What should we do to receive God's offer of salvation?

This, then, is the answer to your question: if you want to be saved, you must believe on God's Son. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house." Mark you! it is Christ, you must know. It is the Person of Christ who is the object of belief, the object of faith. Christ, personally, is the object of the soul's faith, and the one who believes in Him gets the benefit of all the work He has done. I do not agree at all with an old woman, in Arran, who said to a friend of mine, who was pressing the gospel on her, "You make far o'er muckle o' that word, believe, believe." That let out a great deal. You cannot make too much of believing. If Christ has not hitherto been the object of your faith, may God give you now to believe on His blessed Son, and you will get what the jailor got. "Thou shalt be saved," is God's assurance to the believing soul.

The moment you turn to Christ, the moment you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, that moment you get salvation. The moment the sinner accepts Him, acknowledges Him, and confesses Him, that moment is salvation the present, and eternal portion of the believing one. You get what the jailor got. He got salvation; for, I find: "And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his straightway. And when he had brought them into his house, he set meat before them, and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house" (vers. 33, 34). He was told to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and I read he believed in God. Why was that? What he had heard led him to see that the blessed Man, the Lord Jesus Christ, of whom he had been told, was really God; that the blessed One, who became Man, that He might die for his sins, and save him, was the eternal, blessed Son of God. Accepting that truth, and believing that truth, in the simplicity of a little child, he believed in God "with all his house." Mark that! Not only he himself, but all his house were marked for blessing. Paul had found his man, but he got a good many besides.

To be saved therefore, to have eternal life, you must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. It is thus a question not of doing, but of believing. For it is now, not what the sinner can do, but what Christ has done, for "He took what I had earned; I get the fruit of what He has done." Therefore it is, and ever must be, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." There is no other way; and hence salvation is always connected with faith. Take a few instances: "Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace" (Luke 7:50); "Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole" (Luke 17:19); "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life" (John 3:36); "He that heareth my word, and believeth on Him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation (judgment); but is passed from death unto life" (John 5:24); "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life" (John 6:47); "To Him give all the prophets witness, that through His name whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins" (Acts 10:43); "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom. 5:1, etc. etc.).

I would now, my friends, ask if you have received Jesus the Son of God as your Saviour? I do not ask if you have good intentions; for I believe multitudes intend to go to heaven who are still treading the broad road to destruction; neither do I ask if you have some knowledge of the doctrines of Christ; but I do ask if you have received Him? You may say, I pray more, give more, deny myself more, and the like; but that is not the question. To know Christ, and take Him as your very own Saviour, because there is no other, knowing you must perish in eternal misery without Him because of your sins, this is the vital question. For it is not knowing doctrines, or giving alms, or saying prayers, that can deliver you from death and judgment, but Jesus the Son of God, and Jesus only. "As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God." "Whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish." Or, as the blessed Lord said in another place, "Verily, 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" (or judgment). (John 5:24.) Blessed deliverance! Happy indeed are those who, having simply received Christ as their Saviour, can rest their heads on their pillows in sweetest confidence and peace, knowing that their sins were purged by the sacrifice of Christ, and that they will not come into judgment. Such are already on the other side of death. "They have passed from death unto life."

Be persuaded to turn at this moment towards God in repentance, and in simple faith towards the Lord Jesus Christ. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:34).

And what is the whole matter of receiving Christ — eternal life — salvation? It is the simple faith that accredits God to be as good as He says He is, as good as He has shown Himself to be. Has He not said that He "so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life?" And yet, with such statements throughout God's word, the soul, instead of believing God when He declares how good He is, instead of receiving Christ, stands reasoning, and seeking to evade the love which still pursues us with the needed, indispensable good. Ah! the heart must be bowed to this, to receive God's word in true, child-like simplicity, just as a child accepts unhesitatingly what it is very glad to get. "Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, shall in no wise enter therein."

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.

First, God’s acceptance of the work of Christ as performed on behalf of sinners. This is proved by the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Second, God’s acceptance of the sinner, who puts his trust in the Lord, and the bestowal upon him of salvation, forgiveness of sins, and eternal life. Salvation! “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31). Forgiveness of sins! “I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His name’s sake” (1 John 2:12). Eternal life! “He that believes on the Son has everlasting life” (John 3:36). Acceptance! “He has made us accepted in the Beloved” (Eph. 1:6). “We believe and are SURE” (John 6:69).

I was very much struck lately with a passage in the eleventh of Romans: "Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace. And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more of grace. But if it be of works, then it is no more grace: otherwise work is no more work" (Rom. 11:5-6). How then am I saved? By pure sovereign grace. So wrote the apostle Paul to the Ephesians: "By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast" (Eph. 2:8-9). It is the blessed, precious, sovereign grace that has come to all of us in the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ. What we need, as sinners, is salvation. That salvation the grace of God has brought to us. If grace then has brought salvation, what have I now to do? I have to avail myself of that which God brings to me in the Person, and through the work, of the Lord Jesus Christ, — in plain language, I have to accept, by faith, the eternal salvation which grace brings to me.

There is only one way of saying Yes, and that is by receiving with repentance of soul the Gospel of God. Either the Bible is blessedly true or unspeakably false. You must say, Yes or No to the Bible, and if you say Yes to its message that includes the gospel. By receiving the testimony of God that you are a sinner your need of a Saviour is felt, and God offers a living loving Saviour to you—One, who has fully wrought salvation by His atoning death on the cross. Accepting this blessed Saviour you have received the gospel and salvation is yours. Your eternal happiness depends on this.

Firstly, you must afflict your soul. To translate that sentence into one New Testament word is simple. It means repentance, for you will never get salvation until you repent. What is repentance? Does repentance earn salvation? Does it win it? Is it a work? It isn’t a work, because we read that they had to afflict their souls, and do no manner of work. To neglect to do the one, or essay to do the other brought death upon them. Repentance, therefore, is not a work. What is it, then? It is this. You find deep down in your soul that you are a guilty sinner, only fit for hell. Yet God, in His love, offers you salvation, and you get this wondrous thought, “God is good and I am bad,” and that is repentance. In short, you get right thoughts of God and yourself.