What Must I Do to Be Saved
What
Must I Do to Be Saved?
Doug Fields
This question is one of the most important
questions of our lives because our eternity will depend
on how we answer. There are many false ways being taught
now from "all you have to do is believe in God"
to "all you need to do is live a good moral life".
I agree we must believe in God and live a good moral
life, but we need to see what God says and not just
believe what I or any other man thinks is acceptable
to God to be in a saved condition here on earth.
If we are asking this question, we must
believe there is a Heaven and a Hell. After this life,
we will either be in comfort and paradise or a place
of pain and torment for eternity. Although the false
ways are many, God is specific in His word regarding
this subject. The Bible has two testaments, the Old
and New. All through the Bible, God has always set the
standard of how we are to live. In the Old Testament,
He spoke directly to man, and then gave man the Ten
Commandments to live by (Exodus 20). This ended when
Jesus came to this earth from Heaven to fulfill the
Old Testament Law and the Ten Commandments. Although
Jesus instructed us to keep some of the same commands,
we are under New Testament Law, which Jesus began at
Jesus death. (Hebrews 9:16, 17)
We cannot take just one verse from the
New Testament to know all we must do to be saved. We
must examine the Bible to know fully how to obey God's
word.
First, we must hear what we must do to
be saved. However, we must hear the right teaching in
order to be pleasing to God, not just anything that
has religious content. Jesus says whoever hears these
sayings of Mine and does them is like a wise man. (Matthew
7:24) So we see from this passage that it will be Jesus'
word that will save us and not man's. The previous verses
(vs. 21-23) teach us the outcome of the false teacher.
Paul, the apostle, teaches in Romans 10:17 that faith
comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Again,
it does matter what we hear, only the word of God will
produce faith in God and in His power to save us. This
leads us into our next step toward being saved.
Belief, in God's plan (faith), was taught
by Jesus in Mark 16:15-16. He taught His apostles, to
"go into all the world and preach the gospel to
every creature and that he who believes and is baptized
will be saved, but he who does not believe will be condemned".
This teaches that it's very important we believe in
the gospel (the good news of Jesus life obeying God
our Heavenly Father, overcoming death and being resurrected
from the grave). In John 8:24, Jesus says we will die
in our sins if we do not believe that Jesus is the Son
of God. When we believe that Jesus has the power to
save us we must act upon that faith. Remember what we
said above about the false teachings of "believing
only" or "faith only" will save us? Please
look at James 2:19. Believing is essential, but there
is more that must be done, verse 20 states that faith
without works is dead. If believing is all that is necessary,
the demons would have been saved.
We are to be ashamed of the sin in our
life and know in order to be saved we must change to
do God's will. This is referred to as repentance. Peter,
the apostle, taught repentance in Acts 2:38 to those
who recognized they were in a lost condition, from doing
their own will and crucifying Jesus. Acts 2:37 says,
these people were cut to the heart and asked, "what
shall we do"? Peter could have said, just believe
there is a God and go your way living the same as you
always have, or just hear and obey anything that makes
you feel good. Instead he was very direct saying, "repent
and be baptized everyone of you in the name of Jesus
Christ for the remission of your sins". Paul says
in Acts 17:30, 31 that God commands all men everywhere
to repent because He has appointed a day on which He
will judge the world. We find in II Corinthians 7:10
that godly sorrow produces repentance to salvation.
This teaches we must have godly sorrow. Only true godly
repentance will lead us to salvation. Please see Romans
10:9,10.
It's important to act upon our faith as
stated earlier. Another step we find in God's word is
confession. In Matthew 10:32, Jesus says if we confess
Him before men, He will confess us before His Father
in Heaven. Verse 33 goes on to say that if we deny Him
before men, that Jesus will deny us before His Father.
So we must acknowledge our faith by confessing we believe
that Jesus is the Son of God. A good example of this
is written in Acts 8. Philip had taught the Ethiopian
eunuch about Jesus (v 35). The good confession was made
in verse 37. Paul teaches confession is important for
our salvation is Romans 10:9, 10.
In some of the verses we've read so far,
we see that baptism was included in the teaching of
Jesus and His Apostles. Mark 16:16 says he who believes
and is baptized will be saved. Acts 2:38 says repent
and let everyone of you be baptized. Acts 8:36 says
the eunuch was taught about Jesus and this prompted
him to ask to be baptized.
Some want to stop after being baptized,
feeling they've done what was taught and now just need
to lead a life that is pleasing to themselves. Revelation
2:10 teaches us we must be faithful children of God
until death in order to get the crown of life. This
is also spoken of in James 1:12 which says blessed is
the man who endures temptation; for when he has been
proved, he will receive the crown of life which the
Lord has promised to those who love Him.
What must I do to be saved? I must Hear,
Believe, Repent, Confess Jesus as the Son of God, be
Baptized for the remission of sin, and live a faithful
life.The question is indeed the most important one you
will answer. Please think seriously about your response
before answering. We can have peace of mind here on
earth, if we are obedient and faithful to God; our salvation
is promised to us by our Heavenly Father. We know that
God cannot lie, (Titus 1:2) and that God is not slack
concerning His promise, but is longsuffering toward
us, not willing that any should perish but that all
should come to repentance. (II Peter 2:9)
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