Is it possible to think you are “saved” when you are not? Could you have missed something critically important on your spiritual journey that must precede true salvation?

A familiar and dramatic passage of scripture sets forth a profound truth that is often overlooked by Christians (and non-Christians alike) when it comes to being born again.

Here’s Acts 16:25-31 to set the scene:

“Now about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing … suddenly there was a great earthquake … and immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s chains were unfastened. When the jailer awoke and saw the prison doors opened, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, thinking that the prisoners had escaped. 

“But Paul called out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Do not harm yourself, for we are all here!’ And the jailer asked for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear, he fell down before Paul and Silas; and after he brought them out, he said, ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’ They said, ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved …’”

The late Believer’s Bible Commentary author Bill MacDonald explained, “Now a new emotion swept over the jailer. His fears of losing his job and perhaps his life gave way to deep conviction of sin. He was now afraid to meet God in his sins. He cried, ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’ This question must precede every genuine case of conversion. A man must know he is lost before he can be saved. It is premature to tell a man how to be saved until first he can say from his heart, ‘I truly deserve to go to Hell’”

I was raised in a denominational religious tradition that seemed to be saying that all I had to do for a better than even chance of making it to Heaven is to climb on their complex and ornate little “religious treadmill” and start pedaling.

Never was the notion of being spiritually “lost,” as a starting condition, ever mentioned or emphasized. Instead, I was told that all I had to “do” was tow the ecclesiastical line.

Decades later I learned the hard way that I was indeed spiritually lost and deserving of Hell. People used to hit around the subject but never put it out there, like the scriptures do.

For example, in John 3:36:

“The one who believes in the Son has eternal life; but the one who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”

And Revelation 20:14-15:

“Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”

Ouch!

Dallas Willard insightfully comments on why so many people expose themselves to such unthinkable dangers:

“Thus no one chooses in the abstract to go to hell or even be the kind of person who belongs there. But their orientation toward self leads them to become the kind of person for whom away — from —  God is the only place for which they are suited. It is a place they would, in the end, choose for themselves, rather than come to humble themselves before God and accept who he is. Whether or not God’s will is infinitely flexible, the human will is not. There are limits beyond which it cannot bend back, cannot turn or repent.”

Denial Is Not an Option

The real problem lies with our “orientation toward self” as Willard says.

We don’t see ourselves as God sees us. We look around and compare ourselves with other fallen humans and think we’re just fine. The trouble is, we’re using the wrong yardstick.

But, as written in Matthew 5:48, God says, “Therefore you shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

No grading on a curve here. His standard is the one that counts.

This is why the Gospel of Christ is so mission critical to anyone who reaches a similar point of desperation as the jailer who cried out, “What must I do to be saved?”

Time does not permit in this essay to unfold the whole story but here is a hint: While you or I cannot ever meet God’s standard of righteous perfection, Jesus Christ did — and His righteousness is available to us by faith — IF we’ll stop flailing about on our own.

As Matthew 7:13-14 says, “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is narrow and the way is constricted that leads to life, and there are few who find it.”

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Click here for a fascinating AI-generated podcast on this essay.