All You Need To Do Is To Believe

By the grace of God, an earthquake caused a guy to ask the most important question anyone can ask in their life to the right person:
About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone's chains came loose. The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted, "Don't harm yourself! We are all here!" 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?" (Acts 16:25-30 NIV)

And he received the most correct answer - believe. That is all. Believe. Nothing else. No good works required. We are such great sinners that our works are completely unacceptable to God.
And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. (Acts 16:31 KJV)

Our work is a defilement to God.
If you make a stone altar for me, do not build it out of cut stones. If you use your chisel on it, you will defile it. (Exodus 20:25 CSB)
Our righteous acts are like filthy rags to God.
All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away. (Isaiah 64:6 NIV)
Our good works are not perfect. It cannot hold water.
"My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water. (Jeremiah 2:13 NIV)
Our hearts are evil.
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? (Jeremiah 17:9 KJV)
Our motivation for good works is imperfect because our heart is evil.
The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks. (Luke 6:45 ESV)
Salvation requires new birth and new body. This is beyond us.
Brothers, I tell you this: Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, and corruption cannot inherit incorruption. (1 Corinthians 15:50 HCSB)
Finally, salvation is the work of God. It cannot be done by humans.
It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God's mercy. (Romans 9:16 NIV)
Salvation belongs to the LORD; your blessing be on your people! (Psalm 3:8 ESV)
I, I am the Lord, and besides me there is no savior. (Isaiah 43:11 ESV)

Some pastors who preached against "Easy Believism". But salvation has to be easy. If it is any more difficult, nobody will be saved because we are such great sinners.

To be saved, all we need is to believe. But to believe is difficult because our hearts are deceptive and we do not know what we mean when we says, "I believe." Jesus used the parable of the sower to explain the deceitfulness of our hearts.

"Hear then the parable of the sower: When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path. As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away. As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty." (Matthew 13:18-23 ESV)

So many said, "I believe", added to church numbers, and then fall away. Then there are those who stayed but seems unfruitful. Then there are those who worked and became leaders and then fall away.

There are churches with a big crowd who claimed to be Christians but behaved like the world. But this should not be a reason for us to raise the bar for salvation. We cannot add to God's Word.

There are churches with small number of people because the pastor set standards of behaviour. They said they are preaching against sin. But I have been to a church which does not allow the congregation to read the Bible from their handphone and they can only use KJV. I cannot find any Bible verse that justify these standards. We cannot add to God's Word.

Salvation is easy. But assurance is difficult.

How do you know you are saved? You just need to ask this is the fundamental question, "Is my salvation based on what Jesus has done on the cross for me and not what I do?" If your answer to this question is "Yes", then you are saved.

Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you - unless, of course, you fail the test? (2 Corinthians 13:5 NIV)

Then some quote me this verse:
You believe that God is one; well and good. Even the demons believe that - and tremble with fear. (James 2:19 NET)

So they said, "Believe is not enough."

Look at James 2:19 carefully. The demons believe that God is one. Of course they do. They can come in the presence of God (Job 1:6). A lot of other religions also believe that God is one.

But salvation is more than believing that God is one. Salvation requires the belief that God saves us from our sins and we cannot do anything to save ourselves. The demons know that God is one and that He will not save them. That is why they tremble with fear.

We need to have the same faith in God for our salvation as the demons have in God for their damnation.