What Do You Have To Do To Be Saved?

How is a person saved from the eternal damnation we are all heading toward? Is it by paying money to the church? Is it by living a good life, treating everyone kindly, doing good deeds? Is it by praying, reading your Bible, going to church? Is it by doing anything?

Salvation involves doing but not as we may first think. To start with, all the doing was done by Jesus. Everything that needed to be done was done by Jesus. There was nothing we could do so Jesus came and did it. There is a little bit of doing on our part but that doing is simply to believe. To believe Jesus is who he says he is and to believe that he did what he said he did.

He was not a good man. He was not a prophet. He was not an early version of Gandhi. He was not a wise man teaching about love. He was the sacrifice to end all sacrifices, the one who could pay the price we could not pay, to do what we could not do. But it is a useless sacrifice if we do not believe.

Jesus' words:

God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him won’t perish but will have eternal life. (John 3:16)

Not that "everyone won't perish" but "everyone who believes in him won't perish". He has done it all but we have to believe. Is this promise applied only to the Jews or a select group? The word "everyone" deals with that. Paul the apostle also made this matter clear:

God’s righteousness comes through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ for all who have faith in him. There’s no distinction. (Romans 3:22)

The word "faith" is used here as a step beyond belief. Faith is belief in action. When we live by faith we live our lives in the belief that Jesus is the sacrifice that paid for all our sins and now we are saved from the eternal consequences of our sins. Salvation is not earned, cannot be bought, is found nowhere else other than through the sacrificial Lamb, who is Jesus. It is the reason this Lamb told us:

“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:6)

Now everyone is left with the choice to believe or not. And that is all you need to do to be saved; believe. What happens to you after you choose to believe is another story.

Fanning Into Flame

I think I will sit here until God speaks to me so I will know what to do. He did say "Be still and know I am God". Well, at least that is the attitude that many of us have. We fail to understand that God has already given us our instructions and none of it involves inaction. The "be still" part is in our relationship with him. We can quiet our spirit, no fear, no worry, only peace as God continues to pour into our lives everything we need to serve him.

We often fail to understand that we have a responsibility "to do" in this service to our King. It is great that we worship. It is great that we study the Word. It is great that we have fellowship with each other, but we can't forget that we have been left here with a mission to complete. We have been given our instructions, to go and make disciples.  With such instructions comes equipping. But we don't just receive so we can be blessed; we receive so that we can do.

We have a responsibility to put what we have been given into action. Such gifts will lay dormant in us unless we use them. Paul reminded Timothy that because he was a man of faith he had a responsibility to "fan into flame" the gifts he was given by the Spirit:

For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. (2 Timothy 1:6)

There is no excuse for not using what the Spirit has given you. It has nothing to do with whether you want to or not. It has nothing to do with it being something you enjoy. It has nothing to do with your personality. It all comes down to obedience and faithfulness. It comes down to all or nothing.

You do not get to serve Jesus on your own terms. He made it clear to us that it is all or nothing. It is all of our heart or none of it. All of our being or none of it. All of our passion. All of the gifts he has given to us. We can't even serve him properly unless he equips us and if our King equips us we had better not waste what we have been given.

So we have the responsibility to take what we have been given and use it for Jesus' glory. We have the responsibility to fan it into flames. We have the responsibility to get off the "sofa" of our life and be faithful and responsible with our calling and mission. Because we are people of faith we have no excuse. Faith means we trust God with the instructions we have been given. We trust he will give us the ability to do what he has told us to do. We trust him for the faith and strength we lack. We trust him for the energy we need. We trust him for health, peace and joy. So let's get to work.