Step Up to Speak Up 5- What Must I Do to Be Saved?

So we reach the end of our Step Up to Speak up Series exploring some Bible verses that will help you as you look to try and let people around you hear about Jesus. It is an interesting twist in the story of our attempts to share the Gospel with people that one of the things that makes us most nervous is how to round things off and steer people to response to the message about Jesus. In reality this is probably a good instinct if it helps us to avoid offering false hope or some sort of easy-believism (after all the Gospel is not some magic wand to wave over someone's life without changing the contents of someone's life). That said, nor should our nervousness over this be allowed to become a deterrent from actually doing anything in terms of investing the Gospel in the people around us. The good news of Jesus has been entrusted to us so we better bring it and not bury it.

One of the biggest challenges we face is that the context where people respond to the Gospel is often varied and for a significant number of people has come in a larger meeting. So when you are sat down facing someone who is asking, effectively, What must I do to be saved? The challenge can be even greater than actually sharing the message in the first place (because we presume that most people can at least remember, or have some regular exposure to some sort of Gospel message framework).

The reality is that something usually has to happen inside before people pursue this final question. Without some sort of heart transformation occuring then the stock line of 'well that's nice if you believe it' will be trotted out. We see this in Acts 2: 37-38 after Peter's sermon, 'Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Note that first of all they heard then were cut to the heart: taking time to hear and then taking things to heart are identifiable foundations of response to the Gospel. A trust of the message leads to a turning to the one the message is about.

Too often we can find satisfaction in sharing Jesus in such a way as promotes the trusting but not the turning. Yet Peter is clear, repentance is essential to Gospel renewal. Repent (change the direction of your life, turn back towards God) and be baptised (go public about it, give a tangible and visible demonstration of this change, paint a Gospel picture through baptism). Speak to them about the role of the Holy Spirit as the One who is a helper and One who's designs on the life of the Christian is to make us holy. Encourage them to see that God does not put His Spirit within us as a seal and deposit guaranteeing what is to come without Him making some changes to the state of the heart He is living in.

Galatians 2: 20 speaks clearly on this: 'I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.' Speak to them about how their life is not their own but it is for God now. Tell your story about how this is an awesome thing. Dwell on the theme that this is something you get to do not that you've got to do. Invest time in growing a worshipper,someone who is not going to give up on the joy of living for God or the journey that ends with eternity with God