God has taught one truth beyond all contradiction in His Word. It is that sin has created an awful chasm between Himself and man. Man may ignore or condone sin, treat it very lightly, and even be so foolish as to deny its reality, but that does not alter the unalterable fact that sin exists and that it separates from God. God does not treat sin lightly. God hates it; God condemns it. “Sin unatoned for must be an insuperable barrier between the sinner and God.”

If the natural man is to be brought into favor and fellowship with God, it is evident that something must be done with sin. Man’s first step in returning to God must be a consciousness that deepens into a conviction of sin. So, the question which comes to every person who awakens to their condition through sin and its consequences is the same as that which came to the Philippian jailor, “What must I do to be saved?” (Acts 16:30).

Let us analyze the jailor’s question. First, “What must I do to be saved?” Who is the “I”? A lost man enslaved by sin, self, and Satan; a blind man whose mind has been darkened by the god of this world and whose eyes are closed to the beauty and glory of God; a dead man alienated from the life of God.

Second, “What must I do to be saved?” He does not ask what he must do to be reformed, repaired, or repolished but to be saved. The question he asks is, “How can I, an enslaved man, have deliverance; a blind man have sight; a dead man have life?”

Third, “What must I do to be saved?” What can a bondslave do to free himself? Or what can a blind man do to gain sight? Or what can a dead man do to make himself alive?

Let us answer the jailor’s question by defining the kind of salvation which will fully meet the sinner’s need.

It must be a salvation God can accept as wholly sufficient and satisfactory. God is the One who has been offended and most wounded by sin. By his sin, Adam forfeited all right to a relationship with God, and God alone can say by what means and in what manner the relationship with sinful men can be restored. Man has no ground upon which he can approach God. If God ever receives the natural man, it must be upon some ground where he confesses himself as a helpless, hopeless sinner. “Between him and God is the impassable gulf of moral inability. Between him and God is the barrier of punitive judgment.” God alone can determine how this chasm shall be bridged, and this barrier removed.

It must be a salvation that deals effectually with sin and all its consequences. This salvation must put away sin and give man a new nature, without which there would be no basis for establishing a relationship with God. This salvation must blot out man’s sins and their attendant guilt. Sins committed cannot be undone merely by expressing sorrow, a promise of amendment through a New Year resolution, or turning over a new leaf.

It must be a salvation that carries out the death sentence upon the sinner. God’s law is holy, and it cannot be trifled with. God’s judgments are righteous, and they must be fulfilled. God has said, “The soul that sinneth it shall die.” (Ezekiel 18:4, 20) The penalty must be paid; the judgment must be executed. Any salvation that saves must consider the payment of this penalty and the execution of this judgment.

It must be a salvation that accomplishes Satan’s defeat, dethronement, and destruction. God’s judgment upon Satan, who brought sin into the universe, must be executed as truly as God’s judgment upon the sinner. God has said that the seed of the woman shall bruise the head of the serpent. (Genesis 3:15). This is one-half of the original promise of salvation. Christ’s final victory necessitates Satan’s total defeat. Such must be the nature of any salvation that fully saves. 

Source: “Life on the Highest Plane” by Ruth Paxson