In a certain sense, Christianity is amazingly simple.

The story of the Christian faith is rooted in the beginning of the world. God created men and women to know him and enjoy him forever. But because Adam and Eve rebelled against their Creator, sin has passed down to every human being (cf. Rom 5:12; Ps 51:5). We are both sinners in practice and posture. That is, we are born with a sinful nature inclined towards rebellion against God, and the moment we are able, we will rebel.

We are by nature children of wrath (Eph 2:3) and the wages of our sin is death (Rom 3:23).

If that’s the bad news side of the story, then what’s our hope? The question that we all must face is simply this: what must we do to be saved? How can we escape the wrath of God and avoid everlasting death?

Perhaps the answer you’ve heard or believed is that you need to perform complex religious acts. Or, do enough good deeds to offset the bad deeds you’ve committed. Somehow, we simply need to balance the scales. That is, we need to clear the red (sin) from our ledger and add some green (righteousness).

But the Bible doesn’t paint that picture. Instead, just as the problem of sin and death stems in part from a lack of faith (Adam and Eve believed the serpent and not God), the remedy is found in the right exercise of faith. Instead of listening to the voice of sin, self, and the serpent, listen to the voice of the LORD. Trust in him. Believe God and it will be righteousness for you (Gen 15:6; Ps 106:31; Rom 4:9; Gal 3:6; James 2:23).

In the New Testament, what believing the LORD means is brought into sharper relief. Salvation comes through specifically believing in the Lord Jesus, the incarnate Son of God. If you hope in anyone or anything else, you remain in your sins and condemned. The proper object of our faith is Jesus Christ.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16).

John 3:16 is perhaps the most famous verse in the Bible. And it touches the depth of the Christian message. God loves the world. God loves the world in this way: he gave his only Son [to die for sinners]. Whoever believes in the Son will not perish but have eternal life.

This call to belief in Jesus fills the pages of the New Testament.

Consider Paul in Acts 16. Paul and Silas were in prison, praising the Lord. They are miraculously delivered from their prison cell. The jailer almost commits suicide given he believed he let the prisoners escape and would no doubt face the wrath of his superiors. But Paul cries out to him, urging him not to follow through. Eventually, the jailer falls at the feet of Paul. The jailer’s question is the question every person needs to ask: “What must I do to be saved?” Paul’s answer is not complex. It is amazingly simple. “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household” (Acts 16:31).

Notice that Paul gives no call to make a pilgrimage. There is no exhortation to quit his profession. There was no command to do penance or check a religious box. Paul simply called the man to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. If he would believe, and if his family would believe, they would be saved.

Finally, listen to the words of Jesus himself. In Mark 16, Jesus has been raised from the dead. He appears to Mary Magdalene. She is astonished and immediately tells the disciples. But “they would not believe [her]” (16:11). Then, he appears to two disciples in the countryside. They run and tell the disciples, too. Again, however, we read that the disciples “did not believe them” (16:13). Jesus follows these two scenes up with the following call to faith.

“Afterward he appeared to the eleven themselves as they were reclining at table, and he rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen. And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.” (16:14–16).

Jesus rebuked the disciples because they did not believe. Like their first parents in the Garden, unbelief was the disciples’ problem. And the remedy was not to perform some act of penance to atone for their lack of faith. Instead, by rebuking their lack of faith, Jesus implicitly calls them to believe and sends them into the world to persuade others to do the same (cf. Acts 18:4; 26:28; 2 Cor 5:11).

That’s the message of the gospel. Believe in the Lord Jesus and be saved.

This message has not changed. It is still true today. Christianity is about the God of this world looking at poor sinners and sending his Son to live the life they could not live, die the death they should have died, defeat the devil and death by rising from the dead on their behalf, and ascend to heaven to stand as their everlasting advocate (1 John 2:1). If we would turn from our sin and place our faith in Jesus, we would find our sins forgiven and our relationship with our heavenly Father restored. What was broken by the unbelief of our parents in the past and our present unbelief today, is restored by the exercise of faith in our God and his Christ.

So, don’t try to offset your bad deeds with good deeds and hope that is enough. Don’t listen to any religious leader in the world who says you need to do this thing or that thing in order to be right with God. No, simply believe in Jesus. Trust in him. That’s enough.

“Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ…” (Rom 5:1).

Having been saved by grace through faith (Eph 2:8), take that message to your neighborhood and the nations. It’s the only saving message in the world.

In this sense, Christianity is stunningly simple.