What must I believe to be saved?

What must someone believe in order to be saved? The answer to this question ultimately points us to a Person – Jesus Christ. We must believe or put our total trust in Jesus Christ in order to be saved.

Acts 16:30-31 reads: Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” 31 And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”

Romans 10:9 reads: Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.

John 3:16 says: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”

Therefore faith in Jesus Christ is essential and we must believe that Jesus is the Son of God who was crucified to pay the penalty for our sins and rose from the dead on the third day.

Why believe in Jesus Christ?

1. We must recognize that we are sinners in need of eternal forgiveness
We all sense that there is something not quite right with us. We all observe and experience that there is something wrong with our world.
The Bible reveals that the existence of sin through Adam’s disobedience is the reason why the world is not the perfect place that God originally intended.
Therefore we are all sinners because of the sin of Adam in the garden of Eden (Genesis 3:1-24; Romans 3:23).

Romans 5:12 NLT says: When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned.

The penalty for committing sin against a just and holy God is eternal punishment. However Jesus Christ paid the penalty that we deserve on the cross so that we may freely receive eternal life.
Romans 6:23 says: For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

We must believe in Jesus because eternal forgiveness of sin is possible through the Person of Jesus Christ. As the Son of God, Jesus lived the perfect life we should have lived on our behalf. He also bore the punishment and paid the penalty meant for us and fully satisfied God’s wrath concerning our sins at the cross. This means that forgiveness of sins is possible through Jesus Christ alone and not by our own human effort or works.

1 John 2:2 NLT reads: He Himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins—and not only our sins but the sins of all the world.

Ephesians 1:7 says: In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace,

2. We must believe that salvation is by grace and not by human effort
Grace relates to God’s unmerited kindness and favor. Grace is when God freely gives us something that we don’t deserve.
Salvation through Jesus Christ is an eternal gift that God offers all humanity as a free gift. So even though we are sinners rightfully deserving of eternal punishment, God still loves us and is therefore graciously willing to save us from eternal condemnation by offering salvation as a free gift if we put our faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour.
Ephesians 2:8-9 says: For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Titus 3:4-6 says: But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 5 He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior

Romans 5:8 NLT says: But God showed His great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.

So our salvation is not earned through our personal good works or effort to be good. Instead salvation is freely received by grace through trusting or faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour.

3. We must repent or be willing to change and follow Christ
To repent, [Metanoia] in Greek, means to have a transformative change of mind or heart.
We must genuinely desire to repent and follow the teachings of Jesus Christ. The Bible teaches that godly sorrow over our sin brings us to a state of repentance which then leads us to salvation.
2 Corinthians 7:10 says: Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.

In Luke 5:32 Jesus said: “I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”

2 Peter 3:9 says: The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

4. Jesus is the only Way and the only Saviour
Jesus Christ is the only and exclusive way to salvation. There is no other mediator between God and man apart from Jesus Christ.
John 14:6 – Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

Acts 4:12 says: And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.

Therefore we must believe that salvation is not found in my religion, my church denomination, my pastor nor my personal human effort. Instead salvation is found in Jesus Christ alone.

Furthermore, we cannot look to other religions, ideologies or institutions to save us. Salvation is found in the Person of Jesus Christ alone because of the perfect sacrifice and perfect work He finished to save us from the consequences of sin, so that we may have eternal life.

Conclusion
Ultimately to be saved, we must believe in Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Saviour.
Without Jesus Christ we will face eternal punishment because we have rejected God’s one and only solution to escape His wrath against sin.
It is through Jesus alone that we receive salvation as a free gift.