Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
God does not tease someone who sincerely asks, "What must I do to be saved?" When Paul and Silas answered the jailer in Philippi, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ," they were not giving an unbalanced and thus deceptive answer (the story is in Acts 16). In fact, they were quoting what Jesus Himself had told Nicodemus: "The Son of Man [must] be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:14, 15). Believe what?
He answers that question in the next verse: "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish ..." (1) Believe that God is a Father. (2) Believe that He loves the world with a love that is agape. (3) Believe that His love embraces a sinful world. (4) Believe that His giving was complete--it was not lending. It was not just for a time; the giving was for eternity.
You must believe that God is your Father in heaven and that He loves you personally, and has adopted you as His child "in Christ." Too complicated?
The Bible explains this simply. The Son "emptied Himself" (Eph. 2:7, NASB), like pouring out the last drop of a bottle (Isa. 53:12), which means that this love known as agape drove Him as far as hell in His search for us as the Good Shepherd (Luke 15:4-7). He died the same death that we would have had to die if He had not come and died it for us!
"But," says the Jailer, "aren't you leaving out the real answer to my question: the works that I must do?" [We'll dig a little deeper tomorrow.]
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: May 9, 2006.
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