The answer to this question can be found in Acts 16:25-31 where a prison guard thinks he has a short amount of time to live. Missionaries Paul and Silas had been thrown into prison and as they were praying and singing to God, there was a great earthquake which caused all the doors of the prison to be opened and everyone’s chains to be loosed (16:25-26). The jailer awoke from his sleep seeing the prison doors opened, and assuming that the prisoners had escaped, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself (Acts 16:27). Under Roman law, a prison guard who allowed his prisoners to escape was liable to the same penalty the prisoners would have suffered – death by execution. So to avoid the shame of a public execution, he was about to commit suicide.
Paul and Silas showed great love and concern for the jailer both by remaining in prison when they could have escaped and by preventing the jailer from committing suicide (Acts 16:28-29). This love for the jailer seems to have won him over. Thinking he only has a short amount of time to live, he asks them, “Sirs what must I do to be saved?” (Acts 16:30).
Do Paul and Silas tell him to confess his sins? Be baptized with water? Turn from his sins? Obey God’s commands? Give his life to Christ? Surrender to the control of Christ? Ask Jesus into his heart or pray the sinner’s prayer? No. They said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31).
The reason a person must believe or trust in the Lord Jesus alone is because we all have a problem called sin (Romans 3:23) that separates us from God (Romans 6:23). Because all of us have sinned against God, we all deserve to die forever in the Lake of Fire (Revelation 20:15). But God does not want us to die forever in the Lake of Fire, so He sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, Who lived a perfect life and died on the cross for all of our sins and rose from the dead, proving that He is God (John 3:16; Romans 1:3-4; I Corinthians 15:3-6). Jesus is alive today and He has the power to save us from hell forever and give us eternal life which can never be lost (John 10:28-29). He now invites everyone to believe in Him for His gift of everlasting life (John 3:16). No amount of our good works can save us from the Lake of Fire because they are all stained with sin (Isaiah 64:6; Ephesians 2:8-9). Only Jesus can take away our sins (John 1:29). Believe in Him and the Bible guarantees “you will be saved”(Acts 16:31).
If you only have 60 seconds to live or 60 years to live, the Bible says, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31) and you will go to heaven when you die. Nothing more and nothing less. This is good news! Please believe it and share it with others.