What must a person do to be saved? In this message, we explore the Biblical teaching on salvation, and how it is received, focusing on what qualifies as true repentance and faith.
What Must I Do To Be Saved?
We are currently in a series of teachings I have called “Christianity 101.” We have seen a great influx in our meetings of both those who have not yet been converted, and new believers. I have a burden on my heart to make sure that everyone coming to The Bridge understands and is grounded in the basics of the Christian faith.
In order to answer that question, we need to first ask the question, what does it mean to be “saved”? And, believe it or not, that is not a simple question. You can give a very short and concise answer, or you can go into great detail to answer that question. I’m going to go with the concise answer. First, to be “saved” is referring to being rescued or delivered. But, exactly what do we need to be delivered from? I believe the answer to that is SIN. We need to be rescued from sin and all its consequences.
In Mt. 1:21, when the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph, he told him, “She (Mary) will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” The very name Jesus means “Jehovah saves.” So, in the very name Jesus, we are told two things. We are told that He is Jehovah, and that He is the one who saves. We are also told in this verse that what we are saved or rescued from is our sins.
As I mentioned before the subject of salvation is very full and comprehensive subject. It has a past, present, and future aspect for the child of God.
PAST. Eph. 2:8-9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith.” This is speaking about something that has already happened to us. In a moment of time we went from being Lost to having been Saved. This aspect of salvation is talking about our Justification. This is Salvation from the Penalty of Sin.
PRESENT. 1 Cor. 1:18, “For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” This is speaking about something that is continually going on in our life. Although we have been saved, we are also continually being saved. What do I mean? This aspect of salvation is our Sanctification. This is Salvation from the Power of Sin. As I am being saved, the indwelling Spirit is continually perfecting me until the day of Christ Jesus. He is conforming me into the image of Jesus Christ.
FUTURE. Mt. 10:22, “You will be hated by all because of My name, but it is the one who has endured to the end who will be saved.” This is speaking about the final consummation of our salvation. Our salvation was granted us when we came to Christ. It continued by the work of the Holy Spirit throughout our life. And it will be consummated and perfected at the second coming of Christ. This aspect of our salvation is our Glorification. This is Salvation from the Presence of Sin. One day, I will live on the New Earth in which righteousness dwells. There will be no more sin and rebellion against King Jesus.
Now, for our purposes this morning, I want to focus on the first aspect of salvation – our Justification. What must I do to be rescued from the penalty of sin?
Well, first let’s answer the question, “What is the penalty of sin?” Because God is righteous and just, He must punish sin wherever He finds it, as it is a violation of His holy law. But, just what is the penalty for sin. Romans 6:23 says, “The wages of sin is death…” DEATH. But this is not just any old death. This is speaking of eternal death, because the verse goes on to contrast Death with Eternal Life. So, eternal death is the wages of sin. Because all have sinned, all must pay the penalty of eternal death. But, just what is eternal death? Death is separation. Physical death is separation of the soul from the body. Spiritual death is separation of the soul from God. Eternal death is the separation of soul and body from the gracious presence of God for all eternity. Of course, this will take place in what the Bible calls Hell.
So, the question comes down to, “How can a sinner, who has rebelled against his gracious King, and has no way to cancel out his sins, be right with God?” How can a rebel be washed clean and have a right standing with God, so that He is freely admitted into His presence? How can an enemy of God be reconciled to Him and become His friend?
The answer of course is the Gospel – the Good News of Jesus Christ. What you and I could never do, God has already done! There is nothing we can ever do that will remove and cancel out our sins. But God has done something! God has taken on flesh, in the person of Jesus Christ, and then lived a perfect life, so that He can credit that perfect life to us! He then went to the cross to pay the penalty our sins deserved. And then, after paying that penalty in full, He rose from the dead proving that God the Father fully accepted His death as the payment for our sins in full.
What you and I could never do, God has done! This is what makes Christianity different from every other religion of the world. All other religions say Do!
- Muslims: Bow down on your prayer mat five times a day toward Mecca.
- Hindus: Give yourself to prayer, devotion, and good works.
- Buddhists: let go of all attachments and desires.
- JW’s: Go door to door several hours each week to spread the message of Jehovah.
- Mormons: Abstain from caffeine, have a large family, and go through the secret rituals in the temple.
Christianity, on the other hand says “Done!” Christ has already done everything need for our salvation. His life, death, and resurrection have wrought out a perfect righteousness for us, reconciled us to God, overcome death, and the powers of Satan, and given us a right standing and fellowship before Him forever.
But the big question is, “What must I do to be saved?” If I want to be right with God, and have fellowship with God, and be reconciled to God, and be the friend of God, what must I do?”
The first thing we must realize is that this right standing with God is His gift to us.
Rom. 3:23-24 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace…”
Eph.2:8-9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Your right standing with God is not a prize for working hard enough. It is a gift, a free gift. However, a gift will do no one any good unless that gift is received. So, our question comes down to “What must I do to receive the gift of salvation?”
To this question, Christians of various stripes offer different answers.
The Eastern Orthodox believer says you must engage in a lifelong cooperative process with God, in which a person is continually saved through faith, repentance, prayer, the sacraments, and living a virtuous life.
The Roman Catholic says he must Repent, Believe, and be Baptized. If he commits a mortal sin, he must observe the sacrament of Confession and Penance. From that moment on, he must remain in a state of grace. If he dies after committing a mortal sin without going through Confession and Penance he is lost. In order to be saved a Catholic must persevere, do good works, and observe the Sacraments, especially the Eucharist.
According to the Church of Christ, in order to be saved a person must: Hear the Gospel, Believe the Gospel, Repent of past sins, Confess faith in Jesus Christ, Be Baptized, Be faithful unto death.
So, the question remains, “what must I do to receive God’s gift of salvation?” “What must I do to be saved?”
My short answer is that there is absolutely nothing you must do outwardly in terms of some work. But there is something we must do inwardly. We must turn to get in repentant faith. If our repentance and faith are real and true, then there will be many other things that will accompany it in terms of fruit: baptism, confession of Christ, obedience to Christ, and perseverance in faith to the end. But all of these are the fruits of true repentance and faith.
So, this morning I want to focus on just these two things: true repentance and true faith.
Repentance:
Acts 17:30-31 “God is commanding all men everywhere to repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world.”
Acts 2:38 “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Hoy Spirit.”
Faith
Acts 16:30-31 “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” They said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”
Ephesians 2:8 “For by grace you have been saved through faith”
Romans 5:1 “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
If we must possess repentance and faith in order to receive the blessings of the gospel, it is absolutely imperative that we ourselves have repented and believed. But what exactly does it mean to repent and believe? That is what we are going to search out this morning.
1. Repentance
Meaning: the Greek word for repentance is metanoia. This word comes from two different Greek words. The prefix meta usually means “after”, but also has the meaning “a change.” The Greek word noeo means “the mind.” Thus, this word literally means “a change of mind.” But this is not an empty change of mind. It is a profound change of mind that leads to a change of life. It is a fundamental shift in how one views God, Jesus, themselves, and their actions. Repentance therefore means a change of mind that leads to a turning away from sin and a turning toward God.
Sometimes we can make the mistake of thinking that repentance means to stop sinning. But is it true that we become right with God by stopping sinning? If that is true, then no one will ever be saved! The only way we can stop sinning is by coming to Christ. Sanctification (stopping sinning) is the result of being saved, not the way to become saved. No, we come Christ in all our sins, trusting that Jesus will cleanse and renew us.
If we were to analyze it, we could find three distinct aspects of repentance. There is an intellectual, emotional, and volitional aspect.
The intellectual aspect.
- When a person repents, they change their mind about God. He is not someone they can ignore, or willfully disobey. He is the Lord and Creator of all, and they are accountable to Him.
- We also change our mind about ourself and our actions. We don’t see ourselves as basically good and justify our actions by saying “I’m only human” or “I was a victim of my circumstances” or any other such nonsense. We see our sin as rebellious actions against a good and holy God.
- We also change our mind about Jesus Christ. We no longer view him as just one great religious leader among others. We see Him as the only begotten Son of God, who came into the world to save us from our sins, and who is now risen and ascended to the right hand of God the Father. We see Him now as God in the flesh.
The emotional aspect. True repentance involves a sorrow for sin. Paul writes in 2 Cor. 7:10 “For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death. For behold what earnestness this very thing, this godly sorrow, has produced in you: what vindication of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what avenging of wrong!” Repentance involves a sorrow according to the will of God. Paul calls it a godly sorrow. It is a heartfelt grief and sorrow over sins, seeing them as an offense against our holy and gracious God.
The volitional aspect. True repentance results in a changed life. There is a new orientation toward a life of obedience to God. The initial repentance takes place inwardly, in the mind and heart. But if that repentance is real, it will result in a change of life. John the Baptist told the Pharisees and Sadducees in Mt. 3:7-8, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance.” The changed life is fruit in keeping with repentance. We could say then that repentance is an inward change of mind and heart that will result in an outward change of life.
Eerdmans Bible Dictionary includes this definition of repentance: “In its fullest sense it is a term for a complete change of orientation involving a judgment upon the past and a deliberate redirection for the future.”
Repentance must include these three aspects in order for it to be true and saving.
- For example, Judas had the emotional aspect, a remorse for his sin, but he lacked the intellectual and volitional aspect of repentance, and perished in his sin.
- Repentance is also not simply the volitional aspect. It is not just a resolve to do better. Millions of people do that with New Year’s resolutions, but that is not gospel repentance.
- Neither is repentance simply an intellectual exercise, devoid of sorrow for wrongdoing or any resolve to turn away from sinful acts.
In true repentance, you will find all three of these aspects taking place in a person’s life.
Repentance is also not a one time deal. It’s not as though a person repents once, is saved, and never has to repent again. Throughout the rest of a believer’s life, the Holy Spirit will correct him, and he will respond by repenting of sins that God points out to him. His Christian life will be a life of repentance and faith. In 1517 Martin Luther nailed 95 theses to the door of the Wittenburg Church, asking that there should be a debate on certain religious topics. His very first thesis was, “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said “Repent,” he intended that the entire life of believers should be repentance.” Here, in 2025, 508 years later, I find that I fully agree with him on this point.
2. Faith
The are various kinds of faith that are expressed by different people. James speaks of a person who says he has faith but has no works. He asks, “Can that faith save him?” – James 2:14. Of course, the answer is “No! That faith can’t save him.” In other words, there is a kind of faith that is a verbal profession alone, but lacks fruit. Just like repentance, faith will produce fruit. So, there are different kinds of faith. When I speak of faith, I’m talking about the faith that saves, true faith in Christ.
Like repentance, true faith involves three different aspects.
Knowledge. Faith has an object – Jesus Christ. But to have faith in Christ, you have to know something about Him. Faith involves knowing certain truths. In order to have faith, a person must know
- who Christ is (God become man),
- what Christ has done (lived a perfect righteous life, died on the cross to bear our sins, and rose from the dead),
- who he is (someone created by God and accountable to him),
- what he has done (grievously sinned against a good and holy God),
- and what is necessary to be saved (faith and repentance).
But a person can know all of those gospel facts and not believe they are true. Millions of agnostics and atheists fit this description. Faith involves more than knowledge.
Agreement. Faith involves not just knowing the truth of the gospel, but agreeing with those truths. It is one thing to know the facts of the gospel, and it is another to agree with those facts. However, you can agree that the gospel message is true, and still lack true faith.
Trust. It is possible to know the truth of gospel and believe it be true and still not be saved. Many people know the truths about Jesus in the Bible, and agree that they are true, but they are not saved, because they have not taken that final step of trusting Him to save them. In order for my faith to be true saving faith, I must entrust myself to Christ to save me. This aspect of faith requires us to make a personal commitment of ourselves to Christ. It means we must abandon all other systems of salvation, and put all of our confidence in Him alone. It means we cease trusting in ourselves or anything we have ever done, and put all our trust in Christ and what He has done. If we are still trusting in ourselves and what we have done, even if that trust is only in a very small degree, our trust is not wholly in Christ, and thus we do not possess saving faith.
Put all your hope, all your confidence in Christ alone. The Westminster Shorter Catechism asks “what is faith in Jesus Christ?” Their answer is “faith in Jesus Christ is a saving grace, whereby we receive and rest upon Him alone for salvation, as He is offered to us in the gospel.”
Think of those two words – receive and rest.
Receive. John 1:12, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name.” God holds out Christ and the salvation He has wrought to you as a free gift. But a gift offered does no one any gift. That gift must be received. If I hold out to you a gift of a $100 bill, it does you no good at all unless you reach out your hand and receive the $100 bill. You can understand the value of the $100 and know that it is offered to you. You can agree that the $100 would help you out financially. But unless you reach out your hand and accept the gift, it does you absolutely no good. God holds out Christ. But have you reached out and received Him? If not, you are not saved. You may believe that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh come down from heaven to die for sins and rise from the dead. But until you personally take Christ as your Savior and Lord, you are not saved. Have you done that?
Rest. In the 1800’s a French acrobat by the name of Charles Blondin came to America, and became famous for being the first person to cross the Niagara Falls on a tightrope. The tightrope was 160 feet above the falls. Later he would go on to do many theatrical stunts, like walking across blindfolded, on stilts, carrying his manager on his back, and stopping midway to cook and eat an omelette. One day he crossed the Niagara Falls on the tightrope pushing a wheelbarrow. There was a huge crowd assembled to watch him, and when Blondin had crossed the Falls, he called out, “Do you believe I can carry a man across in this wheelbarrow?” Everyone shouted, “Yes, we believe you can!” Blondin smiled and said, “Then who will be the first to get in?” Suddenly the cheering stopped. Everyone believed he could do it, but no one was willing to trust him with their own life.
Folks, if you want to be saved you must go further than knowing and agreeing that Jesus can save you. You must trust Jesus with your never-dying soul.
Conversion requires repentance and faith. Both of them must be present for a person to be converted. Repentance is a turning from sin and a turning to God from the heart. Faith is a receiving and resting upon Christ alone for salvation.
Conclusion
I need to ask you a very direct question this morning. Now that you understand what it is to repent, have you repented? Are you still repenting? One of the marks of a true child of God is that he is a repenter.
Another question: do you have the faith that saves? Have you received Christ as your Lord and Savior? Are you resting in Him alone for salvation? To put it another way, what is your confidence in for your eternal salvation?
I have discovered that many people who call themselves Christians fail at one of two different points.
Either, they say that they have faith in Christ, but that faith never results in a transformed life. It does not produce good works. It is not accompanied by a new heart and new affections. I have spoken to dozens if not hundreds of people over the years who say they are Christians but are practicing sin with no repentance. My friends, that faith cannot save you!
The other way people fail when it comes to faith is by not putting all their trust in Christ, but putting part of their trust in themselves. In other words, they believe in Jesus, but also put their confidence in something they have done. Perhaps 90% of their trust is in Jesus, but 10% is in what they have done. It may be 99% Jesus, and 1% them. But it still amounts to the same fatal mistake. This can take many forms.
- It might be the person who thinks they are right with God, because they are a good person
- It might be the person who thinks they are right with God, because they are part of the “right church”
- It might be the person who has confident God will accept them, because they have been baptized.
- It might be the person who trusts in his own repentance.
- It might be the person who tirelessly works in all the various ministries of the church.
But brothers and sisters, do you really mean to tell me that at the end of your life when you die and stand before God, that you are really going to plead any of those things as the reason God should allow you entrance into His kingdom?
Do you know how the apostle Paul described a real Christian? He says in Phil.3:3, “for we are the true circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh.”
Is your confidence in the flesh or in Christ? The old hymn writers, like Augustus Toplady, knew this very well. He wrote,
“Not the labors of my hands can fulfill thy law’s demands;
could my zeal no respite know, could my tears forever flow,
all for sin could not atone; thou must save, and thou alone.
Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to the cross I cling;
naked, come to thee for dress; helpless, look to thee for grace;
foul, I to the fountain fly; wash me, Savior, or I die.
James Proctor, a 19th century minister of the Church of England, is remembered for one powerful hymn, “It is Finished.” He wrote,
“Cast your deadly “doing” down— Down at Jesus’ feet;
Stand in Him, in Him alone, Gloriously complete.
These men understood that faith in Christ cannot be partial. It must be total. We talk about putting all our eggs in one basket. Well, in the Christian life, we have put all our eggs in the basket of Christ. Folks, if Christ doesn’t save me, I will never be saved, because I have no other hope, no other confidence. Make sure this morning your trust is in the promise of Christ, and not your performance. Christ promised that whoever believes in Him would not perish but have eternal life.
One final thought. Faith and repentance are not just two good things we do at the beginning of our Christian life. They are two vital spiritual acts that every believer engages in throughout his entire Christian life. We are not just converted through faith and repentance, we also grow in our Christian life through faith and repentance.
The Holy Spirit shows us something in our lives that is not pleasing to God. We repent. We turn from that thing and cast ourselves upon God in faith for the strength to obey His will. We exercise faith in God’s Word and promises, while at the same time turning away from those things in our life that contradict His Word and will.
So, really, it doesn’t matter if you are unconverted, newly converted, or have been converted for 70 years! The answer to our dilemma is the same: repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Perhaps there are some here this morning who have been learning about Christ, and who agree with what they have learned. But maybe you have not personally committed yourself to Him. You have not placed all your trust in Him to save you. I call you this morning to take that step. If you want to be right with God, and enter into a saving relationship with Him, you can receive Christ and rest upon Him this morning. If you have any questions or would like one of us to pray with you as you enter into this new relationship, please reach out to me or Jerome, or any of the other believers here. We would be overjoyed to pray with you!
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