“What must I do to be saved?”
(“Que debo hacer para ser salvo?”)
This is possibly the most important question a person can ask. There is only one time this particular question was recorded in the Bible and it was asked of Paul and Silas by jailers who were on their knees “trembling with fear",” because they had just witnessed an earthquake powerful enough to loosen a jail cell. Someone who has been brought to that critical point where they cry out for the answer to this question has understood a very important truth; we need to be saved. Scripture teaches that all men need saving because every man stands guilty before God of falling short of his righteousness standards. In their moment of desperation, no doubt thinking their very lives would be over shortly, the jailers asked the question that they hoped would give security as to where they would be spending eternity. So what was the answer to their question?
The response from Paul & Silas, believe it or not, did not directly answer their question, but rather refocused it. Religions all around the world attempt to seek salvation by means of a list of actions that need to be done; maybe some specific words to be repeated in prayer. The scripture offers such no recipe for salvation. It is the scriptures themselves that teach us that man CANNOT do anything to please God, how could a series of well intentioned “good deeds” satisfy the wrath of perfectly holy God? Paul & Silas answer the jailers’ desperate question by instead focusing the jailers away from what they must do, to what Jesus Christ did: “believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.”
It is the very same Christ who said, “Unless one is born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.” And when asked what is the way to the Father replied, “I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me.” The very same Christ who died on a cross, making eternal atonement for the sins of those he saves; those who put their trust and faith in His sacrifice on their behalf.
If eternal questions are on your mind, do not trust that anything you can do will give you right standing before God. Trust rather in the very God, who came to earth as a man to do what you could not. His words are recorded for us in scripture, and it is only through His word that one can know the savior.
The Spanish equivalent
