What Must I Do to Be Saved?

And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. ACTS 16:30–31

Finney spent much of his life in rooms full of anxious people. In inquiry meetings, on the anxious seat, in his lodgings late at night, he talked with thousands of men and women who had been awakened and did not know what to do. Two of his Lectures on Revivals, False Comforts for Sinners and Directions to Sinners, gather what he learned. They are among his most practical and his most searching, and anyone who ever speaks to a seeking soul should read them.

The most important question

No more important question was ever asked, Finney said, than the jailer’s at Philippi. People may give many answers to what shall I eat or what shall I wear, with little harm done. But when a sinner asks in earnest what he must do to be saved, it is of infinite importance that he receive the right answer. And Finney laid down one test for every answer: no direction should be given which, if the sinner followed it, would leave him unconverted. If he would not go to heaven should he die the next moment after doing it, it is the wrong direction.

Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation. 2 CORINTHIANS 6:2

That rules out much well-meant counsel — read your Bible, come to meetings, keep seeking. Good in their place, none of them is conversion, and a sinner may do them for years and remain in his sins.

False comforts

Finney was merciless about what he called false comforts. He listed more than twenty. Telling an anxious sinner, You are not so bad. Telling him conversion is a gradual work. Advising him to put the subject out of his mind for now. Telling him to wait God’s time. Telling him that God is trying his faith in the furnace, as if God were the one delaying. Telling him, I was under conviction for months myself, so do not be discouraged. Telling him, I will pray for you, so that he leans on your prayers instead of submitting to God. Saying, Do what you can, and God will do the rest. Applying to him promises meant only for believers. Assuring him that the good work begun in him will be carried on.

They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace. JEREMIAH 6:14

Each of these, Finney argued, gives the sinner a place to rest short of Christ. Out of false pity we relieve his distress, and he goes away comforted and unsaved. It is, he said, like a surgeon who cannot bear to cut.

True directions

What then should the sinner be told? Finney gave several answers, and said any of them would do, provided the sinner understood and obeyed it. Repent — and he explained that repentance is a change of mind towards God and sin, involving hatred of sin and forsaking it. Believe the gospel — and he explained that faith is not mere assent, which the devil has, but trust. “It is a voluntary trust in his person, his veracity, his word,” he wrote of our trust in Christ. Give God your heart. Submit to God, like a rebel laying down his arms. Confess and forsake your sins, making restitution where you can. Choose this day whom you will serve.

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. JAMES 4:7–8

Whichever of these the Spirit is pressing, Finney said, when the sinner yields at that point he is converted. There is no fixed order of experiences. Sometimes faith comes first, sometimes repentance, sometimes submission. The one thing needful is that the heart yields to God.

Errors of the anxious

Finney also named the errors anxious sinners fall into. They think they must make themselves better before they come. They think they must suffer long under conviction as a kind of penance. They wait for different feelings. To that he answered: “It is not a question of feeling, but of willing and acting.” Obey, submit, trust, and the feelings will follow. They think they must wait until their hearts are changed, when the change of heart is the very thing required. They say they are willing but God is not — which is to say that God does not want to be loved. And they confuse desiring with willing. Many desire to be Christians who have never chosen to be.

Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. MATTHEW 11:28

He was not afraid of sudden conversions. Some of the best Christians he knew, he said, had been convicted and converted in a few minutes. “Afraid of sudden conversions!” he exclaimed. The Bible gives no warrant for the idea that long, drawn-out distress is a better sign. In his experience, protracted conviction usually meant defective instruction.

Where care is needed

There is gold in these lectures, but Finney’s theology left its mark on them, and they need to be read with Scripture open.

He objected to praying that God would enable sinners to repent, because it suggested that they were trying and could not. But Scripture itself speaks of God granting repentance. Paul told Timothy to instruct opponents in meekness, if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth (2 Timothy 2:25). The church at Jerusalem glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life.

When they heard these things, they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life. ACTS 11:18

We should indeed tell sinners to repent now, and refuse to let them hide behind their inability. But we may and should also pray for God to give them repentance. Finney’s scheme made these seem to be in tension. Scripture holds them together.

His method also put great weight on the counsellor’s skill in hunting out the sinner’s hiding-place and pressing him to yield. That can be done with great wisdom and love. It can also become pressure. A soul that yields because it has been cornered by argument or emotion has not necessarily been born again. Finney knew this, and warned against false hopes, but some who copied his methods forgot it.

And the insistence that feelings do not matter, while true as far as it goes, needs balance. The will does lead; but conversion is also the heart being won by the love of Christ. The jailer did not merely decide; he rejoiced, believing in God with all his house.

Tell them plainly

Finney’s lasting gift here is clarity. He had no patience with religious fog. When a sinner asks what to do, tell him plainly: turn from your sin and trust Christ, now. Do not give him anything to do instead of that.

FOR REFLECTION AND ACTION

1. If you are not sure you are a Christian, stop reading and do what the jailer was told: believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, now.

2. Think of the last time someone asked you about faith. Did your answer point them to Christ, or to something short of Him?

3. Go through Finney’s list of false comforts and notice any you have given. Resolve to speak more truly next time.

4. Pray this week, by name, for someone you know who is not a Christian, asking God to grant them repentance — and look for an opportunity to speak plainly.

5. If you are waiting for a feeling before obeying God in some matter, obey first.

A PRAYER

Lord Jesus, You are the answer to the jailer’s question and to mine. I believe on You, and I turn from my sins to You.

Forgive me for the false comforts I have given to others, and for the ones I have taken for myself.

Give me clarity and courage to tell those who ask what they must do, and love to tell them gently.

And grant repentance unto life to those I love who are still far off. Amen.