Open Your Heart

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

Today, as in Luke's time, people ask, “What must I do to be saved from destruction? “What must I do? “This is the cry of the sinner that God wants to hear. They do not realize that what needs to be done has come to pass.

The work of the cross makes salvation possible. The spilled blood of Christ makes way for the marriage supper of the Lamb. Two words, Substitutionary Atonement, are critical to our understanding. Jesus was our substitute. He was our substitute who drank the wrath of God so that we who believe would not die an eternal death. Jesus’ sacrifice atoned for our sins. He was a propitiation; Jesus' self-sacrifice satisfied God’s wrath against all sinners.

What must the sinner do? Believing is receiving. I love rhymes; they are easy to remember. Faith in Christ, believing He is the Son of God, believing that He died for your sins, believing that He lay underground for three days and rose in an eternal body, 40 days later ascended into heaven. Jesus is our treasure, greater than any worldly treasure.

When we profess our faith in Christ, we are saved from the world and become children of God. Paul said it best in Romans 6, “For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.”(v 5-8).

The heavy work is completed. When Jesus said Tetelestai (it is finished), He meant it. Sin and death were defeated, and the door to heaven was opened for those who will come to faith in Him.

You were elected before time, and your name was written in the Book of Life of the Lamb Who was Slain. He already knows you are going to do it; come to faith in Him. So what must you do? The answer is clear, let Him save you. There is nothing we can do but surrender, and its beauty is in its simplicity. Simply surrender to Christ.

God Bless.