This question comes up frequently for those who don’t know Jesus. Upon hearing that God demands justice, this is usually the question proposed by the inquirer of the Bible. The gospel is then presented as an answer that Jesus came to die for us so it’s possible to not face God’s wrath towards us. There are many different responses given for the next step, depending on who you ask.
If we go to Scripture, the Jews asked Peter and the apostles a similar question on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:37). The apostle’s answer was to repent and be baptized (v 38). By doing this, God forgives us of our transgressions against Him.
However, when we ask others today in Christianity, as I stated before, you might hear something different. Some people will flip to Romans 10:9-10. Here, the apostle Paul wrote, “that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” Or perhaps a more popular answer would be Ephesians 2:8-9. Here Paul wrote, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” These are pretty good answers but they are skewed a little. Many Christians, with good intentions, fail to grasp the historical context of the Bible. This happens to be a widely misunderstood concept in Western culture today.
If you’re asking yourself what historical context is, let me explain. The books of the Bible were written a long time ago. When reading it, we have to always keep in mind that while it was written for us, it wasn’t written to us. The original audiences of these letters and books would have read them a lot differently than we do today. Also, each book and letter may be intended for different audiences themselves.
Take, for example, just the two passages I quoted earlier. The epistle to the Romans is intended for the church at Rome and Ephesians is for those in Ephesus. While we can gleam from the principles of both letters today, each had their own praises and faults so they each dealt with different issues. Much like the four gospel accounts. While they all dealt with the same story of Jesus, they were all written to different audiences so they each highlight different aspects of the same story.
How does this tie into our topic of salvation though? Well like I said before, the answer of maybe Romans is a good response but it fails to shed the whole light. Who is the audience of Romans again? It’s the church at Rome. People who had already been converted to Christianity. So, to address the idea of how one may be converted, we wouldn’t look to a book that’s already addressed to people who’ve been converted.
The book we should really be going to is the book of Acts. Here, we’ll see how both Jews and Gentiles were taught the gospel message and then how they responded to that message. After they believed that Jesus paid that price for our sins, they all repented and were baptized to wash away those sins. Only then, do we see they were forgiven and rejoiced in the name of Jesus.