mary Magdalene, as if there were no other souls in existence. II. SALVATION IN THIS SENSE IS NO MONOPOLY OF ISRAEL. What was Israel that she should claim the sole monopoly of the saving name? The final absolute religion could not but be universal. The question of the Gentiles had not been raised, but there was behind the apostles the broad commission. The old infection of nature still remains in the world. Who mill save it? Now, as eighteen centuries ago, Jesus washes out the stains of a guilty past, and gives new desires, aims, hopes, enthusiasms, and renews by His eternal Spirit what His enemies have destroyed. III. SALVATION WAS EXCLUSIVELY CONFINED TO THE POWER OF THE LORD JESUS. Christ was not one among many possible saviours; He was the only Saviour. And the ground of Peter's con. fidence was that he had not a human speculation or theory, but, as he firmly believed, the final, absolute, one truth. Error may pay its insincere and splendid compliments to that which contradicts it. Truth can only firmly, tenderly, unvaryingly say, "It is I who save; neither is there salvation in any other." "No man cometh to the Father but by Me." The apostles speak as men who had found the secret of life, hope, happiness, salvation, and their highest ambition was that others might share their privilege. 1. When we affirm that there is salvation in none other than Jesus, we do not deny that other religions than Christianity have in them certain elements of truth. They would not exist if they had not. The element of truth in them enables them to resist dissolution. But they cannot save. 2. When we affirm that Christ alone can save men, we do not deny that other agencies can improve mankind. Education, etc. 3. But such influences as these are bounded by the horizon of time; they have no effects in the great hereafter. They are not opponents nor rivals; they move in a different sphere. 4. There can be no doubt that this conviction was in the first ages of Christianity, and has been since a great motive power in urging devoted men to spread the religion of their Master. (Canon Liddon.) Parallel Verses KJV: Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. WEB: There is salvation in none other, for neither is there any other name under heaven, that is given among men, by which we must be saved!"