“Salvation is found in no-one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men, by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

How clear and concise; there should be neither confusion nor contradiction. There are many names under heaven in which we can find Religion; but salvation can be found in one only. “All have sinned” (Romans 3:23), and so all need a Saviour: “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23). At Calvary He paid sin’s awful penalty for all who will accept Him. His death there, was not to give men a Religion; it was to provide salvation.

There is no salvation in preachers, priests, prophets, penance or prayers, but only in Christ. Service and sacraments, churches and charities, tears and treasure, ritual and reformation; all may be good; all may serve a purpose; but all are alike helpless to save, for: “salvation is found in noone else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men, by which we must be saved.”

Men will readily take their part in church work and ceremonies, while refusing to take their place as guilty sinners needing a sinner’s Saviour. They are willing to believe the doctrines of God’s Word, while refusing to believe in (not about) the death of God’s Son, who alone, through His death on Calvary, can bestow the priceless gift of Eternal Life. “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him” (John 3:36).

Religion consists in fulfilling rites, forms, ceremonies, precepts, laws and commandments. salvation consists in the imparting of a new life by the receiving of a Person: “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12). We may assent to the teaching of Christianity without accepting the Christ of Christianity. Religion provides us with a robe of righteousness of our own making; but God says all our righteous acts are like filthy rags (see Isaiah 64:6). “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death” (Proverbs 14:12).

Religion is striving for a better attainment. salvation is secured through a perfect atonement (1Peter 1:18-19).

Religion tries to bring us from darkness to light but salvation does bring us from death unto life (John 5:24).

Religion says we must be found in God’s house. salvation says we must be found in Him, not having a righteousness of our own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ (Philippians 3:9).

“salvation is found in no-one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men, by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

Religion or salvation – Which have you?

Nicodemus was a very religious man, yet Religion was not enough. He felt in his soul that his Religion alone could not save him. He heard of Jesus Christ, and came to Him at night for further enlightenment of his soul. And Jesus did just that. He told Nicodemus in effect, that Religion alone was not enough to save his soul. A man must be spiritually born again (see John 3:1-21).

Jesus answered this religious man’s questions with, “Unless a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God”; and “I tell you the truth, unless a man is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God” (verses 3 and 5). Jesus adds further in verse 7 of this same chapter “You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’”

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16).