Believe and be Saved

 DEVOTION

THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES

BELIEVE AND BE SAVED 

Acts 16:29-34

29 The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. 30 He then brought them out and asked, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" 31 They replied, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved — you and your household." 32 Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. 33 At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his family were baptized. 34 The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God — he and his whole family.

NIV

After this violent earthquake that caused the foundation of the prison to be shaken and all the doors flew open, Paul and Silas remained in the prison. The jailer could not believe that no one escaped. He asked Paul and Silas the question of the ages. “What must I do to be saved?” It is not a complicated question, nor is the answer complicated. Although in some sense there is something we should look at. The Greek word translated as saved carries the meaning of to save, to keep safe and sound, to rescue from danger or destruction. We are not sure if the jailer understood being saved, in the sense of his salvation, or from the penalty he excepted from the magistrates. However, in the context, we have to presume that the jailer was thinking in terms of having what Paul and Silas had, and maybe the jailer had heard them preaching in the city, or at least he overheard them singing and praising God in their cell. He wanted what they had and so Paul tells him in order to be saved he must believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. That is pretty simple, just believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and we will be saved. We understand now that we are saved from the penalty of sin, which is death, and eternal death, never to experience the eternal life that Jesus has given us. Now it gets a little fuzzy, a little in the grey area when we talk about what we are being saved from. The idea of heaven or hell is at the core of this confusion. What we know from scripture is that at some point in time hell or hades will give up its dead and all people will stand before God for the final judgment. Hell is not a permanent place of the dead for it will be cast into the lake of burning sulfur along with the beast, the false prophet, and those who never ever believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. Not sure about the fate of those who are thrown into this lake of burner sulfur, but we do know the fate of those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. We will be taken up to heaven to the place Jesus has prepared for us. Believing in Jesus is the one and only choice a person can make that will save them. There is nothing else in this world that will give us eternal life. There is nothing we can do to earn being saved. There is nothing we can do to keep being saved, other than to keep believing. We think that we are required to respond by doing good work and maybe that is true in some sense. But we must remember that it is only response and not a requirement for salvation. Believing in Jesus is all we can do, and in reality, that should be the only time we exercise our choice. Once we decide to follow Jesus, then we but follow, which means he leads, and thus how we live is determined by Jesus, where we live is decided by Jesus, where we work, and attending church is also directed by Jesus because we follow, and he leads. Of course, that is in theory, because as humans many of us still what to have a hand in our lives, and make our choices as to where we work, live, church, where we serve, or what part of the body of Christ we become, and even play. But when we override the leading of the Lord by deciding for ourselves, are we then living outside the will of God? Does following Jesus only have spiritual applications, then thus we are free to choose the course of our lives? What are the spiritual applications of believing in the Lord Jesus Christ? We get saved, then what? That is all, so then we can go on living just as we always had, making all our decisions in life, doing our own thing, but we are saved? We cannot help but think that life changes when we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. After all, we are being transformed into his likeness, with ever-increasing glory. This means that it is also the work of God within us that is changing us into his likeness, and that does not require our good works, but simply our following the leading of the Lord as He transforms us. We can establish all kinds of rules and regulations to live by, but that is just like the law, we will never be able to obtain perfection or follow our rules and regulations to perfection, so then we fail, and feel guilty and shame because we could not be good enough and keep the law. We only need to believe in Jesus Christ, and we will be saved, kept safe, protected, and rescued from danger. Then we must just keep following Jesus. Because we believe and are saved, we live being filled with joy.