How can I be saved?

When the question, "What must I do to be saved?" rang from the agonised lips of the prison warder at Philippi, the inspired answer did not bid him pray, or strive, or make vows, or anything of that sort. He was told to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. Nothing that he could do could secure God's salvation. The doing had all been done by Christ. All that is left for the sinner is the appropriation of the results of His mighty work by simple faith.

But what is the jailer told to do? God's answer to man's query is exquisite in its simplicity. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house," falls on the ears of the awakened sinner. How divinely simple. He had only to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and he would be a saved man. There is no word of anything that he must do in order to get salvation. This is a gospel that exactly meets helpless sinners without strength, and no wonder the jailer believed at once. His conversion was a rapid one indeed. One minute asleep in his sins, the next awake and deeply anxious about these sins — and straightway thereafter he hears the gospel and believes it, and rejoices in God with all his house.

Of old God brought His commandment very near to Israel that they might do it. He has brought His word even nearer to us in Christ. It is now not a word of what we ought to do, but of what Christ has done, and of what He Himself has done in raising Christ from the dead. On our part the word only demands that we believe with the heart that God has raised Him from the dead, and that we confess Him as Lord with our mouths. When heart and mouth thus go together there is of course reality. Real subjection to Jesus as Lord carries with it salvation.

Passing on to the opening of the Acts of the Apostles, we are privileged to harken to Peter's address on the day of Pentecost — the most fruitful sermon ever preached in this world — crowned with the glorious result of three thousand souls! And what did Peter preach? He preached Christ, and he called upon men to repent. Yes, the great apostle of the circumcision insisted upon repentance — self-judgement — true contrition of heart before God. "Then said Peter to them, Repent, and be baptised every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." (Acts 2:38) And, again, "Repent ye therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out." (Acts 3:19)

The concluding verses of the section (8-10) show that salvation is entirely by grace on God's part, pure favor at a time when we deserved wrath and judgment. "Through faith" is the means by which we receive such grace, faith being not in itself a thing of merit, but that which rightly recognizes all merit in the Lord Jesus Christ, having confidence simply in Himself. "And that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God." Even faith to believe is seen as God's gift for in our natural state faith was far from us. God alone has worked marvelously in changing matters, giving us faith and salvation by grace, and indeed every spiritual blessing.

How awful the fact that every one of us is described in this verse. Yes, born in this very condition, and held fast prisoners by the devil, the god of this world — so fast that, however you, my reader, may desire to deliver yourself from the power of sin, you cannot. Every effort is utterly vain. I believe that such is the awful dominion that sin has over man, that if all the men in the world, and all the angels in heaven, were to unite to deliver one soul from the power of sin and Satan, they could not do it. I think I hear you saying, "If that's the case, I must have been dreaming. I thought a man could repent at any time, and give up his sins, and then God would forgive him; and so I have not been particularly troubled about it. I have thought there is time enough yet." My reader, if this is your thought, you could not well be under a greater mistake. How awful if you should go on in this fatal delusion until the door is shut, and you are lost! Now, come, try your plan. Try to repent — try to give up all your sins — try to love God with all your heart — try to keep His holy law. The effort, sincerely made, will soon convince you of your hopelessly sinful state; but even if you could succeed in such all effort, there would still be the fearful weight of past sins. No amount of bitter remorse could undo, or wipe away, one past sin. Judas is a solemn beacon as to this; he tried this way; but he found it the way to hell. Sorrow for sin is but a very small part of true repentance. Your mind must be entirely turned from sin to God. There is but one only way by which this can be done. "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up; that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life." To repent before you believe would be as if the bitten Israelite had to be healed before he looked at the brazen serpent. No, no. Faith in the love of God, as seen in the death of Jesus, alone can produce true repentance. The moment I believe in Jesus, my mind must be changed toward God. If you have been brought to look at Jesus lifted up on the cross, dying for your sins, and now lifted up to the highest glory — if He is your entire trust — you are, and shall be, certainly saved. "For through him is preached the forgiveness of sins; and all that believe are justified from all things." But if you have not looked, and do not thus look, on Jesus lifted up — if you are trusting in anything else — you are as certain, should you die in this state, to perish, as though you were just now in hell.

When speaking to the anxious jailer of Philippi, in whose soul a work of repentance was already proceeding, he said only, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved" (Acts 16:31). There "only believe" was quite in place, and to have "demanded good works" would have been worse than vain. 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 (see verse 33). He did it not in order to be saved, but as the result of the change that grace had wrought within.

Very simple this is, some one may say. It is simple. Have I only to believe to be justified? such an one may ask. We have to believe on Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, we reply. Is this faith, then, a mere assent of the mind? By no means. "Faith without works is dead" (James 2:26). God knows the moment that a person really believes His testimony concerning His Son. He, who reads the heart, waits not therefore for works to be seen, to justify that soul before Him; but faith, where real, is evidenced by works. Hence there is justification by works, as well as justification by faith. It is important for all to remember this. On this James insists most strongly (James 2:14-26), "What does it profit, my brethren, though a man say he has faith, and have not works? can faith save him?� … Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: show me thy faith without works, and I will show thee my faith by my works. Thou believest there is one God; thou doest well: the demons also believe and tremble. But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is barren." Where faith, saving faith exists, there is spiritual life. Now that life will be manifested in displaying, in some measure, fruits of the divine nature (vv. 15-16), and in an activity in accordance with that which is believed. Where these are wanting, faith, being without works, is barren, fruitless. A belief in a fact, without the proper effect of that fact on the individual, is of no manner of use! The demons believe there is one God, but do not serve Him. Men, too, may avow their belief in a God, and may descant on the wonders of creation, but of what profit is that, if the divine Being remains to them simply an abstraction, One with whom they have no intercourse, and of whose revelation they remain in ignorance, without the slightest intention or inclination to give heed to it? "Faith without works is dead." Hence justification by works is as much to be insisted upon as justification by faith; not, indeed, that by the former one becomes entitled to a place before God, but it evidences that one has a standing in the divine presence.

Taking now a glance backward at the passages that have come before us, what have we learned? We have seen that John the Baptist did not send his hearers away telling them to come when they had given sufficient proof of amendment of life, but he baptized them in view of that. We have seen again and again that certain things are predicated of those who have been baptized. They have washed away their sins; they have put on Christ; they have been buried; and all this is said to have been done by the act of Baptism. More than once, salvation is connected with the rite, (Mark 16:16, and 1 Peter 3:21). In Acts 2:38, Baptism is said to be "for (or unto) the remission of sins," not because their sins were forgiven.

But some may ask, What is repentance? Let us turn to scripture to find out. It is not a mere change of mind on certain points (this will confound it with faith); but the Lord preached, "Repent ye, and believe the gospel" (Mark 1:15). It is not simply a conviction of having done wrong; for, when the multitude were pricked to the heart, Peter exhorted them to repentance (Acts 2:38). It is not sorrow for sin, "for godly sorrow works repentance to salvation not to be repented of" (2 Cor. 7:10). Nor is it synonymous with conversion; for Peter tells the Jews to "repent and be converted" (Acts 3:19). But it is a change of mind, a judgment of self, ways, and sins, which is evidenced by a change of life. It is God's gift (Acts 11:18; 2 Tim. 2:25) bestowed by the risen and ascended Christ (Acts 5:31). It is fruitful; for there are works meet for (worthy of) repentance (Matt. 3:8; Acts 26:20). It gives God His right place in the conscience of His creature, so it is "towards God" (Acts 20:21); and it is "to life" and "salvation" (Acts 11:18; 2 Cor. 7:10).