What Must I Do to Be Saved? (Especially if I'm not a newbie)

Elijah was one of the most revered prophets in the Hebrew scriptures. Once he staged a great winner-take-all contest with the priests of the Caananite god, Baal. Practically the entire nation had gotten into this sick religion. Since the religion claimed to offer great power, Elijah staged a power contest. The priests of Baal would set up an altar and lay out a sacrifice on it.

Elijah would do the same.

The god who responded with fire from heaven–he was the true God.

The entire nation was summoned to the show down.

The priests of Baal went first. They danced and prayed all day. Unfortunately for them, the only thing drawn by their sacrifice was flies.

About sunset, Elijah set up his altar and laid out his sacrifice. He had his sacrifice and altar soaked with twelve barrels of water. Then he knelt and prayed.

God responded with a fire so intense it vaporized pools of water and even rocks.

The people watching, shouted, “The Lord, he is God. The Lord, he is God.”

Queen Jezebel was not happy and planned to have Elijah assassinated.

He ran for his life into the wilderness and fell into a profound depression. He was so depressed he prayed to die. God didn’t let him die. Instead, he sent an angel to feed him a couple of times, then sent Elijah south to Mt. Sinai. There the prophet holes up in a cave for the night and prays. His prayer goes something like this, “God, my life sucks.”

In the morning God orders Elijah to get up and go to the entrance of the cave. The prophet does so, expecting to meet God.

Instead, while he’s standing there a wind blows up that is so intense it starts blowing rocks around. But God was not in the wind.

Then there is an earthquake. But God was not in the earthquake.

Next there is a mysterious raging fire. But God was not in the fire.

Then there was a gentle whisper. It was the voice of God. “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

“My life sucks.”

“Can you be more specific?”

“I have been very zealous for you. The entire nation has abandoned true worship. They have killed off all the other prophets that are loyal to you. I’m the only one left. And now they’re out to get me, too.”

God offers no sympathy. Instead he gives Elijah an assignment. He is to head back to civilization, anoint a couple of men as kings of different nations and take on an understudy for his own position.
God saves Elijah by calling him to cooperate with what God is doing to set up the future.

The earthquake was not punishment. It was not discipline. It delivered no message. However, along with the freak windstorm and firestorm, the earthquake helped set the stage for Elijah to hear what God had to say. God’s message: “I am not through with you. I have plans for you. I have plans for my kingdom that require your cooperation.


An earthquake features in another story of spiritual transformation. It’s found in Acts 16. The Apostle Paul and his associate Silas were preaching in the town of Philippi. A lot of people were attending Paul’s lectures. People were getting baptized. It was going great. Then a monkey wrench got thrown.

A slave girl who was a famous fortune teller in town took a fancy to missionaries. This fortune teller served as a medium for some kind of demonic spirit. She started following them around town, shouting to the crowd, “These men are servants of the Most High God.. They are telling you the way to be saved.” Maybe at first this didn’t seem so bad. Here was a famous person endorsing the work of the apostles. However, she must have been pretty disruptive. Because after days and days of this Paul finally got exasperated. So he ordered the demonic spirit to leave the girl. And it did.

The girl was no longer tormented by the spirit. Unfortunately, she also no longer had her powers of clairvoyance. And her owners were not happy. They made a lot of money off her fortune telling.

The owners sued the evangelists and when Paul and Silas arrived at court to respond to the charges, the owners incited a mob to attack them. On top of this outrage, the city magistrates ordered the evangelists to be stripped and beaten and thrown in jail.

That night, about midnight, Paul and Silas were singing in the prison when an earthquake struck. At the first rumblings, the jailer jumped out of bed raced to check on his prisoners. When he saw the jail, he felt the approaching doom. Not from falling masonry. The jail doors were ajar. The jail itself was a wreck. For sure the prisoners were gone. In that system, if your prisoner escaped you were executed. The jailer was not going to wait for the spectacle and perhaps slow torture awaiting him. He pulled his sword and was preparing to fall on it when Paul called out from inside the jail, “Don’t hurt yourself. We’re all still here!”

Astonished, the jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell before Paul and Silas, shaking like a leaf. Then he got to his feet and escorted them out of the prison. Once outside, the jailer again knelt before the missionaries and asked, “Men, what must I do to be saved?”

What did the jailer mean when he asked, “What must I do to be saved?”

Obviously on one level he had already experienced salvation. The earthquake, by wrecking the jail, exposed him to death by execution. Paul and Silas, by remaining in place, and apparently somehow influencing the other prisoners to remain as well, had already saved him from certain death.

What else did the jailer want? The story offers a few hints.

When the jailer asked, “What must I do to be saved?” Paul and Silas answered, “Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved along with your entire family.”

Then, according to the story, Paul and Silas spent the night ‘speaking the word of the Lord’ to the entire household–wife, servants, kids, maybe sons-in-law and daughters-in-law. The teaching led to baptism, which Paul taught was a sign of God’s work of forgiving our sins and transforming our lives.

Salvation for this jailer and his household meant at least this: a certainty that his sins were forgiven. Certainty that he was now included in God’s earthly mission. He had become part of the royal priesthood representing the God of heaven here on earth. He had become part of the royal family–the church. And he had a secure future in the kingdom of heaven.

He was saved.


The story of the jailer offers wonderful guidance and encouragement to those of us who are not yet Christians. Some of us have never been baptized. We have never experienced the joy of being included in the royal family of Jesus.

If that’s you, and you find yourself asking with the jailer, “What do I have to do to be saved?” The answer is simple: Believe in Jesus. Turn toward him as the central reality in your life. And you will be saved.

While this is great news for the ten or fifteen here who are not Christians, for many of the rest of us it can be frustrating.

“Believe in Jesus. Turn your life toward him.”

Been there. Done that. Still we hunger for something more, something else. If I was baptized ten or thirty years ago. . . . If I have been sincere in religious life for forty years and sense a hunger for something more . . . what is there for me?

Maybe you’re longing for some dramatic action by God. You’re looking for an earthquake. Something to shake up your world.

If that’s you, consider again Elijah’s story. There had certainly been drama in Elijah’s life–fire from heaven! But that was yesterday, last week, last year, decades ago. He felt the let down. (A high is always followed by a low.)

So God sends a tornado, an earthquake and a southern California wildfire. Lots of drama. And in each case, the Bible reports, God was not in it. Not in the wind. Not in the earthquake. Not in the fire. Then a gentle voice And what was the message conveyed by that gentle voice? “Get up and go back to work.”

For the jailer, salvation was about a dramatic change of world view. It was a brand new experience of forgiveness and acceptance.

For long time believers, salvation means something different–something more. For long time believers salvation means inclusion in the work of the Kingdom of God.

When a long time believer asks, “What must I do to be saved?” The answer is seldom something dramatic, heroic, novel. Instead, God’s answer is to point you to some specific task that he would like you to do.

“What must I do to be saved?” Get up and go back to work. Something obscure. Something that is close at hand. Something you can start doing today.

In Luke 10 there is a story about a religious scholar who asked Jesus, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Paraphrase: What do I have to do to align my life with God so that I am all set for the afterlife?

Jesus answer, “What is written in the Law? (“Law” was Jewish-speak for “the Scriptures.”)

The scholar answered, “Love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength; and love your neighbor as yourself.”

“You have answered correctly,” Jesus said. “Do this and you will live.”

What do I have to do to be saved? Keep the law–which above all else means loving God with my entire being and my neighbor as myself. It’s a simple, straightforward formula.

But this scholar didn’t experience it as simple. There were so many complications. Like who are the people included in the “neighbor” category? Is the Taliban included? Are Muslims included? Are homosexuals included? Do I have to love Republicans or Democrats or Tea Party activists or feminists or environmentalists or capitalists? Do I have to love people who call themselves Christian but don’t believe in the trinity or the Sabbath or six thousand years. What does it mean to love someone who has bad theology?

This “love your neighbor” stuff can get really complicated.

When the scholar said all this to Jesus, Jesus responded with a story. The story of the good Samaritan. The punch line: Who is your neighbor? Not the one most deserving of your love, but the person in your world who needs it most.

What must I do to be saved? What must I do to experience the joy of partnering with God here in this world and anticipating a joyous eternity with God?

First join Jesus. Trust Jesus as a reliable, trustworthy representative of heaven. Jesus’ habits of forgiving, healing, listening, commanding, directing tell us the truth about God.

Count on it. Then get baptized as the outward sign of God’s promise to you and your confidence in him.

Second . . . and third . . . And fourth. Listen for the gentle whisper of God calling you to service and to the future.

Give up your whining.

Join God in extending forgiveness.

Join God in serving people who will be blessed by your care.

Ask God, how can I help?

In doing this you are practicing for eternity. You are cultivating joy here and now. You are saved.