Thought for the week: Receiving Jesus Christ as your precious Saviour
One day the greatly used late 19th century American evangelist and Bible scholar Dr Rueben Archer Torrey was handed a little card.
When he later examined the piece of literature, he found that a searching question was printed on both sides of it. On one side, there was the well-known question from the New Testament: "What must I do to be saved?”
That question was first asked by the Philippian jailor in Acts 16:30 (New Testament). But it is a question that every unconverted person should still stop and consider carefully and not rest until they find the answer. It is a great blessing to know that the Bible gives the vital answer in Acts 16:31: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved". That is what you must do right now, without any further delay, put your trust in the finished sacrifice that the Lord Jesus made at Calvary, and then you will be saved for all eternity.
But whenever Dr Torrey turned the card over, he found another question that he had never thought of before, but it is a very fitting compliment to the first one. The second question was: “What must I do to be lost?” That is a very sobering and challenging inquiry. Let me urge you to give it some serious thought just now.
The answer to the question is – nothing, because you are lost already. The spiritual condition of every person in this world is that they are lost in their sins. The Lord Jesus plainly stated that He came to “seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). Lost in your sins, and your soul is in danger of being lost for all eternity.
The Lord Jesus also sounded this very clear message of warning: “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” (Mark 8:36). That is your condition right now, if you know not Christ as your Saviour, you are facing the awful prospect of your soul going to a lost eternity.
It’s not necessary for you to burn the Bible, vandalise a Church building, persecute a Christian, blaspheme the Lord Jesus or become the chief of sinners in order to be lost. The plain truth is that you are lost now.
That is why being saved is so important. In fact, the Apostle Peter declared, "we must be saved”(Acts 4:12).
That means that Salvation is an imperative, it cannot be done without. All you have to do to be lost is to neglect the great Salvation that God freely offers to you, just neglect receiving the Lord Jesus as your Saviour, then when you die, you will be lost forever! (Hebrews 2:3).