Derek Leman was a Messianic rabbi, and I have been subscribing to his Daily D’var for years. Now it is called the “Daily Portion.”
In his August 27, 2016 Daily Portion, Derek addresses Acts 4:12.
Acts 4:12 is a famous passage, in which Peter tells Jewish leaders after
healing a lame man that there is no other name under heaven given among
men by which one can be saved. A number of Christians interpret that
to mean that people who believe in Jesus in this life will go to heaven
after they die, while those who do not believe in Jesus in this life
will go to hell.
Derek offers an alternative interpretation: that the salvation in
Acts 4:12 concerns Israel’s national salvation rather than going to
heaven or hell after death. For Derek, part of the issue is Israel
avoiding a catastrophic collision with Rome. Derek believes that this
interpretation is consistent with the content of Peter’s speech in Acts
3:17-24, and also the meaning of salvation in the Hebrew Bible.
Questions remain in my mind. For example, in the Book of Acts, there
are places in which salvation applies to Gentiles, not just Jews (Acts
11:14; 15:1, 11; 16:30-31). When Paul exhorted the Philippian jailer to
believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and he shall be saved, what did that
have to do with national Israel repenting and avoiding collision with
Rome?
Still, Derek raises important points that deserve consideration.
Does salvation in the New Testament relate, in any way, to the
Israel-focused salvation in the Hebrew Bible?
Here are Acts 3 and Acts 4, in case you want to read them before reading Derek’s comments.
Derek’s comments:
NOTES: Johnson says that Acts is developing the theme of Israel’s
true leadership, the apostles as the leaders of the remnant within
Israel that follows Messiah Yeshua. In keeping with this theme, the
Sanhedrin is powerless against the apostles in this story. They cannot
punish them because the people have all seen the signs they performed.
Peter instead preaches to the council! They come up with a weak
judgment, to order them to silence. Peter refuses the order of the
council and still he and John are let go. In every sense, the apostles
thwart the power of the Sanhedrin and have the favor of the people. This
position of the apostles is, of course, temporary, but Luke shows us a
foretaste of the coming age when Israel will be governed by Yeshua and
the apostles will sit on thrones (Luke 22:30). The chapter contains a
number of interesting sayings. Vs. 2 could be translated either in or
through Yeshua, so that they were saying the resurrection of the dead is
in Yeshua or through him. This could mean that the foretaste of the
resurrection has happened in Yeshua, so that Peter can point to the
event of Yeshua’s raising as a sign to help his generation believe. Or
he may mean more: that the only way to know we are included in the
coming resurrection is if we locate ourselves in Yeshua. In vs. 10 he
says the lame beggar was healed “in the name of Yeshua,” indicating that
power to see miracles happens because of Yeshua’s coming and his
authority given to the apostles as his agents. Finally, in vs. 12 he
says salvation can be found in no one else. What is meant here by
“salvation”? Some Christian traditions assume the word always means
inclusion in the blessed afterlife. This is rarely if ever the meaning
in the Bible. In Peter’s time the nation of Israel needs to be saved
from its present course in a collision with Rome in which the people are
headed for major destruction. The nation needs to find its salvation in
the resurrected, ascended Messiah. Calling upon him as a nation would
bring rescue to Israel, what Peter has also called a “time of
refreshing” (Acts 3:20). In other words, the Messianic era can come down
to earth, bringing peace and plenty to everyone. Compare this reading
of Peter’s words with the more common individualistic salvation message:
“if you will personally believe in Yeshua God will not punish you in
the afterlife.” The individualized afterlife message, with its notion
that God is waiting for each person to pass a test, fails to explain the
long history of the word salvation as national deliverance and does not
match well the plural nature of the words Peter has been using (“This
Yeshua is the stone that was zejected by you, the builders”). He is
calling on the collective nation to welcome Yeshua, not just
individuals.