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

hat must I do to be saved?” In the words of Cotton Mather [*]: “It is impossible to ask a more weighty Question! It is deplorable that we hear it asked with no more Frequency, with nor more Agony.”

How deplorable truly it is that such a question, more often than not, isn’t heard anymore in altars in genuine brokenness and tears!

In the articles to follow I will endeavor to communicate the question “What must I do to be saved?”, first, to those that need to ask it, second, to those that have failed to ask it, and third, to those who have failed to preach it that people may ask it.

1. The Question: For those who need to ask it.

It is such an awesome event, that encounter of Paul and Silas was with the Philippian jailer. Imagine the Apostle and his companion, wrongfully accused, and we can say in such an event being in apparent weakness, possibly unjustly abused, devoid of any hope of escape from their predicament. But even as Satan was at work in stirring up the flesh of men to take the servants of the Lord and bound them into jail, it seems, as He always does, God had other plans.

A pair of bond-slaves, devoid of any ability to save themselves, locked up in a dungeon, bound up in stocks, in the darkness of the night, began to sing praises unto God. Ah, what a marvelous moment that was! Singing praises unto God in the midst of literal suffering! God heard them, and God saved them!

It was at that moment that the jailer, one who is consumed with his duty, aware of the consequences of failure to fulfill his responsibilities, was struck with dread and terror of his present predicament.

And the keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword, and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled. (Acts 16:27)

I am persuaded to think that there are so few a reason that would make a man relieve himself of life towards death. Can we possibly imagine what the jailer thought and felt throughout his entire being in that very moment?

I think of many a sinner; I think of people in places of power and occupation; I think of people living in the bliss of their lives; I think of people struggling for life, one moment to the next; I think of them and see them consumed in their occupations. I think of these people devoid of any reality of their true predicament before God, living aimlessly to the end of their age.

But it is only then, when the God of the ages reveals the state of a man that he would ask: “What must I do to be saved?”! When a man comes face to face with his predicament, his moral anarchy against God, the rottenness of his deeds against the Holy one, the evil of the thoughts of his heart, the utter injustice he has served in his life and the darkness he has loved; all that such a man can do is to take out his sword and thrust it towards his belly, for he has been devoid of all hope of life and salvation.

As a dear old man once said in the late Lewis Revival: “Oh God! I am convinced that Hell is too good for me!”

How many of us have asked that question? How many of us have endeavored for others to ask that question? Only the sick needs a physician, the Lord Christ Jesus said. And in the same sense, dear sinner, as dead as I was as you, you would never want nor seek a savior unless you have seen the deadness of your soul!

Have you seen the state of your soul before God? Have you seen God in His infinite holiness? Have you seen God in His exacting righteousness? Have you seen God in His inflexible justice? Have you seen God in His terrible wrath and anger against sinners like you and me? Oh, how terrible is the day that we may see Him in that great white throne in the deadness of our souls!

Have you seen your moral anarchy and your hatred against God? Have you seen the depths of your sin before Him? What we do and what we are isn’t just some minor aberration before God. The reason why we are pronounced “fallen”, is be cause we are fallen! We didn’t just trip over and maintain some sort of righteousness within us, but we are fully devoid of it all! Before an infinitely Holy God, any kind of sin, in any form of deed, thought and action, is an abomination before Him!

Do you know what it means to be an abomination before God? Do you know what it means to be sought infinitely wanting of infinite punishment from Him who is eternally just and holy?

Oh, that you may cry, I pray! That you may cry for the state of your soul, dear sinner, before our most just God!

May God show Himself true to you and save your soul!—otherwise, be very concerned and afraid.

Only once a man has asked the question, “What must I do to be saved?”, can he understand what it means when the Bible says:

And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. (Acts 16:31)

What does it mean to believe? What does it mean to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? Is it to simply place a mental ascent of sorts to Him and recognize Him as some “spiritual Lord and Savior” via a mental decision? No, that word believe, in the original text is actually a verb form of the word faith. And that word faith isn’t simply just a state of belief, but it is a state of which you are utterly compelled and convinced in the entirety of your being upon that which your faith is directed to.

Can a man living in apathy to the truth of his spiritual condition be utterly compelled and convinced in the entirety of his being to grasp hold of the Lord Christ Jesus as His Lord and Savior? Can a man living in his flesh and wedded to his sins desire to come to the Lord? Ah, but it is that man who cries, “What must I do to be saved?”, who understands! It is that man who asks, “What must I do to be saved?”, that finally sees! It is that man who asks, “What must I do to be saved?”, that finally hears! It is that man who comes. It is that man who truly comes in genuine faith. It is that man devoid of all hope that comes to Christ pleading as with the hymn writer: “Nothing to You I bring, only to the Cross I cling.” That man, clinging to the cross, in the brokenness of his heart, soul and mind, bearing nothing to please God; that man in his weak and fearful heart would dare to believe that Christ died and was buried, and rose again, according to the Scriptures; that man who finally “believes”, by the faith that the Lord Christ Jesus Himself authored, is one whom He saves.

It is grace. It is grace because we deserve no less than Hell. It is grace because we deserve, if it could be said, infinitely more than Hell. It is grace because…

For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement. (Romans 5:6-11)

Another reason to cry. Not anymore in fear and trembling, but in indescribable gratitude for such undeserved salvific love.