Only One Way (ePub)

"Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved."—ACTS. iv. 12.

THESE words are striking in themselves. But they are much more striking if you consider when and by whom they were spoken.
They were spoken by a poor and friendless Christian, in the midst of a persecuting Jewish Council. It was a grand confession of Christ.

They were spoken by the lips of the Apostle Peter. This is the man who, a few weeks before, forsook Jesus and fled: this is the very man who three times over denied his Lord. There is another spirit in him now. He stands up boldly before priests and Sadducees, and tells them the truth to their face: "This is the stone that was set at naught of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved."

Now I need hardly tell you this text is one of the principal foundations on which the eighteenth Article of the Church of England is built.

That Article runs as follows: "They also are to be had accursed that presume to say that every man shall be saved by the law or sect he professeth, so that he be diligent to frame his life according to that law and the light of nature. For Holy Scripture doth set out unto us only the name of Jesus Christ whereby men must be saved." 

There are few stronger assertions than this throughout whole Thirty-nine Articles. It is the only anathema pronounced by our Church from one end of her confession of faith to the other. The Council of Trent in her decrees anathematizes continually: the Church of England does it once, and once only. And that she does it on good grounds, I propose to show you, by an examination of the Apostle Peter's words.

In considering this solemn subject there are three things I wish to do.