How can I be saved?

It is a great thing to get people to understand that they are lost. Are you lost, or saved? There is no middle ground — only two classes of people in God's sight: those who are lost in their sins, on the broad road going straight to hell, and those who are saved by the precious blood of Jesus, on the narrow road that leads to heaven. Many people think they are only lost when they get to hell, but every sinner out of Christ and in his sins is lost this moment — not lost for ever, thank God, but still lost. He may be religious, but lost. A church member, but lost. When a man finds out he is lost, it is a great step in the history of his soul. For when he discovers that he is lost, he is then deeply anxious to be saved.

Do you ask, What must I do to be saved? I say again that there is nothing for you to do — it has all been done — but believe on the Lord Jesus Christ; that is, take Him at His word, rest on His finished work, His sin-cleansing blood. You may be sure He will be true to what He says.

Do! Prayers and tears, and alms-giving and sacrament-taking, and Bible-reading and good works, will never do. There is no atonement in these things.

But it is all-important to see and hold fast the fact that the gospel presents the person of Christ, and not His work only. The soul is called to "believe on the Lord Jesus." This could not purge the conscience without the shedding of His blood; it could not give peace or liberty unless He were not only delivered up for our offences but raised for our justification. But it is on the Lord Jesus that we believe. This alone sets the soul in a right attitude from the first, and that object of faith remains to the last.

It is not a question of the amount of your faith, but of the trustworthiness of the person you place your confidence in. One man takes hold of Christ, as it were, with a drowning man's grip. Another only touches the hem of His garment; but the sinner who does the first is not a bit safer than the one who does the second. They have both made the same discovery — that while everything in themselves is completely untrustworthy, they may safely trust Christ, calmly rely on His Word, and confidently rest in the eternal effectiveness of His finished work. That is what is meant by believing on Him.

When speaking to the anxious jailer of Philippi, in whose soul a work of repentance was already going on, he said only, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved." There "only believe" was quite in place, and to have demanded good works would have been worse than useless. It is recorded, however, that within one short hour of conversion the jailer performed his first good work, the fruit and proof of his faith. He did it not in order to be saved, but as the result of the change that grace had worked within.

Such is the divine order. First, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; secondly, knowledge of salvation, or assurance as it is sometimes called, from belief in the word of God; and lastly, peace as the consequence of knowing that I am saved. Take a simple illustration. If I owe a debt of one hundred pounds and have nothing to pay it with, I shall be under constant anxiety. If, however, a friend comes and says, "Be under no concern for the debt, I have paid it," my anxiety will instantly cease — if I believe his word, not otherwise. Many, making assurance depend on feeling, are continually unsettled. But when we see that the foundation of our confidence lies in the unchangeable truth of God, we shall never doubt our salvation, whatever our changing inward experiences.

We often quote Acts 16:31, but too often we leave out the last three words. God loves to link a man's house with himself and include them in His offer of blessing. Why do we not more often take hold of this fact in our faith? This is surely most encouraging for all heads of households who may be reached by the grace of God, since there is no partiality with God, and what He is to one He is to all.