“What must I do to be saved?”
This is the most important question we need to ask in life.
In the book of Acts, chapter 16,
we read the story of the jailor who asked the apostles this crucial question
and was given the answer.
Then he brought them out and said,
“Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”
Acts chapter 16 verses 30 to 31
This jailer was about to commit suicide before Paul the apostle stopped him.
He had just witnessed a great miracle and his life was spared.
He knew that Paul and Silas were godly men,
so he wanted them to tell him how he could be saved.
And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”
The apostles gave this jailer a very clear answer.
He must believe in the Lord Jesus.
In so doing, he and his household will be saved.
This is the message of the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ.
Whoever believes in the Son of God shall not perish but shall have everlasting life.
Jesus is the only way to God.
We cannot earn salvation by being a good person or doing charitable deeds.
Faith, rather than works, is the means by which we can be saved.
What does it mean to believe in Jesus, the Son of God?
For by grace you have been saved through faith.
And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
Ephesians chapter 2 verse 8
We are saved by grace through faith.
“Grace” means “a gift.”
Salvation is a gift from God.
“Faith,” on the other hand, means “accepting the gift.”
but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,
and that by believing you may have life in his name.
John chapter 20 verse 31
Believing in Jesus is believing that He is the Christ, the Son of God.
“Christ” is from a Greek word that means “the anointed One.”
It is a term in the Bible reserved for the future King appointed by God
to save His own people and rule over them.
To believe in Jesus is to believe that He is our King, our Lord and Savior.
“Son of God” means that He is from God,
that He has come in the flesh in order to deliver us from our sins,
that He is raised to life, and that He will come again in glory.
By examining the evidence laid out before us in the Bible,
we hope that you will be convinced that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.
...if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord
and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
For with the heart one believes and is justified,
and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
Romans chapter 10 verses 9 to 10
For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
Romans chapter 10 verse 13
Our salvation is received through confessing with our mouth that Jesus is Lord
and believing in our heart that God raised him from the dead.
To put it even more simply,
if we call on the name of the Lord, we will be saved.
Calling on the name of the Lord is not merely a one-time confession or mental consent.
Too often this passage has been misinterpreted to mean that, to be saved,
ALL you need to do is confess with your mouth once that Jesus is Lord
and to mentally agree that God raised Jesus from the dead.
Then, you are instantly saved.
You don’t need to do anything else.
This is a gross distortion of what it means to believe in the Lord Jesus.
It also contradicts what the Bible teaches about faith.
Faith encompasses not only a one time confession or mental consent,
but a total acceptance of Jesus Christ
and commitment to Him as our Lord for the rest of our lives.
Faith also involves repentance, which is to turn from our sinful ways to God.
Furthermore, faith includes accepting the saving grace of God
through baptism into the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,
accepting Jesus’ footwashing to have a part with Him,
and accepting the flesh and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ to have His life.
The Lord Jesus talked about the true meaning of believing in Him:
On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name,
and cast out demons in your name,
and do many mighty works in your name?’
And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you;
depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
Matthew chapter 7 verses 22 to 23
On the last day, many people will be rejected by the Lord Jesus.
Who are these people that Jesus is talking about here?
They are professed Christians.
They call Jesus “Lord, Lord.”
They have even preached in the name of Jesus and done mighty works in His name.
Have they not confessed Jesus with their mouth and believed Jesus in their heart?
They must have thought they have.
But why will they not be saved?
Jesus said,
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven,
but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
Matthew chapter 7 verse 21
Faith without obedience is not true faith at all.
To believe in the Lord Jesus involves obeying what He says.
To believe in the Lord Jesus is not merely agreeing that Jesus has died for us
and has risen to life.
It means embracing Jesus totally as our Lord.
It means doing what He tells us because we recognize that He is our Lord.
For example, the Lord Jesus spoke about the necessity of baptism along with faith:
Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved,
but whoever does not believe will be condemned.
Mark 16 verse 16
The Lord Jesus Himself promised that whoever believes and is baptized will be saved.
He also commanded the disciples to baptize believers.
But many people have been taught that baptism is not necessary for salvation.
On the contrary, we see in the Bible
how the apostles baptized the believers according to Jesus’ command,
and believers accepted baptism according to Jesus’ command.
Through faith we die and resurrect with Christ spiritually when we are baptized into Christ.
As a result, we are born again with a new life in Christ.
From the story of the jailer that we saw earlier,
we can see how he actually believed in the Lord Jesus.
And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house.
And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds;
and he was baptized at once, he and all his family.
Then he brought them up into his house and set food before them.
And he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God.
Acts chapter 16 verses 32 to 34
After the apostles told the jailer to believe in the Lord Jesus,
they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to his household.
Then the jailer and his family were baptized immediately.
They did not hesitate to obey the words of the gospel, but were baptized right away.
They believed and accepted the Lord Jesus by obeying His word and being baptized.
As a result of his faith, he and his whole family received a new and joyful life in Jesus Christ.
Their sins were washed away in the blood of Christ through baptism.
Now they could live with hope of eternity with God.
Faith calls for obedience.
The purpose of the gospel is to bring about the obedience of faith,
to turn people from the darkness of sin to the light of Jesus Christ.
Conversion is a lifelong, total commitment to Christ.
I have been crucified with Christ.
It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.
And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God,
who loved me and gave himself for me.
Galatians chapter 2 verse 20
The love of Jesus Christ transformed Paul the apostle.
Paul says that it is no longer he who lives, but Christ lives in him.
This new life he lives, he lives by faith in the Son of God.
That is the meaning of believing in Jesus Christ.
If we claim that we know Jesus Christ but do not do what He says,
then He is not our Lord yet.
If we say we are Christians, but continue to walk in darkness,
then we have not truly believed in the Lord Jesus yet.
God has made His grace of salvation freely available to us.
It's up to us to accept the gift of eternal life.
The way to accept it is by believing that Jesus is our Lord and Savior.
That means to repent of our sins,
be born again through Christ,
and live a new life in obedience to our Lord Jesus
until the day He comes again to receive us into His heavenly kingdom.