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Morning and Evening

October 5, Evening

C. H. Spurgeon · Modern retelling

"He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved." — Mark 16:16 · KJV

Mr. MacDonald once asked the people of the island of St. Kilda how a man must be saved. An old man replied, "We shall be saved if we repent, forsake our sins, and turn to God." "Yes," said a middle-aged woman, "and with a true heart too." "Aye," added a third, "and with prayer"; and a fourth said, "It must be the prayer of the heart." "And we must be diligent too," said a fifth, "in keeping the commandments." So, each having added his mite, and feeling that a very respectable creed had been made up, they all looked and listened for the preacher's approval — but they had only stirred his deepest pity. The carnal mind always maps out a way in which self can work and become great, but the Lord's way is the very opposite. Believing and being baptized are no matters of merit to glory in — they are so simple that boasting is shut out, and free grace bears the palm. Perhaps you, reader, are unsaved. What is the reason? Do you think the way of salvation laid down in the text is doubtful? How can it be, when God has pledged His own word for its certainty? Do you think it too easy? Then why do you not attend to it? Its very ease leaves without excuse those who neglect it. To believe is simply to trust, to depend, to rely on Christ Jesus. To be baptized is to submit to the ordinance our Lord fulfilled at the Jordan, to which the converts submitted at Pentecost, and which the jailer obeyed the very night of his conversion. The outward sign does not save, but it sets forth our death, burial, and resurrection with Jesus, and, like the Lord's Supper, is not to be neglected. Reader, do you believe in Jesus? Then, dear friend, dismiss your fears; you shall be saved. Are you still an unbeliever? Then remember there is but one door, and if you will not enter by it, you will perish in your sins.