What do I need to believe to be saved today?
We are being saved from eternal damnation, from Hell and the Lake of Fire, this is for those who choose not to believe.
What we need to believe for salvation is given in 1st Corinthians 15 verses 1-4.
“Now I make known unto you brethren, the gospel which I preached unto you, which also you received, wherein also you stand, by which also ye are saved, if ye hold fast the word which I preached unto you, except ye believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which also I received: that Messiah (Christ) died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and that He was buried; and that He has been raised on the third day according to the Scriptures”.
Now between the Messiah’s public ministry, and His death and resurrection, this is not what you had to believe, because His death and resurrection had not yet occurred.
What you had to believe was that He was the Messianic King.
And those who believed Him to be the Messianic King, like the apostles and Nicodemus, that was what they needed to believe to receive eternal life. And in fact, at that time the disciples did not even realize Messiah would die and be resurrected.
But now that those events have occurred the content of what we must now believe are the three things in this passage.
What is the content of faith in this current age? (1 Cor. 15:1-4)
1. Messiah died for our sins. And this was in keeping with the Scriptures (Isaiah 52:13 to 53:12, Psalm 16:1-11, Psalm 22, Daniel 9:24-27).
2. He was buried, and that was the evidence of His death (Isaiah 52:13-53:12)
3. He was resurrected on the third day, also, according to the Scriptures (Isaiah 52:13-53:12; Psalm 16:1-11; Psalm 22).
So, what does one now have to believe to be saved?
One must believe that He, Messiah, has accomplished the salvation work on one’s behalf. To be saved, one must believe not just that He died, but that He died for one’s own sins. If one believes that Jesus the Messiah died for his sins, that presupposes that one has confessed that he is a sinner. If Jesus died for one’s sins, obviously it means that he is a sinner. So, one must believe that Jesus died for his sins as his substitute, was buried and rose again, and therefore has provided salvation. Thus, one trusts Jesus, the Messiah for his salvation.
This is the condition of salvation: faith must be placed in the Messiah as one’s substitute for, and as one’s Savior from, the penalty of sin.
That’s the simple gospel. That is all one has to believe to be truly saved and to truly receive eternal life and to be truly saved from any eternal damnation.
