R-01-Steps to Salvation

And so now, back to the man and that prison. The jailer said, “What must I do to be saved?” And the two followers of Christ would tell him a truth far more important than just saving his life. They told him what he should do to save his soul, to be able to return to the presence and family of God. They told him about Jesus.

In our last lesson we looked at the idea of Jesus as the solution for man’s sin. But, did you know that even before Jesus lived on this earth, people knew that He would be the answer for the sin problem? He would be the one to bridge the gap between God and sinful man.

Jesus did His part for our salvation.  Now we need to do our part!

In the Bible we read about the story of the birth of Jesus. Before he was born, an angel came to his earthly father, Joseph, and told him what to name their child. The angel said to Joseph, “And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21)

And so you ask, how did He save his people from sin?

In the garden of Eden a perfect man died, and for thousands of years people would try, with the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin. Only, the blood of bulls and goats are not equal to the blood of a man. And so it took a sacrifice of a man, but not just any man. It took the sacrifice of a perfect man.

And so, many years ago on a cross a perfect man, Jesus, died as the sin sacrifice. There He was suspended between heaven and earth, giving us a picture of a perfect man with one hand outstretched to Heaven and one hand outstretched to Earth. He filled the gap between a perfect God and sinful men.

But the question is still, “What must I do to be saved?” Yes, even though the sacrifice of Jesus was offered by the grace of God, there are still things we must do in order to accept that gift. God gave us freewill. We can use that freewill to disobey and sin, and we can use that freewill to accept the gift of the sacrifice of Jesus on our behalf. God will not force ANY man to be saved. There are some things we must do to accept this gift of salvation.