Post by fearnot on Jun 10, 2022 14:30:04 GMT -5
A jailer asked Paul and Silas:
"What must I do to be saved"?
Acts 16:30
They answered him:
“Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved,
you and your household.”
Acts 16:31
A person might ask, what exactly does it mean to
believe?
So I am going to attempt to figure that out,
and write about it.
Here is some scripture that talks about
believing and salvation:
8 But what does it say?
“The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart”—
that is, the word of faith which we are preaching,
9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord,
and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead,
you will be saved;
10 for with the heart a person believes,
resulting in righteousness,
and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.
11 For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed.”
Romans 10:8-11
But also, an unbeliever, might not even know why they need to be saved?
They might wonder:
what do I need to be saved from, and why do I need salvation?
This is where such verses as these might help:
"for all have sinned
and fall short of the glory of God"
Romans 3:23
and
“10 There is none righteous, not even one;
11 There is none who understands,
There is none who seeks for God;
12 All have turned aside, together they have become useless;
There is none who does good,
There is not even one.”
Romans 3:10-12
Also
8 If we say that we have no sin,
we are deceiving ourselves
and the truth is not in us.
9 If we confess our sins,
He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
10 If we say that we have not sinned,
we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.
I John 1:8-10
Plus:
They have all turned aside,
together they have become corrupt;
There is no one who does good,
not even one.
Psalm 14:3
There are so many verses that point out, that we are sinners.
If you ask anyone, if they have broken any of the 10 commandments,
most everyone, will admit to having broken all, or most of them...
and that is sin.
Sinning against a HOLY God,
makes you, them, and I, and every person who ever lived:
a sinner.
God cannot live with sin and evil,
and either we must pay for those sins,
or someone must pay them for us.
No one can do enough 'good' deeds'
to outweigh the sin in their lives.
Sin must be paid for.
Here is another person asking
about salvation and Jesus said:
18 A ruler questioned Him, saying,
“Good Teacher,
what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”
19 And Jesus said to him,
“Why do you call Me good?
No one is good except God alone.
Luke 18:18,19
I think Jesus, is making the point,
that He Jesus is without sin,
and thus 'good'
and therefore: God.
So that is a clue I think,
in what it means to:
believe
We believe in a 'who'
(Jesus is God).
As sinners,
we, by ourselves,
can never pay for our sins.
We can never be 'good enough',
in fact, we are incapable.
That is not to say, we never do 'good things'
but we cannot change our sinful nature.
Even our 'good deeds', are tainted by sin:
( perhaps we are proud of what we have done, or
maybe we hope for praise and recognition for our good deeds,
or maybe we hope to gain money, or a higher position,
or be loved, or be honored etc. etc. etc.)
We are slaves to all manner of sins,
and under the power of them.
Slaves needing to be rescued!
We need to believe that, for a start!
Done for today
!!
