The Most Important Question

Line up ten people and ask them “What is the most important question in life?” You might get ten different answers. Like “How can I increase my net worth?” “Will my marriage end in failure?” “Will my sickness prove fatal?” “How can I have more fun?” Well, you get the point.

All those questions have value for a few years at best. Like the man in the Scriptures who watched his net worth soar. He asked himself his most important question: “What shall I do?”, as he viewed his bulging storehouses. Then he answered himself, “I’ll tear these barns down and build bigger ones.” After that, he told himself that he would have it made. Oh what fun retirement would be. He was so busy bragging about his good fortune that he didn’t hear God call him a fool. He died that night, never having asked life’s most important question.

We discover that question in another biblical scenario. Paul and Silas were in prison. Their only crime was telling people that God loved them and that Jesus Christ had sacrificed His life to save them from their sins. What do you do when your hands and feet are shackled, you’re in solitary confinement, it’s midnight and your only visitors are rats who eye you as their next meal? You sing a song. At least that’s what Paul and Silas did. And it so touched the heart of God that He shook a jail and opened prison doors.

The guard knew that their escape to freedom meant his entrance to execution. As he rushed to commit suicide, Paul called out that they were all still present and accounted for. That’s when the jailor cried out with life’s most important question; “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” It was answered with “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved, and your house” (Acts 16:31).

Paul knew what He was talking about. As a zealous Jew, he had once pitted himself against Yeshuah of Nazareth—Jesus. Even after Christ’s resurrection, Saul of Tarsus declared himself the enemy. He even helped preside over the execution of the first martyr, Stephen, and persecuted the infant church. Then came the Damascus road where a blinded Saul met the awesome Christ and became the Messiah’s greatest champion.

Now that question “What must I do to be saved?” echoes down through two millennia to you and me. It really is life’s most important question. No matter what your present life is like, it will end soon. What are 70 or 80 years when compared to eternity?! If you want a guarantee of sins forgiven and an assurance of eternal life, there’s only one place to go. It’s the foot of the cross where Jesus died for you.

First, to be saved means we have to realize we’re lost. God pulls no punches on that: “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Second, we need to spit out our pride and repent—turn away from our selfish sins and tell God we are really sorry. Third, we need to make the biggest decision in life by asking Jesus to save us and become the focus of our lives.

If you have doubts about life’s most important question, Christ can become real to you this very moment. Pray this prayer from your heart, “Dear God, I know I’m lost without the Savior You sent to this world. Forgive me my sins. Jesus, come into my heart and life. I want the rest of my days to be lived for you. Save me and use me. Amen!” Do you remember the question “What must I do to be saved?” You have just done it!”

"Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ" (I Corinthians 11:1)
The ST. PAUL SCHOOL, with Frank Eiklor, Eileen Young and Cecilia Contreras