Topic(s): Baptism, Bible Study, Salvation

The story of the Philippian jailer is found in Acts 16. The jailer was in charge of Paul and Silas, who had been arrested on false charges by the owners of a slave girl. They had cast a demon out of the girl, depriving her owners of the money they made by exploiting her (Acts 16:19–21). So Paul and Silas were arrested, beaten, and put into the innermost prison, with their feet in the stocks. The jailer was to keep them safely.

Beaten and bleeding, Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises to God, even at midnight (Acts 16:25). Suddenly an earthquake shook the prison. Awakening from sleep, the jailer was ready to kill himself because he was sure that the prisoners had escaped. When Paul calmed him by assuring him that the prisoners were still there, he “came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, and brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” (Acts 16:29–30). They answered very simply: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house” (Acts 16:31). Since the jailer was not told to be baptized, does this mean that he was saved before baptism? Consider the rest of his story.

Paul and Silas had told the jailer that salvation would come from believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, but what did this jailer know about Jesus? It is unlikely that he had heard any of Paul’s sermons. He probably knew nothing of Jesus, other than what he had learned from hearing the songs and prayers of Paul and Silas. So “they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house” (Acts 16:32). Did speaking the “word of the Lord” include baptism as necessary?

Luke records that the jailer “took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway. And when he had brought them into his house, he set meat before them, and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house” (Acts 16:33–34). When were the jailer and his household baptized? It was “the same hour of the night.” If baptism were not essential, why didn’t they at least wait until morning light before they were baptized? When did he rejoice —before or after baptism? They rejoiced after baptism, knowing they had truly obeyed the Lord, and their sins were forgiven. The jailer had a saving faith, a faith that responded to the sacrifice of Christ by obeying Him. His obedience in baptism demonstrated his faith, and his faith was demonstrated in his baptism. The jailer was like all other Christians we read of in the New Testament (Acts 2:38; 22:16; Galatians 3:27; cf. Mark 16:16; 1 Peter 3:21). He was saved after baptism. —Bob Prichard