A Voice From Hell
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After their miraculous release from the Philippian jail, Paul and Silas tell their repentant jailer, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31). Their words are one of many expressions of the underlying message of the whole Bible: God has provided salvation for the lost. Scripture is clear that all people need to be saved, and here are some reasons why that salvation is necessary:
– We need to be saved because we are totally lost in sin. It’s not that we need to save ourselves—we cannot do so—but that we need to be saved. The Bible teaches the total depravity of the human race; that is, every aspect of our being has been corrupted by sin. “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one” (Romans 3:10–12). We need the Good Shepherd to seek out the lost sheep and bring them home, rejoicing (see Luke 15:3–6).
– We need to be saved because we are under God’s wrath. We are “by nature deserving of wrath” (Ephesians 2:3). Without salvation, we stand condemned: “Whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son” (John 3:18). We need Jesus Christ, the Righteous One, to propitiate the wrath of God and forfend our judgment.
– We need to be saved because we are in danger of hell. After death comes judgment (Hebrews 9:27), and, if we die without God’s salvation, we will meet the same fate as the rich man who lifted up his eyes “in Hades, being in torment” (Luke 16:23). We need a Savior to rescue us from a fate literally worse than death.
– We need to be saved because we are spiritually dead. Before salvation, we are “dead in [our] sins” (Colossians 2:13). Dead people can do nothing for themselves. We need resurrection. We need the life-giving power of Christ, who alone can conquer death.
– We need to be saved because our hearts are hardened by evil. “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). The unsaved “are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts” (Ephesians 4:18). We need a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit to fix our hearts and align them with God’s will.
– We need to be saved because we are enslaved to sin and Satan. “Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin” (Romans 3:9). In our natural state, we are held in Satan’s snare and bound by his will (2 Timothy 2:26). We need a Redeemer to liberate us. In Christ we “have been set free from sin” (Romans 6:18).
– We need to be saved because we are at odds with God. “The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God” (Romans 8:7–8). We need Jesus, the Prince of Peace, to reconcile us to God and bring us into the family of God as adopted sons and daughters.
When Jesus told Nicodemus, “You must be born again,” He spoke of necessity (John 3:7). Being saved—receiving the new birth—is not just a nice idea or a divine suggestion. It is the deepest need of the human soul: “You must be born again.”
The Bible says that, if salvation were based on our own efforts, no one could be saved: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Psalm 143:2 adds, “No one living is righteous before you.” Romans 3:10 affirms, “There is no one righteous, not even one.”
We cannot save ourselves. Instead, we are saved when we believe in Jesus Christ. Ephesians 2:8–9 teaches, “It is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.” We are saved by God’s grace, and grace, by definition, cannot be earned. We do not deserve salvation; we simply receive it by faith.
God’s grace is enough to cover all sin (Romans 5:20). The Bible is filled with examples of people who were saved from sinful backgrounds. The apostle Paul wrote to Christians who had formerly been living in a variety of sinful conditions, including sexual immorality, idolatry, adultery, homosexuality, thievery, greed, and drunkenness. But Paul tells them that, upon salvation, “You were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:9–11).
The apostle Paul himself had been a persecutor of Christians, approving of the death of Stephen (Acts 8:1) and arresting Christians and throwing them into prison (Acts 8:3). He would later write, “Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst” (1 Timothy 1:13–15).
God often chooses to save unlikely candidates to serve His purposes. He saved a thief on a cross with only minutes to live (Luke 23:42–43), a persecutor of the church (Paul), a fisherman who had denied Him (Peter), a Roman soldier and his family (Acts 10), a runaway slave (Onesimus in Philemon), and many others. There is no one beyond God’s ability to save (see Isaiah 50:2). We must respond in faith and receive His free gift of eternal life.
Who can be saved? One thing is for certain—you can, if you receive Jesus Christ as your Savior! If you are not certain you have accepted Jesus as your Savior, you can respond right now with a prayer similar to this:
“God, I realize I am a sinner and could never reach heaven by my own good deeds. Right now I place my faith in Jesus Christ as God’s Son who died for my sins and rose from the dead to give me eternal life. Please forgive me of my sins and help me to live for you. Thank you for accepting me and giving me eternal life.”