What Do You WANT To Do To Be Saved?

By David Bragg

    Authorities in Glenville, NY are baffled. The small town has witnessed several single vehicle accidents involving large trucks. According to the Daily Gazette in nearby Schenectady, the Glenridge Road railroad bridge has been struck by trucks, peeling back trailer tops, "at least 20 times since a road-widening project was finished in 2013" (dailygazette.com). The problem? The clearly marked bridge has a clearance of only 10 feet 11 inches while the average height of an 18-wheeler is between 13 and 14 feet.
    Many site an increased reliance on GPS devices for the accidents while others blame drivers for ignoring clearly marked low clearance warning signs. In a similar, but far more serious vein, is the failure of many modern religious people to properly heed the biblical "warning signs" when it comes to God's plan of salvation.
    Whether they are blindly following their denominational teachings or refusing to take God’s Word seriously, the result is always disastrous. On more than one occasion in the Bible the question is asked, "What must I do to be saved?" (Acts 2:37 and 16:30, for example). Yet, in not a single instance is the response, "What do you WANT to do to be saved?"
    Salvation has never been left to the discretion of individual preference or majority rule. Why didn't Peter, in Acts 2, take a poll to decide the most popular form of responding to the Gospel? Why didn’t he tell the penitent Jews to simply utter a quick prayer for forgiveness? Because when it comes to saving souls, especially our own, only God has the final word. And He told Peter to say, "“Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins" (Acts 2:38).

- David Bragg serves as one of the ministers at the Northwest Church of Christ in Greensboro, NC and is co-editor of BulletinGold. He may be contacted through the congregation's website: http://www.nwchurchofchrist.com/ or his blog: http://davidbragg.blogspot.com/