The most important question in the entire universe.

“Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” (Acts 16:29-30)

People from every walk of life and every culture have pondered the question of how can I go to heaven when I die. They may call it different names whether it be heaven, Valhalla, the Happy Hunting Ground or something else, the idea is the same. This question is very important because the answer has eternal consequences.

Even among Christianity there are those who claim to have a variety of answers. Some say a person has to live a good life in addition to trusting Christ, others teach unless you belong to their church you cannot get to heaven while some teach you must be baptized to get to heaven. With such a variety of opinions everyone cannot possibly be right so how do we find out the right answer? Can we know? The good news is the answer is yes.

Not only that, God set it up so there is no doubt as to how to get to heaven. In Acts 16 the Philippian jailer asked Paul a simple question, “what must I do to be saved?” That is the only time in the entire bible that question is asked. This means that the answer is critical to understand if you want to go to heaven. Paul says “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.”

That’s it. There is no need to join a church or be baptized. No, you are saved by believing on Jesus Christ. Now it is important to realize why you need to be saved.

Jesus declared in (John 3:36) that “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.”

This verse is very critical for Jesus is telling you that if you do not believe on Jesus like the Philippian jailer did then the wrath of God IS abiding on you right now. Friend, that is not a good place to be. If you go back and read what happens when God’s wrath is unleashed it is not a pleasant thing. While God is love, his wrath is a fearsome thing to behold.

The reason Christ came to earth to take on the form of a man and die for our sins was to provide a way for us to escape the wrath of God for our sins.

Because God loves us so he made it so easy for us to be saved. In fact, it is so easy there are three things we must know but there is only one thing we have to do to be saved.

First, we must acknowledge that we have sinned. The bible says in (Romans 3:23) that “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” Notice it says ALL have sinned. That means the author of this article has sinned and falls short of God’s glory just as much as you have.

Second we must realize there is a penalty for sin. That penalty was already discussed in (John 3:36), but it is also mentioned in (Romans 6:23) which says, “the wages of sin is death.” The bible goes on to discuss this further in (Revelation 21:8). “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.”

This is the final payment for sin, but the good news is God gave us a way to escape sin’s payment.

The third thing you need to know to go to heaven is that God paid the price for your sin. The last half of (Romans 6:23) says that “but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Once you know these three things and are willing to acknowledge to God that you deserve the lake of fire for your sins, then you are able to do the one thing to be saved.

“If you say with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved from the punishment of sin. When we believe in our hearts, we are made right with God. We tell with our mouth how we were saved from the punishment of sin.” (Romans 10:9-10).

It is that simple. By doing this you can be saved just like the Philippian jailer was so many years ago. You can know that you have eternal life. The choice is yours.