The question is – what must I do to be saved? What are the varying responses to this question? Are we ultimately satisfied with the answer – "believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved, you and your entire household?"
Is this the response of the pastor today if he were approached by someone with this question? Really? I ask myself regularly if this answer is enough…faith tells me that it has to be.
I have been thinking more and more lately about questions. It seems our culture has moved from one that once had questions it wanted answered to something different – our culture no longer has questions – so the typical way which consisted of going into the world and delivering answers no longer works – we must go into the world not with answers but with questions…we must teach people the lost art of questioning.
People must come to a place where they ask the question – "what must I do to be saved?"
than they will be ready to receive answers. Not before that.
Without a question an answer is useless, empty and absurd.
Harnessing Chaos 
You *and* your household? Really? I\’m not being facaetious – is one person\’s faith enough to save the whole family, even if the rest aren\’t believers?
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Hey Avril– he\’s just using the language of Scripture– that\’s exactly what Acts 16:31 says. I was chatting with someone not long ago about how problematic it becomes when Christians become embarrassed by the language of Scripture because it doesn\’t necessarily seem to match up with their notions of how reality should be. The fact is that faith is neither an individual possession that a person uses to barter salvation with God; neither is it a private affair involving just "me and God time." In our individualistic culture, we rankle at verses like this one, or Mark 2:4-5, or Acts 2:38-39, or anything else where a person is benefitting from God graciously bringing them to faith by means of a friend or family member who brings them to where Jesus is dishing out the goods. The Scriptures talk frequently about whole households being brought to faith when the head of that household believes the Gospel. And so the whole family will consist of believers. No matter a Christian\’s theology, probably anyone who has raised small children will agree with this on some level– if they\’re bringing their children up in the faith as they should, that child is getting the Gospel given to them from the very beginning, and many cannot point to a point in time when they decisively, "objectively" took the bull by the horns on their own. That\’s okay, because the Gospel is a gift of God, and anyone can have faith when they\’re receiving the Gospel.
If you want to get someone to a place where they are asking, "What must I do to be saved?", try scaring the willies out of them with the Law. That\’s what it\’s there for. :o) Terrify them with the reality of their own sinfulness, until they can just manage to squeak out a, "Isn\’t there anything I can do to be saved, then?" Then shock their pants off with the Gospel– "No! The good news is that it\’s been done for you! All who believe that Jesus took these sins upon himself on the cross will be saved!" What a huge relief!
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Sweet – this is the speediest action any of my posts have ever seen. Great dialogue going on here. I love that – "scaring the willies out of them with the law…" – I should put that on my business card. 😉 Although I have heard it said that there is a different character to the obedience of one motivated into a relationship by love versus fear.
Also – many people don\’t seem to feel that the law applies to them. Sounds like a job for apologetics.
But yeah – the question of "isn\’t there anything I can do to be saved" leads to Christ\’s response "With humanity it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible."
P.S. Faceless Blue Person you really need to figure out how to sign in! You like like a 3D version of a Good News Bible character! 😉
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Although I have heard it said that
there is a different character to the obedience of one motivated into a
relationship by love versus fear. That is very true, and is a good explanation for most of my issues with religion.To the Faceless Blue Person (heh), thanks for the response. I figured it was something along those lines. Interesting.
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LOL @ Good News Bible character comment! Really, I\’ve tried and tried to figure it out, but it still won\’t let me put my name in! For some reason, it does let me put my e-mail addy in, though. (I kind of like the name "Faceless Blue Person," to tell you the truth…)
Pastor DadMan, it\’s like you said… without a question, the answer is useless. Without the Law to show our need, the Gospel is not going to mean a lot. People won\’t become Christians on the weight of the Law scaring them alone, by no means. The Law won\’t save us; Christian needs the Gospel to do that, which is where the love comes in. But without first hearing the Law, there is nothing to be saved from in the first place. I think that Paul does a pretty darn good "apologetics" job in Romans 1-3 explaining how the Law flattens us all collectively and universally, at which point he is able to usher in the beauty of the Gospel which saves us from our scary state.
So: when someone becomes a Christian in the first place, it is after hearing the Gospel, which has its proper and full effect after a good Law-thumping. And after a person becomes a Christian, of course, their life of obedience is likewise absolutely motivated by the Gospel, not the fear of the Law.
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