Only God can tell us what we need to do to be saved.

Let’s go back to the very beginning as we begin to consider what God says.

After God had created man and placed him in the Garden of Eden, He told man, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you shall surely die.” (Genesis 2:16 & 17)

God’s command seems very simple to us: “DO NOT EAT THE FRUIT FROM THE TREE OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL.”  How hard is that?  If you want to live eat anything you want except for the fruit of that one tree!

God them made woman to be with man and the two of them lived in the Garden.

Then along came the crafty serpent who asked the woman, “Indeed, has God said, 'You shall not eat from any tree of the garden'?” (Genesis 3:1)

The woman knew God’s command because in Genesis 3:2 & 3 she replied to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, lest you die.’”

The woman knew perfectly well what she had to do to continue to live, i.e. not die.

The serpent then presented the woman with temptation.  The serpent said, “You surely shall not die!  For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

The woman then, acting against God’s command, ate of the forbidden fruit.  She then gave her husband some of the fruit and he also ate.

This resulted in God banishing the man and the woman from the Garden and from the Tree of Life that was in the Garden and all the consequences listed for the man and the woman in Genesis 3:15 to 24.

The point is, God provided the man and the woman with His Word – His Command – but they chose to listen to a different word.  A word not from God.  A word contrary to God’s word.  A word from a source other than God.  When they did that, they were punished and driven out of the Garden by God.

There are numerous examples of this same principle in the Bible.  When God gives man a command, He expects that command to be obeyed.  The question then becomes, “What has God told me I must do in order to be saved?”

How can I tell?  How can I be sure what God has commanded me to do in order to be saved?

The answer is actually quite simple.

Let us illustrate with a simple demonstration and question.

Take a piece of paper and draw a line on it.

How long is the line you drew?

Someone might say, “Four inches.”

Someone else might say, “Three and a half inches.”

Even another might say, “Three and three quarters of an inch.”

The actual length is not important.

What is important is, “How do we tell how long the line is?

Well, let’s get out a ruler – a standard of measure – and determine exactly how long it is.

Just as there is a standard for measuring the line, so there is a standard for determining what God has said, what God has commanded us to do in answer to our question, “What must I do to be saved.”

God said through Paul in Ephesian 5:17, “So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.”

That is just as simple as, “Do not eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”  “Understand what the will of the Lord is.”

Notice what the LORD said to His nation through Moses, Israel, just before they entered the Promised Land in Deuteronomy 4:1 & 2: And now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the judgments which I am teaching you to perform, in order that you may live and go in and take possession of the land which the LORD, the God of your fathers, is giving you. You shall not add to the word which I am commanding you, nor take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you.

Just few verses later God further explained in Deuteronomy 4:23 to 26: So, watch yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of the LORD your God, which He made with you, and make for yourselves a graven image in the form of anything against which the LORD your God has commanded you. For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. When you become the father of children and children's children and have remained long in the land, and act corruptly, and make an idol in the form of anything, and do that which is evil in the sight of the LORD your God so as to provoke Him to anger, I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you shall surely perish quickly from the land where you are going over the Jordan to possess it. You shall not live long on it but shall be utterly destroyed.

Notice the conditions God gave Israel: If you will keep my commandments you (Israel) may live, go in, and possess the land.  HOWEVER, IF you add to or take away from the word I am commanding you, “You shall not live long on it but shall be utterly destroyed.”

This same principle is reflected in the New Testament.

In John 8:31 Jesus says. "If you abide in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine.”

Later God wrote, through Paul, in Galatians 1:6 & 9, “I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you, and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to that which you received, let him be accursed.”

Also, in II Timothy 3:16 & 17, “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.”

Finally, Jude 3 says, “Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.”

What all this means is that we have God’s word, full and complete in the inspired scriptures, the Bible, and we are not to add to or take away from that word or else we are promised we will be accursed.  The Bible then is our one and only, our sole authority when it come to all matters concerning what God teaches us.

Therefore, to answer the question, “What must I do to be saved?” we MUST go to the Bible and nowhere else for our answer.

Now that we have established the fact that in order to be saved, we must go to God’s word and only God’s word we have to consider the question, “Must I obey every command in the Bible in order to be saved?”

For example, the people of Israel were commanded by the LORD to keep three feasts each year in Jerusalem.  1) The Passover (Exodus 12:17, Leviticus 23:4-8); 2) Shavuot, also known as by its Greek name, Pentecost, and, at times, called the feast of the harvest and the feast of first fruits (Leviticus 23:9-14), and 3) Sukkot or the Feast of Weeks or the Feast of Tabernacles (Exodus 34:22, Leviticus 23:15:22).

These were feasts which God commanded the people of Israel to observe in Jerusalem each year.

Does this mean that in order to be saved we must go to Jerusalem three time each year to observe the festivals commanded by God?

Additionally, the books of Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy are filled with commands from God Israel was expected to keep if they wanted to continue to be His special, chosen people.  Must we keep all those commands?

Paul, by inspiration from God, wrote in II Timothy 2:15, “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, handling accurately the word of truth.”

There is a lot of quibbling over the words translated in the NASB “handling accurately.”  Various translations use “handling aright,” “rightly divide,” “straightly cutting,” “correctly handles,” or “rightly handling.”

Regardless, the idea is the same: to handle the word of God in such a way that when you are presented before God, you will be shown to be one who handled His word not only with respect, awe and reverence, but in a correct, perfect, and exact manner.

God said by inspiration through Paul in Ephesians 2:11 to 16, “Therefore remember, that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called ‘Uncircumcision’ by the so-called ‘Circumcision,’ which is performed in the flesh by human hands— remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one, and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity.”

Here God is explaining that Jesus ended (abolished) the Old Testament law of Commandments when He – Jesus – died on the cross.  He did that so that ALL MEN, both Jew and Gentile could be reconciled – SAVED.  Salvation then is through the cross because in His death, Jesus stripped away (put to death) the animosity (enmity) that had existed between the Jews and the Gentiles which was the old law given by Moses.

God further explains this in the book of Hebrews which begins, “God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.”  (Hebrews 1:1 & 2)

Later in Hebrews God explains Jesus, “… obtained a more excellent ministry, by as much as He is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion sought for a second. … When He said, ‘A new covenant,’ He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear.” (Hebrews 8:6, 7 & 13).

God has had several covenants since He created the world with man or with various men.  He had a covenant with Adam, with Noah, with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Israel), and with the nation of Israel.  Today, He has a covenant with all mankind – Jesus.

Jesus did away with that old covenant, the Old Testament, and established His covenant in his death, His burial, and His resurrection.  Today, we need only concerning ourselves, specifically when considering what one must do in order to be saved, with Jesus and His word.

In John 14:6 Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me.”

In Acts 4:12 Peter by inspiration said, “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men, by which we must be saved.”

So, in answer to our question, “What must I do to be saved?” the answer lies with Jesus and His word found in the New Testament.