Acts 16:31

31. Believe And what a mighty amount did that word believe embrace in its simple self! Become a full believer in Christ here in pagan Roman Philippi! It meant full self-surrender, in face of whatever persecution, of body, soul, and spirit, of life, name, and history, over to Christ. Yet, instantly, completely, and probably forever, was this great revolution of soul completed! Even here faith, justification, and inner regeneration by the effusion of the Spirit, preceded and were the condition of the external regeneration by the affusion of baptism.

And thy house The apostle to all appearance says this, unknowing whether the jailer had infants or adult offspring. If the former, they were brought under that recognised salvation which both the Old and New Testament presupposes for infants within the nursery of the Church. Their condition under the old dispensation would have been realized forthwith by circumcision; and, by parity, under the new, by baptism. Through Christ the infant is a true member of the spiritual Church; baptism is the visible recognition of that membership.