What Must I Do?

Then he brought them out and asked, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" Acts 16:30

This question was asked by a Roman jailer who was in of Paul and Silas. He had thought his prisoners had escaped and was about to take his own life when Paul stopped him. "But Paul shouted to him, "Stop! Don't kill yourself! We are all here!" After seeing the conduct of these two men, the jailer asked a question that is important to all humans, "What must I do to be saved?"

Excerpt from the book: Sermons on Biblical Characters

Written by: Charles G. Chappell, D.D.

I am wondering now if it is a big question to you. Remember, it is not, "What must I do to be decent or respectable? These things are alright, but they are not supreme....

What is implied in this question when it is asked intelligently? There is implied first of all that there is an absolute difference between being saved and lost. There is implied in it that there are two classes of people, not the cultured and the uncultured, not the learned and the unlearned. They are the saved and the lost. They are those who have life and those who do not have life.

I am perfectly aware that we of today do not like such dogmatic divisions. But I call your attention to the fact they are the divisions made in the New Testament. They are the divisions Jesus made. He put people into two classes, and only two.

There were two gates, one broad and the other narrow. There were two foundations on which a man might build, one was of sand and the other of rock. Mark you, he did not dived men into the perfect and imperfect, but into those who had life and those who did not have it. He said, "He that has the son has life, and he that has not the son does not have life." 

This question implies, in the third place, not only the an is lost who asked it, but that there is a possibility of his being saved.  Here was a man conscious of being lost, conscious of being sin-scarred, stained and guilty, yet he believes, and is right in believing, that salvation is possible for him. He believes that even he can be saved to the uttermost. There is such a thing as salvation and it is possible for me, even me, to lay hold of it.

And you too must realize that, otherwise it will do you no good to realize the fact you are a sinner. It is not enough to know you are lost. You must also believe you may be saved. It is not enough to realize you are weak; you must believe it is possible for you to be strong. You must believe in the power of God to remake men, otherwise for you the question is only a question of black despair.

"What must I do to be saved?" There is an answer to this question. It is an answer that is absolutely dependable. There is nothing in all the world of which I am more sure than I am of the correctness of the answer to this question. I am as sure of it as I am of my own existence. I am as sure of it as I am of the fact of God.

"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved."
What is it to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? It is to believe Jesus Christ can do what he claims to do and what he has promised to do and to depend on him to do it.