"What must I do to be saved?" So said the Philippian jailer to Paul many years ago. From that time to the present day doing has been the first thought of man.
Would not even you who read these pages, if asked about salvation and the way to heaven, say, "Oh, we must all do our best"? Or if you were pressed for something further, would you not bring up your good deeds—"a good father, a good mother, or a good child; a churchgoer, honest, and industrious," and so on?
Now, if I say you are all wrong, do not immediately throw this paper away. Read on to the end in order that by God's grace and from His own Word you may see His way of saving you, the only right way.
No doubt there are good works; but you must be saved before you can do them.
When as a little child you learned the alphabet at your mother's knee, she taught you that A, B, and C all come before D. D is in the alphabet, but its place is fourth, not first. In Matt. 18 Jesus says, "Except ye... become as little children, ye shall not enter the kingdom of heaven." And as a little child you must begin with God's A, B, C, before attempting the doing.
"First, you must believe God's "A". What is it?
Read no further until you have set to your seal that God is true, and that you are indeed in His eyes a lost sinner.
Then what is His second letter? "B" is God's remedy for our ruined state.
Believe—not that you are saved, but—on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. If you rest for salvation on Christ, and on Him alone, you will obtain it.
The letter "C" tells you of the glorious work He did to win salvation for you.
Now, if you own that you are a sinner according to "A", and if you believe on Christ according to "B", "C" tells you that Christ has once suffered for your sins. You committed the sins. Christ took the wages. Now God can give you—not the wages, which have been paid to Christ—but His free gift, which is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Can you now go on as before—without God and without hope in the world? Or will you become as a little child, and learn God's "A", "B", "C" for the first time? It is truly God's way of salvation.
Not a word of doing yet, for Christ has done it all. All what? All that is necessary for your salvation; and you need now to simply rest your soul on His finished work. Trust in Him. The moment you do so, you are saved. You see you have not reached "D" for Doing, nor "E" for Experience, nor "F" for Feelings. These all come later. Beware lest Satan occupy you with them before you have learned God's "A", "B", C”.
To those who by faith have received God's salvation, comes "D"—"Created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." Eph. 2:1010For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:10).
To live for Him who died for you! Doing is in its right place now as the result of your having received eternal life. You will never get it by good deeds; but they show out the fact that you do not merely say you have life, but that you really possess it.