The Jailer’s Question

2006-01-17

“Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” (Acts 16:30)

This is the question the Philippian jailer asked Paul and Silas while they were in jail. These two men were arrested for the Gospel’s sake, were beaten, and thrown in jail. While the two prayed and sang hymns, an earthquake struck, and the prisoners’ chains fell off and the cell doors opened. The sleeping jailer awoke, saw the open doors and was about to kill himself until Paul stopped him. A jailer who let a prisoner escape under Roman law was to be executed, which explains his action of despair.

It is in extreme fear that the jailer asks Paul and Silas this question, knowing that his life was in danger. But Paul and Silas answer this question in speaking to the true needs of this man: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.”

I can think of times where things seemed so hopelessly bad that there looked as if there were no way out. Most people know of such times of hopelessness, or times when they felt so utterly empty or broken when they began to ask the most fundamental questions of human existence: “Why are we here?” and “will things ever get better than this?” If we do not know the answers to these questions, then it is time to seek the answers.

We were made for God’s pleasure and joy, and God, despite humankind’s effort to turn from Him, wants us to experience this joy. This joy is a relationship with Him. This joy, however, was bought at a price; God came to earth in the flesh as the Man Jesus Christ to suffer and die for rebellious humankind, and then He displayed His infinite power by His resurrection from the dead. But He left us to seek Him, and to ask this question the Philippian jailer asked centuries ago. What must I do to be saved? God’s only answer is simply: Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and trust only in Him.

I am here only as a disciple of Jesus, and have nothing else to offer. Only because of Jesus will I see Him face to face someday. Some say this is a delusion, and others might say a superstition, but if you trust in Jesus Christ, eternal life is something else. It is a fact.