What
Must I Do to Be Saved?
Have you ever asked yourself, “Where am I going to spend eternity?” Many people make elaborate plans for their short life on earth, but they often fail to plan beyond the here and now. Yet planning for eternity is what accepting God’s plan of salvation is about.
Salvation represents the work of God to rescue humanity from eternal ruin and death caused by sin. It deals with the causes of our being “lost,” which means being separated from and out of contact with God because of our sins. Sin is disobeying God. At a basic level, not keeping any of the Ten Commandments is sin, so dishonouring God, bowing to idols, polluting His Sabbaths, dishonouring our parents, murdering, sexual immorality, stealing, lying and coveting are all actions that carry a death penalty. (Exodus 20:1-17)
Jesus Christ, our Creator, died that death penalty for us, and now He can offer us a wondrous salvation that leads to eternal life. But why did He agree to such a gruesome death? Because of His love for his Father, and His love for us:
“Jehovah1 created me as the first-fruit of His journey, before His works of old. I was to be poured out from everlasting, from the beginning, before there was ever an earth….
Then I was beside Him as a master’s apprentice; and I was His delight every day, always rejoicing before Him, rejoicing in His inhabited world, and My delight was with the sons of men.” (Proverbs 8:22-23, 30-31)
“Because I live, you will live also. In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you are in Me, and I am in you. He who has My commandments with him and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and reveal Myself to him…. He who loves Me keeps My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our dwelling with him.” (John 14:19-23)
Behold how greatly the love of the Father abounds to us, that He has called us and made us His children! Because of this, the world does not know us, because it does not know Him either. (1 John 3:1)
It is God’s joy to redeem lost humanity, and it is a free gift that we can never deserve. When we take the steps described in the Bible to receive this glorious gift of grace, we must always remember that God has first called us. And when we accept God’s offer of salvation, we are in fact accepting His gift of eternal life.
What, then, must we do to be saved?
Salvation Begins With Faith
The New Covenant tells us the good news of Jesus Christ: Our salvation depends on believing in what Christ has done for us and accepting Him as our Savior.
Salvation is made possible only through Jesus, the Son of God. These quotations from the New Covenant illustrate this basic and important truth:
But those who received Him, He gave to them authority that they will be the children of God, to those who believe in His Name: those who, neither from blood, nor from the will of the flesh, nor from the will of man, but instead were begotten by God. (John 1:12-13)
For God so loved the world that He gave His Only Begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him will not be destroyed, but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world could be given life by His hand. (John 3:16-17)
Nor is there salvation in any other man, for there is no other name under heaven which is given to men by which we can receive life. (Acts 4:12)
We must express our belief in Jesus (Jeshua) as God’s Son and as the one who redeems us from our sins. Sin leads to death, but God sent Jeshua into the world to deliver us from our sins and their penalty, the wrath of God:
He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not obey the Son will not see Life, but the wrath of God will rise up against him. (John 3:36)
The Gospel of John was written as a record of the many wonderful things that Jeshua said and did, to give us a basis for believing in Him:
These are written that you may believe that Jeshua is indeed the Anointed, the Son of God, and when you believe you may have everlasting life in His Name. (John 20:31)
Faith is confidence and trust in the existence of God and the work of salvation He has completed on our behalf through Jeshua the Messiah. Therefore, we are called to believe that Jeshua is the Anointed Son of God, and that through His death, burial, and resurrection from the dead, our sins are forgiven, we have died to sin and we are given new life.
For those of us who died to sin, how will we live in it again? Or do you not know that all of us who were immersed into the Anointed Jeshua were immersed into His death?
We were buried with Him through immersion into death, and as Jeshua our Messiah rose from the house of the dead through the glory of His Father, so we also will walk in new life. For if we have been planted with Him in the likeness of His death, in this way we will also be in His resurrection, for we know that our old person was impaled with Him, that the body of sin will be destroyed, so we will not serve sin again. For the one who has died has been freed from sin.
But if we died with the Anointed, we believe that we will also live with the Anointed, knowing that the Anointed, having been raised from the house of the dead, dies no more. Death has no further dominion over Him. For when He died, He died to sin once for all; but now that He lives, He lives to God. So you also, count yourselves as dead to sin, and you are alive to God in our Lord and Messiah, Jeshua. (Romans 6:2-11)
Can you believe this great truth? If so, you can be saved. The apostle Paul wrote:
If you confess with your mouth our Lord Jeshua and you believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the house of the dead, you will have Life. (Romans 10:9)
Faith Leads to Repentance, Baptism and Obedience
In Acts 2, Peter, a disciple of Christ, called upon the people to believe in Jeshua.
Acts 2:37 informs us that Peter’s words brought conviction to the people’s hearts. They cried out, “Brethren, what shall we do?”
In verse 38, Peter told them they must do two things: “Repent, and every one of you be immersed [baptised] in the Name of Lord Jah, Jeshua, for the release from sins so you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
In this one verse Peter listed two important responses necessary to receive eternal life. When we realize that God had to work out our salvation through the death of His dear Son, we feel sorrow for our sins. This sorrow leads us to confess our sins to God. We can be sure He will forgive and purify us:
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)
Understanding the seriousness of our sins, confessing them and rejecting them is called repentance. Genuine repentance always brings about change. Paul writes, “For grief because of God produces regrets of the soul which will not be reversed and repentance onto salvation; but the grief of the world produces death.” (2 Corinthians 7:10) In other words, God uses the sorrow we feel in recognizing our sinfulness to lead us to a change of heart. Before we repent, we accept sin as a normal way of life. But when we see how serious sin is, and that it brings misery and death, we repent. Awareness of God’s will for our lives goes beyond repentance. It spells out the right way to live, in contrast to our former sinful life. Jehovah also places His Holy Spirit within us, to help and guide us in our new life. Repentance is supported by Paul, who preached to sinners that they should “repent, and be converted to God, and do works worthy of repentance to God.” (Acts 26:20)
Paul said repentance should bring about a change in us: obedience to the Word of God. Our deeds must demonstrate that we have turned from our sinful ways to obeying and serving God.
The next step after repentance is baptism (immersion) in the name of Jeshua for the forgiveness of our sins. (Acts 2:38) Immersion is translated from a Greek word that means “immerse” or “put under.” We may express faith in Jeshua the Messiah as the Son of God and our Savior, we may be sorry for our sins and confess that we are sinners, and we may be determined to obey God’s Word. But until we are immersed in water in the name of Jeshua, our response to God’s offer of eternal life is incomplete.
Jeshua taught that believers must be immersed. Just before He returned to heaven, He told His apostles:
Therefore go and make disciples of all the nations, immersing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teach them to keep everything that I have commanded you. (Matthew 28:19,20)
In the New Covenant, Christian immersion is described as a burial. Paul wrote,
You were buried with Him in immersion, in which you also arose with Him because you believed in the power of God, who raised Him from the house of the dead. And you who have died through your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has given you life with Him, and has forgiven us all of our sins. (Colossians 2:12-13)
The Bible’s symbolic picture of immersion as a burial is not mere coincidence. It describes the act of immersion as a complete submersion in water, symbolizing the believer’s participation in the death, burial and resurrection of Jeshua.
Or do you not know that all of us who were immersed into the Anointed Jeshua were immersed into His death? We were buried with Him through immersion into death, and as Jeshua our Messiah rose from the house of the dead through the glory of His Father, so we also will walk in new life. (Romans 6:3-4)
Paul uses this symbolism to teach us the true significance of immersion. In Romans 6:5-7, he explains that through immersion, the believer illustrates the death of his sinful nature by burying it, then rising cleansed from the water to live a new life in harmony with God’s Word:
For if we have been planted with Him in the likeness of His death, in this way we will also be in His resurrection, for we know that our old person was impaled with Him, that the body of sin will be destroyed, so we will not serve sin again. For the one who has died has been freed from sin.
And what does it mean to “not serve sin again”? It means that we will now serve God in righteousness:
Everyone who believes that Jeshua is the Anointed is born from God and everyone who loves the Parent also loves the one who is begotten by Him. And in this we know that we love the children of God, whenever we love God and we do His commandments. For this is the love of God—to keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdens.
For everyone who is born from God conquers the world for himself. And this is the victory that conquers the world; our faith. (1 John 5:1-4)
And what does God mean when he says His commandments are not burdens? He means they are for our good, and He promises to give us the strength to keep them:
“And now, Israel, what does Jehovah your God require of you, but to fear Jehovah your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve Jehovah your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of Jehovah and His statutes which I command you today for your good?” (Deuteronomy 10:12-13)
“No temptation has come to you except those of the children of man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make an escape, so you can endure it.” (1 Corinthians 10:13)
Accept God’s Gift
Our life on earth is certain to be marred by sin and death. Why not take the time and necessary steps to receive God’s gift of eternal life? Not only will you live forever in Paradise, but you will have the joy of walking with Christ for the rest of this life. (Revelation 2:7 & 21:2-4, Hebrews 13:5-6) Through faith in Christ, repentance, and immersion, you can respond to God’s offer of salvation.
As a first step, if you are ready to begin a new life with God, we invite you to sincerely repeat the following prayer:
Lord Jeshua, I confess that I am a sinner. I ask Your forgiveness and cleansing. I commit my life to You and your Father, and ask You to lead me and direct me in all I do. Please come into my heart right now.
Thank You for accepting me and for forgiving my sins.
Hold fast to your confession, as Satan will do all he can to tear you away from Christ. You will need to rapidly establish regular prayers and daily Bible study to resist his many attacks. The next step is to find a congregation that has the testimony of Jeshua, teaches you to obey the commandments of God and will immerse you. Our various articles at chcpublications.net will help you understand what the Bible really teaches, and learn what and who you are looking for.
The original version of this article was published by the Bible Advocate Press. It is our hope that those who receive this will be inspired to study their Bibles and learn more about Christ.
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