Salvation by Proxy?

Question:

In Acts 16:31 the jailer of Philippi is told that he should believe in the Lord Jesus then he and his whole household would be saved. Does that not contradict our believe that every individual has to come to Christ himself, there is no salvation by proxy.

Response:

Great question!  It is true that salvation is by faith, which each individual expresses: “if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart God raised him from the dead you will be saved” (Romans 10:19).  This is what happened with the jailer.  

Acts 16: 29-34 reads: “Then he called for a light, ran in, and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas.  And he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”  So they said, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.”  Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house.  And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes. And immediately he and all his family were baptized.  Now when he had brought them into his house, he set food before them; and he rejoiced, having believed in God with all his household."

You can see from the passage that the elements for salvation were present: Paul and Silas preached the gospel, and the jailer and his family believed the message.  In addition, their faith was confirmed by their baptism.

It is important to understand how religions and families operated in the ancient world.  The father was the head of the household with more authority than what we are used to in modern society.  The father’s religion was the religion of the family.  A father’s conversion to another religion was not considered to be simply his own personal decision.  In essence, the father decided for the whole family.  When the jailer showed that he wanted to be saved, Paul was referring to this custom of familial conversion.  We might object, saying that perhaps one of the family members didn’t really believe and was just going along.  

That might have been the case, but it is up to God to judge who truly believes in Him.  Paul was simply expressing his expectation and hope that the father’s new faith in Christ would be shared by his family once they too heard the gospel and the miracle that he had witnessed, and from what we can tell from the passage, that is what happened.