July 12, 2024 -- Acts 16:31 -- What must I do to be saved?
/…believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved…
Acts 16:31 ESV
Recently I have been reading biographies of well-known Christian missionaries and theologians. It is exciting reading. Yesterday I completed a brief biography of David Brainerd. He was, along with John Eliot, among the very first missionaries to the First Nations peoples of the American Colonies.
David Brainerd was known for his devotion to God. However devout he was, he wrestled with the assurance of his salvation. Read on and see the process that led him to salvation.
First, he became completely convinced that salvation lay completely beyond
his own power. Although he thought he had believed this before, since he
had entertained a feeling that he could merit the favour of God by reaching
a certain pitch of religious fervour, it is evident that he had not. He now
regarded himself as hopelessly lost, believing that nothing he could possibly
do could alter his state. Secondly, he reached the conviction that all his past
activities in praying, fasting, and other exercises were all completely worth-
less because they were based solely on self-interest and had no respect to
the glory of God. He now realized that there was no more virtue or goodness
in them—as far as putting God under an obligation to save him was
concerned—than ‘paddling with his hand in the water’ (his own expression).
Five Pioneer Missionaries. David Brainerd, page 85
The brief snippet of Scripture describes the times Paul and Silas were in prison, singing to God. An angel of the Lord freed all the prisoners. Though their chains fell off none of them escaped the jail. Terrified, the jailer realized there was a power beyond himself. He asked what he needed to do to be saved. Look at the simple answer: “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved”. People cannot earn God’s salvation. Brainerd discovered that. One cannot, as Brainerd admitted, try to put God under obligation by good deeds or fasting, or giving. It is simply this, knowing one is a great sinner in need of an even greater Savior. That Savior is Jesus Christ the Lord.
Believe in Him. Not in your works. No in your efforts. Not in your attempts at sobriety. Not in your prayerfulness. Believe that you are a wretch, saved by the grace of God shown to you in Jesus Christ. All who believe as given power by the Spirit of God to walk in newness of life.
BLESSED LORD, who hast caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant that we may in such wise hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that by patience, and comfort of thy holy Word, we may embrace, and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which thou has given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.
“For the Word of God” Divine Service Book for the Armed Forces, 1950 page 26
https://youtu.be/E8d0bMPl2hY?si=N4XzBxdWv3M-cj6r “Fill Thou My Life, O Lord My God”
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