“The Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before Me in this generation” (Gen. 7:11And the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation. (Genesis 7:1)). “Send men to Joppa, and call for Simon, whose surname is Peter; who shall tell thee words, whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved” (Acts 11:13-1413And he showed us how he had seen an angel in his house, which stood and said unto him, Send men to Joppa, and call for Simon, whose surname is Peter; 14Who shall tell thee words, whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved. (Acts 11:13‑14)). “They said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house” (Acts 16:3131And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. (Acts 16:31)).
There is always a tendency in our hearts to limit the grace of God. There is therefore continual need to examine the teachings of Scripture, with the simple desire to be found in entire subjection to the Word of God. For example, there are many beloved saints who have overlooked the meaning and force of the words which the Apostle used in reply to the jailor, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house” (Acts 16:3131And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. (Acts 16:31)). The necessity for individual faith is seen and the connected promise of individual salvation, but for all practical purposes the additional promise is often forgotten. In like manner, when the question is now put, “What must I do to be saved?” the answer is almost universally given as, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved,” omitting the words “and thy house.” It is so both in preaching and in writing; there is consequently an unintentional narrowing of the circle of the grace of God.
We propose, then, to trace the Scriptural teaching on this subject — on the connection of the household with the believer — and I think we shall see that the principle applies both in the past and present dispensations.
Noah
Let us turn, first of all, to Genesis 7:11And the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation. (Genesis 7:1): “The Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before Me in this generation.” This passage is exceedingly important, because it is so worded that no doubt whatever can be entertained as to its express significance. The ground on which the Lord commands Noah to enter with his house into the ark is, “Thee have I seen righteous before Me in this generation.” And if it should be objected that probably all the members of the household were also “righteous” before God, the after-history of one of the number — Ham (Gen. 9:22-2522And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without. 23And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father's nakedness. 24And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him. 25And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. (Genesis 9:22‑25)) — forbids the thought. The force of the statement, therefore, cannot in any way be diminished, that the family of Noah was delivered from the judgment of the flood because of the faith of its head. Thus, the whole household was brought, in the grace of God, out from under the judgment and placed upon the new earth because of the faith of Noah. Not only so, but the circle of God’s grace was still enlarged, for we find that the sons’ wives were also included in the merciful purposes of God, thus making up the eight persons of which the Apostle Peter speaks as having been “saved by water” (1 Peter 3:20).
Abraham
We pass now to another instance recorded in Genesis 12: “So Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken unto him. ... And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came” (vss. 4-5). We wish to point out the fact that the household of Abram was brought with himself out of Chaldea and Haran into Canaan, and this was done on the same principle as in the instance of Noah, the household being linked before God with its head.
Lot
We take, in the next place, the remarkable case of Lot, and it is the more striking because he had declined from the path of faith, forsaken the character of a pilgrim and become a citizen of Sodom. The long-suffering of God was now about to change to righteous judgment, because the sin of “the cities of the plain” was very grievous. Again, we find that the same principle applies that it was not only Lot, but also his family that was spared, or had the opportunity of being spared, in that day of destructive judgment. “The men said unto Lot, Hast thou here any besides? son-in-law, and thy sons, and thy daughters, and whatsoever thou hast in the city, bring them out of this place: for we will destroy this place, because the cry of them is waxen great before the face of the Lord; and the Lord hath sent us to destroy it” (Gen. 19:12-1312And the men said unto Lot, Hast thou here any besides? son in law, and thy sons, and thy daughters, and whatsoever thou hast in the city, bring them out of this place: 13For we will destroy this place, because the cry of them is waxen great before the face of the Lord; and the Lord hath sent us to destroy it. (Genesis 19:12‑13)). It must always be remembered that Lot, notwithstanding his grievous position, was a “righteous man” (2 Peter 2:8), and we accordingly see, as in the other instances, that God linked the family of His servant with himself, that His mercy and grace went out and embraced all that were connected with the “righteous man,” offering to them salvation from the judgment that was about to fall upon that doomed scene, though his sons-in-law in unbelief chose to remain in the city under judgment rather than escape for their life.
Cornelius
All these examples have been taken from the Old Testament. Let us now turn to the dispensation of grace. Let us look first at Acts 11. The Apostle Peter had been to Cornelius, had seen the Holy Spirit poured out upon the Gentiles, and had, in virtue of the commission entrusted to him, admitted them into the church of God on earth. But when he returned to Jerusalem, “they that were of the circumcision contended with him, saying, Thou wentest in to men uncircumcised, and didst eat with them” (Acts 11:2-32And when Peter was come up to Jerusalem, they that were of the circumcision contended with him, 3Saying, Thou wentest in to men uncircumcised, and didst eat with them. (Acts 11:2‑3)). In reply to this complaint, Peter rehearsed the whole of the circumstances which led to his visit. Furthermore, he told them how that Cornelius had been commanded by an angel to send for him in these words: “Send men to Joppa, and call for Simon, whose surname is Peter; who shall tell thee words, whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved” (Acts 11:4-144But Peter rehearsed the matter from the beginning, and expounded it by order unto them, saying, 5I was in the city of Joppa praying: and in a trance I saw a vision, A certain vessel descend, as it had been a great sheet, let down from heaven by four corners; and it came even to me: 6Upon the which when I had fastened mine eyes, I considered, and saw fourfooted beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air. 7And I heard a voice saying unto me, Arise, Peter; slay and eat. 8But I said, Not so, Lord: for nothing common or unclean hath at any time entered into my mouth. 9But the voice answered me again from heaven, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common. 10And this was done three times: and all were drawn up again into heaven. 11And, behold, immediately there were three men already come unto the house where I was, sent from Caesarea unto me. 12And the Spirit bade me go with them, nothing doubting. Moreover these six brethren accompanied me, and we entered into the man's house: 13And he showed us how he had seen an angel in his house, which stood and said unto him, Send men to Joppa, and call for Simon, whose surname is Peter; 14Who shall tell thee words, whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved. (Acts 11:4‑14); compare Acts 2:38-3938Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. 39For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. (Acts 2:38‑39)).
The Jailor
Here, then, at the very outset of Christianity, we have the reappearance of the connection of the house with its head, and passing on to chapter 16 we find exactly the same thing declared by the Apostle Paul in answer to the jailor. “Believe,” says he, “on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house” (vs. 31). Thus, we have the principle, which, as we have seen, applies throughout past dispensations, declared in the present by the two foremost representatives of Christianity. We must be very careful, however, not to go beyond the divine intention, and hence we must now seek to ascertain the significance of the connection.
Individual Faith
In the first place, then, let it be very distinctly observed that it does not mean that the faith of the head of the household ensures the salvation of its members. No truth is more evident from the Scriptures than that there can be no salvation apart from individual faith. The examples of Ham, Esau, the sons of Eli and of Samuel, and Absalom are solemn warnings that the faith of the parent cannot save his child. Let there be no misconception or mistake on this point, for error here would be of the most fatal kind.
The Place of Privilege
and Responsibility
But, second, while it is not a question of individual salvation, the household of the believer has a special place of privilege, in the view of God, upon the earth. The children are linked with the believing parent and are thus looked upon as in external connection with God’s people — as separated unto Him on the earth and in the sphere of the immediate action of the Holy Spirit. Such is the force, we judge, of the scripture in 1 Corinthians 7:14: “Now are they [the children of a believing parent] holy.” Holiness means separation unto God, and as it cannot be in this case intrinsic holiness (nor the holiness which the believer has in Christ), it can only signify external separation; that is, they are detached, as it were, from the world and connected with that which bears the name of Christ upon the earth and which is the habitation of God through the Spirit. Hence, in Ephesians and Colossians, the households of believers — wives, husbands, children, parents, servants and masters — are included in the exhortations given, each class being separately addressed. And in this fact lies the foundation of the believer’s responsibility to govern his household for the Lord.
If, therefore, we admire, on the one hand, the abounding grace of our God in thus flowing out and embracing our households, we must not forget, on the other, the responsibilities that are thereby entailed, for privilege and responsibility are ever connected. The Lord enable us each to learn our respective responsibilities in His own presence and give us grace so to meet them that His name may be glorified in us and in every member of our households!
E. Dennett, adapted