What Must I Do To Be Saved?

This question was asked to one of the followers of Jesus Christ nearly 2000 years ago and is still just as important and relevant of a question for you today.

Take you ever idea about this question?

Do y'all know the answer to the question?

I would like you lot to seriously consider this question today because your response volition determine how you will live your life and where you will spend eternity after you dice.  Then please, read this page carefully in its entirety.

Here is how the follower of Jesus answered the question:

"Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you volition be saved" (Acts 16:31).

It is a elementary response, simply what exactly does it mean to "believe in the Lord Jesus Christ"?  And from what do you demand to be "saved"?

The Bible, which claims to exist the inspired word of God (ii Timothy 3:16) and entirely true (John 17:17; Psalm 119:160), gives a straightforward reply to what you need to be saved from: you need to saved from God Himself.

The Bible says that God created and sustains everything in the universe (Genesis one:1; Job 38:1-41) … including you (Psalm 139:13-16). Information technology is He who established the unchanging laws of nature and morality. It is He who has ultimate authorization over His cosmos. Information technology is He who desires for you to exist in a right relationship with Him (1 Timothy ii:3-four).

In addition to beingness the Creator, God has another championship — Guess. He has established proficient and righteous laws for our benefit, but sadly you (and I and everyone else) accept disobeyed His laws in one way or another: by lying, lusting, gossiping, slandering, envying, coveting, stealing, adulterous, using God'due south or Jesus' name as a curse word, or loving someone or something more than than God. Some of God's laws that we've broken are listed in Exodus 20:1-17 (The 10 Commandments) or in Matthew 5 (Jesus' Sermon on the Mount). If your violations of God's laws aren't resolved on His terms, you lot will stand up before Him as Judge someday.

There will be no injustice in God'due south courtroom; no ane will go away with any crime against Him; God has seen and recorded in His "books" every single sin e'er committed and He volition be completely simply in pronouncing His judgement.

That is what you need to be saved from: God's judgment and wrath. Or to put it the terrifying way one of the terminal capacity of the Bible does, you need to exist saved from God "throwing" you lot into the "lake of burn" (Revelation 20:15).

While it is certainly true that God is loving, forgiving, merciful, and gracious — as will be shown in the following sections — the Bible besides presents God as existence total of wrath against those who suspension His laws and reject His offer of reconciliation.

While many people wrongly conclude that hell isn't an actual identify, "and if it is, a loving God certainly wouldn't send anyone there," the Bible states conspicuously that God, the merely Judge of the universe, has the potency, the power, and the intention of sending all those who reject His Son Jesus Christ there. Consider the following passages from the Bible:

"He who believes in the Son [Jesus Christ] has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son volition not meet life, but the wrath of God abides on him" (John 3:36).

"Then I saw a great white throne and Him [God] who saturday upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was constitute for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the minor, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and some other book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. And the ocean gave up the expressionless which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds. Then decease and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second expiry, the lake of fire. And if anyone's proper noun was non found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire" (Revelation 20:11-fifteen).

"God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should apologize, because He has fixed a twenty-four hours in which He volition judge the earth in righteousness through a Man [Jesus Christ] whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead" (Acts 17:30-31).

The concept of God sending those who reject His Son to a literal hell may seem unlikely, unfair, or fifty-fifty crazy to you. Yet the Bible plainly and consistently speaks of its reality (Luke 16:19-31; 2 Thessalonians 1:8-ten) which leaves two options: either hell is existent or hell is not real. Since nothing else in the Bible has ever been proven false — historical events, places, people, prophecies — it would be wise to accept the Bible at its word — hell is real.

Being separated from God and punished in hell for eternity should crusade everyone to ask, "What tin I do to be saved from God sending me there? The respond is articulate: "believe in the Lord Jesus Christ."

What does that mean though? Does that simply mean that you believe Jesus existed like some other historical effigy, like Plato, Napolean, George Washington, or Alexander the Smashing, or is there something more to belief than that?

To "believe in the Lord Jesus Christ" is much more than intellectual assent to the fact that He existed; information technology ways that you place your trust, your organized religion, your expectant hope for being saved in who Jesus is and what He did for yous.

Jesus Christ is without question the near pregnant person in the history of the world. The Bible says much about Jesus — that He was born of a virgin woman, that He performed supernatural acts like healing people of diseases and turning h2o into wine, that He was crucified on a cross and rose from the dead. Here are a few more things the Bible says about Jesus:

Jesus is the Son of God:

"And the Word [Jesus] became flesh, and dwelt among us, and nosotros saw His celebrity, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth" (John 1:14).

Jesus is equal with God:

"In the starting time was the Discussion [Jesus], and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the showtime with God" (John one:1-2). "I and the Begetter are one" – Jesus (John ten:30).

Jesus is the only way to God:

"I am the style, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me" – Jesus (John xiv:6).

"And in that location is salvation in no one else; for in that location is no other name under sky that has been given among men by which we must exist saved" (Acts 4:12).

"For there is one God, and one mediator besides between God and men, the human being Christ Jesus" (1 Timothy 2:5).

Jesus is all of the above and much more. Then what did He do for yous that He is calling y'all to believe in?

Jesus lived a perfect life and so that He could offer Himself on the cross in your place as the merely sacrifice that would satisfy God'due south justice for your sin:

"He [God] made Him [Jesus] who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him" (two Corinthians five:21).

"The adjacent day he [John the Baptist] saw Jesus coming to him and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes abroad the sin of the world!" (John 1:29)

Jesus died so that God could demonstrate His honey for sinners and and then that God's just penalisation for sin could be placed on Jesus and not on you:

"For while we were still helpless, at the correct time Christ died for the ungodly. For one volition inappreciably dice for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward u.s., in that while nosotros were yet sinners, Christ died for the states. Much more and then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. (Romans 5:eight-ix).

"In this is honey, not that we loved God, but that He loved united states and sent His Son to exist the propitiation [i.e. satisfying God's justice] for our sins" (1 John four:ten).

"And according to the Law, one may well-nigh say, all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of claret at that place is no forgiveness" (Hebrews 9:22).

Jesus rose from the grave and appeared to hundreds of people so that you would have a living Savior and Lord:

"For I delivered to yous as of kickoff importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was cached, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas [Peter], and so to the twelve. Later that He appeared to more five hundred brethren at ane fourth dimension, most of whom remain until now, merely some take fallen asleep; then He appeared to James, so to all the apostles; and last of all, as to 1 untimely built-in, He appeared to me besides" (one Corinthians 15:three-viii).

Therefore, to "believe in the Lord Jesus Christ" ways to identify your trust, your faith, your hope in the person and work of Jesus Christ, whose sinless life and sacrificial death are lonely able to reconcile the broken relationship you accept created with God as a issue of your sins against Him.

So let'southward get dorsum to the very first question and put it all together: What must yous practice to be saved?

i. You must hold with God that you have sinned against Him and that you deserve judgment for it. If your offenses against God aren't settled on His terms, yous will have to pay the awful penalisation yourself — eternal separation from God in hell.

"For all have sinned and fall brusk of the celebrity of God" (Romans 3:23).

"If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in the states" (1 John 1:10).

"For the wages of sin is death, simply the costless gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans vi:23).

ii. You must repent of your sin, which means that yous turn in a new direction away from your sin and commit to following God, relying on Him for the strength to do and so.

"Now after John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at manus; repent and believe in the gospel' [literally, the good news about Jesus Christ] (Mark 1:14-fifteen).

"God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He volition gauge the world in righteousness through a Man [Jesus Christ] whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the expressionless" (Acts 17:30-31).

3. You must respond to and receive God's merciful and gracious offer to salvage you lot and identify your faith, hope, trust, belief in Jesus Christ'south righteousness and His perfect sacrifice of Himself on the cross equally the only payment God will accept for the sin debt y'all have accrued confronting Him and the merely ways of your existence reconciled to Him.

"For God and so loved the earth, that He gave His simply begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall non perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, just that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has non believed in the proper noun of the merely begotten Son of God. This is the judgment, that the Low-cal has come up into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For anybody who does evil hates the Light, and does non come to the Lite for fright that his deeds will be exposed. Merely he who practices the truth comes to the Light, then that his deeds may exist manifested as having been wrought in God" (John 3:16-21).

"The Word is nearly you, in your oral cavity and in your center — that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus every bit Lord, and believe in your center that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the oral cavity he confesses, resulting in salvation. For the Scripture says, "whoever believes on Him will non be disappointed." For in that location is no stardom between Jew and Greek [Gentile]; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him; for "whoever will phone call on the name of the Lord volition be saved" (Romans ten:8-13).

iv. Yous must decline any and all of your own supposed good works as completely ineffective to save yourself and mend your separation from God — church building attendance, religious activities like communion, baptism, or prayer, charitable giving, personal goodness and kindness, helping the poor and disadvantaged, good intentions, etc.

"Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited equally a favor, but as what is due. Only to the 1 who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited every bit righteousness" (Romans 4:4-5).

5.You must follow Jesus Christ as your Lord (master) by obeying Him and His Words — this is the evidence of one who is saved.

"My little children, I am writing these things to y'all so that you may non sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Male parent, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He Himself is the propitiation [one who satisfies God'due south justice] for our sins; and not for ours only, merely likewise for those of the whole world. Past this we know that we take come up to know Him, if we keep His commandments. The one who says, "I have come to know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; simply whoever keeps His word, in him the dear of God has truly been perfected Past this nosotros know that nosotros are in Him: the ane who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same mode as He walked" (i John two:i-6).

"Non everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in sky volition enter. Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?' And so I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you who practise lawlessness'" (Matthew 7:21-23).

Every human existence has sinned and thus created a disharmonize with God — y'all, me, Mother Theresa, the Pope, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, the campaigner Paul, anybody. Y'all have only two choices in dealing with your sin:

ane.) You can cull to accept God's gracious offering of reconciliation by repenting of your sin and placing your organized religion in Jesus Christ's sinless life and atoning expiry on your behalf as the only way that God's justice can exist satisfied for your sin.

Or…

2.) You can choose to pay the penalty for your sin yourself by ignoring or rejecting or altering God's offering of reconciliation through Jesus Christ which will effect in someday your being judged guilty past God and sentenced to hell for eternity.

No affair how good of a person yous think yous are right now or how good of a person yous programme to be in the future, you tin can never be good enough to get to heaven because God's standard is perfect righteousness and you have already failed that standard (and will again).

"For whoever keeps the whole police force and all the same stumbles in one point, he has go guilty of all" (James ii:10).

"Therefore y'all are to be perfect, equally your heavenly Father is perfect" – Jesus (Matthew 5:48).

"For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees [those who were idea to be righteous], yous will not enter the kingdom of heaven" – Jesus (Matthew 5:20).

How can anyone e'er be perfectly righteous? No one can … except if God declares you and so.

To exist forgiven and spend eternity with a sinless God in a sinless place (heaven), y'all will need to exist declared righteous (justified) by God, fifty-fifty though you haven't been righteous and never will be. That tin can only occur when God declares that your past, present, and hereafter sin be credited to Jesus' account and Jesus' perfect righteousness exist credited to your account. This "bandy" (your sin paid for by Christ and His righteousness credited to you) is how God can judicially declare you righteous and let yous into heaven.

"Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new animate being; the erstwhile things passed abroad; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave united states the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, non counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to the states the discussion of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through the states; we beg you lot on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made Him who knew no sin to exist sin on our behalf, and so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Corinthians 5:17-21).

"For if by the transgression of the ane [Adam, the first sinner], death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the 1, Jesus Christ. Then then as through ane transgression [Adam's] there resulted condemnation to all men, fifty-fifty so through ane deed of righteousness [Christ's] in that location resulted justification of life to all men. For as through the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, notwithstanding through the obedience of the One the many volition be made righteous" (Romans 5:17-19).

The following passage from the New Attestation letter to the Ephesians gives a before and after picture of one who believes in Jesus Christ and is saved.

Before moving-picture show: dead in sin

"And you lot were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the grade of this globe, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is at present working in the sons of disobedience. Amid them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the mankind and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, fifty-fifty as the residue.

God changes the flick…

But God, existence rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved u.s.a., fifty-fifty when nosotros were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you take been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated usa with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might bear witness the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward usa in Christ Jesus.

Later picture: saved through faith for skilful works

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the souvenir of God; not as a result of works, then that no one may avowal. For nosotros are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for skillful works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them" (Ephesians 2:1-10).

This passage gives the complete film: you are dead in sin, God intervenes to save you considering of His love and mercy (non giving you what you lot exercise deserve – judgment), He brings your salvation to pass by His grace (giving you what you lot don't deserve – Christ's righteousness), and you are called to receive this offering of reconciliation with God by faith alone, not trusting in whatsoever righteousness of your own. Practiced works will be the prove — not the means — of your salvation (James 2:26)

Beingness "saved" or "born again" (John 3:1-eight) doesn't mean your life volition become easier. In fact, yous can count on being misunderstood, ostracized, persecuted, and mayhap fifty-fifty killed for your faith in Christ. If the unbelieving world hated Christ, it follows that they will hate His followers (John 15:18-25). You demand to count the cost of being a follower of Jesus.

Only having your sins forgiven, being declared righteous, fulfilling the purpose for which you were created (to serve and glorify God), experiencing joy in the midst of turmoil, and inheriting eternal life in heaven far outweigh any temporal trouble.

Now you lot know the reply to the question: "What must I do to exist saved?" The final question for you is: Will you respond to God'due south call in your centre today and receive his loving, merciful, and gracious offering to save y'all?

Remember, you are sinful and stand condemned before God, the just Guess. Even so God loves you and desires to save you through His Son Jesus Christ, who is the only One who can mediate the dispute you have created with God. I'g pleading with yous: exist reconciled to God today through repenting of your sin and placing your faith for conservancy in Jesus Christ. When y'all practice, God volition forgive your sin, He volition credit y'all with Christ's righteousness, He volition indwell you with His Holy Spirit, and He will give you lot eternal life in heaven. What could be better and more important than that?!

"Seek the LORD while He may be constitute; call upon Him while He is near. Permit the wicked abdicate his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and permit him render to the LORD, and He will accept compassion on him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon" (Isaiah 55:6-vii).

Genuine saving faith in Jesus Christ is the just way to exist correct with God. If by God's grace you accept received this gift of religion, you must at present spend the rest of your life striving to become more than similar your Savior and Lord Jesus Christ in thought, word, and human activity (Romans viii:28-30). That may sound like a daunting task — and it is — but God promises to give y'all the power and desire to practise and then (Philippians 2:12-xiii) equally yous draw virtually to God in prayer and studying His Give-and-take. Information technology will also be of import that you become a part of a fellowship of other believers (a church) where God is reverently worshiped and His Discussion faithfully taught.

  • The Uncomplicated Gospel – John MacArthur