Acts 16:30–31

Salvation in any lesser sense is not to be thought of. The earthquake was soon over, the prisoners were all safe; what had he to fear from Roman justice? But God had awakened his soul, and his sins troubled him. He was not facing death from man, but divine judgment at the close of everything. God's servants were there to tell him the way of salvation — the men for whom He had just stepped in with a miracle. Learned men may think what they like. They have never felt the burden of their sins; they catch at words and waste time on doubtful questions. But the jailer's burning anxiety was about the salvation of his soul.

I do not think it was the earthquake that converted the jailer. There were two great quakes that night. The earthquake woke the jailer from his sleep. The second one — I had better call it a soul-quake — woke him up to his state before God. It was not the physical danger that did that... That is a picture of what the gospel does. I tell you, it produces a moral earthquake in a man. When you come under the power of the gospel, you collapse. God lays hold of you and reduces you to nothing.

The Philippian jailer was awakened to a deeper sense than that of being undone in the eyes of men. He called out to the apostle Paul and his companions, "Sirs" (the word means "Lords"), "what must I do to be saved?" This once brutal ruffian, who had treated them shamefully, now approached them with the greatest respect.

This was irresistible. A hardened sinner could face an earthquake; he could face death itself; but he could not stand against the mighty melting power of love. The hardest heart must yield to the moral influence of love... Love can break the hardest heart. And surely there was love in those words, "Do not harm yourself," coming from the lips of a man he had harmed so much a few hours before.

We would say, No. It is the cry of an awakened soul. He sees his danger. He has just seen the power of God displayed, and he knows he is exposed to it. He wants to be rescued from it. This is not a cool theological question, like the one the Pharisees asked in John 6:28. It is like the awakened cry of those convicted by the Spirit under Peter's preaching at Pentecost: "Brothers, what shall we do?" (Acts 2:37). At the same time, the anxious man little dreams of the fulness of the precious answer... Nothing to do, for all has been done.

Are you recognising that you can bring nothing to God? That even the things which might be a gain to you among men are worthless before Him? That you are a sinner, and as such lost and undone? That you can therefore do nothing towards your salvation, and that if you are saved it must be by the work and grace of another? If you are, then we can unfold to you the blessed truth in these words: "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved."

It was salvation that filled the jailer's whole soul, nothing less than salvation — not religious ceremonies, but salvation. This is also the anxious question of every truly enlightened soul. And we need not go to commentators or learned doctors for the right answer, for the Scriptures tell us plainly.

But what is the jailer told to do? God's answer to man's query is beautiful in its simplicity. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved, and your house," falls on the ears of the awakened sinner. He had only to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and he would be a saved man. There is no word of anything that he must do to get salvation. This gospel exactly meets helpless sinners who have no strength. No wonder the jailer believed at once.

Nothing that he could do could secure God's salvation. The doing had all been done by Christ. All that is left for the sinner is taking hold of the results of His mighty work by simple faith.

Why does he here repeat all these titles of the Saviour? Because he is presenting Him to this anxious soul as the Object of faith, and in such a way as to fully satisfy his awakened conscience... If the question of the troubled heart is, Is He willing to save me? The answer is, Yes; He is JESUS, and came into the world for the very purpose of saving sinners. If the question is, Is He able to save me? The answer is, Yes; He is "LORD of all," and has all power in heaven and on earth. And He is the CHRIST, the anointed One in heaven, following on His finished work on the cross. That is the unquestionable proof that everyone who has come as a sinner to Him the Saviour is forgiven and blessed.

The Scripture says this, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved." It is not enough to know that the Bible says so. The devils know that well enough, and so does the unbeliever. But do you know that God says so — that it is God speaking to us in the Bible? Now, if God says so, is it not true?... The jailer understood it to mean just what God said, and he was baptized at once. He raised no questions. "He rejoiced, believing in God with all his house." If he believed and rejoiced, why should you doubt?

We often quote Acts 16:31, but too often we leave out the last three words. God loves to identify a man's house with himself and include them in His offer of blessing. Why do we not more often take hold of this fact in our faith?... This is surely most encouraging for every head of a house whom the grace of God reaches. God shows no partiality: what He is to one He is to all.

His being brought to God puts his whole house in a sanctified (set apart) position, as 1 Corinthians 7:14 plainly teaches. In this way the house is saved. Yet each person in the house must still personally receive the Lord Jesus to have eternal salvation.

There "only believe" was quite in place, and to have "demanded good works" would have been worse than useless. Yet within one short hour of conversion the jailer performed his first good work, the fruit and proof of his faith... He did it not to be saved, but as the result of the change that grace had worked within.