What MUST We Do To Be Saved?

Tom:

This is our Understanding the Scriptures segment, and we’re in the book of Acts, Acts 16, and Dave we left off, actually last week, with a question and the question is in Acts:16:30And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?
See All..., well, let me back up to 29, put it into context, “Then he called for a light, [that is the Philippian jailer, the man in charge] and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, And brought them out, and said, [there’s the question] Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”That’s not just the $64,000 question, Dave, that’s the question for eternity. “What must I do to be saved?”

Dave:

Yeah, well, it’s a straightforward question, and of course, Paul and Simon said---Well, you’ve got to be baptized, you’ve got to join the church---

Tom:

And take the sacraments.

Dave:

Yeah, and so forth and so on, live the best life you can, keep the commandments---No, it’s interesting, they said none of that!He says, and in my Bible I have squares drawn around those two words:I do.What must I do---to be saved?Now, there is, there’s the question.Paul, the great apostle, and Silas are going to give you the answer.I think this is authoritative.

Tom:

Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

Dave:

Right.What must I do?What do you have to do?Well, believe.Is that all I have to do?Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved, and it says, and thy house.In other words, if everybody in your house believes they will be saved too.Tom, it has often been said that Christianity, the gospel is not about what I have to do, but it’s about what Christ has done.So, all I have to do is believe that Christ has done it all.Now why would that be?Well, what is there that I could do?On the cross Christ said:It is finished!tetelestai, paid in full.He said it’s finished.Well, if He said it’s finished it must be finished.Why would it be finished?Tom, obviously, it’s finished because there’s nothing I can do.And we’ve given many illustrations in the past.I stand before the judge, and I say, Judge, I promise you, scouts honor, if you let me off this time I’ll never, ever break the law again.Well, the judge says, if you never break the law again you are only doing what the law requires.You don’t get extra credit for that.Once I have broken the law there is nothing I can do to undo what I have already done.So, what must I do?Anybody out there listening, what must you do to be saved?Well, you believe that Christ did it all.You believe that He paid the penalty you couldn’t pay.I like that little chorus, in fact Tom, I don’t think I have ever mentioned this.Ruth and I were up in a log cabin up in the woods, up in the Sierra Nevada, and standing around a piano with a lady who wrote this, it’s in our hymn book now.In fact, she had just written it and was kind of going through it with us:He Paid a Debt He Did Not Owe--you remember that one?

Tom:

Sure.

Dave:

“I owed a debt I could not pay.I needed someone to wash my sins away.And now I sing a brand new song.Amazing grace, Christ paid the debt that I could never pay.”

Tom:

Dave, do you remember our friend Jim McCarthy, a man whose ministry is, Good News for Catholics, and he was a missionary to Ireland.He and his wife Jean, went back to Ireland after he had been a missionary there for a while, and he was on a bus, and a nun was sitting beside him, and they had got into a great conversation.Jim, listening to her, thought, well, maybe she really is born again, maybe she is really an evangelical, because she was using terminology that evangelicals are used to, and so on.And then before she got off the bus she said to him, she was saddened because he had left the church, her church.But, she said, “You know, we are so much alike except for this difference:You believe that Jesus paid one hundred percent of the penalty.I believe that He paid ninety-nine percent and I need to pay that one percent.”Now, Dave, that’s sad, because what is one percent of death?What’s one percent of separation from God forever?It’s separation from God forever.

Dave:

Well, what do you say he paid ninety-nine percent, or ninety-eight percent or seventy-five percent, what you’re saying is, He didn’t pay it all.

Tom:

And then you could pay some of that.

Dave:

Right.There is something that you must do.Well, show me in the Bible where it says what you must do.It’s right here--What must I do?The only thing you do is believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.The problem with, not just the Roman Catholic Church, but many churches, many pastors are in pulpits across this country and all over the world who don’t believe the Bible, Tom.Either the Bible is our authority or it isn’t.If it’s our authority, then I go by what it says.If it’s not our authority, then what’s the point?Throw it out, forget it.But Tom, it’s also very logical.You can’t pay for breaking the law by keeping the law in the future, it won’t work.There is nothing you can do. Furthermore, the Bible says, The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.Through Jesus Christ our Lord, that’s very important because if Christ hadn’t paid the penalty God could not give us the gift.He couldn’t pardon us unless the penalty was really paid.And furthermore, it says it’s a gift.You can’t earn a gift.You can’t pay for a gift.You can’t merit a gift.A gift is a gift.You give someone something and they insist on trying to pay for it, it’s an insult.Okay, so anyone who thinks that church membership, prayers, penance, whatever it is, but they somehow are paying part of the penalty for their sins because Christ didn’t pay all of it--they are rejecting the gift and wow!I mean, what a thing to say when Christ says:It is finished.He says:I give my sheep eternal life, John:5:24Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.
See All..., one of my favorite verses, although they are all favorites.He that hears my Word believes on Him that sent Me has everlasting life.Has--shall not come into condemnation, has passed from death to life.Tom, it is so simple, but we have to acknowledge that we are sinners and that we can’t do anything to merit our salvation.Only then can we accept the full payment from Christ.

Tom:

Dave, the other thing that I think about regarding this is, the penalty, the separation from God forever.Now, as finite beings, how do you pay something like that off?Forever, in other words, you can’t come to the end of that, you’re going to be separated from God forever.That’s why we know that Jesus had to be God, had to be the God man, because only He could pay the penalty, an infinite penalty that covers all of us.

Dave:

Right.

Tom:

Every sin, past, present and future, every person who ever lived and will be born.

Dave:

Hebrews 2, says, He tasted death for every man.Well, Tom, Verse 32:They spake unto him the word of the Lord.In other words, we haven’t heard everything that he said---Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ---

Tom:

There has to be some content with “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.”You gave some of that, but there’s more and we know he must have explained that to them.

Dave:

He had to explain it.In other words, it’snot enough that you just believe that there was some person back there named the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, I believe that.Okay, so you’re saved.No, you have to believe He died for your sins, you have to believe that He is God, that He is qualified, as you said, Tom.Verse 32:They spake unto him the word of the Lord.In other words, they are giving him the full story of the gospel.But this is very interesting, very important---And to all that were in his house.Now, Tom, I know that there are groups that teach infant baptism, or household baptism from these scriptures.Well, you see, it says:Thou shalt be saved and thy house.Well, not unless you believe the gospel.In other words, there couldn’t have been any infants in that house, otherwise how could he have preached the gospel to babies?Whoever was in that house, they were competent to hear the gospel and to make a choice on their own.So, they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house.

Tom:

Verse 33:“And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway.”So, baptism followed being born again, believing.

Dave:

Right.Followed salvation.He didn’t say, if you believe and are baptized, then you will be saved, although there is a verse in the Bible that says, “He that believes and is baptized is saved.”But it never says, He that believes and is not baptized is not saved.So, baptism, as you point out, Tom, follows salvation, it follows belief in Christ as our Savior.It’s a sign that we have really put our trust in Him.