The Required Name
Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. (Acts 4:12)
Peter, the Apostle, was proclaiming that the name of Jesus the Christ is required for salvation, restoration, and deliverance. Many listened and believed. Many did not.
People could be divided in many ways. Male and female are ways we could group people. Age, location, or amount of education are other methods we could use to place people into different groups. There is another more significant way to divide people into two groups.
He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. (1John 5:12)
He that has the Son and he that does not have the Son of God. This is the division that puts every person who has ever lived on one side of the line or the other. This is remarkably simple yet profound in an eternal sense. What Peter said was true in his day and also for us. The name of Jesus of Nazareth is required for salvation. Beside that, it is the only name that brings salvation. Not only that but it is true for all time, both in the past and in the future.
What about in the past? What about people that lived in the days before the time of Jesus? Is it right that people who lived 3,000 years ago should be required to believe on the name of Jesus centuries before He was born on the earth? How could they possibly know His name? God has a plan for that.
God chose a man who was named Abram. He made a covenant with Abram and promised that his descendants would become a great nation (Israel). Many years later Jesus, also a descendant of Abram, would say that
...salvation is of the Jews. (John 4:22)
The Jews were intended to be a special nation that would keep the commandments of God. Also, they would keep the words of God and His promise alive. God's promise was to send a Savior into the world. The Jews would also be the family through which the Savior would be born 1900 years after Abram.
As time passed since the great flood of Noah's day, the knowledge of the One True God became more rare. Certainly there were individuals who knew God but Abram's family was the main thing that kept the promises of God alive for the two thousand years until Jesus finally came.
But were there not many people who lived and died during that time? There were many people who believed the promises of God. There were many who trusted in God's promise to send a Savior. What happened to them? Did they go to heaven? Were they lost eternally? If it is true that the name of Jesus is required for salvation, how could they possibly be rescued from eternal death?
They could not go to the presence of God or heaven so they were placed in a holding cell, of sorts. Jesus told an account about a beggar named Lazarus. This was before the death of Jesus. Lazarus died and was carried by angels to the place of the dead (Luke 16:19-31). This was not heaven. It was, however, a place of comforts.
Lazarus found himself in a safe place with the patriarch Abraham. All who believed God's promises were there after death. They were separated from unbelievers by an impassible chasm. The unbelievers were in a place of torments in the place of the dead. It was to this place that Jesus came after His crucifixion. He did not come to suffer. That was done at and concluded at the cross (John19:30). He came for a different reason.
...he (Jesus) went and preached unto the spirits in prison; (1Pe 3:19)
For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. (Matt 12:40)
While Jesus was there for 72 hours, He had several tasks to complete. The most important one was to proclaim the Name to the dead believers. This was the only name that can save. Although they were faithful to God's words, they needed a Name that they did not have, Jesus.
[Or however it is pronounced or spelled in any particular language. A name identifies a person. It does not matter how they spell my name when I travel to another country. It identifies me from among all the other people. Someone is always being ridiculous about the pronunciation of the name of God or of Jesus. While it is important, being ridiculous is not required.]
There are a group of beings that are imprisoned in the lowest part of the place of the dead (2Peter 2:4). Apparently these beings are so terrible that God will not even let them have further contact with humans, until the worst things from the deepest pit are released in the last days. Jesus may have announced to these imprisoned monsters that they have no possibility of escape from final judgment.
Jesus proclaimed to the dead (righteous and unrighteous) that it was His name that brings salvation and that He was the one who was the sacrificial offering for the sin of the world. Now, the believers could enter heaven, but not quite yet. This was not a second chance. This was a proclamation to the righteous dead that the saving name which they died not knowing was now preached to them. The unrighteous dead now knew that sins were all paid for by Jesus and they would now suffer unending torments, not directly because of sin but because they did not believe on the Name.
There was one more thing. A man named Jesus died on a cross. They say there were 6,000 Jewish men who were crucified on Roman crosses. Jesus probably was not an uncommon name. They still lacked one thing.
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. (Rom 10:9)
To believe that a Jewish man died on a Roman cross was essential. But they had to believe that God raised Him from the dead. Jesus was still dead, at this point.
At sunset on Saturday, Jesus was raised from the dead. Mary saw Him early Sunday morning.
Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: (John 20:17)
Though He were raised from the dead some hours earlier, Jesus had not yet ascended to the Father. It is my belief that He had to return to the place of the dead and collect His friends, the righteous dead, who now knew His name, and now could believe that He rose from the dead. Jesus no doubt took them to His Father and emptied the comfort side of hell, leaving everyone else there.
Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. (Eph 4:8)
The Old Testament saints believed the promises of God and lived a life of obedience to Him. Now, they knew the Name that brings salvation, Jesus, and they believed that God raised Him from the dead. Jesus could now bring them to the Father. He emptied the comfort side of the place of the dead and brought them to heaven, fully able to claim the perfect righteousness that comes through the work of Jesus.
Do you trust in the work of Jesus to be your complete and only way to the Father? Do you forsake all other ways and names that claim to offer salvation? Do you know, in your deepest core, that God actually raised this man Jesus from the dead after paying for your sins? Jesus promised to give you eternal life and you shall never perish according to the scriptures.
Nov. 29, 2023