What Must I Do to be Saved?

“And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? 31 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.” Acts 16:30-31

After being awakened out of sleep, the jailer knew something unusual had happened, perhaps even miraculous. He instantly saw the gates, that were rusted from the dungeon’s constant dampness and always difficult for him to even open, were all shaken wide open by an earthquake. 

The jailer’s first assumption was that while he slumbered all his charges had escaped.  If that was true, then the authorities would surely require his life for those of the escapees.  To avoid their torturing him and the humiliation he and his family would receive, he immediately purposed to end his own life. Just as his thoughts were to become a reality, a steady, soft-spoken voice from the dank darkness broke the prison’s silence by commanding, “Do thyself no harm: for we are all here.”

Immediately the captives testimonies and lifestyles offered a simple but had-to-be true reason for what had happened while the guard slept; God had done a miracle by opening the gates for His people. In quick milliseconds, the keeper recalled his convictions over his own sins in the days past while he heard the imprisoned Christians quoting Scripture, singing hymns while they should have been fearing their own lives, and their extraordinary behavior that made these captives much different from anyone he had ever observed. 

The jailer knew God was involved in his prisoner’s lives and what had happened in the prison, and the man immediately feared for his own soul’s eternal destiny.  Quickly, the frightened guard blurted out, “… what must I do to be saved?”

Many people, in one time in their life, also had an encounter that no explanation can be offered, except that they knew God was involved. Maybe it was an escape from a car accident that they know should have ended in their death, except a godly intervention spared their life.  Perhaps, another natural catastrophe, violent situation, or another terrible event had its apparent outcome averted at the last moment, and it was also clear that only supernatural intervention could have altered what the obvious outcome should have been.  It was at that time, perhaps for a very brief instant like the jailer guarding over Paul and other Christians probably experienced, that their eternal destination became an immediate concern. Like the keeper, they too wondered, “What must I do to be saved?”

Perhaps at that instant, past “religious” exposure or training had them wondering, “If my doing good deeds will please God so He will let me go to Heaven, have I done enough?” Perhaps, they even wondered if they had done all the deeds their religion required them to do, or if they should have done more “good” things.

All man’s reasoning and rationalizations are for naught unless they line up with what the Bible declares is the only way to Heaven.  That way was quickly revealed to the suicidal jailer by his godly captives when they responded to the keeper’s question, “… Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved …” (Acts 16:31).

The only way anyone can get to Heaven is to believe that God’s only Son, Jesus, died on the cross for their sins and paid the price for those sins by His own blood. His death is the only “good work” that will remove one’s guiltiness for all their sins.  It is ONLY this belief that will save anyone from a tormenting, eternal Hell.  Have you believed on the Saviour’s sacrifice for your iniquities, so that you might be saved?

otme 7/16