“WHAT MUST I DO TO BE SAVED?”
THIS is a Biblical question, and it is Biblically answered. The free man who was a slave asked it of the prisoner who was a free man. A few hours before the free jailer had taken Paul and Silas the prisoners, beaten them with many stripes, cast them into an inner dungeon, and made their feet fast in the stocks. See Acts 16:19-34 for the story. No doubt they were sore, and the devil would tempt them to believe that God had forsaken them, and that the work in Philippi, which had begun so auspiciously, was doomed to come to naught. Did they yield to the temptation? We do not believe it. Such things were not new to Paul. Doubtless they talked matters over, told the Lord all about it, tho He knew it better than they did, reminded Him that it was His work and they were His servants, and they knew He would care for the consequences. This was only one of the many things Paul was called to suffer for Christ’s sake. So they prayed, and the praying ended in praising; for they sang hymns unto God. They were in harmony with the will of Him who sways the universe. He wanted them there. He would save the magistrates and the Roman jailer, and all others connected with them if possible. He therefore let them know that the power which could enable men to praise God in prison, backs sore from flagellation, feet fast in the stocks, was a power before which prison walls were nothing; and so the prison was shaken, the bolts shot back, and the prisoners were set free. Then a strange thing occurred. The jailer thinking himself ruined by the escape of the prisoners, thought to kill himself, but heard the chief prisoner saying, “Do thyself no harm; for we are all here.” It was a strange voice to the Roman jailer. Why did not the prisoners escape? Why should the Hebrew agitators be solicitous of his welfare after receiving the treatment they had at his hands? The praying, the singing, the earthquake, and above all the Spirit of God in the prisoners, broke his heart, and he falls before the despised, mal-treated prisoners, and in agony of soul asks, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” Not saved from the wrath of his superiors, but saved from the cruelest of all tyrants, sin. The answer is explicit: “And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved.” And then they gave further instruction, that he might know what was involved in the believing. Such instruction is still needed. First of all, believing on the Lord Jesus is not a mere assent to the facts of His birth, His mission, His life, His death, His resurrection, His priesthood, His example, His coming again, His eternal kingship. One may assent to one or all of these and yet die eternally. Only the truth saves, and cold dead fact is not warm, living truth. “Thou believest that God is one; thou doest well; the demons also believe, and shudder.” Believing is not a mere saying, I accept Jesus as the Saviour, as the forgiver of sins. There are thousands who thus say, yet go right on in the sinning as ever before. The change they make is in profession only. The life and its lived purposes are the same. What did Paul mean when he said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved”? Hear him in another place: “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and shalt believe in thy heart that God raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved; for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” Rom. 10:9, 10. The “believe” of Acts 16 involves the “believe” and “confess” of Romans 10. The belief which stops short of righteousness is spurious. The heart that cherishes such belief yet loves sin. The only righteousness which God sets before us is His righteousness. “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.” Every other righteousness comes short of the glory of God, and God does not desire that one single soul shall come short. The heart that believes them will yield all, that the righteousness of God in Christ may be upon him, may possess him, may recreate him through and through. Believing unto righteousness is embracing the righteousness and rejecting all else. God counts the perfect righteousness of Christ in the sinner’s stead. So much to the present; what of the future?—Logically, if we have accepted the righteousness of Christ for the past we must have it for the future. The only sure evidence we have that it is ours for the past is that His life and righteousness are ours in the present; that Christ lives His life in us. Gal. 2:20. So Paul told the jailer, “Believe on the Lord Jesus,” or on Jesus as Lord. So also in Rom. 10:9,—“If thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord.” To confess Christ as Lord is to acknowledge ourselves as His servants, our obligation to do as He says. Luke 6:46; Matt. 7:21. That means obedient hearts, walking as He walked, obeying as He obeyed, keeping all God’s commandments through the power of His life. This is believing. All else is but the belief of the demons, which will doom to eternal disappointment and destruction. “Believe on the Lord Jesus,” dear soul, as your righteousness and life, your Saviour and example, and in Him are you saved. Reject with all your soul that “belief” which issues in disobedience to God’s law or disregard of the life of Christ.