When Mr. MacDonald asked the people of St. Kilda how a person gets saved, they all had answers. An old man said, "We'll be saved if we repent, forsake our sins, and turn to God." A middle-aged woman added, "Yes, and with a true heart too." A third chimed in, "And with prayer." A fourth insisted, "It must be prayer from the heart." A fifth concluded, "And we must be diligent in keeping the commandments."

Each one threw in their contribution, and when they finished building their homemade gospel, they looked to the preacher for approval. Instead, they stirred his deepest pity.

The carnal mind always maps out for itself a way in which self can work and become great. But God's way runs in exactly the opposite direction! Believing and being baptized are not achievements to boast about—they are so simple that all boasting is excluded, and free grace bears the palm.

Perhaps you are still unsaved. Why? Do you think the salvation laid out in this verse is dubious? How can it be, when God has pledged his own word for its certainty? Do you think it's too easy? Then why haven't you done it? Its very ease leaves those without excuse who neglect it.

To believe is simply to trust, to depend on, to rely upon Christ Jesus. To be baptized is to submit to the same ordinance our Lord fulfilled at Jordan, the same one the converts embraced at Pentecost, the same one the jailer obeyed the very night he was saved. The outward sign saves not, but it sets forth to us our death, burial, and resurrection with Jesus. And like the Lord's Supper, it is not to be neglected.

Reader, do you believe in Jesus? Then dismiss your fears, dear friend—you shall be saved. Are you still an unbeliever? Then remember this: there is but one door. And if you will not enter by it, you will perish in your sins.