As Susan and I were doing our Bible reading this morning, I noticed an interesting allusion to the deity of Jesus in the account of Paul, Silas, and the Philippian jailer.

When the jailer asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved,” they responded, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household” (Acts 16:31, NKJV).

After having washed their stripes and having been baptized along with his family, the jailer brought Paul and Silas into his house and set food before them. Then, “he rejoiced, having believed in God with all his household” (Acts 16:34, NKJV).

To believe on the Lord Jesus Christ is to believe in God.

Lest anyone worry about the translation “on” in Acts 16:31 and “in” in Acts 16:34, it should be noted that many English translations render the phrase in Acts 16:31 as “in the Lord Jesus.”

The second reference to the deity of Jesus in Acts 16 is found in verses 6-7: “Now when they had gone through Phrygia and the region of Galatia, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia. After they had come to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit did not permit them” (NKJV).

We readily recognize the deity of the Holy Spirit, but we may miss the reference to the deity of Jesus here if we are not aware of the textual variant in verse 7.

Whereas the KJV and NKJV, following later Greek texts, read “the Spirit” in verse 7, referring obviously to the Holy Spirit of verse 6, the earlier Greek texts read “the Spirit of Jesus” in verse 7, still referring to the “Holy Spirit” of the previous verse.

The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus.

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