What Must I Do to Be Saved
In Acts 16:30, a jailor asked the most important question than can be asked:
"Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"
THE FREE GIFT OF GOD
Does God Want People to Die or Be Saved?
God is the God of Love, but He is also the God of Justice. Being the essence of Love, God desires an object upon which to bestow His love. But He requires that the love be returned by free choice. Justice requires that a price be paid when the law is broken. As shown in THE WAGES OF SIN, death is the price that a man must pay for his sins. But God intervened. God has done His part in taking a step across the boundary that man creates by sinning. God sent His own Son from Heaven to us and allowed His Son, Jesus Christ, to bear the penalty of death that every man deserves for his sins. Therefore it is by the grace and mercy and love of God that salvation is made possible.
John 3:16 "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life."
Romans 3:24-25 "being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith....
Romans 4:25 "He who was delivered up because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification."
Romans 5:6, 8-10 "For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly...But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.
Romans 9:16 "So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.
1 Corinthians 15:21-22 "For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive.
2 Corinthians 5:18-19,21 "Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation." "He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."
Galatians 1:3-4 "...Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us..."
Ephesians 2:4- "But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus, in order that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast."
Ephesians 4:7 "But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift."
Colossians 1:13-14 "For He delivered us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins."
Colossians 1:20-22 "...and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven."
Colossians 2:13-14 "And when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us and which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross."
1 Timothy 2:4 [God] "desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth."
2 Timothy 1:9 [God]..."has saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus..."
Titus 2:11 "For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men..."
Titus 2:14 "who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds."
Titus 3:4-7 "But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that being justified by His grace we might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life."
1 Peter 1:18-19 "knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ."
1 Peter 2:24 "and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed."
1 Peter 3:18 "For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, in order that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit;"
1 John 2:2 "and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world."
1 John 4:9-10 "By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only beogtten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins."
We are saved by the grace of God. In His love and mercy, God has provided us a way to escape the penalty of death by sacrificing His own Son in our place. Since it is a free gift that God has given (His Son), there is no work or good deed that we can do to merit (deserve, earn) forgiveness of our sins. We cannot possibly pay the debt we owe for our sins in any way. The debt was paid by Christ. Therefore salvation is not by our works, and we cannot boast that we earned it. Rather, we were redeemed (bought back) from the power of sin by the blood of Christ. What greater gift could there be? The gift is being offered to you today. You must choose to reject it or accept it. You may take hold of this free gift by OBEYING THE GOSPEL