What Must I Do to Be Saved?

It was midnight in a Philippian jail. Paul and Silas had been beaten and locked in the stocks, and instead of groaning they were praying and singing hymns while the other prisoners listened. Then God shook the place. The foundations rocked, every door flew open, and every chain fell off (Acts 16:23-26).

The jailer woke, saw the open doors, and drew his sword to kill himself, since a guard who lost his prisoners could expect to pay with his life (Acts 12:19). Paul shouted for him to stop, because they were all still there. The man called for lights, rushed in trembling, fell down before Paul and Silas, and asked them what he had to do to be saved (Acts 16:27-30).

That’s the question. Not how to feel better or fix his life, but how to be saved. And the answer was short: believe on the Lord Jesus (Acts 16:31).

Everything else here is unpacking that one sentence. You can’t really understand the answer until you understand why the question matters.

Saved from what?

Start with God. He’s holy, and even a prophet came undone in His presence (Isaiah 6:1-5) (Habakkuk 1:13). His law isn’t a list of suggestions. It’s written on every man’s conscience, and it binds every man (Exodus 20:1-17) (Romans 2:14-15).

Now look at us. Adam was made upright, but he sinned, and the whole race fell with him (Genesis 1:31, 3:1-19) (Romans 5:12, 18-19). Paul’s verdict is that no one is righteous, and every mouth is shut before God (Romans 3:10-19).

It goes deeper than bad behavior. Before grace we were dead in sin, unable to understand God or please Him, and no more able to change ourselves than a leopard can change its spots (Ephesians 2:1-3) (1 Corinthians 2:14) (Romans 8:7-8) (Jeremiah 13:23). And sin earns death, now and forever (Romans 6:23) (Revelation 20:11-15). That’s what the jailer needed saving from. Not Roman punishment, but the wrath of a holy God.

The only Mediator

Here’s the good news. Before the world began, God chose a people in Christ, and every one the Father gives the Son will come to Him and won’t be lost (Ephesians 1:3-6) (John 6:37-39). God didn’t need us. He wasn’t waiting on anyone. He acted freely, and He’ll finish what He began (Philippians 1:6).

Jesus is the one Mediator between God and men, fully God and fully man (1 Timothy 2:5) (John 1:1, 14) (Hebrews 2:14-17). He came to do two things we never could. First, He obeyed, keeping the law perfectly in our place (Hebrews 4:15) (Galatians 4:4-5) (1 Peter 2:22). Second, He died, bearing His people’s guilt so that in Him they’d be counted righteous (Isaiah 53:4-6) (2 Corinthians 5:21). The second depends on the first. A man with guilt of his own can only die for his own sin, so only a sinless Substitute could die in our place (Hebrews 7:26-27) (1 Peter 3:18).

The Good Shepherd laid down His life for His sheep (John 10:11, 15). Then He rose. He came out of the tomb on the third day and was seen by hundreds of witnesses (1 Corinthians 15:3-8). He ascended, and He still intercedes for His people (Hebrews 7:25). The empty tomb is God’s public verdict that the payment was accepted (Romans 4:25).

God calls, and the dead hear

If man can’t save himself, how does anyone ever believe? Jesus answered that Himself: no one comes unless the Father draws him (John 6:44). God gives a new heart and His own Spirit, and everyone He calls, He justifies (Ezekiel 36:26-27) (Romans 8:30).

That’s the new birth Jesus told Nicodemus about, and it’s the Spirit’s work, not man’s will (John 1:12-13, 3:3-8). Look at Lydia, just a few verses before the jailer. That’s how faith starts: God opens a heart (Acts 16:14).

So when the jailer trembled and asked, it wasn’t luck. God had shaken the prison and the man.

Justified by faith alone

Here’s the heart of the answer. God justifies the ungodly by faith, apart from works, the same way He counted Abraham righteous and covered David’s sin (Romans 3:28, 4:3-8).

Read that slowly. Your sins are laid on Christ. His righteousness is credited to you (Philippians 3:9). That’s the great exchange. God doesn’t declare you righteous because you’ve become good enough. He declares you righteous because Christ is.

Even the faith isn’t your contribution. It’s God’s gift, so no man gets to brag (Ephesians 2:8-9). Think of it as a hand. It starts as a fist shaken at God (Romans 8:7) (Psalm 2:1-3). God pries it open and softens it, the way He trades a heart of stone for a heart of flesh (Ezekiel 11:19). Then He places it in Christ’s hand, the way a father gives his daughter to her groom. Christ takes her as His bride, washes her, and makes her His forever (Ephesians 5:25-27) (Hosea 2:19-20). Faith brings nothing. It just takes hold of the One who’s already taken hold of you.

Faith and repentance

So what does believing on the Lord Jesus actually look like? It isn’t just agreeing that facts about Jesus are true. The demons do that much (James 2:19). Saving faith receives Him, comes to Him hungry, and finds Him to be the bread of life (John 1:12, 6:35). It’s leaning your whole weight on Him.

And faith never comes alone. Repentance and faith go together, and without repentance a man perishes (Acts 20:21) (Luke 13:3) (2 Corinthians 7:10). Repentance doesn’t earn anything. God gives repentance too (Acts 11:18) (2 Timothy 2:25).

Watch the jailer. That same hour he washed their wounds, was baptized with his household, fed them, and rejoiced that he’d believed in God (Acts 16:33-34). Faith turned his hands from a sword to a washbasin.

What follows

Everyone God justifies, He also adopts as a son and an heir (Romans 8:14-17). He also sanctifies you, working in you for the rest of your life, though the fight with the flesh lasts until Heaven (Philippians 2:12-13) (Galatians 5:16-17). And He keeps you. No one can snatch Christ’s sheep out of His hand, and nothing can separate you from His love (John 10:27-29) (Romans 8:38-39).

Three wrong answers

The first wrong answer is works: “Be a good person and you’ll make it” (Romans 3:20, 11:6) (Titus 3:5).

The second is the sacraments, the idea that baptism or the Lord’s Supper saves you by the act itself. The thief on the cross had neither (Luke 23:42-43). Abraham was counted righteous before he got the sign, and the sign sealed what he already had by faith (Romans 4:9-11). The jailer believed first and then was baptized (Acts 16:32-34) (1 Corinthians 1:17). Baptism is commanded and you shouldn’t neglect it, but it isn’t the hand that takes hold of Christ.

The third is decisionism, the idea that if you’ll repeat a few words after a preacher, you’re saved and nobody should ever question it. Paul gave the jailer no script. He spoke the word of the Lord to him (Acts 16:32). Many who call Jesus Lord will find He never knew them (Matthew 7:21-23). The question isn’t whether you once said the right words. It’s whether you’re resting on Christ now (2 Corinthians 13:5).

For the man who must answer

When someone asks you what he has to do to be saved, don’t overcomplicate it and don’t water it down. Tell him who God is, what sin is, who Christ is, and what He did. Then give him the apostle’s answer: believe on the Lord Jesus.

And if you’re the one asking, this is for you. God commands all men everywhere to repent, and Christ invites every weary sinner to come, promising He’ll never cast one out (Acts 17:30) (Matthew 11:28-30) (John 6:37) (Revelation 22:17). The offer is real and it’s for you. Election isn’t a wall in front of you. It’s the reason anyone ever comes at all. You don’t have to figure out whether you’re chosen before you come. You have to come.

So come now. Don’t wait until you’ve cleaned yourself up. Christ died for the ungodly, and now’s the time (Romans 5:6-8) (2 Corinthians 6:2). Turn from your sin, and trust Him. Not your church attendance, not your good intentions, not a prayer you said as a kid. Trust only in Him.

As you pray, talk to God in your own words. Ask Him to show you your sin for what it is. Ask Him for mercy for Christ’s sake. Tell Him you’re done trusting yourself, and that you’re resting on His Son.

Then don’t go it alone. Find a faithful, confessional church where the Bible is preached plainly and the gospel is clear (Hebrews 10:24-25). Tell the pastor you’ve come to trust Christ. Be baptized as a believer, in obedience to your Lord (Matthew 28:19) (Acts 2:41). And sit under the Word week after week, because the God who began this work in you will carry it through (Philippians 1:6).