“What must I do to be saved?”

This phrase, often heard in modern times, was first recorded over 2000 years ago by a Greek doctor. He was travelling with friends in Asia Minor. They had been thrown in prison for preaching the Gospel. A Roman soldier was the jailer and is depicted in this painting of the scene just after an earthquake ruined the jail in Philippi ! There we see the jailer asking our headline question! Why did he ask it?

The earthquake had released all the prisoners in the jail and the jailer anticipated most, if not all, of the prisoners would have escaped. He knew the penalty for any soldier who lost his prisoners was death and was about to kill himself when one of the prisoners called out, “Do yourself no harm: for we are all here.”

You can hardly imagine the wave of relief that swept over the jailer. He rushed to the prisoner that had just spoken and immediately recognised him as the man who had been preaching the way to salvation in the city. It is apparent he had spent some time listening to the preaching and been so impressed with the message he heard that he fell on his knees before the Apostle Paul and asked him, “What must I do to be saved?”

What was the message the Jailer heard that had so impressed him? We promised the readers of the Rugby Register if they came to this website we would tell them, and of course, anyone else who joins us.

However, Paul’s preaching was interrupted by a young woman with mental health problems that followed Paul around shouting.

¹⁶ And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying: ¹⁷ The same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the most high God, which shew unto us the way of salvation. Acts 16

This young woman was disrupting Paul’s ability to preach so he cured her mental illness. Some local men had been making money by using her to tell fortunes and now they had lost their source of income had Paul and Silas thrown into prison. This, of course, completely stopped their ability to preach, but we learn from a letter that Paul wrote to the community of Philippian believers what he had established before he was interrupted.

³ I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, ⁴ Always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy, ⁵ For your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now; ⁶ Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ: Philippians 1

Yes, Paul and Silas had been teaching them about the gospel for which Jesus gives us its full title.

¹⁴ … Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, Mark 1

And he did not stop there, but continued,

¹⁵ … The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.

This fits in very well with the Apostles answer to the jailer.

³¹ And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. Acts 16

And we will soon see that to be saved we too must “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ”. This is what John records that Jesus said.

¹⁶  For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.                                                                                            John 3

What a wonderful reward – eternal life! We suggest that such an offer certainly needs careful consideration. Clearly, the word ‘believe’ Is very important. What does a dictionary say it means?
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Believe –  verb

be·​lieve | \ bə-ˈlēv  \ believed; believing

Definition of believe

1a: to accept something as true, genuine, or real
  b: to have a firm or wholehearted religious conviction or persuasion : to regard the existence of God as a fact
2:  to have a firm conviction as to the goodness, efficacy, or ability of something
3:  to hold an opinion
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The Bible attaches great meaning to the word believe. In the Greek it is …

Believe: πίστις; pistis (root) meaning: to have faith (in, upon, or with respect to, a person or thing), i.e. credit; by implication to entrust (especially one’s spiritual well-being to Christ) :- believe (-r), commit (to trust), put in trust with. [from Strong’s Greek Dictionary ref: 4102].

And here are two more aspects of “believe” and “faith”, for both the English words (and their derivitives) are covered by the one Greek family of words from the above root “pistis” .

¹  Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews 11

⁶ But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Hebrews 11

Let’s pause and take stock of what we have found. The Christian message that Paul, Jesus, the apostles and all believers down to the present day spread, is “the gospel of the Kingdom of God”. As evidence of our belief we too need to repent. That does not just mean feeling regret, as in English these days, but also to give evidence by changing our way of life as Peter told a huge crowd on the day of Pentecost.

¹⁹ Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; Acts 3

Converted, as we know, means to be changed. It’s the Greek word

ἐπιστρέφω (epistrephō) meaning “to revert, convert or turn” as in this example

²⁰ But shewed first unto them of Damascus, and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the coasts of Judaea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance. Acts 26

Here, Paul is explaining his mission was to teach men and women to turn away from the world and turn to obeying God by following Jesus.

So, let us return to the jailer to whom Paul had explained that the way to be saved is to, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ”, and see what happened next.

³² And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house. ³³ And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway. Acts 16

We have already suggested it would appear that the jailor had heard the teaching of the apostles on the streets of the city, and can anticipate that others in the household may have too. Whether that was so or not, Paul and Silas, maybe in two different groups, set about teaching the whole household until they were ready, and desired, to be baptised. What that involves we can learn from others who went through this process.

Here is a nice simple example taken from when the apostle Philip was sent to help an Ethiopian, not a Jew, who nevertheless was reading his Bible and was endeavouring to understand it’s message. We will join Phillip as he was answering all the Ethiopian’s questions …

³⁵ Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus. ³⁶ And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized? ³⁷ And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. ³⁸ And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him. ³⁹ And when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more: and he went on his way rejoicing. Acts 8

Every example of baptism, including those by John the Baptist were by immersion. And you will see here that is clearly described. They went down into the water, and came up out of the water. This is because baptism is the important seal of the covenant between Jesus and the person being baptised. A Christian could not have the hope of salvation without baptism. Jesus explains this to a Pharisee who was a believer in secret amongst Pharisees who hated Jesus and wanted to get rid of him

¹ There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: ² The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.  John 3

But Jesus wanted him to know that there is more to following him than just acknowledging him.

³ Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. ⁴ Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?

But, Jesus did not mean a second natural birth, he meant a spiritual rebirth.

⁵ Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. ⁶ That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

The apostle Paul writes of the spiritual armour God has provided for the faithful followers of Jesus in a letter to the Ephesians.

¹⁷ And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: Ephesians 6

God by His Holy Spirit puts into the minds of the men who wrote the scriptures the message He wants recorded. So readers are filling their minds with Gods spirit word which becomes their defence against the world and critics. Thus, we must be born of water – baptised, and born of the spirit – reshaped in character by God’s spirit word.

Let us show you diagrammatically how baptism is the necessary confirmation between the one being baptised and the Lord Jesus, so that we know and understand the covenant we are making with the Lord Jesus, when we are baptised in accordance with the teaching of scripture.

There is a true saying, “A picture is worth a thousand words”, so we are going to use some to demonstrate that there are four principles involved that must be understood and therefore can only apply to an adult mind and full immersion.

Note: All the ‘action’ indicated in the ‘B’ (blue) column takes place in the mind of the candidate in making his or her covenant vows in the water.

We hope that all who have read this article carefully will appreciate that Bible baptism, as preached by Jesus and the apostles, must be by total immersion as no other way can be an effective seal of the covenant the candidate needs to make with the son of God. Here is a summary of the four steps

Life following Jesus will have it’s good times and it’s difficult times, but will include the companionship, comforts, help and opportunities to help others in the community of brothers and sisters on the same journey to Zion as you. Plus, if through God’s mercy and grace we are deemed faithful and forgiven our sins and failures, we will be blessed with the most wonderful, joyful, and glorious life in the kingdom of God; free of sin, death, suffering, and wickedness; in a beautiful, peaceful, and troublefree world with lovely companions; that we hope to tell you about on other occasions when you have time and opportunity to peruse our pages.

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