Acts16:31 Belief and Salvation Aug. 19, 2009
They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved -- you and your household(Acts16:31, NIV).”
First of all, I appreciate you have participated in this 3 days and 2 nights English camp to the end, and bless that you become better at English than now.
In the text, Paul and his companion Silas were thrown into prison because of preaching the Gospel. However, although being in prison, they had experienced a miracle by the changing of the jailer's mind with the help of God.
The changed jailer asked Paul and Silas, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” Just at that moment, Paul and Silas replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved!”
“Salvation is given to you, if you believe in the Lord Jesus.” What does that mean? From now on, I would like to explain the relation between belief and salvation.
First, what is to believe in Jesus? To believe in Jesus is to believe in Jesus as Christ. Then what is Christ? My name is Seungbyeong Lee and my office is pastor. In the same manner, His name is Jesus and His office is Christ.
The office of a pastor is to take care of the congregation faithfully as said in the word of God. If it is so, what does the office called 'Christ' do? Christ describes a threefold office as prophet, king, and priest.
Christ carries out all the offices of prophet, king, and priest. In fact, nobody carried out all of these three offices in the old testament period. When David was a king, Zadok was a chief priest and Nathan was a prophet. A man couldn't take all the three offices. The only one to take all the three offices is just Christ.
A prophet is one who receives divine revelations in dreams, visions, or verbal communications and explains these to the people. In short, a prophet foretells the future.
A king is one who rules over the people and has all authority of his realm. And a priest is one who has the privilege of approaching God, especially in relations to sins on behalf of the people.
After all, Christ is a prophet to foretell my future, a king to rule over me, and a priest to take responsibility for my sins. In an old saying, we can speak of this as a master in the slave period. The Lord is the name divinely called a Master.
Therefore, to believe in Jesus is to believe in Him as Christ. At the same time this is to believe in Jesus as my master, the Lord.
Once upon a time, a master was almost the imperative and absolute being of his slave. The slave had to do anything his master made him to do. On the contrary, the slave never did anything his master made him not to do.
Today, when believing in Jesus as the Lord, we have to obey the Lord's word completely. If Jesus teaches doing anything we dislike, we necessarily have to do. On the contrary, if Jesus teaches not to do anything we like, we necessarily don't have to do.
This surely is to believe in Jesus. God will give salvation to people who believe this way. Salvation in this context is to live like in paradise when we are living, and to live in paradise after we are dead.
Everyone who participated in this English camp, I want all of you without fail to believe in Jesus as my Lord, so you and your household will be saved. Amen.