Systematic Theology II
The Doctrine of the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit and the Church –
Spirit Baptism
References to Spirit Baptism
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Matthew 3:11 “As for me, I baptize you with water for
repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I
am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy
Spirit and fire.”
Acts 1:5 “for John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized
with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
Acts 11:16 [Peter reporting to the Church at Jerusalem] “And I
remembered the word of the Lord, how He used to say, ‘John
baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’”
Romans 6:3-4 Or do you not know that all of us who have been
baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?
Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into
death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the
glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
Galatians 3:27 For all of you who were baptized into Christ have
clothed yourselves with Christ.
Colossians 2:12 having been buried with Him in baptism, in which
you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of
God, who raised Him from the dead.
A Definition of Spirit Baptism
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“Baptism of the Holy Spirit is the judicial, objective, non-experiential
placing of a true believer into the church, which is the body of
Christ. It is a position in which God views the believer of this age
differently than He regards other believers and bodies of saints. It is
somewhat analogous to one’s citizenship; it is not subjective. It is a
recognition by a certain jurisdiction that one belongs, that he is part
of the in-group because various legal factors make him eligible. By
means of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, believers between the Day
of Pentecost and the Rapture of the church are recognized by God
as members of the body of Christ; they have the judicial status of
being “in Christ” (McCune, p. 312).
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1 Corinthians 12:13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one
body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all
made to drink of one Spirit.
Ephesians 1:13-14 In Him, you also, after listening to the message
of truth, the gospel of your salvation-- having also believed, you were
sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge
of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God's own
possession, to the praise of His glory.
Water or Spirit Baptism?
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Romans 6:3-4 Or do you not know that all of us who
have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been
baptized into His death? Therefore we have been
buried with Him through baptism into death, in order
that as Christ was raised from the dead through the
glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness
of life.
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This baptism is the means by which we are joined with
Christ and thus must be Spirit baptism, though water
baptism pictures this reality.
Galatians 3:27 For all of you who were baptized into
Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
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Same argument applies here as with Rom 6; this is
speaking of the baptism that actualizes union with Christ.
Being clothed with Christ is judicial and positional.
Water or Spirit Baptism?
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Ephesians 4:4-5 There is one body and one Spirit, just as
also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord,
one faith, one baptism
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This is the Spirit baptism that all genuine believers undergo, in a
context of the universal church.
Colossians 2:11 and in Him you were also circumcised with
a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the
body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ; having been
buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up
with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him
from the dead. And when you were dead in your
transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made
you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our
transgressions,
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Does the spiritual circumcision described here happen at
conversion or a water baptism?
Baptism of John the Baptist
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John the Baptist – Was he anticipating the baptism by the Holy
Spirit as inaugurating the Church?
“Baptism in water to John spoke of identification and initiation,
undoubtedly from the milieu of Jewish proselyte baptism and his
own practice of the baptism of repentance in view of the impending
messianic kingdom he was announcing to Israel. John’s water
baptism identified the recipients as believers in the message he
preached that consisted of the revelation concerning God’s
messianic king and his reign according to the Old Testament
prophets. John’s baptism incorporated those believers into a band of
disciples who were preparing, by repentance and faith, for the
coming of Israel’s long-awaited messiah and the inauguration of his
kingdom. If so, the ideas of identification, initiation and
incorporation were accordingly the basics that John understood
were connected with the Coming One’s use of the Holy Spirit in a
non-physical baptism.
John of course could not envision a new body of Christ composed of
Jew and Gentile believers as equals, separate from national Israel,
which would in God’s favor supplant the apostate nation for an
undetermined period of time, a time culminating in the messiah’s
advent” (McCune, pp. 317-18).
The Time of Spirit Baptism
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Spirit baptism as described in the New Testament is limited to
the church age, as seen by the following.
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All References to Spirit Baptism in the Gospels are Future
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The Day of Pentecost Marks the Beginning of Spirit Baptism
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Matthew 3:11 “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Matt
3:11b).
Jesus said it was close: Acts 1:4-5 And gathering them together, He
commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the
Father had promised, "Which," He said, "you heard of from Me; for
John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit
not many days from now."
Peter said it happened “at the beginning”: Acts 11:15 “And as I began
to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them, just as He did upon us at the
beginning. And I remembered the word of the Lord, how He used to
say, ‘John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy
Spirit.’”
The Rapture of the Church Terminates Spirit Baptism
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1 Thessalonians 4:16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven
with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of
God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we who are alive and
remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the
Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord.
The Time of Spirit Baptism
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The Time of the Church Age Helps to Establish the Time of
Spirit Baptism
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The Revelational “Mystery” of the Church
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The Teaching of Christ
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The death of Christ and the atonement it provided had to precede the
birth of the Church and the coming of the Spirit.
The Resurrection and Ascension of Christ
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Matthew 16:18 “And I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon
this rock I will build My church”
The Death of Christ
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Ephesians 3:4-6 And by referring to this, when you read you can
understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which in other
generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now
been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit; to be
specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the
body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the
gospel,
After His resurrection and Ascension, Christ sat down at the right hand
of the Father as the Head of the Church, where He remains until His
return.
Argument from Silence
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There is no mention of the Church in the OT.
The Agent and Means of
Spirit Baptism
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Christ is the baptizer and the Spirit is
means of baptism. In other words, Christ
uses the Holy Spirit as the means to
baptize believers into the body of Christ.
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Acts 2:33 “Therefore having been exalted to
the right hand of God, and having received
from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit,
He has poured forth this which you both see
and hear.”
The Characteristics of Spirit
Baptism
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Spirit Baptism is Universal Among
Believers of This Present Church Age
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1 Corinthians 12:13 For by one Spirit we
were all baptized into one body, whether
Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and
we were all made to drink of one Spirit.
The One Baptism
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Ephesians 4:5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism
Absence of a Command to Be Baptized with
the Spirit
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This implies that Spirit baptizes automatically
accompanies conversion.
The Characteristics of Spirit
Baptism
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Spirit Baptism Occurs at Regeneration and
Is Not Repeated
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“The first subjective redemptive contact of the
person with the Holy Spirit is at the moment
of regeneration; this work is not repeated”
(McCune, p. 325). This work seals the
believer as God’s own.
Spirit Baptism Is Non-Experiential
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That is, it is not based on or derived from
experience. It is an objective work of God.
The Results of Spirit Baptism
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Membership in the Body of Christ
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Union with Christ
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“Union with Christ is a permanent spiritual bond between the believer
and Jesus Christ that results from Spirit baptism…[it] includes union
with His death, burial, and resurrection in a judicial sense” (McCune, p.
326-27).
Union with All Other Christians
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“The Lord Jesus Christ, by the agency of the Holy Spirit, completes a
spiritual transaction whereby the believer is placed into His spiritual
body and reckoned by God thereafter as a part of this particular group
of saints, having judicial union with Christ (“in Christ”) and with every
other church saint (Rom 12:5)” (McCune, p. 326).
Unity was Christ’s prayer for His followers (John 17:21-23). “This
oneness was and is being answered by the ongoing baptizing work of
the Holy Spirit by which saints of the church age are united to each
other with an inseparable bond” (McCune, p. 327).
Not an Enduement of Power
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Many have confused Spirit baptism with some subjective experience
subsequent to conversion, with special evidences or power.
Next Time: The Doctrine of
the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit and the Christian