Last week, we began looking at how man is to keep God in the proper place in life.

Jesus said, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take, therefore, no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof” (Matthew 6:33-34). When it comes to salvation, we need to remember to put God first. There are some hard things to understand in the Bible, but how to be saved is not one of them. Man must not put his thoughts and ideas above God’s.

From the beginning, man has done this, and it has always resulted in man being shown that God is the one in charge and that his way must be followed.

God has told us in his word how to be saved. We find that those who followed Jesus had to believe that he is the Son of God. “I said therefore unto you that ye shall die in your sins, for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins” (John 8:24). In another passage, the Holy Scriptures again tell of the importance of faith. “But without faith it is impossible to please him, for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him” (Hebrews 11:6). Some would stop here, but God’s word says there is more to be done — God commands that we repent of our sins. “And the times of this ignorance God winked at, but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent” (Acts 17:30).

Why is it so hard to keep God in the proper place? If God is in the proper place in our lives, we will seek to follow his teachings without addition or subtraction.

The Bible tells us how to attain salvation: have faith in Jesus as the Son of God, repent of our sins and confess the name of Christ as the Son of God. “… And he answered and said, ‘I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God’” (Acts 8:38).

The next thing we see through God’s word is that we are to be baptized for the remission of our sins. “Then Peter said unto them, ‘Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins,’ …” (Acts 2:38).  If this passage is not plain enough, Peter makes it even plainer: “The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 3:21).

May all come to trust in God for the blessings of this life and of salvation given to man by God.

Editor’s note: This is the second part of a two-part series.