The most important question ever asked was posed several times by different people in the New Testament Book of Acts. Each situation was somewhat different from the others. Each time the question was asked, the situation or the status of the querist was different from the others. Because of this, the answer is a little different each time.
What is this all-important question? We ask some important questions in our lives. For example, when a man has found his chosen mate for life, he asks, “Will you marry me?” That’s an important question! What could be a more important question? You must surely be holding your breath for the answer. Well, here it is! The most important question: “What must I do?”
A heathen jailer in Philippi asked the apostle Paul what to do to be saved (Acts 16:30). The jailer was told to believe on the Lord. “And they spake the word of the Lord unto him…” that he might know what to believe and how to believe on the Lord (Acts 16:31-32; Romans 10:17). He showed penitence by his actions (he washed their stripes) and was baptized (Acts 16:33). Obviously, part of the teaching he received included the necessity of baptism.
Another time when the church or kingdom had just begun, devout Jews were convinced by the preaching of the Gospel that Jesus of Nazareth was both Lord and Christ – the Anointed One (Acts 2:36). They had called for the crucifixion of the Son of God, a most grievous sin. When convicted of their sins, they asked, “What shall we do?” (Acts 2:37). The apostle Peter did not tell them to believe as Paul had told the jailer in chapter 16. Evidently they were already believers. Therefore, they were told to repent and be baptized for forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38).
There is one other case I wish to mention where the most important question was asked. Saul of Tarsus was on the road to Damascus to go persecute Christians when the Lord appeared unto him in a light out of heaven. He asked, “What shall I do, Lord?” (Acts 22:10). This man had, no doubt, been made a believer when the Lord appeared to him. Hence, he was not told to believe either. Neither was this humbled, penitent, prayerful man told to repent. Certainly, he had turned from sin and would never persecute the disciples of the Lord again. What was he told to do? Ananias told him to arise and be baptized to wash away his sin (Acts 22:16).
The significance of these three accounts, where essentially the same question was asked and yet three different answers were given, is that in each case the person or persons were told to be immersed (baptized). The jailer was instructed in what to do, and he was baptized. The Jews on Pentecost were told to be baptized for the remission of sins, and those who obeyed were saved and added to the church by the Lord (Acts 2:47). Saul was baptized to wash away his sins (Acts 22:16). Obviously, baptism was the point at which the sinner was made free from sin.
