What Must I do to be Saved?

Point 4: How the Bible Answers the Question

Giant Important Final Disclaimer: I am perfectly well aware of the teaching of the Church about what we must do to be saved; I'm also aware that there's a fair amount of variation between Orthodox and Catholic, Catholic and Protestant, Methodist and Baptist, and in general any two denominations, between what the teaching on this topic is. Strangely enough, the scripture itself unambiguously answers the question in several different ways, and we're going to read a number of those scriptures in this final installment of our study. If some of them don't sound very orthodox to you, then I assure you that orthodoxy, and not scripture, is at fault.


Keep the Law; Do Good.

Deuteronomy 6:4-9; Leviticus 19:18; Matthew 5:17-19, Jesus came to fulfill, or "complete" the Law and the Prophets.

Mark 12:28-34; Matthew 22:34-40; Luke 10:25-37, Keep the two great commandments, and take pity on your neighbor.

Mark 10:17-22; Matthew 19:16-22; Luke 18:18-23, Keep the commandments, and follow Jesus.

Mark 10:23-31; Matthew 19:23-30; Luke 18:24-30, Seek first the kingdom of God.

James 2:1-13; Galatians 5:13-14, 22-25, The second of the Great Commandments and the Law are important.

Micah 6:6-8; Amos 5:14-15, 24; Galatians 6:1-10, Do good.

Romans 1:16-17, 2:1-16, Do good; do the Law.


Believe, Repent, and be Baptized.

Acts 2:14-21, 2:36-41, Be baptized for the forgiveness of sins.

Matthew 28:16-20; Mark 16:14-20, Belive and be baptized.

Romans 6:1-23, Give up sin and be baptized.


Believe in, Have Faith in, or Trust Jesus (all the same word in Greek).

John 3:1-21

John 3:22-36

John 5:19-30

John 6:26-47

John 6:48-71

John 10:22-42

Hebrews 10:37 – 11:19

John 11:17-27


Believe in, Have Faith in, or Trust Jesus, and, as an aside, keep the commandments.

Hebrews 11:20 – 12:2

John 12:44-50, 17:1-3, 20:30-31

1 John 5:1-12


Believe in, Have Faith in, or Trust Jesus, and, as an aside, be baptized.

Acts 10:34-48, 11:1-4, 17-18

Acts 16:19-34


Believe in, Have Faith in, or Trust Jesus, and, as an aside, be holy.

1 Peter 1:1-21



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Deuteronomy 6:4-9; Leviticus 19:18; Matthew 5:17-19, Moses said it first; Jesus says he came to fulfill, or "complete" the Law and the Prophets. (05/10/21)

Before this study, most of us thought saved meant only inherit eternal life, and in the letters of the New Testament, sozo/save seems to mean almost exactly that: save (spiritually). In the first part of this long examination of salvation, however, we saw that God's idea about salvation is much broader, even in the Gospels. (Yes, we spent a lot of time on that part of the study. That's because God's ideas about the nature of things are important.) Now that we've seen what the Bible says about several subtopics, we're going to look at the question that got us started, "What must I do to be saved?" Well, the first thing you have to do is keep the Law, as interpreted by Jesus, particularly the Law about loving God and your neighbor.


Mark 12:28-34; Matthew 22:34-40; Luke 10:25-37, Jesus says, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself," and take pity on your neighbor. (05/11/21)

With apologies to all pastors everywhere, I admit that I normally remember the sermon for just about the length of time it takes me to get to the sidewalk after church. Once in a while, however, the sermon goes straight into my long-term memory banks, and such a one was preached a few years back on Luke 10:25-37 by the Rev. John Schwarting. We all know the Parable of the Good Samaritan, but until Pastor Schwarting pointed it out I had never noticed that the parable is the answer to the question, "What must I do to inherit eternal life?"

When Jesus was asked for his opinion about the most important commandment, he said that the greatest commandment is to love God, and then he volunteered that the second-most important commandment is to love your neighbor. We all know that. In a similar situation, a lawyer asks how to inherit eternal life, and Jesus asks – this is important – "What does the Law say?" Doesn't that question in and of itself imply that keeping the Law leads to eternal life? The lawyer answers with the same two commandments, love God and love your neighbor. Jesus says, "Right. Do it." Again, Jesus' answer says that keeping these two laws leads to eternal life. When pressed, Jesus provides an example of how to do it.


Mark 10:17-22; Matthew 19:16-22; Luke 18:18-23, Jesus says, "Keep the commandments." When pressed, he says that you (singular) should give up what you (singular) have and come with him. (05/12/21)

Read this story three times. You see that Mark, Matthew, and Luke tell it with minor variations, probably exactly the kind of variations you would get from any three people witnessing the same event. All three writers report the same basic question and answer, however: "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" "Keep the commandments." This particular fellow has done that already, and he still feels that he lacks something. Jesus tells him that he can only get what he lacks by abandoning everything and going with Jesus, but that doesn't change the basic answer.


Mark 10:23-31; Matthew 19:23-30; Luke 18:24-30, Jesus says, no one who has left everything for the sake of the kingdom of God will not be given eternal life in the world to come. (05/13/21)

The story of the rich man, a ruler, according to Luke, segues into a discussion of another way to be saved or inherit eternal life. Notice that these two outcomes seem to be the same thing, since the disciples ask, "Who can be saved?" and Jesus replies with a statement about eternal life. So far, so good; we all thought that anyway. Since they point out specifically that they have left everything to be with him, he assures them that anyone who has left everything to be with him will inherit eternal life. So in this one scene, we see two different options for being saved: keep the commandments, or leave everything and follow Jesus.

Also note, since you asked, that rich people can enter the kingdom of God; it's just harder for them. Don't be jealous; be helpful.


James 2:1-13; Galatians 5:13-14, 22-25, James and Paul reiterate the second of the Great Commandments and the importance of the Law. (05/14/21)

You know how lazy I am, so here's a homework problem for you. When the New Testament talks about keeping the Law and gives examples, are the examples always from the ten commandments and the two great commandments? If you find other examples, like "keep the Law, especially the one about not taking a bird and her young at the same time," please send them along. Because what it looks like to me is that Jesus and the apostles think that the ten commandments and the two great commandments are the only ones you need to worry about.

I seem to recall saying at some time in the past that by specifying a certain number of things you aren't allowed to do, God's Law frees you to do anything else your little heart desires. James says, keep the (ten) commandments and love your neighbor as yourself, and then he says that you'll be "judged under the law of liberty." Paul goes so far in Galatians as to say that we're "called to freedom," because if you love your neighbor as yourself, you are keeping the whole of the Law. Neither of these passages talk about eternal life, but they do illustrate that the emphasis that we saw in the Gospels on keeping the (ten) commandments and the two great commandments continued in the early Church.


Micah 6:6-8; Amos 5:14-15, 24; Galatians 6:1-10 (05/17/21)

Back in the very old days, God instituted a system of animal sacrifice (Leviticus 1:1-4), rather than child sacrifice (Leviticus 18:21, 20:1-5), to show his people the cost of sin and allow them to know that they were forgiven. Sadly, child sacrifice continued throughout the time of the of kings of Israel and Judah; see 2 Kings 23:10, Jeremiah 32:35. The prophet Micah asks, "Shall I give my firstborn ... for the sin of my soul?" No, Micah says. Instead of child or animal sacrifice, do good, and he provides a definition of what it means to do good, i.e., do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God. Amos defines good as hating evil, loving good, and establishing justice "that you may live." Although we've seen that it's hard to find Old-Testament scriptures that talk explicitly about eternal life and how to gain it, these two come close.

Paul makes prophets' implicit promise explicit. He doesn't define "doing good," presumably because he expects you to be familiar with Amos and Micah. But he directly links doing good to eternal life: "The one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap."


Romans 1:16-17, 2:1-16 (05/18/21)

It's always perilous to take Paul out of context, which is one of the reasons I'm including vss. 1:16-17, where he quotes Habakkuk 2:4 in saying, "The righteous shall live by faith." We all know that Paul's theology is centered on justification by faith; however, he goes on in Ch. 2 to say that those who always do good will obtain eternal life. He says clearly in 2:6-7 that those who exercise patience in well-doing will have eternal life, and reaffirms in vs. 10 that everyone who does good will obtain glory, honor, and peace on the day of judgment. In 2:13 he says that "the doers of the law ... will be justified." The Gentiles who do what the Law requires – even thought they don't know about the Law – will be fine on the day of judgment, as we see in 2:14-16.

Now, just in case you think I'm falling into "works righteousness," remember that I'm only telling you what the Bible says. In any case, I'm pretty sure God can tell the difference between someone who is doing the right thing to get a reward and someone who is doing the right thing just because it's the right thing to do.


Acts 2:14-21, 2:36-41 (05/19/21)

Here's the earliest sermon we have that wasn't preached by Jesus. On the day of Pentecost, roughly ten days after the ascension, Peter preached to the crowds gathered in Jerusalem. When the Christians started speaking various languages, the crowds wanted to know what was going on. Peter says that this is a sign that salvation is available (2:17-21). Then he reminds them that they had crucified Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah (2:22-36). They are alarmed, naturally, and ask what they need to do. He tells them what we learned in Sunday School: Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sin.


Matthew 28:16-20; Mark 16:14-20, Be Baptized, with Belief or Obeying the Commandments (05/20/21)

Believe and be baptized, or obey the commandments of Jesus and be baptized; your call.

There are three endings for the book of Mark: the missing ending, the short ending, and the long ending. What we have that Mark wrote ends with 16:8, "They went out of the tomb and ran away. Shock and trembling had overwhelmed them. They didn't say a thing to anyone, because they were afraid." This is clearly not a good place to end a Gospel. The missing ending is either one that Mark wrote and that got lost very, very early, or one that Mark intended to write and didn't. We don't know. (A third school of thought is that Mark intended to stop there, but ... seriously? With fear and trembling and not telling anybody??)

In the Greek New Testament, the short ending, written by a second person, comes right after vs. 8, in brackets. I looked at a whole flock of translations, and the only one I found that gives the short ending in English, the Jerusalem Bible, has it in a footnote: "They reported briefly to Peter's companions what they had been told. Then Jesus himself through their agency broadcast from east to west the sacred and incorruptible message of eternal salvation." The long ending, written by a third person, runs from vs. 9 to vs. 19, also in brackets. Check to see what your paper Bible has. Both the short ending and the long ending are canonical, as will be the missing ending if it ever turns up.


Romans 6:1-23 (05/21/21)

We saw yesterday that we can believe and be baptized, or we can obey Jesus' commandments and be baptized. A third option is to give up sin and be baptized.

Take a good look at Romans 6:23, which is one of the famous top-100 verses we studied before. We all learned this verse in Sunday School, right? But think about what it says for a minute. God wants to give you eternal life. You have to earn, as wages, death. God is trying to make salvation the path of least resistance.


John 3:1-21, Believe in, Have Faith in, or Trust Jesus (all the same word in Greek) (05/24/21)

Okay, we're finally going to get to the means of salvation that we learned in Sunday school and church: believe in, have faith in, or trust Jesus (these are all the same word in Greek).

I've said before, possibly a few hundred times, that the Bible, and thus presumably God, is much more interested in your behavior than in your theology. This is less apparent in the writings of John. Unlike the synoptic Gospels and the other letters, the books of John and 1, 2, and 3 John have no call to repentance and very few comments on behavior. John the Disciple wants you to believe in Jesus, and to love God and one another. On a number of occasions, all Jesus asked for was belief in him.


John 3:22-36, Believe in, Have Faith in, or Trust Jesus (all the same word in Greek) (05/25/21)

Here again we see that to pisteuo/trust/believe/have faith in Jesus is the sole requirement for eternal life.

There are two important Johns in the New Testament – John the Baptist and John the disciple. In this passage, John the disciple is reporting in vss. 27 through at least 30 what John the Baptist said. Then John the disciple goes on to tell us what it all means. This pattern – a report of what is said or done and then its interpretation – is common in John's Gospel; however, in translations with quotation marks you'll see the final mark all over the place. The Easy-to-Read Version and others have the Baptist speaking through the end of vs. 36. Remember that Greek has a beginning mark, but no end mark, so if you don't agree about where a quotation ends, that's okay.


John 5:19-30, Believe in, Have Faith in, or Trust Jesus (all the same word in Greek) (05/26/21)

Again, pisteuo/believing leads to eternal life. When you get down to vss. 28-29, you might think that doing good is also required, and you might be right.

In the "for what it's worth" department, I'm sure you've heard sermons or read books talking about the "important difference" between agape love and philos love. Yesterday we read in John 3:35, "The Father agapao/loves His Son and has put everything in His hands." Today we read in John 5:20, "For the Father phileo/loves the Son and shows Him everything that He Himself is doing." For my money, the two Greek words are interchangeable in New Testament usage; this is probably the clearest example.


John 6:26-47, Believe in, Have Faith in, or Trust Jesus (all the same word in Greek) (05/27/21)

Wow! What you have to do to inherit eternal life is believe in Jesus! Could Jesus make it any plainer or simpler than that?

Of course, we remember that he told a couple of people that what you have to do is keep the commandments. And a couple of others still that what you have to do is love God and love your neighbor. I'm not saying that the scripture contradicts itself – I'm saying that God wants to save you by any means possible. (This idea is reinforced in vss. 37- 40.)


John 6:48-71, Believe in, Have Faith in, or Trust Jesus (all the same word in Greek) (05/28/21)

Jesus continues to discuss the relationship between eternal life and pistos/faith/belief/trust in him. If you have the latter, you gain the former. That part is clear.

I don't know about you, but I think vss. 48-58 are less clear. I think we can rule out literal eating, although many Christians accept the doctrine of transubstantiation, and maybe they're right. Are they a reference to our participation in the crucifixion, as in 1 Corinthians 11:24-25 and Galatians 2:20? Are the body and blood of Jesus a metaphor for his teaching, maybe explained by vs. 63? John Wesley seems to think so when he says that eating the flesh and drinking the blood is "only another expression for believing."

Now, because I've studied Greek and read a lot of translations, I can almost always read any of the three English words and know that the Greek is all the same, pistos. But how is the average reader supposed to know that the same word is used in vss. 63-64 and in vs. 69? This kind of thing drives me and my study buddy nuts. Who wants to start a Zoom Greek class?

Excerpt from Williams New Testament:
John 10:22-42, Believe in, Have Faith in, or Trust Jesus (all the same word in Greek) (05/31/21)

Jesus' sheep are the ones who believe/trust/have faith in him; he gives them eternal life.

By the way, since May 24 we've been reading from the Williams New Testament, not the English Standard Version. I forgot to change the attribution when I changed translations. Trust no one, especially me. Except Jesus; he's trustworthy, which is the whole point of last week and this week's scriptures.


Hebrews 10:37 – 11:19, Believe in, Have Faith in, or Trust Jesus (all the same word in Greek) (06/01/21)

Hebrews 11 is often called "the faith chapter," because the writer gives so many examples of faithful living and faithful dying. Throughout this chapter, we see that people of God have had pistis/faith/belief, which is the noun form of our friend pisteuo/trust/believe/have faith in. But remember that chapter and verse divisions don't always follow the sense of the argument, and look carefully at 10:38 - "the righteous will live by faith " and 10:39 - "faith leads to the saving of the soul." All the people mentioned here acted on their faith, so you may think that faith needs to be accompanied by action, and you could be right. Tomorrow we'll read the rest of this chapter and a couple verses of Ch. 12.


John 11:17-27, Believe in, Have Faith in, or Trust Jesus (06/10/21)

Here's another link between belief and eternal life; however, notice here who is asked about having faith: Martha. I never noticed before that Lazarus seems to be the beneficiary of Martha's belief. Pray hard.


Hebrews 11:20 – 12:2, Believe in, Have Faith in, or Trust Jesus, and, as an aside, keep the commandments (06/02/21)

The writer of Hebrews continues to hold up those who went before us in the faith as examples of what we can do by faith. Of course, the perfect example of faith and its outcome is Jesus, who died and rose again, as will those who have faith in him.


John 12:44-50, 17:1-3, 20:30-31, Believe in, Have Faith in, or Trust Jesus, and, as an aside, keep the commandments (06/03/21)

As we have seen, John's Gospel is all about belief – no parables, no calls to repentance, not much behavior modification, and only about nine miracles. John's Gospel repeatedly says, "You have just seen Jesus do and say these things; do you believe or disbelieve? If you believe, you will inherit eternal life; if you don't, on your own head be it." Read John from the beginning to the end, and you'll see almost exactly this pattern nine (as I recall while being too lazy to check) times. And just in case you missed the point, John summarizes: "These have been recorded, in order that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life, as bearers of His name."


1 John 5:1-12, Believe in, Have Faith in, or Trust Jesus, and, as an aside, keep the commandments (06/04/21)

John thinks that love of God and belief in Jesus are really, really important, and they lead to eternal life. As an aside, he says we should obey Jesus' commandments, which is easy. (If you're John, who was a much holier person than I am.)

In the Williams New Testament, vs. 7 is omitted, and the translations that include it have varying texts. I've been reading Samuel in Sunday School and with my Greek study buddy. We read passages out loud to each other and then discuss them. Part of the discussion has been, "Did you skip something?" and "I don't have that." You know how when you make a copy of a copy of a copy on a Xerox machine, the last copy has fuzzier letters, and maybe some marks up the side, or even a line missing at the bottom or top? Now think about making a copy of a copy of a copy by hand. Textual criticism is the process of comparing all the hand-written manuscripts of the Bible to determine what the original manuscript, called the autograph, said. The assessment of what the autograph said might change a little if new manuscripts are found or if existing manuscripts turn out to have been mis-dated. When this happens, the verses aren't renumbered. Either verses are omitted from the translation, with or without a note, or added to the translation, maybe in brackets or with a footnote. I have never seen a case where the omission or addition is important to salvation, so don't worry about it.

Acts 10:34-48, 11:1-4, 17-18, Believe in, Have Faith in, or Trust Jesus, and, as an aside, be baptized (06/07/21)

Peter has had a very strange vision. As he was praying before dinner, very hungry, a bunch of unclean animals came down from the sky. A voice said, "Peter, kill something and eat it." Peter, apparently thinking this was some kind of test, replied, "Oh no – never ate anything unclean yet; not gonna start now." The voice said, "If God says it's clean, you better go with that." This happened three times, and then some Gentiles showed up at the gate. Peter, who is no fool, figured that these were related events, and he willingly went with the Gentiles to Caesarea, to the household of Cornelius, a Roman centurion, and was invited to deliver whatever message he thought was appropriate. Now Peter preaches, and the Gentiles obviously pisteuo/believe, because the Holy Spirit comes upon them. Peter decides that since they have believed and received the Holy Spirit, they should be baptized. The Christian community agrees that, given all this, it's clear that they have received (eternal) life.


Acts 16:19-34, Believe in, Have Faith in, or Trust Jesus, and, as an aside, be baptized (06/08/21)

Again we see that belief leads to salvation, and baptism follows. I'm especially interested in vs. 31: "You (personally) believe, and you (personally) will be saved, and your household." The "will be saved" is singular, just like emphatic "you." This is one of a few examples where it sure looks to me like the saving faith of one person seems to be effective for his or her loved ones. It's a bit easier to see this in Greek than in English, because Greek has different forms for "you, singular" and "you, plural." But if you don't buy this conclusion, that's okay; it's not worth breaking communion over.


1 Peter 1:1-21, Believe in, Have Faith in, or Trust Jesus, and, as an aside, be holy (06/09/21)

Faith results in salvation; no mention is made here of repentance or baptism.

A fellow reader inquired about how I got both believe and believing from pisteuo yesterday. And of course her suspicion is correct; the Greek has different forms for the two meanings. However, think about is/are/was/were/been/being. I just give you the base verb each time because Greek has more forms for regular verbs than English has for irregular verbs! Note that Williams translates pisteuo both as trust and believe.


More of What Must I do to be Saved

Point 1: God Wants to Save Everybody Point 2: You Can Reject God's Plan for Your Salvation (Not Recommended) Point 3: God’s Plan for Your Salvation is Broader than You Think Point 4: How the Bible Answers the Question
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