http://apologeticspress.org/APContent.aspx?category=11&article=1429
Baptism and the Philippian Jailer
Most of Christendom has decided that water baptism is neither a
prerequisite, nor necessary, to salvation. Influenced largely by the
Protestant Reformation, people have become convinced that forgiveness of
sin by the blood of Christ is achieved at the very moment a person
“believes”—by which they mean when a person, in his or her own mind,
“accepts” Christ as Lord and Savior. To them, the external act of water
baptism is considered to be simply an after-the-fact outward “symbol” or
“badge” that “declares” the Christian’s already-secured salvation. One
passage used to support this thinking is the account of the conversion
of the Roman jailer in Philippi (Acts 16). However, a careful study of
the entire episode yields quite a different conclusion.
When an earthquake rocked the prison where Paul and Silas were fastened
in stocks, the jailer assumed his prisoners had escaped. In view of the
fact that Roman law would have required the jailer’s life as the
penalty for losing the prisoners who had been placed in his charge (see
Ramsay, 1897, p. 222; cf. Acts 12:19), he drew his sword and was about
to take his own life. But Paul called out loudly, encouraging the jailer
to refrain from harming himself, reassuring him that no prisoner had
escaped. Calling for a light, he ran into the prison and fell down
trembling before Paul and Silas. Then, bringing them out of the prison,
the jailer asked Paul and Silas, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
(Acts 16:30).
What did the jailer mean by this statement? As a heathen Roman (cf.
Alford, 1980, 2:184), he no doubt had been exposed to Greek/Roman
mythology his entire life. Christianity had been introduced into
Macedonia only days earlier when Paul arrived in Philippi (16:12; cf.
Ramsay, p. 215). So it is unlikely that he possessed more than a cursory
understanding of the Christian notion of salvation from sin. But events
occurred in those days leading up to his conversion that may account
for the jailer’s question.
Now it happened, as we went to prayer, that a certain slave girl
possessed with a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters
much profit by fortune-telling. This girl followed Paul and us, and
cried out, saying, “These men are the servants of the Most High God, who
proclaim to us the way of salvation.” And this she did for many days (Acts 16:16-18, emp. added).
Observe that the demon within the girl announced to the citizens of
Philippi over a period of “many days” the fact that Paul and Silas were
representatives of the one true God, and that they possessed the
information that would show people the way to salvation. In all
likelihood, the jailer would have heard this declaration either
firsthand or through the reports of friends, neighbors, relatives, or
other townspeople.
When Paul finally expelled the demon from the girl, her irate masters
assaulted him and Silas, dragged them before the magistrates of the
city, and subjected them to the legal proceedings that ultimately landed
them in the prison where they encountered the jailer. It is not out of
the realm of possibility that the jailer was privy to these proceedings,
which surely would have included reference to their alleged identity as
“servants of the Most High God” who had information pertaining to “the
way of salvation.”
A third means by which the jailer could have come into possession of
sufficient information that would account for the phrasing of his
question can be seen in verse 25: “But at midnight Paul and Silas were
praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to
them.” The jailer may well have heard the hymns that Paul and Silas
sang—songs that would have included references to God, Christ, and
salvation.
These three circumstances may account for the jailer’s request to be
informed about salvation—albeit, even then, his understanding must have
been very piecemeal. Paul’s response to the jailer’s question was:
“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your
household” (vs. 31). What did Paul mean by this statement? If he meant
what many within Christendom think he meant, that is, if the jailer
already knew who Jesus was, and if Paul was urging him simply to believe
(i.e., simply to “accept Christ into his heart as his personal
savior”), then we should next expect the text to provide the jailer’s
response—something to the effect that the jailer accepted Jesus Christ
as his savior, or that he believed on Jesus right then and there and was
saved.
However, to the contrary, the text says: “Then they spoke the word of
the Lord to him” (vs. 32). Why? Didn’t Paul just do that by telling the
jailer to believe? Apparently not! Paul later wrote that “faith comes by
hearing...the word of God” (Romans 10:17). So the jailer needed to hear
additional information that would enable him to know what it means to
believe in Jesus. It follows, then, that the instruction, “Believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ” was simply a broad, sweeping statement intended
to redirect the jailer’s then-present religious attachment to the pagan
gods of Greek/Roman mythology toward the true object of belief—Christ.
It was a way to reorient the jailer’s thinking in the direction of
Jesus, as contrasted with his own pagan notions. But simply telling the
jailer (or anyone today) to “believe on Jesus” does not provide
sufficient information on
how to believe. In other words, there is
more to “believing on Jesus” than simply
affirming in one’s mind that Jesus is Lord and Savior (a
fact readily conceded even by Satan and the demons—Genesis 3:15;
Matthew 4:3,6; Luke 22:31; Hebrews 2:14; James 2:19; Revelation
12:4ff.).
It was only in speaking the word of the Lord to the jailer that he
could understand who Christ is, what Christianity is about, and the
proper response to the preached Word—i.e., what it means to “believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ.” Since the jailer
could not be saved before
Paul spoke the Word of the Lord to him, observe the sequence of events
that the text reports immediately after the Word was spoken to him.
(1) The jailer took Paul and Silas “the same hour of the night and
washed their stripes” (Acts 16:33). Here is evidence of repentance
(e.g., Matthew 3:8). Here is evidence that the jailer was convinced by
the information that had been given to him, to the extent that he wanted
to make things right. That is repentance—a change of mind resulting in
appropriate outward actions (Matthew 21:29; 2 Corinthians 7:10).
(2) The text then states: “And immediately he and all his family were
baptized.” Three aspects of this sentence are noteworthy. First, if
baptism is unnecessary to salvation, why even mention it with regard to
the conversion of the jailer? Why not simply proceed in the narrative to
the outcome of conversion—i.e., some indication that he was now saved?
If baptism is nonessential, instead of reading, “And immediately he and
all his family
were baptized,” one would expect the text to read, “And immediately he and all his family
accepted Jesus as their personal Savior.” Second, where did the jailer get the idea that he needed to be
baptized?
It had to have been included in Paul’s “speaking the word of the Lord”
to him. But if the jailer could not be saved until Paul “spoke the word
of the Lord” to him, and if Paul included in that “word of the Lord” the
doctrine of baptism, then it follows that the jailer’s salvation
depended in part on baptism. Third, why “immediately”? Many within
Christendom wait a week, a month, or longer before baptizing believers.
Why was the jailer baptized
immediately in the middle of the night? The implication is that baptism is more crucial and more urgent than many today think.
(3) At this point in Luke’s narrative, we are informed that the jailer
brought Paul and Silas into his home, and then he set food before them.
Next, we are informed that the jailer “rejoiced” (vs. 34). When does the
text indicate that the jailer manifested signs of joy and happiness
(that naturally follow conversion)—before or after baptism?
After baptism! In fact, every time rejoicing is explicitly alluded to in the conversion accounts of Acts, it is always
after baptism (e.g., 2:46—“gladness”; 8:39—“rejoicing”).
(4) Everything up to this point leads one to the conclusion that
baptism was part and parcel of the jailer’s conversion, and preceded his
salvation as the culminating act. But here is the clincher. Look
carefully at the phrase in verse 34: “having believed in God.” Here is a
clear, explicit indication that the jailer was now a
saved believer. In the Greek, the expression “having believed” (
pepisteukos)
is in the perfect tense. There is no English tense corresponding to the
Greek perfect. Consider the following brief explanation by Greek
grammarians Dana and Mantey.
The perfect is the tense of complete action. Its basal significance is the progress of an act or state to a point of culmination and the existence of its finished results. That is, it views action as a finished product…. It implies a process, but views that process as having reached its consummation and existing in a finished state (1927, p. 200, emp. added).
Greek scholar Ray Summers offered another helpful explanation of the Greek perfect tense:
[I]t indicates a completed action with a resulting state of being. The primary emphasis is on the resulting state of being. Involved in the Greek perfect are three ideas: an action in progress, its coming to a point of culmination, its existing as a completed result. Thus it implies a process but looks upon the process as having reached a consummation and existing as a completed state (1950, p. 103, italics in orig., emp. added).
In light of the thrust of the Greek perfect tense, Luke was making the point that the jailer went through a
process
of several actions before it could be stated that he was in possession
of a saving faith in God. His initial belief that came as a result of
hearing the Word of the Lord preached to him, led to his repentance (as
evinced by his attending Paul and Silas’ wounds), and then culminated in
his baptism in water—bringing his faith to
a completed result.
Only at this point could the Greek perfect tense be used to indicate
that the jailer now stood in a completed state of having believed. Luke
was careful to refrain from labeling the jailer as a “believer” until
all of the prerequisites to salvation had been completed, thereby
bringing his faith to its finished state.
This observation was acknowledged by R.J. Knowling while professor of
New Testament Exegesis at King’s College in London: “[T]he word
pepisteukos, perfect participle, shows that this fullness of joy was caused by his
full profession of belief; it was the joy of the Holy Ghost which
followed his baptism” (n.d., 2:353, italics in orig., emp. added).
This understanding of the conversion account of the Philippian jailer
is in perfect concord with the other conversion accounts given in Acts
(e.g., Acts 2:38; 3:19; 8:12-13,36-39; 9:18; 10:47-48; 16:15; 18:8;
19:5). The New Testament designates water immersion as
the point in time at which God cleanses the sin-stained spirit of the penitent believer by the blood of Christ (cf. Acts 22:16; Romans 6:3-4).
REFERENCES
Dana, H.E. and Julius Mantey (1927),
A Manual Grammar of the Greek New Testament (Toronto, Canada: Macmillan, 1957 reprint).
Knowling, R.J. (no date),
The Expositor’s Greek Testament: The Acts of the Apostles, ed. W. Robertson Nicoll (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans).
Ramsay, William (1897),
St. Paul the Traveller and the Roman Citizen (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1962 reprint).
Summers, Ray (1950),
Essentials of New Testament Greek (Nashville, TN: Broadman).
