🌊WEB · Acts 4:12
What does Acts 4:12 mean?
"There is salvation in none other, for neither is there any other name under heaven, that is given among men, by which we must be saved!”"
— Acts 4:12 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
if we are examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed,
be it known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, in him does this man stand here before you whole.
He is ‘the stone which was regarded as worthless by you, the builders, which has become the head of the corner.’
There is salvation in none other, for neither is there any other name under heaven, that is given among men, by which we must be saved!”
Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and had perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled. They recognized that they had been with Jesus.
Seeing the man who was healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it.
But when they had commanded them to go aside out of the council, they conferred among themselves,
Explanation
Acts 4:12 declares that salvation is found exclusively in Jesus Christ—there is no other person, power, or path by which human beings can be saved. The verse states this in sweeping terms: not just that salvation happens to be found in Jesus, but that it is found in him alone, and in no other name given to humanity under heaven.
This statement comes from Peter, speaking before the Jewish religious council (the Sanhedrin) in Jerusalem shortly after Pentecost. Peter and John had just healed a man lame from birth at the temple gate, acting "in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth" (Acts 3:6). This miracle drew a crowd, alarmed the religious authorities, and led to Peter and John's arrest. When questioned by the council about "by what power or what name" they had done this (Acts 4:7), Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, boldly explained that the healing had been accomplished by the name of Jesus—the very one the council had crucified, but whom God had raised from the dead. Verse 12 is the climax of Peter's answer: he moves from explaining the healing to proclaiming the larger truth that this same Jesus is the only source of salvation for anyone.
Theologically, this verse is one of the clearest and strongest biblical affirmations of the exclusivity of salvation through Christ. It echoes Jesus's own words in John 14:6, where he says he is "the way, the truth, and the life" and that no one comes to the Father except through him. Peter's declaration before the very authorities who condem
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