What Must I Do to Be Saved?

“Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” a Philippian jailer once asked Paul and Silas.

“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved!” they responded.

Perhaps you’ve heard terms like these before. Why believe on Jesus? Why be saved? May I say to you, that this is a matter of knowing where you will spend eternity. You don’t have to go on merely hoping that you’ll go to Heaven, or hoping that you won’t go to Hell. You can avoid going to Hell and KNOW you are going to Heaven, right here, right now! God loves you and wants you to spend eternity with him. He has provided the means for you to be able to do that, and that is through his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Before you accept Jesus as your Savior, you have to understand WHY you need him as your Savior. There is good news to this, and there is bad news.

What’s the bad news?

Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.”

All of us have sinned. We have all said bad things, done bad things, had bad thoughts and attitudes, and failed to do things we were supposed to do. That’s all called “sin.” People might say, “Oh, well nobody’s perfect.” What if I told you that God is perfect, and the standard Jesus set for entrance into Heaven was, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect.” All of us have fallen short of that. God never intended for sin to exist, and so no sin can be allowed into Heaven.

You might say, “Well, I’m a good person,” or, “I’m devoted to (fill in the blank) religion.” Will this be of any avail to you? I’m afraid not.

Isaiah 64:6 “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.”

Because sin is so serious with all the destruction and suffering it causes, and the corruption it breeds, there is NOTHING we can do to atone for it. Any righteousness we have to offer is like filthy rags to God. No amount of good morals, religion, or even reforming our lives will suffice. Nothing of the sort will EVER be enough. None of us deserve to go to Heaven because of our sins.

Hebrews 9:27 “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.”

Because God is perfectly holy and righteous, there MUST be justice for sin. We inherit the curse of death through Adam and Eve’s sin, and so we will one day have to stand before the Lord and answer for every sinful word, deed, thought, attitude, and omission that we ourselves have been guilty of. Just as an earthly judge punishes convicted criminals, God punishes sinners. Anyone found guilty of sin is cast into the Lake of Fire, which was prepared for the devil and his angels.

Here’s the good news. God loves us and does not want us to go to Hell, because we were made to know and have a relationship with him. That is why he gave his only begotten, virgin-born, sinless Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, for us.

John 3:16, the most famous verse in the Bible, testifies, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

What did Jesus do for us?

The work Jesus did on our behalf, to reconcile us to God and thereby grant us entrance into Heaven, is recorded in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4, “For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures.“

Jesus paid for our sins with his own blood on Calvary’s cross. His blood payment for sin can be put to your account, and you can thereby be forgiven of all your sins and granted eternal life in Heaven if you will simply believe. You don’t need to clean up your life or rid yourself of every sinful desire before you can receive Christ as your Savior. You won’t be able to do that. The only thing you CAN do is recognize your condition as a sinner, unable to earn your way to Heaven, and in need of a Savior. This is what repentance is, in context of salvation. A change of mind, a realization that you are a lost, helpless, hellbound sinner in need of a Savior. With this change of mind, you must trust alone in THE Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, for forgiveness of sins and eternal life.

Romans 4:5 “But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.”

Ephesians 2:8-9 “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast.“

If you believe Jesus is who he says he is, what he did was done for you, and you trust in him alone for forgiveness of sins and eternal life based on that, it’s yours once and for all (meaning you can NEVER lose it).

Jesus himself promised in John 6:39-40 “And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.“

And again in John 10:28-30 “And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand. I and my Father are one.”

However, Jesus will not force himself on you. You must make a choice to believe on him and be saved, or reject him and be damned. If you reject Jesus, nothing else can get you into Heaven. Jesus himself said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”

John 3:36 “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.”

Acts 16:31 “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.”