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If you've ever asked the question what must I do to be saved?
Then you have something in common with someone mentioned in the Book of Acts
in the Bible the Philippian jailer is mentioned in Acts Chapter 16
and asks that very same question to two of his prisoners,
the Apostle Paul and one of Paul's partners in the ministry named Silas.
They answered the jailer with a very direct statement "Believe in the Lord
Jesus and you will be saved
you and your household." That sounds simple enough doesn't it?
Believe in the Lord Jesus. To make sure that we understand the answer given by
Paul and Silas
Let's first examine exactly what it means to be saved
according to the Bible, to understand how to be saved
a person first needs to understand why he needs to be saved
and what he needs to be saved from the Bible teaches that
all people are sinners who have broken God's laws,
all people have rebelled against God and justly deserved death and punishment for
their sins
the reason why we need to be saved is because we have sinned against God
a God who is good, holy and a God that loves us
Many people would say that we need to be saved from our sin.
and while that's true there's something much greater
and more frightening that we need to be saved from and that is the Just
Wrath of God against sinners. 1st Thessalonians 1:10 states that
"Jesus delivers us from the wrath to come."
Many people are uncomfortable with the idea of God's wrath.
But the Bible is clear God is not only a God of love
but he is a God also of Justice. Deuteronomy 32:4 says:
"He is the rock His work is perfect;
For all His ways are justice; A God of truth
and without injustice; Righteous and upright is He."
His justice demands that He punish sinners
Think of it this way. Let's suppose that a man committed the crime of ***.
He came before the judge and said to the judge, "Your Honor I admit,
I did *** that woman but I'm sorry there are many
other women with whom I've interacted in my life and I've treated them with
respect
and had even gone out of my way to help many of them, surely
since I have treated all those other women well, you could let me go.
I know that you're a good judge and a loving judge,
therefore I ask that you dismiss my case since you are so good and loving."
If that judge were to let that man go unpunished we would rightly be
outraged we will cry out for that judge to be fired,
because the judge is loving and a good judge
he must punish that *** and it's the same way with God.
Proverbs 17:15 states that "He who justifies the wicked
is an abomination to the Lord." That's a very important idea about God.
That even the ancient philosophers like Socrates knew quite well.
They knew that perfect God would also mean perfect justice
which means that He cannot simply let sin, any sin go
unpunished if He was in fact a perfect judge.
God must punish sinners because he is loving and just.
If you love something you must hate
that which hurts it. If you love people for example,
you must hate ***. If you love children
you hate *** in fact the more that you love them
the more you will hate that which sins against them
God is rightly angry at sinners
Psalms 7:11 says, "God is a just
judge. And God is angry with the wicked everyday.
God's just wrath against sinners is taught
all throughout the scripture. God's Word says in John 3:36:
"He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth
not the Son
shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.
In Ephesians 2:3 Paul states that the unsaved are
"...children a wrath." Romans 1:18 states
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all
ungodliness and unrighteousness of men,who by their unrighteousness
suppress the truth." And Romans 2 says, "We know that the judgment of God
rightly falls on those who practice such things.
Do you suppose, O man you who judge those who practice such things and yet
do them yourself
that you will escape judgment of God? Or do you presume on the riches of his
kindness
and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness
is meant to lead you to repentance? But because of your hard and impenitent
heart
you are storing up wrath for yourself on the Day of Wrath
when God's righteous judgment will be revealed."
These are only a few of the scriptures that indicate that the unsaved will face
God's Holy Wrath
on the Day of Judgement. So keeping in mind Proverbs 17:15
How can we as sinners, who justly deserve God's wrath be forgiven our sins,
if it would be evil for God to justify the wicked?
The only way was for a perfect sinless substitute to be punished in our place.
That is the wrath of God for our sins needs to be satisfied.
that's called propitiation 1st John 4:10 says, "Herein is love,
not that we loved God, but that he loved us,
and sent his Son to be the propitiation
for our sin. So God the Father, sent God the Son.
Jesus to be born a human, he lived a sinless life
and perfectly fulfilled the Will of the Father that means that Jesus was the
only person in history
that deserved to go to heaven. He could have demanded that He open up the gates
for Him,
because He had earned the right to enter. When He was on the cross
it was not the nails or the beatings or the crown of thorns that saved us
it was that when He was on the cross, the full weight
of all your sin was put on Him and God poured out
His just and righteous cup of Wrath
on Him for our sake. 2nd Corinthians 5:21 says, "For our sake he made him
to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become
the righteousness of God. What that means is that Christ traded places with us
He took our place for the sins that we have committed.
Past, present and future and the second part of that verse says that He did so
that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
So in exchange He gives us His perfect record to be judged with
so on judgment day we will not appeal to our lives
but to His perfect life with no sin. It is His righteousness that we boast in
all sin, must be punished either your sin will be punished
on judgment day with the wrath of God or
it will be punished two thousand years ago on that cross
the choice is yours. In the book of Isaiah in the Old Testament
written hundreds of years before Christ it prophesized of a Saviour that would
come to take away the sins of the world in this way:
It says in Isaiah 53:6,11, "All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned,
every one, to his own way; And the LORD has laid on Him
the iniquity of us all. And He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied.
By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many,
For he shall bear their iniquities." So how does a person get this forgiveness
of sin that is offered freely to all?
That brings us back to the answer given to the Philippian jailer by Paul and Silas
in Acts 16:31,
"Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved." Does this mean that all you
have to do is believe in what the Bible says about Jesus
and you'll be forgiven for you sin and will be saved from God's wrath?
To answer this question, let's examine another verse in the scripture that
talks about belief
the Bible says in James 2:19, "You believe that God is one
you do well. Even the demons believe and shudder!"
Yes even the demons believe but they are most certainly not
on their way to heaven. Obviously the word 'believe' is used in two different
senses in both of those verses.
In James 2:19, the demons believe the facts about Jesus
but they've never repented of their sins or submitted to Jesus as Lord.
In Acts 16:31, Paul and Silas must obviously be talking about a deeper
level
of believe than that of the demons. In fact if you look up that word in the Greek
it has the connotation of faith and trust as well as intellectual belief.
Belief that saves, not only involves believing the facts about Jesus as
revealed in Scripture
but it also involves repentance of sin, the scripture is clear on this
requirement
repentance and faith are both necessary for salvation.
Jesus said in Luke 13:3,5:
"No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish."
Mark 1:14-15 says, "Now after John was arrested,
Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying,
The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand;
repent and believe in the gospel." Jesus said in Luke 24:46-47,
"Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise
from the dead,
and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to
all nations, beginning from Jerusalem."
In Acts 3:19 Peter, preaching to a crowd of people says,
Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out."
In Acts 20:20-21, Paul speaking about his past ministry says that he,
"...did not shrink from declaring to you... testifying both
to the Jews and to the Greeks of repentance toward God
and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ." These are only a few of the many passages of
scripture
in which repentance is mentioned as being necessary for salvation.
You may notice that in some cases only repentance is mentioned in relation to
salvation.
In other cases in Scripture such as Acts 16:31
only belief or faith is mentioned in relation to salvation.
Sometimes the author's intent was to emphasize the faith component of
salvation.
Sometimes the author's intent was to emphasize the repentance component of
salvation.
Other times he want to emphasize that both repentance and faith are necessary.
This is why we must learn to read scripture as a whole and not just pick
out a verse here or there to make your point.
Scripture is plain, repentance and believe are both necessary for salvation.
So, what is repentance? Repentance is not
feeling bad about your sin or feeling regret for your sin.
Often it contains a regret for your sin, but
it involves a willingness to turn from your sins
and a willingness to at the same time
turn to Christ and have Him be your Lord.
Repentance comes from a word in Greek language called 'Metanoia'.
And it means 'to change one's mind', that's what it literally means,
'meta' for 'change', 'noia' means 'mind' in Greek.
You need to change your mind about sin. Does that mean that you need to be
perfect before you can come to Christ?
Of course not, if that was the case no one could be saved, but you must
truly be willing to turn from your sin
and change your mind about your sin. And if you truly change your mind about
it
It will result in action even if that action is feeble it first.
This repentance also involves a turning,
towards the Lord and again a willingness to make him your Lord.
Jesus says in Matthew 11:28-30,
"Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart:
and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is
easy, and my burden is light." You can truly rest in Him.
And in His forgiveness and it doesn't matter what you've done,
literally anything you can think of, He can
and wants to forgive but also notice that even though his yoke is easy
(A yoke by the way is what they used to put on an ox when they would drag a plough)
That even though it is easy and it's light it's still
a yoke He is still the boss, if you follow Jesus you must be willing to dethrone
yourself
and enthrone Him. So what about you listening to this?
Maybe you've never heard any of this before. Maybe you've heard all this
before
Ever since you were little and you grew up in the church. Have you ever truly
repented of your sin?
And put your faith in Jesus submitting to Him as Lord.
And embracing Him for all that the scripture reveals Him to be.
Romans 10:9-10 says, "Because,
if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord
and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead,
you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified,
and with the mouth one confesses and is saved."
I urge you to get in a quiet place, where you won't be disturbed
and think about your sin. Think about how you have offended a Holy God that
loves you.
Think about how you failed to live for Him, then think about what He did for you at
the cross.
God the Father, loves you enough to pour out His just
wrath upon His very own Son who had never done anything wrong.
God the Son, loved you enough to bear the wrath of His very own Father in your
place.
God is the author of salvation, we love Him, because He first loved us.
So if you want to be saved earnestly cry out to Him and ask Him to save you!
Ask Him to give you a new heart ask Him to remove your heart of stone and
replace it with a heart of flesh.
Ezekiel 36:25-27 says, "I will sprinkle
clean water on you, and you shall be clean: from all your uncleanliness,
and from all your idols, I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart,
and a new spirit I will put within you: and I will remove the heart of stone
from your flesh, and give you a heart of flesh.
And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes,
and be careful to obey my rules." These verses are most likely the background
for Jesus' words to Nicodemus in their conversation about being born
again in John chapter 3
Being born again means that God has worked in a person's heart
and removed their heart of stone and replaced it with a heart of flesh
and has caused them to be sensitive to and broken over their sin,
and has caused them to begin to hate sin that they once loved
and cause them to have desire to surrender and to submit to God,
whom they once ignored and hated. If you repent of your sin and believe the
good news!
The Gospel that God has send His son to take the punishment for your sins.
You will be saved, your eternal destiny is secured
and you will be with Christ in heaven when you die and the fear of death and
the freedom from the bondage of sin
and the peace of the Lord will be yours. End