“WHAT MUST I DO TO BE SAVED?”
From the time that the poison of sin entered earth’s borders, and the human family yielded to its seductive, deadly influence, to the present day, human hearts have in longing expectancy asked the above question. Thousands who are living in the bondage of sin and the fear of death are asking it to-day. “What must I do to be saved” from condemnation, from judgment, from death, from destruction, from sin, which brings all these? There is but one place where it is answered authoritatively and certainly, and that place is the Word of God. When asked by the Philippian jailer, the ambassador of God answered, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” Acts 16:31. It is a wonderfully brief and comprehensive answer. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.” Who is He?—He is the Creator of the heavens and the earth, one with the eternal God. John 1:1–3; Col. 1:16, 17. He “is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe.” 1 Tim. 4:10. He is “the power of God, and the wisdom of God.” 1 Cor. 1:24. And He possesses infinite love for the sinner, dying for us while yet we were sinners. Rom. 5:6–8. Having then these threefold attributes of infinite wisdom, power, and love, what more can we ask in a Saviour? He is not only able but willing “to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him.” Heb. 7:25. Who is He?—He is the revelation of God to men. All that was manifest in Jesus was the revealing of the Father. He could say, “He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.” John 14:9. “All things are delivered unto Me of My Father; and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and He to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him.” Matt. 11:27. This is the One in whom we must believe, to be saved—the Way, the Truth (the Word), the Life. John 14:6. What is it to believe?—It is to accept what He says; and to truly believe, is to do. Our ways by nature are not His ways. “They are all gone out of the way.” “The way of peace have they not known.” Rom. 3:12, 17. To believe in Christ is therefore to renounce our way and to choose His way, at all times, in all places, under all circumstances. That is not Christian belief which merely assents. “For with the heart, man believeth unto righteousness.” Rom. 10:10. Righteousness is right being and right doing, and the belief which stops short of right doing is a spurious belief. True belief accepts Jesus Christ, and with Him it obtains the righteousness of God, “even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe; for there is no difference.” Rom. 3:22. In the courts of heaven there is no charge against Jesus Christ. If we renounce our way, give up ourselves, and receive Him by faith, God forgives all our sins, and accepts us as tho we had not sinned, accepts us “in the Beloved.” Blessed exchange of our way for His way, of our sins for His righteousness! Belief therefore includes all. It will give up all sin, it will accept of Jesus Christ, listen to His voice in His Word, receive His Holy Spirit, and walk as He walked. “What must I do to be saved?”—“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.”