"Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." (Acts 4:12)

There are many famous names in the history of religious thought--names such as Mohammed, Buddha, Confucius, Joseph Smith, among a host of others. Each has a multitude of followers who pay homage to his name.

But there is only one name that saves eternally, the Lord Jesus Christ. The words of our text were spoken by the apostle Peter. In his epistle, John also stresses this fact: "He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life" (1 John 5:12). The apostle Paul wrote that all those "that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ . . . shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord" (2 Thessalonians 1:8-9).

This exclusivity necessarily results from the fact that there is only one God and Creator of all men, and that all men have rebelled against Him. God Himself has become Redeemer and Savior, dying for the sin of the world and rising again. There can, therefore, be no other Savior than God Himself.

The Lord Jesus repeatedly stressed this truth. "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me" (John 14:6). "He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God" (John 3:18). "If ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins" (John 8:24).

It is urgent, therefore, that anyone desiring forgiveness of sin and eternal salvation come to God through Jesus Christ. "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life: but the wrath of God abideth on him" (John 3:36). HMM