Saturday 15 September 2007

There is no other salvation

“Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved." - Acts 4v12

I wonder what we would do if we were arrested for preaching the gospel? After more than 5000 people were saved as a result of the sermon on Solomon’s Porch he and John were arrested. The next day they were asked what power allowed them to eal the man and see that kind of results. Many of us might have tempted, considering who we were dealing with, to have come up with some kind of answer to protect ourselves. Something like, “I don’t know fellas, we just preached and it happened!”

Not Peter. Even though he faced the very real possibility of a lengthy jail term he immediately began preaching to the authorities. “"If we this day are judged for a good deed done to a helpless man, by what means he has been made well, let it be known to you all, 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 stands here before you whole.”

Here in Ireland we might say, “The sheer cheek of your man!” He told the authorities that they were punishing them for doing a good work while they themselves had executed the one who made the healing possible! Then he drove the message home – “There is no other salvation” apart from Christ! Look at the chance he took, and yet he had the boldness to give the gospel.

I look at my own life – far to often it takes far less than this to keep me from “having the cheek” to share the gospel – the only way of salvation.

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