James Nisbet Commentary - Acts 16:31 - 16:31

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James Nisbet Commentary - Acts 16:31 - 16:31


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

PAUL’S ADVICE TO THE JAILER

‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt he saved, and thy house.’

Act_16:31

Some assert that this heathen jailer could know nothing about salvation through Jesus Christ, and that therefore the question he uttered must have referred to bodily safety. But he had just been saved from suicide by the assurance of St. Paul that the prisoners had not escaped. The man had perhaps heard the Apostle preach, or had joined unseen the little company at the place of prayer. It is evident the Apostle interpreted the question as referring to the soul. Thus we see that the good are the counsellors of the distressed.

I. The advice of St. Paul was willing.—The jailer had beaten him, and the marks of the scourge were then upon him. But he harbours no revenge. He takes no advantage of the terror-stricken man. He had saved his body. He now seeks to save his soul. See here the power of piety to endure all things, and to bless its persecutor.

II. The advice of St. Paul was wise.—The Apostle did not advise the man to wait until he was calm and could enter philosophically into the method of salvation. The jailer had called for a light, and St. Paul directed him at once to the true Light of the world. The conversation is only given in summary, much more was spoken than is recorded. St. Paul would explain all about salvation to this awakened sinner, and put a richer meaning into the words of the soothsaying damsel than they originally conveyed.

III. The advice of St. Paul was practicable.—St. Paul told the jailer to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and this he could do there and then. How often we give impracticable counsel to the sick and the sorrowful! It is little better than mockery to inform people of remedies which they cannot obtain or use. But the penitent soul can believe in Christ, however sinful it may have been.

IV. The advice of St. Paul was inspiring.—‘And thou shalt be saved, and thy house.’ What an encouraging hope! The man himself would be saved. The children would be brought into the covenant of God. The prayer of the father has sweet influence upon the entire family circle. It would henceforth be a new home; no longer heathen, it would be Christian. Piety is the beauty and joy of domestic life. Thus we see how piety enables a man to counsel and aid those who appeal to him in distress.

Illustration

‘His mode of address showed deep reverence. And the Apostles answered him partly in the terms which he had used. “Believe,” they said, “on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.” Deeply impressed, the man at once assembled his household in a little congregation, and, worn and weary and suffering as they were, St. Paul and St. Silas spoke to them of Him by Whom they were to find salvation. Then the jailer, pitying their condition, washed their bruised backs, and immediately afterwards was, with his whole house, baptized in the faith. All this seems to have taken place in the prison precincts.’

(SECOND OUTLINE)

THE WAY OF SALVATION

This is one of the most familiar texts in all the Bible. Yet there is another which I dare say almost every one will have thought of while I was reading it—the passage in the Epistle of St. James where the Apostle asks, ‘Can faith save him?’ and where the Apostle evidently means the answer to be, ‘No: it cannot.’ Some people have been puzzled by these two texts as if they were contrary the one to the other.

I. St. Paul and St. James.—Yet, as a matter of fact, both texts are true. We need to believe both, and not one only, if we are to get the good of believing either. If not, why should God have told us both? The misfortune is that people, as a rule, do not take the trouble to put the two together so as to understand what both teach. But some one will say. Do not these two texts seem to disagree? I answer: No, they do not. Look at them carefully, as carefully as men do at what they really want to understand, and you will see that they do not. Take, first, St. Paul’s answer to the jailer at Philippi. What St. Paul’s says is that he shall be saved: ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt he saved.’ In other words, Christ will save you if you will believe in Him. But was this really all? Certainly not. What, then, followed next? Why the jailer and all his house were baptized, washing away their sins, and thereby pledging themselves, by God’s help and grace, to live a new life. If any of you want to know what St. Paul meant by a person being baptized, you may see it in his epistles. He tells you it is dying to sin, he tells you it is rising again to holiness. He tells you that it is putting on Christ, so that you are to be like Christ—just as when you are told to put on the breastplate of righteousness, it means that you are to be righteous. Now suppose that when St. Paul told the jailer to be baptized, he had answered, ‘No, what you said was that if I believed I should be saved. I shall do no more,’ what do you suppose St. Paul would have answered? Do you not think he would have said something very like what St. James writes? Would he not have answered something like this: ‘I promised you that you should be saved if you would believe, but I never said that believing by itself would save you. It is Christ Who saves you, not your faith. If it was your faith that saved you, it would be you that saved yourself.’

II. What salvation means.—And then I fancy that St. Paul would have gone on to tell the man what salvation meant, and that if he fancied that ‘faith could save him,’ he was in danger of never knowing what salvation really was. For salvation really means being delivered from the power of sin and made holy; and Christ alone can do this for us. To be made good is really to be made over again. No one of us can make himself over again. No one of us can deliver himself from the power of sin. Christ only can deliver us from the power of the Devil. Nothing short of the power of God the Holy Ghost can make us holy. And none but those whom the Holy Spirit has made holy can enter heaven and be saved eternally. So St. Paul would tell the jailer again that it was quite true that if he believed on Jesus Christ he should be saved, but then he must understand how that salvation was to be accomplished and what it meant.

III. No man can be saved without faith. Why? It is by God’s power and help alone that any of us can overcome sin or attain to holiness, and no man can make use of God’s help without knowing of it and trusting to it. And faith is trust. But it is not the faith which saves. It is the power of God which saves you—God’s power used earnestly and trusted faithfully, and when a man does use God’s help as he ought, then you see the fruits of it in a holy and a religious life. And when those fruits are borne, then you know that there must be faith in that man’s heart, because without faith he could not have the help of God to enable him to do so. ‘By their fruits ye shall know them’ are the words of Christ Himself. Let it be our prayer that God will give us the grace of a true and living faith, and also to use faithfully all those means of grace which will enable us to bring forth fruit abundantly to the praise and glory of His Holy Name!

Illustration

‘Faith is trust. Let me give you a simple illustration. Your house is burning. With difficulty you awake your sleeping child. Now you cry aloud, “My boy, throw yourself down; I am ready to catch you in my arms.” “Oh, my father,” your child replies, “Oh, my father, I dare not jump, for I cannot see you, it is so dark.” “My precious child, I am here, though you cannot see me, ready to catch you when you fall. Don’t wait; it is now or never.” Your child believes your word, leaps into your arms, and you clasp him to your bosom with speechless joy. Just so the great Saviour cries, “Oh, sinful man, throw yourself into My arms! I am here—very near—throw yourself now into My arms, the arms stretched out on Calvary!’ ”

(THIRD OUTLINE)

FAITH: ITS NATURE, OBJECT, AND EFFECT

I. The nature of faith.

(a) It includes (i) knowledge, for we cannot believe what we do not know; (ii) assent, for there is an acceptance with the understanding; (iii) trust, which is an act of the will as well as the understanding.

(b) Faith is therefore more than mere acceptance of Divine testimony concerning Christ. We may believe all facts about Christ, and yet not be saved.

(c) It includes trust, as is implied in the very terms, ‘believe in, or on, Christ.’ It is therefore not merely belief in a proposition, but actual reliance on a Person.

(a) If faith does not include trust, why have we in the Psalms the constant mention of trust, but never of faith?

II. The object of faith.

(a) Not a mere statement, but a Person—Jesus Christ. Faith in Christ is the substance of the Gospel.

(b) It is Christ as God-man, as Mediator, as Saviour (prophet, priest, king).

III. The effects of faith.—(a) Justification (Rom_5:1). (b) Adoption (Joh_1:12; Gal_3:26). (c) Sanctification (Act_26:18). (d) Joy and peace (1 St. Peter Act_1:8; Rom_15:13). (e) Its trial works patience (St. Jam_1:3). (f) It is the sustaining principle of Christian life (Gal_2:20). (g) It enables to overcome the world (1Jn_5:4).

(FOURTH OUTLINE)

SAVING FAITH

In what does saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ consist?

I. Intellectual assent to the fact that Jesus Christ is the Saviour of men.—Thus far saving faith is the same as that faith by which we every day act. We buy, sell, eat, drink, and travel more or less by faith. Sight there no doubt is, but there is also faith. Faith is not a new element or ingredient of the soul-life of man, superadded by God, upon an after thought, to the moral constitution at the time of conversion. What is given then is grace to see, (a) self undone, and (b) Christ sufficient.

II. Trustfulness superadded to intellectual assent.—Not a large percentage of our fellow-men doubt with the head. But heart belief must accompany head belief. We must receive Christ with the affections (Rom_10:10). So self is given to Christ in every case of believing in Him to the salvation of the soul. Much may afterwards be given, but in the first instance self must. Futhermore, faith in Christ as the words of the text denote is—

III. Faith in a Person.—Some people trust in a creed or in a ritual. Why? Because trust in these flatters rather than interferes with self love. ‘My creed is orthodox, my service is ornate,’ is the expression of some men’s faith, etc. Further, faith in Christ is faith in a Divine Person. It is not necessary that we should be able to theorise about the Incarnation or to philosophise about the Atonement; but our trust must be in Christ the Son of God. And it must be borne in mind that we are not saved by our faith as something meritorious, but by Christ; yet, for two reasons, we cannot be saved without faith, because

(a) Remaining in unbelief we make God a liar, we fail to comply with God’s law of love, which is universal in its scope.

(b) Remaining in unbelief we cannot secure, develop that character necessary to fit us for heaven, nor that capacity for the enjoyments of heaven could we get there without the Christ-like character. God cannot give soul calm to a bad man.

Illustration

‘A drowning man cannot be saved by a lifeboat that is within reach simply by believing in its life-saving capabilities; he must trust himself to the boat. He who is in a burning house will not be saved by virtue simply of intellectual assent to the fact that a fire-escape is accessible, and that it is so contrived as to be capable of landing him in a place of safety. He must trust himself to the fire escape, etc.’

(FIFTH OUTLINE)

ILLUSTRATIONS OF FAITH

In considering St. Paul’s answer to the Philippian jailer let us take a few simple illustrations of faith.

I. Faith is the hand that lays hold on Christ. There is a Latin motto which I think very beautiful—Teneo et Teneor: ‘I hold and am held.’ I hold Christ, and am held by Him. Faith is the hand that lays hold on Christ.

II. Faith is the eye that looks to Christ. When the Israelites were bitten by the fiery serpents God appointed a remedy. Every one who looked at the serpent of brass lived (Joh_3:14-15). So now, as the hymn says, ‘There is life for a look at the crucified One.’

III. Faith is the ear which hears the voice of Christ. ‘My sheep hear My voice,’ said Christ. And, again, ‘The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live” (Joh_5:25).

IV. Faith is the mouth that feeds on Christ. Jesus said, ‘I am the bread of life: he that cometh to Me shall never hunger; and he that believeth in Me shall never thirst’ (Joh_6:35).

V. Faith is the finger that touches Christ. ‘For she said within herself, If I may but touch His garment, I shall be whole’ (Mat_9:21).

VI. Faith is the key that unlocks the treasures of Christ. You have a precious jewel in a case. But you need a key to open it. So in Christ are hidden blessings beyond all price, pardon, and peace, grace and glory. The question is, How shall they become mine? Faith is the key. But faith is not the jewel. Faith does not save. Christ saves. Yet Christ is mine by faith. Faith unlocks the stores of grace. Faith claims the unsearchable riches of Christ.

Faith is spoken of in the New Testament as a coming to Christ. For coming to Christ is the same thing as believing on Him, as He Himself says in Joh_6:35, “He that cometh to Me shall never hunger; and he that believeth in Me shall never thirst.’ But remember for your great and endless comfort, there is weak faith and there is strong faith. You may not have the strong faith of Abraham, but it is a mercy if you have the weak faith of him who said, ‘Lord, I believe, help Thou mine unbelief!’ And be very sure that real faith is as St. Paul says in Ephesians 2—‘The gift of God.’ It is not simply that God assists men to believe, but He actually bestows faith.

—
Rev. F. Harper.

(SIXTH OUTLINE)

A FULL SALVATION

‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.’ ‘Thou shalt be saved’—from what?

I.       From the wretchedness of sin.

         II.      From the power of sin.

         III.     From the love of sin.

         IV.      From the guilt of sin.

         V.       From the accusation of conscience.

         VI.      From the curse of the law.

         VII.     From the slavery of Satan.

         VIII.    From the bitter pains of eternal death.

Rev. F. Harper.