"What must I do to be saved?" {Acts 15:22 - 17:34}

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We’ve all heard stories of a very healthy person who spent their lifetime committed to eating right, exercising and living right, only to go to the doctor one day and discover she only has weeks to live.  None of us are guaranteed of being alive tomorrow. 

John Grisham said that when he was in law school, he got a call from one of his best friends in college.  They got together for lunch, and the friend told Grisham that he had terminal cancer.  Grisham was stunned.  He asked, “What do you do when you realize that you are about to die?

The friend replied, “It’s real simple.  You get things right with God, and you spend as much time with those you love as you can.  Then you settle up with everybody else.”  That friend’s death at age 25 left a lasting impression on Gresham (Christianity Today [10/3/94], p.16.

So this question is an urgent one, because apart from Jesus Christ, we are all lost, and because we are all just a breath away from eternity.

But salvation is God’s doing, not our doing.  When Paul says, ‘you shall be saved’,  it means that no one can save herself by any amount of effort.  No one can pile up enough good deeds to tip the scale in their favor.  Paul didn’t tell the jailer that he would have to keep the Ten Commandments and reform his life before he could be saved.  We can’t save ourselves.  But God will save everyone who believes in the Lord Jesus.


The numerous biblical pictures of people who are apart from God show us how impossible it is to save ourselves. We are dead in our sins (Eph. 2:1-3). We are spiritually blind (2 Cor. 4:4). We have natural minds that cannot perceive spiritual truth apart from God’s Spirit revealing it to us (1 Cor. 2:14). We are enslaved to sin, unable to free ourselves unless the Son of God frees us (John 8:34-36) We have spiritual leprosy and only Jesus can cleanse us. God alone can save a person from his sins. (Bible.org)



When the jailer asked, “What must I do to be saved?”  Paul did not answer with something to do, but rather with someone to believe in.  Believing is not a matter of human effort, but rather of ceasing from our efforts and relying on God alone.  Paul said, “When people work, their wages are not a gift.  Workers earn what they receive.  But people are declared right because of their faith, not because of their work.”  (Romans 4:4-5)  Saving faith is a matter of ceasing from my own efforts to save myself, and trusting in Jesus Christ to save me.

Believing in Jesus Christ for salvation is a lot like flying on a plane.  We could watch the crews servicing the plane and check the maintenance records.  We could interview the pilots and make sure they know what they are doing.  But that won’t get us to where we want to go.  Instead, we have to commit our lives to those planes.  We must commit our eternal destiny to the Lord Jesus as our only hope.  We must rely on Him to bridge the gap between us, a sinner, and God as absolutely holy.

Saving faith relies on Christ alone.  Can you imagine getting on board a plane and walking into the cockpit and telling the pilot that you’d like to help fly the plane?  I doubt they would appreciate your offer.  All you need to do is get on board and know that you will reach your destination.  Trusting in Jesus is all that we need to do to be saved.



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