by Samuel A. Matthews<\/p>\n
“Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, and brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.\u00a0 And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway. 34 And when he had brought them into his house, he set meat before them, and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house<\/em>” (Acts 16:29-34 KJV).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Loved ones, an informative, inspiring, and authoritative example of the only way to be saved is the account in Acts 16:25-34 of the Philippian jailer’s conversion and that of his family. A hardened jailor had had no warm feeling for two beaten prisoners, whose backs were not only striped and whelped, but likely bloody too. Unconcerned with being humane, the keeper of the prison had one thing on his mind: his superiors had ordered extra security. As a result, he not only put Paul and Silas in an inner cell, but secured their feet in stocks.<\/p>\n
Startled by an earthquake from his sleep, an earthquake so severe that prisoners’ shackles were broken and prison doors opened, and learning nobody had run away, the jailor could not understand. But suddenly he was aware that a mighty power, the one in charge of the world, was behind those two whipped men whom he had locked in stocks.<\/p>\n
They were men who would not flee from jail when they had a chance! And some unseen force had kept even guilty prisoners from running! A gigantic world power clearly had taken the part of the two beaten prisoners. Afraid, the jailer wanted that unseen power on his side too! He was ready to respect the men whom he had ignored. They, he thought, were spokesmen for that gigantic world power!<\/p>\n
What had happened convinced the jailer that these men’s words could not be resisted. He was ready to accept whatever they ordered. Trembling with fear and falling down before the two who had received such an endorsement from the world’s ruler, he escorted them out of the jail and exclaimed, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?<\/em>” (Acts 16:30).<\/p>\n
Saved? What did he mean? Delivered from the threat of death in an earthquake? If that was what was on his mind, Paul redirected his thinking to the deliverance found in Christ. Christ has not promised salvation from earthquakes. Jesus’ salvation is twofold:<\/p>\n
\n
- deliverance from the guilt of sin (Matthew 26:28; Luke 19:10; John 8:21; Acts 22:16) and<\/li>\n
- deliverance from hell, “the wrath to come<\/em>” (Matthew 25:41; Mark 9:47-48; I Thessalonians 1:10).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
An important truth is expressed in the jailor’s use of the passive voice in the phrase, “to be saved<\/em>.” A sinner cannot save himself, but is wholly dependent on someone outside himself. If a man can save himself by his own moral deeds, he does not need Jesus. He can say to Christ, “You meant well in dying for me, but I did not need such a sacrifice.” In truth, no man can rid himself of the guilt of even one sin. Only God can say, “You are forgiven.” The jailor then, realizing that salvation was beyond him, approached the matter humbly and properly.<\/p>\n
On the other hand, when he used the word “do,” he was also expressing a great truth. Although in the absolute there is nothing a sinner can do to merit his salvation (Ephesians 2:8-9), yet the Savior only saves those who “do” (Matthew 7:21) His will, those who obey Him (Hebrews 5:9). The rightly informed sinner takes no pride in doing the commandments (Luke 17:10). He knows all the time he is but a sinner saved by grace, not by his own merit. He cannot earn salvation (Romans 4:4).<\/p>\n
Then, when the keeper of the prison used the word “I,” another significant truth was enunciated. The pronoun “I” implies that one is not asking what Abel, Abraham, Moses, or the thief on the cross did to be saved. The word “I” implies that one is saying, “I want to know what a sinner has to do to be saved today, not in Patriarchy, not in Judaism, not in the days of John the Baptist, not during the personal ministry of Christ, but now in my time.”<\/p>\n
Such a word implies that “I am not depending on what a devoted mother might do for me as a babe in having me sprinkled, nor am I going to depend on what a relative or friend might do for me after I am dead in being baptized for me, or having a mass said for me. I am going to depend only on what I do.” The “I” makes the matter very personal.<\/p>\n
The jailor’s use of the word “must” is an implication that he, a shaking, scared man at midnight, did not want to hear about recommendations for salvation, or options that were open, but he wanted to hear only what was essential, only those things on the “must” list. And his use of the word “what” is a continuation of the “must” implication: give me, he was saying, the specifications, spelled out, one, two, and three, of the things required. He wanted no generalities; he wanted the preachers to get to the point. And, overall, what an intelligent question he had asked! Every word was significant.<\/p>\n
The direct and unequivocal answer of the preacher was: “believe on the Lord Jesus<\/em>.” They said this briefly, covering the whole ground, before the sermon started (Acts 16:32). In five words, they captured the essence of all that would follow. But the jailor had likely never heard the name “Jesus,” nor even the name of the true God. The sermon, in brief, would have startled him and left him asking, “Who is the Lord Jesus?” As a result, the complete and detailed “word of the Lord” followed immediately, containing the specifications the jailor had asked for.<\/p>\nNow if one understands that salvation is effected only by Christ (Acts 4:12; John 14:6), who is “all” (Colossians 3:11; I Corinthians 1:30) a sinner needs, in whom a sinner is “complete” (Colossians 2:10), then he can say that the command “believe on the Lord Jesus<\/em>” omits nothing, for the command includes everything required to make one a Christian. But if one squeezes down the term “believe,” as one squeezes water from a sponge, and leaves only faith, then he misrepresents the inspired preachers of Acts 16:31 and the whole New Testament. This is true because faith only cannot save anybody (John 12:42; James 2:19, 24).
\nIn a religious discussion before a thousand listeners a faith only preacher quoted “believe …and you will be saved” and began to chant “not a drop of water in it, not a drop of water in it.” Thus he tried to ridicule baptism. His opponent turned the tables by chanting, “not a word about repentance in it, not a word about repentance in it,” and so, according to the logic of the faith-only preacher, one can be saved without repentance. Since the faith-only preacher taught that repentance is required, the audience could see how inconsistent he was, and how prejudiced he was against baptism.\nThe inspired preachers, unfolding the details of “the word of the Lord<\/em>” to the jailor and his family, taught not only trust in Jesus but also repentance and baptism. This is seen by the jailor washing the stripes of the mistreated men of God, showing the jailor’s repentance, and by his midnight baptism. So, after seeing the whole, one can go back to the first brief reply, “believe on the Lord Jesus<\/em>,” and see that, as used the word “believe” (in Acts 16:31, not in all places) is a comprehensive or package word, containing at least three elements: trust, repentance, and baptism. So, again, if one understands what the preachers meant by their simple command “believe,” then one understands that they said it all in one word.<\/p>\n
Those espousing sprinkling for baptism sometimes assert that the jailor was baptized in jail, and therefore immersion was unlikely. But textually, there was no jailhouse baptism: the preachers were brought “out” (Acts 16:30), the sermon was preached, the baptisms performed, and then they were brought “into” (Acts 16:34) the jailor’s house. Somewhere between the jail cell and the jailor’s residence the baptism took place, which suggests nothing to justify sprinkling.<\/p>\n
Some today say, “We baptize by immersion,” and thereby compromise the truth. One could as well say, “We chew by mastication,” or “We osculate by kissing.” Actually, there is no other way to baptize than by immersion. To say, “We baptize by immersion” implies there is more than one way.<\/p>\n
Also, some speak of the “mode” of baptism, whereas the Bible gives no mode. On the humorous side, one can prove a perpendicular mode by using the King James Version of Acts 16:33, “straightway.” But it means “immediately,” not the manner in which a body was placed in the water. There can be various modes (backward, forward, straight down, etc.), but none is specified. God has not legislated any mode; he has only legislated immersion.<\/p>\n
Those who sprinkle sometimes seize upon the fact that the jailor’s whole family was baptized, and that there must have been some babies. But the text shows that everyone in his family was old enough to listen to the sermon (Acts 16:32) and, after being baptized, was able to rejoice (Acts 16:34). Textually, then, one would have to conclude this narrative does not include the baptism of infants.<\/p>\n
The account of the jailor’s conversion shows two other great facts about baptism. First, there was nervousness, and there was anxiety, until after the act of baptism. Only then were the jailor and his family ready to relax and to rejoice and to have a midnight supper (Acts 16:34). Based on this narrative, it has often been well emphasized that there is no record in the Acts of the Apostles of any sinner, having come to faith in Jesus, ever waiting to eat or drink until he had been baptized.<\/p>\n
The second remaining fact about the importance of baptism suggested in this account is the fact that it was not delayed, being done at midnight. This shows the urgency of the commandment in New Testament preaching, and that putting it off until Easter, or even till morning light, delays salvation that long.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Samuel A. Matthews “Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, and brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.\u00a0 And…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[390,47],"class_list":["post-98054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-conversion","tag-salvation"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":31874,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-you-support-conscientious-objection\/","url_meta":{"origin":98054,"position":0},"title":"Do you support conscientious objection?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 19, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Do you or your church support selective conscientious objection and conscientious objection? 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Answer: We were taught to pray, \"Give us this day our daily bread\" (Matthew 6:11), but God still commands us\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":61889,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-book-of-my-life\/","url_meta":{"origin":98054,"position":4},"title":"The Book of My Life","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 23, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Job 19:23-27 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Each week the paper publishes its list of top selling books \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Sometimes the books are biographies, fictional stories, or fiction placed in historical settings. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0They hope that others will also purchase the books, if for no other reason than curiosity. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0C.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Many author\u2019s\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6988,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-there-passages-that-refer-to-the-lords-supper\/","url_meta":{"origin":98054,"position":5},"title":"Are there passages that refer to THE Lord’s Supper?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 2, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: We have been studying the Lord's supper issues and one of our main concerns is about a second offering in which only a few partake, for the reasons you listed in your article (not doing it together). 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