Acts 4:12
There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved.

Reflection
This is another example of a verse often quoted to say that Christianity is the only way to God and God’s only way to us. In this passage, Peter and the Apostles are very early in their ministry after Pentecost. Peter healed a paralyzed man in a public space, just as Jesus had. Word began to spread. Peter and John were arrested.
The key to this passage is what “salvation” means. Salvation means bringing wholeness, healing, peace, and justice to individuals and the whole community. Some churches seem to use salvation as a term referring to going to heaven when you die or being a recognized part of their exclusive in-group. It’s important to consider who the “we” is in “by which we must be saved.” Peter was speaking to the current situation of his own Jewish community under Roman occupation. Many Jews believed that a messiah would come and restore Israel to God’s vision and would bring resurrection to those who had died under unjust rulers to experience life as it should be. Many groups in leadership among the Jewish people resisted the idea of a messiah because it stirred up revolution. The Chief Priests referenced this in their concerns about Peter’s teaching. Peter was saying that Jesus is this longed-for messiah, even if he restored Israel to God’s vision differently than people had expected. Instead of completing the work, Jesus invited people to continue this messianic work of healing and peace-making until his return. The Chief Priest, who was under much pressure from the Roman governor, could simply not afford to allow such a revolutionary movement to take hold. Otherwise, the governor would likely kill the Chief Priest, wage war on the Jewish people, and destroy the Temple.
Peter, fresh from his experience of the resurrected Jesus, was no longer as daunted by the terror of the Empire. He saw Jesus’ resurrection from the dead as an invitation for all his community to shake off the shackles of fear, begin to love God and their neighbor and change the Empire from within. He stated his faith in Jesus as the one through whom God was providing this invitation to all of Jesus’ people.
Again, we often take verses meant for a specific situation and apply them everywhere. But God sent Jesus into this specific situation of imperial bondage. Understanding of Jesus’ specific situation was lost for many centuries. This has led to almost uncountable, wild misunderstandings of Jesus’ actions and words.
We see in Jesus the wholeness, healing, peace, and justice God intends for all people as expressed in his context. As it says in Isaiah
‘It is too light a thing that you should be my servant
to raise up the tribes of Jacob
and to restore the survivors of Israel;
I will give you as a light to the nations,
that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.’
Isaiah 49:6
This means that the specific situation in which Jesus was bringing salvation also represents God’s desire to bring healing to every context that falls short of God’s vision. I have learned to respect the Creator’s freedom to engage with other cultures in the way they need to be engaged. This does not lessen the importance of Jesus’ mission and the beautiful tradition Jesus began.