“And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)(ESV)
One of the great tragedies of the age is that countless thousands are trying every way conceivable to reach heaven. Many are looking to good works as a ticket to heaven. Surely a righteous God is not so unjust as to overlook their labor of love, they reason.
Others look to church membership, baptism, confirmation, and other ordinances to save them. They forget that these have no redemptive power. The load of sin weighing heavily on each of us can never be lifted by good works, sacraments or ordinances.
According to God’s infallible Word, only one Name can bring salvation. It is not the name of Mary or any other human agency. It is the name of Jesus Christ alone. He paid the price for our salvation in His finished work on the cross. Only in, and by Him are our sins forgiven and our names written in the Lamb’s Book of Life— if indeed we place our trust in that finished work.
Human morality can never save anyone. “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment..”(Isa.64:6)(ESV). Man’s pride dislikes to hear such blunt truth about his foolish efforts at reformation. Though he may reform his life, it is not in him to bring about regeneration and transformation. Only the quickening power of God’s Holy Spirit can accomplish that after a person has been awakened to his need, convicted of his sin, led to repentance and then has exercised his God-given faith to receive all that has been done for him by God’s dear Son.
“There is a way that seems right to a man, but it’s end is the way to death.”(Prov.14:12)(ESV). “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’”(Jn. 14:6)(ESV).
May we seek that way which leads to everlasting life.
—David R. Enlow