What Must I Believe to Be Saved?

One must distinguish between what must be objectively true for salvation to be possible and what one must personally embrace to be saved. No one can be, nor needs to be saved in the fullest sense of the term unless 1) God exists as Unity and Trinity; 2) humans are depraved, condemned, and perishing; 3) Christ was the virgin born, sinless, God Incarnate who died and rose again for our sins, ascended into heaven, is presently interceding for the saints, and is coming again to complete our redemption.

Those doctrines must be objectively true for salvation to be possible. But not all those truths must be explicitly embraced today for one to be saved. Minimally, one must believe that 1) God exists (Heb. 11:6); 2) that he is estranged from God because of his sins (Rom. 3:23); 3) that he is incapable of reconciling himself to God by any quality or quantity of self-effort (Rom. 3:20); and 4) that Jesus Christ, as God Incarnate (Matt. 1:23), is the perfect and only Mediator between God and man (1 Tim. 2:5-6) who died for our sins and rose from the dead for our justification (Rom. 4:24-25; 1 Cor. 15:3-4). 

Ultimately, the basic condition for receiving salvation for all morally accountable people in all dispensations is faith. But while the condition for receiving salvation has never changed, the content of the gospel of salvation has changed from its seminal introduction in Genesis 3:15. For example, the content of the gospel that Abraham believed is obviously different from the content of the gospel that one must believe today (Gen. 12:1-3, 15:1-6; Gal. 3:8). But Abraham’s response to the gospel he received is still the model response that we must follow today (Rom. 4:23-24). We must, like Abraham,  be fully persuaded that what God has promised, namely eternal life through faith in His Son (1 Jn. 5:10-13), He is also able to perform.