How can I be saved?

¹You were made alive when you were dead in transgressions and sins,

²in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the children of disobedience;

³among whom we also all once lived in the lust of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.

⁴But God, being rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us,

⁵even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),

⁶and raised us up with him, and made us to sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,

⁷that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus;

⁸for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,

⁹not of works, that no one would boast.

¹⁰For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared before that we would walk in them.

⁸But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth, and in your heart”; that is, the word of faith, which we preach:

⁹that if you will confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

¹⁰For with the heart, one believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

¹¹For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes in him will not be disappointed.”

¹²For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, and is rich to all who call on him.

¹³For, “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

¹⁴How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in him whom they have not heard? How will they hear without a preacher?

¹⁵And how will they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the Good News of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things!”

¹⁶But they didn’t all listen to the glad news. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our report?”

¹⁷So faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

¹Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.

²The same came to him by night, and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do, unless God is with him.”

³Jesus answered him, “Most certainly, I tell you, unless one is born anew, he can’t see the Kingdom of God.”

⁴Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?”

⁵Jesus answered, “Most certainly I tell you, unless one is born of water and spirit, he can’t enter into the Kingdom of God!

⁶That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

⁷Don’t marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born anew.’

⁸The windblows where it wants to, and you hear its sound, but don’t know where it comes from and where it is going. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

⁹Nicodemus answered him, “How can these things be?”

¹⁰Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and don’t understand these things?

¹¹Most certainly I tell you, we speak that which we know, and testify of that which we have seen, and you don’t receive our witness.

¹²If I told you earthly things and you don’t believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?

¹³No one has ascended into heaven, but he who descended out of heaven, the Son of Man, who is in heaven.

¹⁴As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,

¹⁵that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

¹⁶For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

¹⁷For God didn’t send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through him.

¹⁸He who believes in him is not judged. He who doesn’t believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.

¹⁹This is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their works were evil.

²⁰For everyone who does evil hates the light, and doesn’t come to the light, lest his works would be exposed.

²¹But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his works may be revealed, that they have been done in God.”

²⁵But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.

²⁶Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s bonds were loosened.

²⁷The jailer, being roused out of sleep and seeing the prison doors open, drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped.

²⁸But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, “Don’t harm yourself, for we are all here!”

²⁹He called for lights, sprang in, fell down trembling before Paul and Silas,

³⁰brought them out, and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

³¹They said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.”

³²They spoke the word of the Lord to him, and to all who were in his house.

³³He took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes, and was immediately baptized, he and all his household.

³⁴He brought them up into his house, and set food before them, and rejoiced greatly, with all his household, having believed in God.