Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America

Pioneer Christian Monthly

Date - May/91

Contributor - Dr. A. Gardiner Skelly

Title - Jesus The Only Saviour

Topic - Jesus Christ

"There is no other name under heaven granted to men, by which we may receive salvation." Acts 4.12

Was Bobby Orr the greatest hockey player ever or has he in fact been Superseded by the meteoric ascent of Wayne Gretzky? Now that is the very question, though at a different level, which has haunted the Founder of Christianity. In one of the first Christian sermons ever preached we hear Peter proclaiming passionately that, "There is no other name under heaven granted to men, by which we may receive salvation." (Acts 4:12) But the centuries have come and gone and there are those, both within and without the Christian Church, who would question the validity of such a sweeping claim. Indeed it has been suggested that in the context of today's mosaic of world religions, it is intolerable arrogance for Christians to continue to proclaim Christ as the only saviour of the world. It has been argued that rather than taking such a presumptuous stance of exclusivism, it would be more in keeping with the Christian spirit if we were to work towards practical cooperation and indeed, theological synchronization with the other world faiths.

So this is the question which I want to address in this article. Was Peter in Acts 4:12 actually stating a timeless theological truth or was he simply employing the rhetorical technique of over-statement in order to make a point about the greatness of Jesus? Now as we try to make our way towards an answer to this question it is important to understand the mood in which Peter made this claim about the uniqueness of Jesus. It was not his intention to start a fight or to generate rivalry. He is not playing the childish game of "one-upmanship"; an "our God is better than your God, sort of thing." Rather what we have here is the glad celebration of Christ and of all that Christ had come to mean to Peter and to the infant church and that was something which could be expressed only in absolute superlative. So it is important for us to recognize that this statement about the uniqueness of Jesus was not the result of a careful, comparative study of rival religions. Rather, it emerges out of Peter's joyful experience of Christ. Now what were the discernible components in the early Christian's experience of Christ, which led them to such conclusions about his unique identity?

The Uniqueness of the Life That He Lived on Earth

First of all, they saw the uniqueness of the life that He lived on earth. They had been privileged witnesses of His sojourn in history. Day by day He had walked and talked with them and as He moved amongst them they had been pushed to the conclusion that His was no ordinary, average life. They saw that there was something quite distinctive about Him. He demonstrated an essential goodness; a fundamental honesty; a basic sensitivity; an active understanding; an instinctive sympathy and a depth of concern which called the best out in others. This was the uniqueness which they saw dramatized as He walked the dusty roads of Galilee and Judea. He was unique in the shining integrity of his daily life and that record of His moral excellence remains unsullied as a challenge and an inspiration to all who call Him Lord.

Unique Because of the Things He Said

Again, I am sure it is true to say that those early Christians came to regard Jesus as unique because of the things He said.

It was not just what they saw of Him but what they heard from Him which gave rise to the conviction that He was indeed unique. He was a superlative communicator. Here was an unmistakable ring of truth in His words. "Never man spake as this man," they said. Those incomparable parables not only kept them awake and tip-toe in the telling, but also kept them thinking and reflecting for hours afterwards.

But it was not just His skill as a teacher that impressed them; it was also the content of the message and especially, the astonishing, breathtaking claims which He made about Himself and His earthly mission. Of His relationship to God, He said....... no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him." (Luke 10:22) Now that is the sort of statement that grabs attention and makes people forget the bread baking in the oven! Remember He also spoke quite explicitly of His own redemptive role in history. "The Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost." (Luke 19:10) and "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life." (John 3. 16)

As His earliest followers listened to these claims of Jesus they found them to be utterly convincing and they were persuaded that this solitary life was indeed the embodiment of the Living God, invading history to bring salvation to all humanity.

The Reality of the Resurrection

Then again there can be little doubt that the uniqueness of Jesus was supremely confirmed, in the eyes of the infant church, by the reality of the resurrection. More than anything else it was the glorious realization that this Lord of theirs had broken the bondage of the grave and had come forth, on that first Easter mom, clothed in all the radiant splendour of life made new it was this glad discovery which convinced His first followers that He was indeed the unique Master of Life and Death. This was the divine insight which smote asunder the midnight of their despair and lifted them out of the doldrums of disillusionment and sent them forth to proclaim Him, to all humanity, as the Saviour of the World.

The Pentecostal Phenomenon

Further, I would suggest that the infant church was mightily reinforced in its convictions regarding the uniqueness of Jesus as a result of the Pentecostal phenomenon.

Admittedly the essential focus of Pentecost is upon the Holy Spirit who explodes dramatically, with cloven tongues of fire, to energize the church with evangelistic urgency. That is primarily what we celebrate at Pentecost, namely that God has come to be with us in a new way through the haunting and empowering presence of His Holy Spirit.

Yet, inasmuch as the coming of The Spirit was the fulfilment of The Lord's promise to The Comforter, then this Pentecost event is also, in a profound sense, a validation of Our Lord's Prophetic insight and as such, is also a further sign of His uniqueness.

Such was the data upon the basis of which the early Christians reached their convictions regarding His uniqueness. The same data is still available to us. Of course we can dismiss His claims on the ground that He was mistaken, or that He was mentally unbalanced or that He was a deliberate impostor. If we follow any of those lines of argument we have on our hands the difficult task of explaining the great story of the church, of explaining how twenty centuries of Christian faith and tradition and practice could possibly have been built and accumulated upon the basis of a mistake, or a delusion, or a downright deception. On the other hand, we can say, humbly and gratefully, with Christians in all ages, that we find His claims for Himself to be convincingly valid and that we believe that God was uniquely present in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself

We too, have seen that Life moving with grace and goodness through the pages of the New Testament. We too, nave heard those persuasive claims of divinity and saviourhood addressing us with power and authority from the Gospel record. Best of all, we have felt and experienced that friendship from the time we first put our frail hands in His. We have experienced that friendship forgiving us in our failures; sustaining us in our sorrows; sharing in our joys and forever loving us into a fuller obedience to Himself And in our hearts we know and confess that He is The Saviour of The World. This is our Reformation heritage and we must cherish it forever. Thanks be to God.

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