"What must I do to be saved?" {Acts 15:22 - 17:34}
12:30 AM
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.
0 comments