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LORD JESUS CHRIST"
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Acts 16:31 says that we must believe in the "Lord Jesus Christ". This is a very telling statement.
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We must first believe and continue believing that Jesus Christ is LORD. He is God. He is the Only Son of God, yet is also the One Almighty God. He is not the Father but is the exact image of the Father. He is part of the one "What" and three "Whos" with each "Who" possessing all the attributes of Deity and personality that make up the Trinity.
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The Lord Jesus Christ is also sovereign. When we believe on the "Lord" Jesus Christ we lay down our rights and our very life, nailing them to the cross of Christ, and He becomes the complete King, President, Boss, Director of our lives.
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He is also "Jesus" "Christ". He is the Redeemer and He is the Messiah, the Anointed One of God. He is the only one Who can deliver us from our sins. In this one statement we can see the 100% humanity and 100% Deity of Christ. And we must keep believing that!
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1 John 5:1 Every one who is believing that Jesus is the Christ, of God he hath been begotten ...
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WILL BE SAVED"
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The last important aspect of this verse is to notice that Paul did not say "you are saved" but "you will be saved". Salvation is not only the moment when the Holy Spirit seals and baptizes the believer but, more importantly, it is the end. The same word pisteuo is used in Acts 16:31. We must continue to believe, keep believing in the Lord Jesus Christ for our ultimate salvation. We must overcome by faith, which means that we continue to believe in the true Jesus, the true Gospel, the true Spirit till the end.
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Matthew 24:13 but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.
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Mark 16:16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.
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Romans 10:9 That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
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Why would Paul not proclaim that the jailer and his household were immediately saved like we often hear preached today? It is because Paul was teaching truth. Paul knew he was not omniscient. He didn't know the ultimate condition of any person. God does. God knows whom He has justified. But we must continue to believe! A person has free will and, as such, they are fully capable and fully free to either submit to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit in their life, or they can be "not believing" or "unbelieving". If a person is unbelieving, notice how John warns the Church, to whom Revelation was written:
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Revelation 21:8 "But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars— their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death."
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Unbelief is obviously the state of a person before they first believe. But unbelief can also become the state of a person who shipwrecks their faith (1 Tim. 1:19) or falls away (Luke 8:13) into unbelief after they initially "believe". That's the way I read the Scripture, and Scripture is what I base my doctrines upon, not Calvinism or Arminianism. We'll look at some prime examples from the Bible on this issue later.
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Let's look at one more verse for a few more necessities for belief in the Lord Jesus Christ.
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Romans 10:9 That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
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