"What must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house." Acts 16:30, 31.
There was a time in the life of every Christian when he was unconverted, for we were all "by nature the children of wrath, even as others" (Eph. 2:3). What an awful condition it is to be unsaved! and yet how many are careless about it! The jailer at Philippi was unsaved; but when he felt the reality of the state he was in, he cried out for salvation and found it, to the joy and rejoicing of his heart.
Many persons are really ignorant of the terrible danger they are in; they see not the precipice on which they stand; they perceive not the brittle thread by which they are suspended; they know not that they live on the very threshold of eternity; they feel not that they are distant from God, rebellious against God, guilty before God; therefore they are not anxious about salvation. They may think of outward propriety before men, of religious forms, ordinances, and the like; but they are not concerned about salvation from the wrath to come. The Bible, however, speaks to us of salvation. The grace of God brings salvation. The gospel is a message from God to men about salvation. Jesus Himself preached salvation. He said to a weeping woman at His feet, "Thy faith hath saved thee"; and to a repentant publican, "This day is salvation come to this house." Paul exultingly exclaimed, "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth." Rom. 1:16. Those who received the gospel in apostolic times knew that they were saved; they realized a present salvation; they regarded themselves and their fellow believers as saved.
With regard to the Philippian jailer, we know little of his former history. From the few materials we have, we may gather that he was diligent in his calling. It is very likely that he had heard something of Paul's ways, if he had not heard of the conversion and b apt ism of Lydia and others. He knew also why Paul and Silas were imprisoned, and appears not only to have acquiesced in the propriety of punishing and restraining such men, but also of preventing, as far as possible, a recurrence of their preaching. They were brought to the prison with a charge that he would "keep them safely"; but that we might know that they had then no favor in the jailer's eyes, we are told that he "thrust them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks." This is enough to show us the condition of his heart. Like a thorough man of the world, he appears to have retired to bed that night with as much unconcern as on any other occasion. All that he heard and saw of the servants of the Lord Jesus was insufficient to awaken his dark mind and arouse his conscience. But God had a purpose of blessing in store for him. God's eye was upon him for good. God's good pleasure was to glorify His own name, in making the wrath of man to praise Him, and hiding pride from man. The holy, godly testimony of faithful ministers had not impressed his heart; therefore other means must be used to alarm his benighted soul. That jailer, who had so cruelly thrust them into the dungeon and chained them to the stocks, must yet be brought to fall before them and acknowledge them as the servants of the Most High; and Paul and Silas, who appeared to be interrupted in the faithful discharge of their gospel ministry, were also to prove that, like their Master, each step of cruelty and oppression turned out for the furtherance of God's purposes of grace, and only led them forward in the path of true service, and not out of it. Their midnight prayer and praise, too, seem to indicate that they were in the lively attitude of faith, and in full expectation of the blessing of the Lord.
But there is something very solemn in this period of the jailer's history, for it seems to tell us that if men reject the quiet, holy testimony of the servants of Christ, God has other means of bringing down man's lofty looks. God's power is unlimited, both in mercy and judgment. In this case it was to be made bare in grace. He who smote Saul of Tarsus with blindness, and brought him to the Savior's feet, could also bring the jailer there. That all-powerful arm might justly have been lifted up with the sword of vengeance and, piercing the heart of that man who had dared to chain the feet of His dear servants, have at once hurled him to the pit of destruction; but mercy rejoiced against judgment.
In the darkness and stillness of the night, without any warning whatever, a tremendous convulsion threatened to raze the whole building to the ground, and to bury every inmate in its ruins. We are told that "suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken:.. and every one's bands were loosed." This was God's way of showing that He is greater than man. This was Mercy's way of bringing salvation to that house, and of honoring the Lord's faithful, suffering servants. This was the very weapon that would arouse the hard and unfeeling jailer. He awoke out of sleep; his conscience owned it as God's dispensation. His first feeling was of despair and self-destruction. When he saw the prison doors open, supposing the prisoners had all fled, he drew his sword and would have killed himself. His heart sank; terror filled his mind; his imagination drew the most hopeless conclusion, and Satan's last effort with him was the foul suggestion, "Kill thyself." A loud voice, however, suddenly altered his judgment and produced an instantaneous revolution in his mind. Are not all the prisoners gone? No. "Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm: for we are all here." This was the sweet and heavenly way that Paul took with his jailer. It was returning good for evil, and kindness to one who had treated him cruelly.
But there was more than this. The jailer's conscience was awakened; a crowd of solemn thoughts pressed upon his mind. The convulsion of an earthquake might have consigned him at once to a dark eternity; another shock and he might be called to give account of himself to God. He is assured that Paul and Silas have that peace and joy to which he is a stranger, and that they are the servants of God. He feels now that he is an unsaved man, that if he die, he must go where hope and mercy never can come. His case is urgent, his danger imminent, his position most perilous; for he now knows that he has been sleeping on the edge of a fearful precipice. Not a moment then can be lost. A light! a light! he cried. His very joints are loose, and every fiber of his body seems to quiver. Salvation, salvation is the longing of his whole soul. He springs at once into the inner prison and, falling down before these servants of the Lord Jesus, cries out, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"
It was salvation that occupied the jailer's whole soul—nothing less than salvation—not religious ceremonies, but salvation. What must I do to be saved? This, too, is the anxious inquiry of every truly enlightened soul; and we need not go to commentators or learned doctors for a correct answer to the question, for the Scriptures plainly tell us. The apostolic reply was, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." This was the gospel that Paul and Silas preached, and it was an echo of their Master's voice; for when He was asked the question, "What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent." John 6:28, 29.
The gospel then preached to this awakened sinner of the Gentiles Was salvation 'by faith. The jailer's thought, like many others, was that salvation was by works; what must I do? But Paul and Silas assured him that he could be saved only in the way of faith. They presented the Lord Jesus Christ to him as the object of faith—and His finished work, and God's acceptance of it, as the ground of salvation and the warrant for perfect peace—"thou shalt be saved." This is very simple and commends itself to the confidence of an anxious enquirer. The gospel really excludes all idea of creature-doing for salvation, because it testifies that Jesus, the Son of God, has so completely finished the work of our redemption, so thoroughly purged our sins, that He sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high, the rightful Lord of heaven and earth, and that all who believe on Him have at once an eternal interest in that blessed work.
What could man do for salvation? Nothing; it is done already, and we have the warrant of God's word to receive and enjoy it by faith—"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." Faith reads the lessons of redeeming love in the death of the Son of God upon the cross; and those who can say, "We have known and believed the love that God bath to us," have peace; they see that God's love has brought salvation to them, even when sinners, in the cross of His Son; and, knowing He is now risen from the dead, they approach God with confidence. And who so thoroughly reject the gospel, display self-ignorance, and despise the unsearchable riches of divine love as those who talk of doing for salvation? "Where is boasting?" said the Apostle. "It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay; but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law." Rom. 3:27, 28. Blessed gospel for a sin-convicted, heavy-laden sinner!
The gospel is the power of God unto salvation and, when received into the heart, it brings forth fruit. This we should expect when a sinner is brought to know that he is saved. Who is so grateful, so dutiful, so happy, so free! Some hear the truth of the gospel, and the only apparent effect is, that it hardens them. This was not the case with Lydia, for her heart was opened, that she attended to the word ministered by Paul; and so the jailer, for his whole soul was filled with anxiety; he therefore received the truth at once in the love of it, and its effects were most manifest.
With what intense interest the trembling jailer must have listened to those servants of the Lord while they declared to him the way of salvation! and what grateful surprise must have filled his heart at hearing that the way was so simple, so free, so full of blessing, and so suited to a lost, helpless sinner! It at once engaged his attention and made him long to hear more about such glorious tidings; and soon all his household was brought together, though at midnight, and became attentive listeners to Paul and Silas while they further opened up to them the riches of divine grace. The energetic, determined jailer who only a few hours before had so rudely thrust them into the inner prison, regardless of their lacerated backs, now sat like a little child as an anxious enquirer at their feet, and gathered others to partake also of the blessings of the gospel
"They spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house."
Among the first effects, then, of the jailer's reception of the gospel of Christ, was his love for the truth, in a child-like inquiring mind, and concern for the spiritual welfare of others. The good news of salvation by Christ had been so applied to his conscience by the Holy Spirit, that it came to him as cold water to a thirsty soul, and he was immediately like a dead man raised to life. He had an ear -to hear, a mind to understand, a heart to receive and love and desire more and more the sincere milk of the Word, and such a sense of its value, that he wished others to receive the same blessed gospel.
The next thing we may notice among the fruits of faith is his love to the Lord's servants. He is begotten by the word of truth, and is thoroughly changed in his ways; he has passed from death to life—therefore he loves the brethren. A few hours before, he saw nothing more in Paul and Silas to call forth affection and sympathy than in the other prisoners; but now he views everything with new eyes. Having received the word of truth, the gospel of the grace of God, he loves not only Him that begat, but them also that are begotten of Him; hence we are told that he took Paul and Silas "the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes... and... brought them into his house," and "set meat before them." This was blessed. This was a fine example of the fruit of the Spirit, and it proved the sincerity of his profession; for it was not love in word and in tongue, but in deed and in truth. Love is a vital point. Religious profession without a loving heart toward Christ and His members is like a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. The Apostle John declares that, whatever any man may profess, "He that loveth not his brother abideth in death." 1 John 3:14. But in the jailer's case, the entrance of God's word had given light; it had given understanding to the simple; it had by the Spirit quickened him when dead in sins. He thus had divine life; therefore there was divine love, fruit in season, and self-denial for the sake of Christ's servants.
But more than this, he carried out the mind of the Lord—he "was baptized." This Paul and Silas perhaps set before him, and it came with authority to his conscience, because the love of Christ constrained him. His heart was full. His whole soul was influenced by the atoning death of Christ, and the power of His resurrection. Faith does not argue; it simply believes and acts on God's word. Nor was the jailer alone in this; the whole congregation, even all his household, were also baptized. Hence we see that there was not merely a confession of faith, but the obedience of faith—not only an attentive ear to listen to the word of the Lord, but a grateful response in doing the will of the Lord. There was not only love and peace now animating the jailer's soul, there was joy also—he "rejoiced, believing in God with all his house." This seems to complete the picture.