Christ Alone

Acts 4:11-12

Peter, standing before the Sanhedrin after the healing of a lame man and the arrest of the apostles, boldly declares to Israel's religious leaders that:

“This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

As soon as sin entered the world through Adam and Eve's rebellion, God met them in the garden. And even in that moment of sorrow and judgment, He proclaimed the first promise of the gospel by speaking to the serpent and foretelling the coming Savior who would one day crush the enemy's head:

“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel” (Genesis 3:15, ESV).

Theologians have long called this verse the protoevangelium, the first gospel. Notice how much is packed into a single sentence. The rescue does not come from Adam, who has just failed. It does not come from a committee of the righteous or from humanity's gradual moral improvement. It comes from a promised offspring, singular and masculine: "he shall bruise your head." One deliverer will come, and He will win. The victory will cost Him, since the heel is bruised, but the serpent receives the fatal blow to the head.

Here is the first truth to carry with you today: the gospel was never God’s Plan B. Before the world was ever created, God had already purposed our redemption in Christ. As Paul writes, God "chose us in him before the foundation of the world" (Ephesians 1:4). Then, no sooner had Adam and Eve fallen into sin than the Lord announced His promise of a coming Deliverer in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:15). Christ is not an addition to the story of redemption. He is its beginning, its center, and its end. From eternity past, through the first promise in the garden, and throughout all of Scripture, God's plan has always pointed to His Son.

The Stone the Builders Rejected: Ps. 118:22

As God's plan of redemption unfolded through the centuries, He gave His people another glimpse of the Savior through which salvation would come. The psalmist wrote, "The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone" (Psalm 118:22, ESV).

To feel the force of that image, consider how traditional stone buildings were raised. The mason began with a single stone, the cornerstone, and it was no decoration. It was set first and set precisely, and every other stone in the building was measured against it. Its angles determined the angles of the walls. Its line determined the line of the whole structure. If the cornerstone was true, the building stood. If it was off by even a little, the error multiplied with every course of stone laid above it.

Notice what follows from this. We do not add to the cornerstone or improve upon it. We align ourselves to it. Consider a musician tuning an instrument before a concert. If the reference pitch is wrong, every note that follows will be out of harmony, no matter how skillfully it is played. The solution is not greater effort but returning to the right note. So it is with Christ. The Christian life is not about improving upon His work but bringing our lives into tune with Him.

That is the picture Scripture gives us of Christ. He is the stone by which everything else is measured: our worship, our obedience, our hope, our standing before God. Nothing is added to Him, because nothing could improve Him. And yet the psalm tells us the builders rejected this stone. The very people charged with building God's house set aside the one piece on which it all depended. The astonishing news is that God took the rejected stone and made it the cornerstone. What human hands cast away, divine hands exalted.

No Other Name: Acts 4:11-12

Now we come to Peter. Picture the scene in Acts 4. Peter and John have been arrested for healing a lame man in the name of Jesus, and they are standing before the Sanhedrin, the very council that had condemned Jesus only weeks before. This is the same Peter who, not long ago, had trembled before a servant girl in a courtyard and denied he knew his Lord. Yet now, "filled with the Holy Spirit" (Acts 4:8), he speaks plainly:

"This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:11-12).

Peter takes Psalm 118 and points it directly at the men in front of him. You are the builders, he says, and you rejected the stone. But God has made it the cornerstone of His Kingdom anyway.

Then comes the exclusive claim: salvation in no one else, no other name. In our age, that can sound narrow. But hear it as the Reformers heard it. It is only narrow in the way a liferaft is narrow when you are drowning. The exclusivity is the good news, because it means nothing needs to be added to what Christ has done. No second name must be invoked. No supplementary merit must be earned. The work is finished, and it is sufficient.

This is the conviction that stood at the heart of the Reformation, which we are remembering this month. John Calvin, writing in the Institutes of the Christian Religion (2.16.19), even cites this very verse as he summarizes the matter: "We see that our whole salvation and all its parts are comprehended in Christ. We should therefore take care not to derive the least drop of it from anywhere else."

Not the least drop. The Reformers were not arguing over small details. They were guarding the sufficiency of the cornerstone. If Christ is the stone by which everything is measured, then anything we try to lay beside Him, whether our own works, our own worthiness, or our own religious accomplishments, only throws the building off its line.

Rest in the Finished Work: A Line for the Day

The exclusivity of Christ is often viewed with suspicion in a culture that values inclusion above all else. Yet, as we've already considered, when a liferaft is the only means of rescue, silence is not compassion. Love compels us to point people to the One who can save.

From before the foundation of the world, God has been unfolding His plan of redemption, directing every promise, prophecy, and provision toward His Son. Therefore, let us never be ashamed of Christ or hesitant to speak His name. Instead, let us lovingly and confidently proclaim to a lost world that salvation is found in Him alone, for God has always purposed to save sinners through Christ and to exalt His Son above all.

From Eden's first promise, through the psalmist's rejected stone, to Peter's bold declaration before the council, the testimony remains the same: God gave one Savior, and He is enough.

So, whatever today holds, whether a heavy conscience, an uncertain future, or the lingering suspicion that you must somehow contribute to your own acceptance before God, return again to this glorious truth:

There is no other name. Christ alone.

With love in Christ,

Pastor Chris