What Must I do to be Saved?

Point 1: God Wants to Save Everybody – Individually


Matthew 16:24-28; Ezekiel 18:1-9, "He will repay each person according to what he has done."

Luke 6:46-49; Mark 8:34-38; Genesis 6:5-9, 7:1, "He will repay each person according to what he has done."

Mark 3:31-35; Psalms 6:1-10, "He will repay each person according to what he has done."

John 11:11-27, 12:44-50, "Whoever believes"

Acts 10:25-48, "Anyone who fears him and does what is right"


Joel 2:32; Romans 10:5-21, "everyone who believes" or "calls on the name of the Lord"

1 John 4:1-21, "whoever confesses that Jesus is the son of God" and loves his neighbor

1 John 5:1-13, "Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ"

John 4:1-15; Revelation 22:16-17, "the one who is thirsty"

Revelation 3:14-22; Psalms 7:1-17, "anyone," "the righteous"


1 Corinthians 8:1-13, "anyone," "me"

Matthew 13:1-9, Mark 4:10, 13, Matthew 18-23, "anyone," "me"

1 John 3:2-11, "the children of God"

Matthew 11:25-30, "little children," "anyone," "all who are weary and loaded down"

Matthew 25:31-46, It wasn't part of God's plan to condemn any human beings.



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Matthew 16:24-28; Ezekiel 18:1-9, "He will repay each person according to what he has done." (04/22/19)

Did you notice that the first day of Passover this year was on Good Friday? Passover remembers God's plan for salvation through the chosen people, and Good Friday remembers God's plan for salvation through an individual person. I figured I might as well take advantage of this coincidence to point out that we are at a transition point in our study.

We saw in the past few weeks that both the Old and New Testaments talk about the salvation of groups, that is, of nations, peoples, tribes, or families. If your group apparently doesn't want to be saved, don't worry, God has also got an individual savings plan. (The Bank of God – motto: "Your saving is safe with us.") (By the way, you are not allowed to decide that someone who isn't in your group, or who is in your group for that matter, is not saved. You don't know, although I will admit that a person's fruits – that is, good or bad works – can be suggestive.)

For the next few weeks, we'll be looking at scriptures that talk about individual salvation. The New Testament puts more emphasis on individual salvation than the Old Testament, but I'll include a few passages from the OT that seem to me to point toward persons rather than groups. Both Jesus and the prophet Ezekiel tell us that each individual bears personal responsibility for the acts that lead to life.


Luke 6:46-49; Mark 8:34-38; Genesis 6:5-9, 7:1, "He will repay each person according to what he has done." (04/23/19)

I've said it before: it seems to me that scripture says God is a lot more interested in your behavior than in your theology. Theology isn't completely unimportant – if you think God wants you to sacrifice babies to him, for example, you are so mistaken in theology that possibly you can't be saved no matter what else you do. (Nobody reading this believes that, anyway, so no worries on that score!)

Jesus asks in Luke 6:46 why "you all" call him Lord when "you all" don't do what he says. But in vss. 47-49, he switches to the individual: anyone who does or doesn't do what Jesus says is like "a person" who builds on rock or sand. Again, in Mark, Jesus is speaking to the crowd, but he's talking about what will happen to the individual.

Finally, God saved Noah because he observed that only Noah out of his whole generation was righteous. Yes, his wife and family came along for the ride (ha!), but it's still clear that Noah was singled out from his society. God wants to save everybody individually.


Mark 3:31-35; Psalms 6:1-10, "He will repay each person according to what he has done." (04/24/19)

Jesus says that each of us can be a member of his personal family, although note again that doing the will of God is a prerequisite. David's method is slightly different: just throw yourself on the mercy of God and ask for deliverance. Either way, it's talking about salvation for individuals.


John 11:11-27, 12:44-50, "Whoever believes" (04/25/19)

I love the story of Lazarus, not least what Thomas says: "Let's go, too, so that we may die with him!" Thomas's reputation as a doubter is completely undeserved. Anyway, take a close look at vss. 11:25 and 12:44-45. I checked the Greek, and in all three verses it clearly says "the one who believes in me/sees me." Jesus is talking about the salvation of individuals.

By the way, the Greek for "the one who believes in me" in vs. 11:25 and 12:45 is identical in both places. I have no idea why it's sometimes translated differently in the two chapters. This is the kind of thing that drives me and my Greek study buddy nuts.


Acts 10:25-48, "Anyone who fears him and does what is right" (04/26/19)

Cornelius is usually taken to be the first convert to Christianity among the gentiles. Acts 10:2 describes him as "devout" or "pious" and "God-fearing." There were many such gentiles in first-century Palestine, people who believed in the God of the Jews and followed many of the teachings of the Law, but who could not or would not convert to Judaism. Before he was accepted by Peter and those with him, Cornelius was accepted by God (Acts 10:4-6, 30-32). It turns out that any individual who fears God and does what is right is acceptable to God.


Joel 2:32; Romans 10:5-21, "everyone who believes" or "calls on the name of the Lord" (04/29/13)

I'm sure that by now you have a Bible with cross-references, although as we have seen, there are way too many to be cited in any one book. Unless you have the Bible memorized, you need the cross-references because when the scripture was written, they didn't have chapter or verse numbers. Sometimes the writer tells you what book to look in (vss. 16, 20), but usually not even that. And then when you do look at the cross-references, sometimes what's in the New Testament doesn't exactly match what's in the Old Testament. Often this is because the NT is quoting from the Greek OT, and your translators were using the Hebrew OT, which is why the ISV has "delivered" in Joel 2:32 and "saved" in Romans 10:13. In Romans 10:13, Paul quotes Joel 2:32 from the Greek OT exactly, so we know which one he was using. But in either passage in any translation, God will save everyone who calls upon his name.


1 John 4:1-21, "whoever confesses that Jesus is the son of God" and loves his neighbor (04/30/19)

Pay special attention to vs. 1, and read the Bible for yourself to test the spirits, the prophets, and the teachers in the world!

I'm sure you've heard it said that someone "talks the talk but doesn't walk the walk." John says that both the talk and the walk are equally necessary. Confessing that Jesus is the son of God is the talk, but without the walk of loving God and loving our neighbor, the talk is a lie (vss. 19-21). If you read vs. 15 alone, "Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God," it looks like confession is enough; however, notice that John immediately says "God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him ... If anyone says, 'I love God,' and hates his brother, he is a liar." John always seems to be more concerned about love than about legality.


1 John 5:1-13, "Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ" (05/01/19)

As I understand John's position throughout the Gospel and the three letters, it is that if you love God and love your neighbor, you will never have to worry about any rules. This is why he says in vss. 3-4 that God's commandments are not difficult. Each person who believes in Jesus as the Christ has been born from God, overcomes the world, and has life.


John 4:1-15; Revelation 22:16-17, "the one who is thirsty" (05/02/19)

John is always interested in the spiritual meaning of physical events, so I am inclined to doubt that vss. 1-3 are unrelated or even incidental to vss. 4-15. John reminds us about John the Baptist, who baptized in water, and then tells us that Jesus' disciples were also baptizing, presumably also in water. Only then do we get the story about Jesus and the Samaritan woman, which is again about water. This time, however, the water is not something for the outside of the body, but for the inside. Jesus gives the water of eternal life to each one who is thirsty for it.


Revelation 3:14-22; Psalms 7:1-17, "anyone," "the righteous" (05/03/19)

I once read a commentary that allowed as how Revelations 3:20 says that Jesus says he'll come in and eat with anyone who opens the door, but that doesn't make any promises about salvation. This shows that you have to be careful about what you read in commentaries, starting with this one right here! I think it does hold out the promise of salvation to anyone willing to accept it by "opening the door." Notice, however, that God establishes the righteous and delivers the upright of heart. You don't have to be any good to open the door, but God expects continuous improvement thereafter. He'll help.


1 Corinthians 8:1-13, "anyone," "me" (05/06/19)

Paul's arguments are usually a little hard to follow, and sometimes the thread is interrupted by various asides, doxologies, and instructions. We see that here. Vss. 1-4 start out talking about tents. Okay, Paul was a tentmaker, so maybe this is an aside? No, actually, it's the important beginning of the argument. The "earthly tent" is the physical body; the "eternal house" is the body we will have in heaven. Then comes an excursion into faith, pleasing God, judgment, and Paul's credentials (vss. 5-13). Vs. 16 comes back to the original point: Christ changes us from what we were to something new, so we mustn't think about anyone from a human point of view. Anyone who is in Christ is a new creation; God wants to recreate each one of us.


Matthew 13:1-9, Mark 4:10, 13, Matthew 18-23, "anyone," "me" (05/07/19)

No matter whether you are a backyard gardener or a wheat rancher, when you sow the next crop on your land, you are sowing individual seeds. Each individual seed gives rise to an individual plant. When Jesus tells us the Parable of the Sower, he's talking about the response – or, sadly, the lack of response – of individual persons to God's word.


1 John 3:2-11, "the children of God" (05/08/19)

Sometimes vss. 4-6 and 9 can be alarming. The Greek in vss. 4 and 9 has "the one who does sin." Quite a few translations have something like "whoever practices sin," and this looks to me to be about right. Doctors and lawyers practice medicine or law daily; it is what they do, even if they don't do it every minute of the day. In the same way, some people make a daily practice of sin; it is what they do. John says that the children of God do not do sin. He isn't saying we that never commit any sins, as we see in 1 John 2:1 and 5:16; it's possible for real children of God to commit sins, but we try not to.

John the disciple and John Wesley agree completely on this, by the way. Wesley always said that he was "going on to perfection," not that he had attained it.


Matthew 11:25-30, "little children," "anyone," "all who are weary and loaded down" (05/09/19)

Note the "anyone to whom" in vs. 27. I happened to notice that the translations are all over the map on this phrase, but the English Standard Version has exactly what the Greek says. These few verses are comprehensive: children, anyone, and all who are weary are welcome in the kingdom of God. That sounds like everybody to me.


Matthew 25:31-46, It wasn't part of God's plan to condemn any human beings. (05/10/19)

You know, you have got to read this stuff over and over again! I've been reading this parable for decades, and only a couple years ago did I notice the distinction between the kingdom prepared for the righteous and the eternal fire prepared for ... the devil and his angels ! Apparently it was not part of God's original plan to condemn any human beings, so he didn't have a place ready for them. (Notice that you can go there if you want to.) God wants to save everybody.


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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