What must I do to be saved?
The first step in finding the correct answer to this question is to first ask another question: SAVED FROM WHAT? Saved from flunking a test? Saved from a car accident? Or saved from doing something you really don't want to do? What do you mean by saved?
In Biblical terms being "saved" means being rescued or delivered from a very clear and threatening danger.
1. We must be saved from God Himself.
Saved from God? Yes, saved from God's wrath.
"God is a just judge, and God is angry with the wicked every day." Psalm 7:11
"For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness." Romans 1:18
• To be ungodly has to do with your attitude toward God. It means to love what God hates and hate what God loves. Is this true of you?
• To be unrighteous means to fall short of God's perfect standard in how you behave toward others. Do you always treat people like God would have you to? If not, then you are unrighteous.
• To suppress the truth means to press down or push back the truth of God because you've decided to live for yourself rather than for God and others. Is this ever true of you?
If these are just some of the things that are true of you, then God's wrath is against you. What is God's wrath? God's wrath is His intense, holy, strong and settled opposition against all who have defied Him. It is His refusal to condone sin or come to terms with it. God's wrath is His just judgment upon sin.
How should you feel about this?
"You, even You, are to be feared; and who may stand in Your presence when once You are angry?" (Ps.76:7)
2. We also need to be saved from the penalty of the Law
Have you ever broken one of God's commands? If so, then God's Word says,
"Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the Law, to perform them." Galatians 3:10; cf. Deut.27:26
"For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, has become guilty of all." James 2:10
To break the Law, especially God's law, means that you are a lawbreaker. Sin is a transgression of the Law.
"Everyone who practices sin, practices lawlessness, and lawlessness is sin." 1 John 3:4
"The wages of sin is death..." Romans 6:23
Death is the just due to those who commit sin. Death in biblical terms means separation from God. If you have sinned, and every man has, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23), then can you admit, without reservation, that you deserve separation from God forever?
If not, is it because you don't think you're that bad?
You may not be as bad as a murderer or a thief, but what is true of a thief is also true of a fine person like you, you fall short of God's perfect standard and, therefore, you both need a Savior.
Can you not admit this because you believe you are basically a good person?
Human goodness is not good enough for God. It is not a question of what satisfies you or me, but what satisfies God. Just as monopoly money has no value in the world, human goodness has no real value in heaven. Jesus said:
"For I say to you, that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 5:20, Cf. Romans 3:9-10
The scribes and Pharisees possessed external human righteousness and human righteousness is all that we are capable of producing. However, God requires a different kind of righteousness - divine righteousness.
Can you not admit this because you see no need for a Savior?
The pursuit of our own human goodness blinds us our true condition and need of a Savior (Romans 10:3; 2 Corinthians 4:3-4). From God's perspective, everyone has fallen short of His perfect standard, the criminal and person of good character and, therefore, all need a Savior.
We also need to be saved from sin's enslaving and corrupting power.
"Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin." John 8:34
Can you make a commitment right now to stop sinning and to do what God would have you to? If not, the reason is because you are a slave to sin. Sin not only enslaves, it corrupts and defiles.
"There is a generation that is pure in its own eyes, yet is not washed from its filthiness." Proverbs 30:12
God's Word says unwashed sinners can never enter heaven.
"And nothing unclean and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life." Revelation 21:27
We need to be saved from God's wrath, from the penalty of the law and from sin's enslaving and corrupting power.
Now let's answer the question on the front page of this tract: What must I do to be saved?
In one sense, the biblical answer is you can't do anything, but God has done it all. Here is the good news!
• Jesus bore God's wrath against your sin.
"He made Him (Jesus) who knew no sin, to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." 2 Corinthians 5:21
"But God demonstrated His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for (in the place of) us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him." Romans 5:8-9
• Jesus paid your penalty for breaking the Law.
"For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh." Romans 8:3
"For Christ also died for sins, once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God..." 1 Peter 3:18
"Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us...." Galatians 3:13a
• Jesus alone has the power to set you free and cleanse you from all unrighteousness.
"If therefore the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed." John 8:36
"But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name." John 1:12
"Of Him all the prophets bear witness that through His name everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins." Acts 10:43
Yet, there is something that God requires you to do. The answer seems as simple as ABC, but by no means, is it that easy.
You must ADMIT that you are less than perfect and, therefore, deserve to be separated from God forever. You must also admit that there is absolutely NOTHING you can do to earn God's favor or entrance into God's heaven.
"No man can by any means redeem his brother, or give to God a ransom (payment) for him - for the redemption of his soul is costly, and he should cease trying forever." Psalm 49:7-8
"Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then you also can do good who are accustomed to doing evil." Jeremiah 13:23
You must BELIEVE that God loves you, in spite of your sin, and He has acted in Jesus Christ to remove your sin and restore you to Himself.
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life." John 3:16
You must COMMIT yourself to Christ. This does not mean that you are responsible for your own salvation, because faith is a gift (Ephesians 2:8-9). Jesus saves, faith is the vehicle through which He saves you.
Now what? Ask yourself these questions:
• Do you feel the weight of your sinfulness?
• Do you see the blackness of your heart?
• Are you willing to relinquish all your wrong ideas of how you can find acceptance with God?
• Are you willing to turn from sin and the world whatever the cost, from its outlook as well as its practice?
• Are you willing to deny yourself, take up the cross and go after Christ?
If so, then call out to Christ for saving grace.
"For whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved." Romans 10:13
Believe and claim Him as your personal Savior and commit yourself to Him completely as your Lord, no matter what the cost.
"If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved." Romans 10:9
Beginning the journey right
• Get a Bible and start to read it every day.
• Find a God-honoring, Bible-teaching church.
• Tell your closest friend or another Christian about your new found faith.
• Start to demonstrate your faith by doing good deeds and fellowshipping with other Christians.