What's a "salvation issue"?

The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. He then brought them out and asked, ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’ They replied, ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved – you and your household’. Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him…. Acts 16:29-32

I had a disagreement (friendly, of course) with a fellow-Christian not long ago which ended with him saying, “Well, it’s not of major importance - it’s not a salvation issue, after all”. I was happy to nod my head to that.

But that phrase “a salvation issue” wouldn’t let me go. I hadn’t heard it before, and the more I thought about it the more it intrigued me. What exactly constitutes “a salvation issue”? How do we distinguish between salvation issues and, presumably, non-salvation issues? Did my friend carry in his mind a pair of clear lists – list A for “salvation issues” and list B for “issues of secondary importance”? I think I knew what he meant, but I wasn’t sure I could make such a clear distinction.

My immediate instinct, as a Christian who aims to be thoroughly biblical, was to pounce on a Bible text for help – and, unsurprisingly, up popped Acts 16:29-31 in my mind.

A Roman jailer, who had the responsibility of guarding the prison in Philippi where Paul and Silas had been preaching, saw his prison shaken by a “violent earthquake” (verse 26) and the prisoners on the loose. He was so terrified that he “drew his sword and was about to kill himself” (verse 27). When Paul stopped him, he cried in panic, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”. To which Paul replied, quick as a flash, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved…” (verse 31).

And there you have it: sorted. Simple, childlike faith in Jesus is all that’s required to receive God’s gracious gift of salvation. Things you don’t believe, or things which you only “believe” because, though you don’t understand them, you are told you should believe them as part of the Christian faith – well, you don’t need to worry too much about them.

One of the reasons the message of Jesus is called “good news” (“gospel”) is because it’s so wonderfully simple: through his life, death and resurrection he has dealt fully with our sins, and our part is simply to receive that good news with humility and gratitude and to start living the new life which the Holy Spirt gives.

But wait a minute.

The interaction between the jailer and Paul is more complex than first appears – putting that another way, it’s not just a knock-down text  (what Christians used to call a “proof-text”) that ends any discussion.

It raises certain questions…

For one thing, when the jailer pleaded “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”, what did he think he was he asking for? what did “saved” mean to him?

Well of course we have no way of knowing if he had any understanding of the Christian gospel at this point, but assuming that Paul and Silas hadn’t been in Philippi for long, and assuming too that he was not a man who knew much about “religious” matters, it seems very unlikely that he was asking “How can I find peace with God?” or some other summary of the gospel.

The word “saved” was used by the first Christians to sum up what happens to us when we believe in Jesus, no doubt about that; but it was also used much more generally in the Greek-speaking world for many types of deliverance from harm, danger or suffering (in Matthew 8:25, for example, the disciples’ cry to Jesus, “Lord, save us!”, was a plea for rescue from drowning).

So in this instance the cry “What must I do to be saved?” - the cry of a frightened man well out of his depth, fearful of losing his job and possibly also his life - might very well be translated “What can I do to get out of this mess?” That certainly catches the meaning, if not in strictly literal language.

Second, what did Paul mean by his answer, “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved”?

We need to notice that according to verse 32 “they spoke the word of the Lord to him”. In other words, they also gave him a summary of essential Christianity. (Wouldn’t we just love to know what that meant in detail!)

We can only presume that they filled in the many gaps in his knowledge of Jesus, focussing mainly, of course, upon the good news of the cross and the resurrection. They then baptised him, thus declaring him to be a Christian, a member of the community of the church, a “saved” person.

So, let’s go back to where we started, asking what might constitute a “salvation issue”. Judging by this dramatic episode, it looks as if the answer is indeed very simple, as I instinctively felt with my friend – just trusting in Jesus, though an element also of basic teaching to do with sin, the love and mercy of God, the sacrifice of the cross and the triumph of the resurrection is taken for granted.

That doesn’t mean that “doctrine” (ie, the systematic exposition of biblical teaching) doesn’t matter. It does! - and we should thank God for those Christian scholars and other experts who are called by him to pray and think through matters which are beyond most of us, and so to aid us in our own understanding.

Nor does it give us an excuse for spiritual laziness (“Oh, I’m just a simple Bible-believer”), a cop-out from serious attention to Bible-study and wrestling with hard questions; remember that Jesus tells us to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength (Mark 12:30).

But it also means that we are released from anxiety about whether or not we have got things perfectly right in our minds – Do I believe correctly in “the Holy Trinity”? Have I got a right understanding of “the baptism of the Holy Spirit”? What happens to unbelievers who have never rejected the gospel but have never had a chance to hear it? How can I reconcile divine predestination and human free will? Does it matter that, when it comes to “the Second Coming”, I get a bit confused between pre-millennialism, post-millennialism and (oh dear, what’s that other one? ah yes, of course) amillennialism?

No, it doesn’t! The basic truth doesn’t change: Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved. When God acted to save us he sent not a big fat book of doctrine for us to study, but a person, his own son Jesus, for us to follow.

Just trust in him, then! Love him, serve him, obey him, and, for the rest, relax.

Father, thank you that your gift of salvation is granted to everyone who reaches out to you in true repentance for sin and childlike faith in Jesus. Please help me to hold to that in all the circumstances of my life – and also to hold it out to anyone I meet who still needs to hear. Amen.