It Depends

 

Back in 2012 I wrote a blog that included mention of a software quality control class I had taken. The instructor's name was Rick. The first thing Monday morning was that he was going to give us the answer to every question he would ask us during the week he taught us. He said, write this answer down and be ready to refer to it. Then he said:  It depends, Rick.

I do believe we can leave off his name, but the two word answer replies in a number of other situations, doesn't it? 

"What do you want for dinner?" "It depends on what's in the pantry."

"Can we match this yarn?" "It depends whether or not we can match the lot number."

"When will we get home" "It depends on whether or not we can leave now. 

And the list will be a long one because there are so many variations. 

If you ask a person who identifies as a Christian, "What must I do to be saved?" You will get a wide variety of answers depending on which denomination they belong. As I type this, I realize many will stop reading right here because they know they have the answer - but how can you be certain?

Let me introduce you to the book I've been encouraging you pick up and read, because the anwer is given quite clearly in multiple places, and the only thing it depends upon is faith. Let me skip around as the questions come to mind - but I'll start with:

These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. (1 John 5:13 KJV)

Please take time to look at these scriptures in context to be certain I'm not reflecting a meaning from my own mind. The entire Bible was written that men might know God, and believe in what He said. Believers do have favorite scriptures and know the verses around them. The Bible says of itself:

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: (2 Timothy 3:16 KJV)

The scripture Paul referenced is what we see as the Torah and the books of what we call the Old Testament. It were those scriptures Luke referred to in Berea:

And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea: who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews. These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so. Therefore many of them believed; also of honourable women which were Greeks, and of men, not a few. (Acts 17:10-12 KJV)

What they believed was that Jesus was the Son of God, prophesied in Jewish scripture, soon to be confirmed in Christian scripture:

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. (John 3:16-18 KJV)

That's what Paul and Silas told the keeper of their prison when he found the doors open and was ready to kill himself when Paul stopped him, saying none of the prisoners were gone:

But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm: for we are all here. 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? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. (Acts 16:28-31 KJV)

Paul preached this in synagogues and city streets, and in letters to churches:

But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm: for we are all here. 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? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. (Acts 16:28-31 KJV)

To learn of Jesus, Christ, we have to know when God promised that he himself would provide a lamb for sacrifice:

And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together. (Genesis 22:7-8 KJV)

That was fulfilled in John 3:16. John the Baptist knew it much earlier, as John the Disciple wrote:

The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. (John 1:29 KJV)

I could continue for many pages, but this is already long. Tomorrow I'll spend some time on the end of the story.