Who said what must I do to be saved?

In Acts 2 we read that the Apostle Peter preaching with power at Pentecost brought conviction to his hearers, and they exclaimed "What shall we do"? When they realised that by wicked hands they had crucified the One approved by God and that God had raised Him up from the dead and also the import of the prophetic scripture, "whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord, shall be saved." They saw they were undone, and consequently called on One who was able to save. Peter's answer was "Repent"!

In Acts 16, another aspect is presented in the case of the Philippian jailor, awakened to a deeper sense than his being undone in the eyes of men, addressed the Apostle Paul and his associates in the exclamation, "Sirs, (lit. Lords), what must I do to be saved?" The erstwhile brutal ruffian, who had shamefully treated them, now approached them with an air of greatest respect. Their answer was simply, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved and thy house."

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.

But some of you say, I do not believe in sudden conversions. Do you not? I do. Most likely you never will believe in sudden conversions till you are converted yourself. Was not this jailer converted suddenly? He puts a plain question, and he gets a straight answer: "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house." It was not himself only, but his household was likewise to come in for God's blessing.

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.

Again, when an alarmed and sin-convicted man cried out, "What must I do to be saved?" Paul's reply was, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house;" but why does he here repeat all these titles of the Saviour? Because he is presenting Him to this anxious soul as the Object of faith, and in such a way as to fully satisfy his awakened conscience. Jesus is not only Son of man in the glory, but has been there made "both Lord, and Christ." (Acts 2:36.) If the question of the troubled heart be, Is He willing to save me? The answer is, Yes; He is JESUS, and came into the world for the very purpose of saving sinners. If the inquiry be, Is He able to save me? The answer is, Yes; He is "LORD of all," and has all power in heaven and in earth; and His being the CHRIST, the anointed One in heaven, consequent upon His finished work on the cross, is the unquestionable proof that every one that has come as a sinner to Him the Saviour, is forgiven and blessed. How perfectly accurate, therefore, was the Apostle's reply, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved."

The jailor, likely complacent in thinking the prisoners secure, was asleep, but the earthquake evidently awakened him. A startling sight met his eyes, the doors of the prison being open. Of course, he would expect all the prisoners to have escaped, and that his life would be forfeit for negligence in keeping them secure. He was therefore ready to commit suicide with his own sword. It hardly seems likely that Paul saw him in the dark, but Paul was nevertheless guided of the Spirit of God to call loudly to keep him from his purpose, telling him that all the prisoners were still there. How did Paul know this too, except by the Spirit of God?

The jailor called for a light, and springing (rather than just walking) into the prison, fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. This was an unusual attitude for a hardened prison official! But God was working in his heart, so that he was brought under the solemn conviction that he was a lost man. The character and testimony of these unusual prisoners had clearly affected him, and he asks, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"

The answer to the jailor's question is simple in this case, an answer that can only be appreciated by one who realizes himself to be guilty or lost, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved and thy house" (v.31). The Lord had deeply worked in the man's soul to bring him to genuine repentance. This is always necessary if there is to be any desire for or knowledge of salvation. Faith in the Lord Jesus would save him, not only from his own guilt, but from the ungodly world with which he was identified, and would save his house from this situation too. The fact of his being brought to God puts his entire house in a sanctified (or separated) position, as 1 Corinthians 7:14 plainly teaches. In this way the house is saved, though it remains imperative that each individual in the house must personally receive the Lord Jesus in order to have eternal salvation.

Paul and Silas spoke more of the Word of God to him and to all who were in his house, though it was the middle of the night. The effect of the Word was striking: the jailor in unaccustomed compassion washed their stripes to ease the severity of the pain. He and all his were baptized, taking the outward position of Christian profession. The jailor knew there was no reason to return Paul and Silas to the stocks, but took them into his own house and fed them, all his house rejoicing because he had believed in God (v.34).

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.

He was just at the doorway, and he "sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas; and brought them out." And at that moment there burst from the lips of the awakened man, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" Who had said a word to him about salvation? Who had said a word to him about his sins? Who told the man that he was lost? Who pressed upon him the necessity for salvation? God can do a wonderful work in a very short time; and even this night, since you came into this meeting, I trust He has wrought in your souls, to make you feel that you need salvation. "What must I do to be saved?" is a wonderful query. He had received light from God, and the first discovery in his soul was this, I am a lost man; and so he cried, "What must I do to be saved?"

Have you ever taken your place before God with a query like that? Have you — let me affectionately ask you — ever put such a query as that? Have you ever, in the presence of God, asked, "What must I do to be saved?" If you have not, I believe the truth is that you have not discovered what the jailor discovered, that you are a lost soul. Oh! may God show you that you are a lost sinner, and give you grace to turn to Him with a similar query; that is to get light, and knowledge, and salvation. "What must I do to be saved?" is the sinner's inquiry. How beautiful is God's answer! "And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house." How charming is that answer! Was he to do some great thing? No! He was to believe the good news of the love of God, made manifest in His precious Son. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house." There was not one word about works; works come in, in their proper place: there is no doubt about that, — in the history of the Christian. But you do not work in order to be saved. As the hymn puts it —

Scripture declares that "by the deeds of the law (or the best doings that man could bring) no flesh shall be justified in His sight;" how blind, then, must those be who are endeavouring to do what God says cannot be accomplished? The common sentiments that "God only requires men to do their best," "to act up to their conscience," and the like, are only pure inventions, and quite contrary to His revealed will in the Scriptures. All such presumptuous ideas are levelled immediately by one verse of divine truth, and "the Scripture cannot be broken." Look for instance, at John 3:36, "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the Son, shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him." Again, in Romans 4:5, it is written. "To him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." When the jailor was in distress, and cried out, "What must I do to be saved?" did the apostle tell him to do this and that? No, he told him that salvation was by believing, and therefore not by doing, and said, "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved."

Now, faith, as we have seen, is always conjoined with repentance; and while repentance is toward God, faith is toward the Lord Jesus Christ. The explanation of this is very simple. It is against God we have sinned, and it is He who has passed judgment upon our sins; so that, when we are convicted of our guilt, it is to Him we turn with confession and self-judgment. In this state our one need is to learn the way of salvation, just as when the jailor, conscience-smitten, rushed into the presence of Paul and Silas, and cried, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" Their answer was the presentation of Christ. "Believe," they said, "on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house." (Acts 16:30-31.) This, as the reader may perceive, is a summary of what was said; for we read in the next verse that they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house. But the fact of the term - the Lord Jesus Christ - being used, shows that it was a full gospel they preached - the gospel concerning His person, His death and resurrection, and His present exaltation as Lord at the right hand of God. The jailor received, through grace, the testimony thus delivered, and there was therefore in his soul faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ. He believed God's testimony to the finished work of Christ on the cross, to the value of that work before God as having made full and perfect atonement for sin, and also to the testimony to His resurrection; so that he could then say, "He was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification."

But how completely does the answer set the soul right in this matter, as it directs it away from itself to another: "Believe on the Lord Jesus." Why believe on Him? Because all has been done, all has been suffered by Him, that had to be done and suffered for salvation to be within our reach. Our sins have been borne by Him, and propitiation has been made by His blood. How perfect then and all-sufficient must be His atoning sacrifice, that to a heathen, to an idolater who had never till that moment bestowed one thought on his soul, salvation was then and there for him, and for every member of his house if they believed on the Lord Jesus. Paul and Silas did not, however, stop there "for they spake the word of the Lord unto him, with all that were in his house" (v.32). Following in this the better reading "with" for "and to," it would appear that all his household were present with him. The message, the salvation, was for them all. Inside the prison, then, Paul and Silas repeated the offence for which they had been thrown into it. Would the jailor inform against them? would he denounce them? How could he? how should he? They had kept him from self-destruction, they had ministered the way of present salvation to that man and to his household.