What Must I Do to Be Saved?
by Wiley Jones, 1879,
from The Gospel of the Kingdom
in Ten Discourses
(English slightly modernized)
“Then he called for lights and rushed in, and came
trembling and fell down before Paul and Silas, and
brought them out, and said, ‘Sirs, what must I do to be
saved?’ They said, ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and
you will be saved, and your household’” (Acts 16:29-31).
This thrilling piece of apostolic history contains the
most important question that can be framed by human
lips. It is not, What must I do to obtain health, or wealth,
or fame, or some high position of human power and
grandeur; but infinitely more than all these: “What must
I do to be saved?” And in proportion to the importance
of the question is the plainness of the answer: “Believe in
the Lord Jesus Christ.” Belief and faith are the same…
I have called this a very plain answer, because, with
the Bible before us, it is easy to discover what is meant by
believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. The subject is placed
before us in the clearest light. For example, we know that
a message sent makes him who brings it a messenger, and
that to truly believe in the messenger is to believe the
message which he brings. Now, among his other
attributes, we find those of a messenger expressly
attributed to Christ, and that he has been sent as the bearer
of a message from God to man. Thus he is called “the
messenger of the covenant” (Mal. 3:1); “the Apostle and
High Priest of our confession” (Heb. 3:1). The word
“apostle” here applied to the Lord Jesus, conveys the
same idea, for it means “a messenger, ambassador.” And
in the parable of the vineyard the Savior speaks of himself
in the same way: “last of all he sent them his son.” Again
he says, “I am sent to preach the kingdom of
God”…The Father says, “This is My beloved Son; listen
to him” (Luke 9:35). And Moses said, “To him you shall
give heed to whatever he says to you. And it shall be that
everyone who will not hear that prophet shall be
destroyed” (Acts 3:22-23).
To make the subject still clearer, we find the Lord
Jesus placed before us also as a witness bearing testimony.
Thus he is called “the faithful and true witness” (Rev.
3:14). And he declares of himself, “For this I have come
into the world, to bear witness to the truth” (John 18:37).
Now the message or doctrine which he preached is “his
testimony,” and the Scriptures assure us that “the one
who has received his testimony has set his seal to this:
that God is true,” but on the other hand, “the one who does
not believe the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God
abides on him” (John 3:33, 36).
We have now shown, by varied illustration and
overwhelming proof, that to “believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ,” in a true and Scriptural sense, is to believe and
obey that message or testimony which he has proclaimed
to men.
What then is that message or testimony which is so
essential to salvation? Our eternal destiny depends on a
truthful answer to this question; and the Lord be praised
that we are not left in the dark on a subject of such vast
importance. Peter has with great precision pointed out the
path by which we can find what that message was. He says
that “the word which God sent to the children of Israel,
preaching peace by Jesus Christ…throughout all Judea,
beginning from Galilee, after the baptism which John
preached” (Acts 10:36-37). With such “great plainness of
speech” as this, how is it possible for us to miss that word
or message for which we are searching? We are told,
- 1st
,
Who sent it — “the word which God sent”;
- 2nd, to whom
it was sent — “to the children of Israel”;
- 3rd, by whom it
was sent — “by Jesus Christ”;
- 4th, in what region it was
spread — “throughout all Judea”;
- 5th, from what point it
began — “from Galilee”;
- 6th, at what time it began —
“after the baptism which John preached.”
Such plain
directions take us directly to Mark 1:14, which says,
“Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came into
Galilee,
preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God.”
How accurately this corresponds to the language of
Peter!...After John’s voice was hushed, the blessed Savior
“began from Galilee” proclaiming “the Gospel of the
Kingdom of God.” Another portion of Scripture informs
us that he “went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their
synagogues and preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom”
(Matt. 4:23). Nor did he confine his ministry to that
region, but proclaimed the same great message
“throughout all Judea,” as we learn from Luke 8:1: “he
went throughout every city and village, proclaiming and
preaching the Kingdom of God.” When the people of
Capernaum urged him to stay longer with them he
refused, saying, “I must preach the kingdom of God to
other cities also; that is the reason I was sent” (Luke 4:43).
And even in that solemn interval between his resurrection
and ascension his theme was still “the things pertaining to
the kingdom of God” (Acts 1:3).
Thus I have plainly and abundantly proved that “the
Gospel of the Kingdom” is the great message or
testimony which Christ has brought to men. It follows,
therefore, that “the Gospel of the Kingdom” is what we
must believe before we can be truly said to “believe in the
Lord Jesus Christ.” He has commanded us to believe that
Gospel. “Jesus came into Galilee preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, ‘Repent and believe the
gospel’” (Mark 1:14-15). Of course he did not command
them to believe “another gospel” than the one that he was
preaching. The language, therefore, proves that he
commanded them to believe the identical gospel that he
was preaching — “the gospel of the kingdom of God.”
Does anyone imagine that it is not essential to keep his
commandments? “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and
do not do what I say?” (Luke 6:46). “You are my friends
if you do what I command you” (John 15:14). “Whatever
he says to you, do it” (John 2:5). “If you love me keep my
commandments” (John 14:15). Keeping his
commandments is a test of our loving him, and certainly
no one can be saved who does not love him, for the
fearful penalty has been pronounced: “If anyone does not
love the Lord, let him be Anathema Maranatha,” i.e.
accursed when the Lord comes (1 Cor. 16:22).
Because the Son of God has set us the example and
made the Kingdom of God the great and constant theme
of his discourse, we know this must be the wisest, noblest
and best theme that can occupy the minds or tongues of
men. But it is well known that multitudes of modern
teachers, both in high and low positions, with a blind and
fatal persistency, refuse to either believe or preach that
blessed Gospel of the Kingdom. For all the world I would
not be in the place of such teachers at the day of judgment.
A prominent member of a popular denomination once
told me that be had been attending his church twenty-five
years, but did not remember ever having heard that
expression — the Gospel of the Kingdom — used there,
or to have heard a sermon preached on it. A preacher of
another large and popular sect told me that he
remembered the expression, “the Gospel of the Kingdom”
and he believed that it occurred “somewhere in the
Epistles.” Another preacher who said he had studied
Greek and Hebrew, had graduated in theology, and had
been preaching six years; on being questioned by me as
to whether the expression “the Gospel of the Kingdom”
occurs in the Old or New Testament, said that he believed
it occurred in the Old Testament, “perhaps in the Psalms,”
and that he had never preached a sermon on the subject.
But, according to Cruden's Concordance, that expression
is not once found in the Epistles, the Psalms, nor in the
Old Testament at all. Do not these incidents prove that a
great apostasy has taken place in the world, and that men
have “departed from the faith” and fallen into the
pernicious practice of preaching “another gospel” than
that which the Lord Jesus preached?
And not only did the Lord himself preach the
Kingdom of God, but while his own personal ministry
was going on, “He called his twelve disciples together
and…sent them to preach the Kingdom of God…And
they departed and went through the towns preaching the
Gospel” (Luke 9:2, 6). Here we discover that in Scriptural
phraseology, preaching the Kingdom is the same as
preaching the Gospel. It follows, therefore, that those who do not preach the Kingdom do not preach the
Gospel. So important is preaching the Kingdom that
when a certain man requested leave to first go and bury
his father, the Lord said, “Let the dead bury their dead;
but you go and preach the kingdom of God” (Luke
9:60)…
We must conclude that “the Gospel of the Kingdom”
was preached everywhere the apostles went, for the words
of the Master — “this Gospel of the Kingdom shall be
preached in all the world” — most plainly required them
to preach it…We have frequent allusion to the preaching
of the Kingdom by the apostles. Thus we find Philip in
Samaria “preaching the things concerning the kingdom of
God, and the name of Jesus Christ”
(Acts 8:12). Also Paul
in Ephesus, and other places, preaching “the things
concerning the Kingdom of God” (Acts 19:8; 20:25). In
Rome he lived two whole years, “preaching the Kingdom
of God, and teaching concerning the Lord Jesus Christ”
(Acts 28:23, 31).
As the Bible teaches but one faith and one hope, so
also it recognizes but one gospel, and pronounces a
double curse on man or angel who shall dare to “preach
any other gospel” (Eph. 4:5; Gal. 1:8-9). And now, after
the preceding testimonies, can you doubt what is that one
Gospel? Surely it can be none other than “this Gospel of
the Kingdom” which the Savior said should “be preached
in all the world”; and which was carried to one place “as”
to another, for Paul tells the Colossians that it had to come
to them “just as [kathos] in all the world” (Col. 1:6, 23).
And since there is but one Gospel, it follows that it is “this
Gospel of the Kingdom” of which the Bible says, “He who
does not believe shall be condemned”
(Mark 16:15-16).
Behold then the awful penalty of either preaching or
believing “any other gospel” than “this Gospel of the
Kingdom.”
Of course, to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom is not
to merely repeat that phrase again and again in the hearing
of the people; for what information could they possibly
gain by such a procedure? The word translated “gospel”
(euaggelion) means “a good message, glad tidings, joyful
news.” To preach the Gospel of the Kingdom therefore is
to preach those things which constitute the good message,
or “glad tidings of the Kingdom.” This is illustrated in the
case of Philip who in Samaria preached the Gospel of the
Kingdom by preaching “the things concerning the
Kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ” (Acts
8:12). And we know that the preaching of Philip in
Samaria harmonized with that of Paul in Corinth, and with
that of all the apostles in all places; for there was but one
Gospel preached by them all. As Moses did not give two
or more opposite codes of law for the Mosaic
dispensation; so neither did Christ give two or more
opposite gospels for the present dispensation. But as
anciently there were some who perverted the Law of
Moses by their tradition, so now there are some who
pervert the Gospel of the Kingdom by their tradition. Since, however, it was necessary for the Samaritans to
believe “the things concerning the Kingdom of God, and
the name of Jesus Christ,” it is just as necessary for us to
believe the same things; for it is our duty to “hold fast the
standard of sound words”; to “earnestly contend for the
faith once delivered to the saints”; to “ask for the old paths
and walk in them” (2 Tim. 1:13; Jude 3; and Jer. 6:16).
We have now proved that the only way to preach or
believe the Gospel of the Kingdom is to preach or believe
those great truths of which that Gospel consists…
The above article was taken from here
