Lessons #429 and 430

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+ 1. It is best to use this note after you have listened to the lessons because there are +

+ comments given in the actual delivery not in the note. +

+ 2. The Bible abbreviations are as follows: CEV =Contemporary English version, +

+ CEB = Common English Bible, ESV= English Standard Version, +

+ GW = God’s Word Translation, ISV = International Standard Version, +

+ NAB=New English Bible, NASB= New American Standard Bible, +

+ NEB= New English Bible, NET = New English Translation, +

+ NLT = New Living Translations NJB = New Jerusalem Bible, +

+ NJV = New Jewish Bible, TEV = Today’s English Version. +

+AMP = Amplified Bible, UBS = United Bible Society +

+ 3. Notes have not been edited for grammatical errors. +

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Unity and diversity in the church of Christ (1 Cor 12:12-13)

¹²The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. ¹³For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.

The overall message of the section of 1 Corinthians 12:12-26 is Unity and diversity are essential in the body of Christ, that is, the church of Christ. This message, we stated, places some responsibilities on you as a believer in Christ. The first responsibility we started to consider in our last study of this subsection of 1 Corinthians 12:12-13 is that You should recognize the unity and diversity in the church of Christ. We stated previously that there are two reasons given in this subsection that you should carry out this responsibility. The first reason is that the Holy Spirit stated this truth through Apostle Paul by way of analogy of body with many parts in verse 12. The second reason is because of the two examples of unity and diversity in Christ provided in verse 13. We have considered the two examples of diversity that involved first, diversity of ethnicity in terms of Jews and Gentiles and second, the diversity of social standing presented in terms of slave and free in the church of Corinth. So, we proceed to examine the two examples of the unity in the church of Christ that are related to the Holy Spirit.

We assert that the two examples of the unity in the body of Christ, that is, the church are related to the Holy Spirit because of the phrase one Spirit that appears twice in 1 Corinthians 12:13. The first is in the sentence we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body and the second is in the sentence we were all given the one Spirit to drink. We will, of course, examine these in detail but we simply cited them to show that the phrase one Spirit occurs twice in verse 13. Someone may wonder how we are sure that the phrase refers to the Holy Spirit. It is primarily the context that enables us to be certain. Apostle Paul referenced the Holy Spirit in connection with confessing Christ as Lord in 1 Corinthians 12:3:

Therefore I tell you that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus be cursed,” and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit the apostle mentioned in verse 3 was described using the phrase the same Spirit in 1 Corinthians 12:4:

There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit.

The same Holy Spirit is described in connection with spiritual gifts using the phrase that one Spirit in 1 Corinthians 12:9:

to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit,

So, there is no doubt that the phrase one Spirit in 1 Corinthians 12:13 refers to the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, in his epistle to the Ephesians, the apostle leaves no doubt that the phrase refers to the Holy Spirit as we read in Ephesians 2:18:

For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.

In this verse, the pronoun him refers to Jesus Christ through whom we have access to the Father. Since the apostle mentioned Jesus Christ and the Father then the third member of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit, must be the one the apostle meant when he wrote the phrase one Spirit. Hence, we are confident that the phrase one Spirit in 1 Corinthians 12:13 refers to the Holy Spirit.

Be that as it may, the first example of unity in the church of Christ is the baptism by the Holy Spirit. It is this that is given in the first sentence of 1 Corinthians 12:13 we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body.

The word “baptized” is translated from a Greek verb (baptizō) that has several meanings. The word may mean “to wash, purify” in a ceremonial manner so that something is purified. It is in this sense that the word is used to express the surprise of a Pharisee when Jesus did not wash His hands before meal in Luke 11:38:

But the Pharisee, noticing that Jesus did not first wash before the meal, was surprised.

The word may refer to the use of water in a religious ceremony for purpose of renewing or establishing a relationship with God so means “to plunge, dip, wash, baptize.” Thus, it was used in this sense of the dedicatory cleansing with the ministry of John the Baptist, as in John 3:23:

Now John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because there was plenty of water, and people were constantly coming to be baptized.

It is in this sense that the word is used in the Christian ritual of initiation into the community of believers after Jesus’ death and resurrection, as for example, in Acts 8:12:

But when they believed Philip as he preached the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.

The Greek word may mean “to baptize, to plunge” in the sense of causing someone to have an extraordinary experience. It is in this sense that the word is used by Jesus Christ to describe His death on the cross that He would experience, as stated in Luke 12:50:

But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is completed!

The sentence I have a baptism to undergo of the NIV is more literally I have a baptism to be baptized which is an idiom that means to be overwhelmed by some difficult experience or ordeal. Thus, “baptize” may mean to experience something extraordinary which in this passage in Luke refers to the death of Christ on the cross. In our passage of 1 Corinthians 12:13, it is in the sense of “to initiate” that the word is used. The apostle used what is known as the aorist tense in the Greek when he wrote the sentence we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body implying that what he wrote is something that happened in the past for all believers regardless of their ethnicity or their social standing in the church in Corinth and himself as well. This thing that happened to each believer occurred at different times since it is something that happens at the point of salvation. Believers were saved at different points in time. That aside, the aorist tense indicates that what the apostle wrote about is not something that is repeatable but that which happens once.

Anyway, the problem we have to deal with concerns what the apostle meant in the sentence of 1 Corinthians 12:13 we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body. Before we get to the understanding of what the apostle meant in this first sentence, let me state that some scholars interpret the entire verse 13 to be concerned primarily with the baptism with the Spirit. That notwithstanding, it is our interpretation that the verse concerns two different kinds of baptism involving the Holy Spirit. But before we get to these, we should consider the problem of translation of the verbal phrase baptized by one Spirit into one body.

The problem lies with how to translate a Greek preposition (en) that appears in the Greek in the verbal phrase baptized by one Spirit into one body. The Greek preposition (en) has several meanings but in our passage, there are three possible meanings, which are “in,” “with,” “by.” The question is which of these meanings best fits the context. Some scholars chose the meaning “in” as reflected in the ESV, the NET, and the NRSV so that the reading of the first part of verse 13 is For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body. The problem of this option is that it makes the entire first sentence difficult to understand since it does not identify the one who baptized believers. Furthermore, in all the passages (Matt 3:11, Mark 1:8; Luke 3:16; John 1:33; Acts 1:5; 11:16) where the preposition (en) is used in connection with the Holy Spirit, the baptizer is clearly identified as the Lord Jesus Christ. However, He cannot be the baptizer in our passage.

The second option or interpretation of the Greek preposition is to use the meaning “with” implying that the Holy Spirit is the means of baptism. Those who contend that the preposition (en) should be understood as expressing “means” do so primarily because to them if that were not the case then it is difficult to understand when the prophecy of Jesus baptizing with the Holy Spirit is fulfilled. An example of the prophecy in view is recorded in Luke 3:16:

John answered them all, “I baptize you with water. But one more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

So, those with this interpretation assume that Jesus Christ is the One doing the baptizing in 1 Corinthians 12:13. This interpretation has one thing going for it, which is that the use of “with” leads to a consistent rendering of the preposition (en) whenever there is the mention of the Holy Spirit in connection with baptism as done in Luke 3:16 and other similar passages. This notwithstanding, the problem of this interpretation is twofold. First, there is nothing in the passage that indicates that Jesus Christ is the baptizer. In fact, it does not make sense for Jesus to be the one doing the baptism since the “one body” in this passage is a reference to the church, the body of Jesus Christ. Second, this interpretation is based primarily on bias of interpretation regarding when the baptism with the Spirit occurred.

The difficulties of the first two interpretations lead us to reject them and opt for a third interpretation. The third interpretation takes the Greek preposition (en) to mean “by,” that is, “through the agency or means of.” The meaning “means of” may also be taken as “through” as reflected in the NCV. That aside, the meaning “by” has the implication that the Holy Spirit is the agent of baptism involved in the sentence of 1 Corinthians 12:13 we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body. Those who reject this interpretation do so on the ground that there is nowhere else in the Bible that this idea of baptism by the Spirit is taught. But that is not a strong argument in that this could be the only place the apostle taught this truth. That a doctrine is mentioned only in one passage does not mean it is not true. For example, the apostle had indicated that believers will judge angels through his rhetorical question in 1 Corinthians 6:3:

Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life!

Should we reject this doctrine of believers judging angels because it is not taught elsewhere? Of course not, so to say that because there is no other place where the doctrine of baptism by the Holy Spirit is taught implies it could not be true is not a strong argument. Nonetheless, the doctrine of baptism by the Holy Spirit was hinted in the promise of Christ when He taught that believers would be in Him as recorded for us in John 14:20:

On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.

In any event, the baptism in the sentence of 1 Corinthians 12:13 we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body could not possibly refer to baptism with the Holy Spirit. For in all passages in the NT where the baptism with the Spirit is clearly in view, the baptizer is identified as Jesus Christ while the Holy Spirit is clearly identified as the means of the baptism and the recipients of the baptism are identified. This is the pattern expressed by all the gospel writers. We have already noted this usage in Luke 3:16. Matthew wrote about the baptism with the Spirit in Matthew 3:11:

"I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

The baptizer is Jesus Christ, the baptized are believers while the means is the Holy Spirit. Mark in his gospel also identified Jesus Christ as the one baptizing and Holy Spirit as the means as we read in Mark 1:8:

I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."

John follows the same pattern of identifying the baptizer as Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit as the means of the baptism as in John 1:33:

I would not have known him, except that the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, 'The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is he who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.'

So, in all passages in the gospel dealing with the baptism with the Holy Spirit there is no indication of the Holy Spirit doing the baptism. The only case where the one baptizing is not clearly specified but implied is when Jesus Christ promised the disciples that they would be baptized with the Holy Spirit in Acts 1:5

For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit."

Even in this case it should be clear that Jesus is the baptizer. For a comparison of the baptism with the Holy Spirit is made with reference to John’s baptism. Since John himself prophesied that Jesus would baptize with the Holy Spirit then it is clear that the one who would do the baptism that Jesus spoke of in Acts 1:5 is Himself. If in all cases of the baptism with the Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ is clearly specified as the baptizer and the Holy Spirit as the means then it is difficult to see how Jesus Christ is the baptizer in 1 Corinthians 12:13. Furthermore, there is no indication in these passages that we have cited that those to be baptized are to be baptized into another medium or element as “body” suggests in the phrase of 1 Corinthians 12:13 into one body. This in of itself suggests that there is a difference between what John the Baptist prophesied and Jesus promised and what Apostle Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 12:13. The point is that the description in 1 Corinthians 12:13 not fitting this pattern of identifying the baptizer and the means of the baptism should indicate that it could not possibly be the baptism with the Holy Spirit.

What then is the baptism by the Spirit in the first half of 1 Corinthians 12:13? Again, we state that it is not the baptism with the Spirit. nor does this have to do with water baptism as some contend. Instead, it is a ministry of the Holy Spirit whereby all believers are placed in Christ or are initiated into Christ. Recall, the context of 1 Corinthians 12 is the misunderstanding of spiritual gifts. In the church at Corinth, on the one hand, there were Christians who thought that because they did not have all the spiritual gifts, especially the gift of speaking in tongue that they were not in Christ. On the other hand, others would say that they have the Holy Spirit because they speak in tongues and anyone who does not speak in tongue does not have the Holy Spirit. Therefore, the apostle deals with this confusion.

First, the apostle makes it clear that no one is a Christian if the Holy Spirit is not in him. It is this truth that he expressed in the passage we cited previously, that is, 1 Corinthians 12:3:

Therefore I tell you that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, "Jesus be cursed," and no one can say, "Jesus is Lord," except by the Holy Spirit.

Here is the point of the apostle. At the time of writing, Caesar was considered lord and anyone else who calls another person other than Caesar lord would be in danger of forfeiting his life. Thus, for anyone to have the courage of saying that Jesus Christ is Lord must be doing so because of the Holy Spirit in the individual who provides courage as was the case with those believers who received the first outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Hence, with this point the apostle has in effect demonstrated that the Holy Spirit would be in a person without him actually speaking in tongue.

Second, the apostle asserted that each Christian has a spiritual gift as we have already studied in detail in 1 Corinthians 12:7-11:

⁷ Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. ⁸ To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, ⁹ to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, ¹⁰ to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. ¹¹ All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.

Following this assertion of different spiritual gifts in the church of Christ, the apostle indicated that each believer is a part of the body of Christ as in 1 Corinthians 12:12:

The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ.

To explain how believers are in Christ, the apostle then writes in the first part of verse 13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body. In effect, the apostle provides an explanation of how each believer is in the body of Christ so that there is unity in the body of Christ. The apostle’s explanation is that it is the Holy Spirit who placed each believer in Christ. In teaching this truth, the Holy Spirit through Apostle Paul explained to us how the promise of the Lord Jesus Christ to His disciples before going to the cross was fulfilled. I am referring to the promise that we cited previously, that is, John 14:20:

On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me , and I am in you .

Without this teaching of the baptism by the Holy Spirit given in 1 Corinthians 12:13, there is no explanation anywhere in the Scripture as to how believers came to be in Christ, a truth that Apostle Paul emphasized in his epistles. For example, consider Rom 8:1:

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,

How else can we be in Christ, except for the baptism by the Holy Spirit? The baptism by the Holy Spirit is purely the work of God the Holy Spirit that involves our position in Christ and has nothing whatsoever to do with our experience. We are placed in the body of Christ and that is what ensures the unity in the body of Christ. In effect, the common thing we share is being in the body of Christ and so despite the diversity we observe in a local congregation, there is unity in the body of Christ because every believer has been initiated in Christ or has been baptized by the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ as in the sentence of 1 Corinthians 12:13 we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body.

The phrase one body refers to the church of Christ. This is because we have already noted that the body of Christ is the same as the church as we may gather from Ephesians 1:22–23:

²²And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, ²³which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

The point is that each believer has been initiated or put into the body of Christ, the church, so that the example of the unity of believers in the church is their shared position in Christ that results from the Holy Spirit placing each believer in the body of Christ. Anyhow, the first example of unity of believers in Christ is the baptism by the Spirit that refers to the union of believers with Christ or the placement of believers in Christ. This brings us to the second example of unity in the body of Christ.

The second example of unity in the body of Christ is, as we stated previously, related to the Holy Spirit given in the second clause of 1 Corinthians 12:13 and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Like the first clause this clause presents interpretation difficulties but before we examine it let us consider the word “drink” as that will be important in the interpretation of the clause.

The word “drink” is translated from a Greek word (potizō) that may mean “to give drink” to someone as Apostle Paul used the Greek word in his quotation from Proverbs 25:21 given in Romans 12:20:

On the contrary: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.”

The Greek word may figuratively be used in the sense of “to participate” in something, as it is used to indicate participation of nations in idolatry or immorality of Babylon in Revelation 14:8:

A second angel followed and said, “Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great, which made all the nations drink the maddening wine of her adulteries.”

In our passage of 1 Corinthians 12:13, it has the sense of “to partake,” that is, to partake of something, conceived of being given water or another liquid to drink. This sense would become clearer as we examine the clause of 1 Corinthians 12:13 and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. This notwithstanding, the apostle used an aorist tense in the Greek to indicate that the drinking involved in this passage is something that is not continuous but occurred once in the past. Furthermore, the apostle used a passive voice in the Greek implying that there is an agent that causes a believer to drink or participate in what is described in the clause we are considering.

In any case, our concern is what the apostle meant in the clause we are considering, and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. As we have indicated, the clause presents interpretation difficulties as evident in the various interpretations offered by scholars. The reformers, Martin Luther and John Calvin interpreted this sentence as a reference to the Lord’s Supper that is, the drinking of the cup. Their interpretation implies that by believers drinking of the same cup in commemorating the death of Christ, they had partaken of the same influences of the Holy Spirit, which descend alike on all who observe that ordinance in a proper manner. This interpretation could not possibly be the case since there is nothing in the words used in this verse that would lend credibility to such an interpretation. Furthermore, the Greek tense for “drinking” is in the aorist tense indicating an action that has been completed in the past. If the Lord’s Supper were involved, the sentence would have been in present tense to indicate something that keeps on taking place since the command of the Lord is for a continual celebration of the Lord’s Supper.

Another explanation of the second sentence and we were all given the one Spirit to drink is to take it as saying the same thing as the first sentence. In other words, that being made to drink of the one Spirit is the same as baptism by the Holy Spirit or as some contended “baptism in the Spirit.” There are at least two problems with that interpretation. First, if that were the interpretation, the apostle would have added nothing to his argument. His argument would be stronger if he invoked another doctrine that helps to explain the unity in the body of Christ. Second, this interpretation demands that both sentences be considered as hendiadys or that the word “and” be taken to mean “that is,” a meaning that would not make sense here because the drinking of one Spirit could not explain the idea of being in one body as the first sentences teaches. In other words, the second sentence does not explain what is meant by baptism by the Holy Spirit.

What then does the clause of 1 Corinthians 12:13 and we were all given the one Spirit to drink mean? It is a reference to the baptism with the Spirit. The implication is that the second example of unity among believers is the baptism with the Holy Spirit. Thus, we have that the second doctrine the apostle teaches in 1 Corinthians 12:13 is the doctrine of baptism with the Holy Spirit. The two doctrines of this verse related to the Holy Spirit are common to all believers. All believers are baptized by the Holy Spirit as well as baptized with the Holy Spirit. My point is that the second clause of this verse teaches a different doctrine from the first clause of the verse. Let me justify this interpretation.

The conjunction “and” in the clause 1 Corinthians 12:13 and we were all given the one Spirit to drink alerts us that the apostle is adding additional doctrine to the first one of baptism by the Spirit. However, the apostle used figurative language to describe his doctrine of the baptism with the Holy Spirit. Drinking involves some form of fluid but here the apostle says that all believers were caused to drink the one Spirit. Certainly, the apostle is not being literal since there is no way we can drink of the Holy Spirit who is a person and God. But in using the imagery of drinking, the apostle was thinking of the ministry of the Holy Spirit that results in Him indwelling all believers.

There is another factor to consider, to help us understand the second clause of 1 Corinthians 12:13 and we were all given the one Spirit to drink involves the baptism with the Holy Spirit. Those who drink the Holy Spirit are believers, the Holy Spirit is the object involved in the drinking, but the one who causes believers to drink or who gives the drink is missing. Following the pattern of describing the baptism with the Holy Spirit we have noted, the missing subject is Jesus Christ who causes believers to drink the Holy Spirit. When we drink something, it remains inside of us. Therefore, when the apostle indicates that we all drink the one Spirit he means that we all receive the Holy Spirit who then indwells us. It would seem that as the apostle wrote this figurative clause, he was thinking of the Holy Spirit that would be in the believer that our Lord spoke of in terms of water in John 7:37-39:

³⁷ On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. ³⁸ Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." ³⁹ By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.

We will not comment on this passage at this time. Nonetheless, the second example of the unity of believers in the body of Christ, that is, the church, is the baptism with the Holy Spirit.

What is this baptism with the Spirit that is the second example of the unity of believers in the body of Christ? We have studied in detail the doctrine of baptism with the Holy Spirit in our Luke studies but for our purpose, I will summarize the doctrine here. However, if you want a more detailed study of the doctrine, I refer you to the lessons available on the website of Berean Bible Church, Bay Springs, beginning with lesson #54 of Luke studies.

The doctrine of baptism with the Holy Spirit is one that has caused much confusion among Christians especially in our time. This doctrine of baptism with the Holy Spirit is more popularly described as “baptism of the Holy Spirit.” I think that such a description is quite misleading and perhaps adds to the confusion of this doctrine. For when an average English reader thinks of the phrase “baptism of the Holy Spirit,” he would normally take it to mean that the baptism belongs to the Holy Spirit. If the individual is in full command of the English language, the person could understand the phrase as baptism by the Holy Spirit, implying that it is a function carried out by the Holy Spirit. This is because the preposition “of” in the English could communicate the sense of “by.” For example, if we say, “the works of Shakespeare,” we mean works by Shakespeare. Hence the phrase “baptism of the Holy Spirit” is confusing. Furthermore, there is no justification ever from the Greek NT for using such a phrase. In fact, the closest use of the word “of” in connection with the Holy Spirit is with the filling ministry of the Holy Spirit. We say this because in every instance associated with the filling of the Spirit in the Bible, the Greek text is literally “filled of the Spirit.” For example, when Elizabeth was described as filled with the Spirit as we read in Luke 1:41:

When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.

The sentence Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit is more literally Elizabeth was filled of the Holy Spirit. Apostle Peter was described as filled with the Holy Spirit in Acts 4:8:

Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: "Rulers and elders of the people!

Again, the expression filled with the Holy Spirit is more literally filled of the Holy Spirit.

The point is that in all passages in the NT Greek where the filling ministry of the Holy Spirit is mentioned the literal reading is “of the Holy Spirit.” Of course, it is because Greek grammarians described the expression “of the Holy Spirit” as representing what is known as the genitive of content that the word “of” is replaced with the word “with.” Hence in all the eight passages in the Greek NT that the filling of the Holy Spirit is mentioned the expression “filled with the Holy Spirit” is used in most of our English Versions. By the way the only passage in the NT Greek (Ephesians 5:18) that the phrase “filled with the Holy Spirit” that does not conform to the literal translation of “filled of the Holy Spirit” does not use the same Greek word for “filling” as in the eight passages that literally reads “filled of the Holy Spirit.” Our emphasis is that to be true to the Scripture, the term “baptism of the Holy Spirit” should never be used; instead, the correct term should be “baptism with the Holy Spirit.”

What exactly is this baptism with the Holy Spirit? To answer this question, we need to understand John’s baptism since that is actually the basis of the prophecy about the baptism with the Holy Spirit in a passage, we previously cited, that is, Luke 3:16:

Water baptism as practiced by John involved three elements: the baptizer, the baptized, and the medium or means of the baptism. These three elements are reflected in the various baptisms connected with water that are described in the NT. John baptized individuals using water, as for example, in the first part of Luke 3:16 we read I baptize you with water. Here the baptizer was John, the baptized were the various individuals that came to John and the medium or means was water. The phrase with water indicates that water is the means of John’s baptism. Whenever John baptized, he used water, which is either mentioned specifically or implied. The point we seek to emphasize is that John’s baptism consists of three elements. But why do we emphasize this? It is because the baptism of Jesus as John prophesied must also have these three elements if the original audience would have a basic understanding of John’s prophecy. Following this pattern, the three elements involved with the baptism with the Holy Spirit are Jesus Christ, the one baptizing, and believers as those baptized and the Holy Spirit as the means of the baptism in question. Without going into further detail of John’s water baptism as it related to baptism with the Spirit, we assert that the baptism with the Holy Spirit is the outpouring of the Holy Spirit to the church so that the individual believer is personally indwelt by the Holy Spirit and benefits from the presence of the Holy Spirit in the individual’s life. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit involves the baptizer, the Lord Jesus Christ, the means of the baptism, the Holy Spirit and the baptized, believers. Let me justify this interpretation with few of the arguments I gave when we studied in detail this doctrine of baptism with the Holy Spirit in our study of the doctrine in Luke.

First, it is this interpretation that the baptism with the Holy Spirit is the outpouring of the Spirit that fits the prophecies of many OT prophets concerning one of the activities of the coming of the Messiah. Prophet Ezekiel prophesied about this baptism with the Holy Spirit when he wrote in Ezek 36:24-30:

²⁴ "'For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. ²⁵ I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. ²⁶ I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. ²⁷ And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. ²⁸ You will live in the land I gave your forefathers; you will be my people, and I will be your God. ²⁹ I will save you from all your uncleanness. I will call for the grain and make it plentiful and will not bring famine upon you.

The use of water for purification in Ezekiel’s prophecy answers to the use of water in John’s baptism. However, it is those who have been cleansed that would receive the Holy Spirit. Note that Ezekiel makes a distinction between “new spirit” in verse 26 and God’s Spirit in the phrase of verse 27 my Spirit in you, which is a reference to the Holy Spirit. The putting of God’s Spirit in the individual cleansed is the same as the outpouring of the Holy Spirit resulting in the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the believer. Prophet Joel also prophesied about this baptism with the Spirit as the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Joel 2:28:

And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.

Apostle Peter used this prophecy as he explained the baptism with the Spirit that occurred on the day of Pentecost. The point is that the baptism with the Spirit is prophesied in terms of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the OT.

Second, it is this outpouring of the Holy Spirit to the church, which occurred on the day of Pentecost that is meant in the phrase baptism with the Holy Spirit. You see, before our Lord left this planet, He promised His disciples that they would be baptized with the Holy Spirit according to the passage we cited previously, that is, Acts 1:5:

For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit."

About ten days later, on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was poured out to all believers according to Acts 2:1-4:

¹ When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. ² Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. ³ They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. ⁴ All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

Third, Apostle Peter understood the outpouring of the Holy Spirit as the baptism with the Holy Spirit the Lord promised. He had witnessed the outpouring of the Holy Spirit before the household of the Gentile, Cornelius, in Acts 10 as being similar to what happened on the day of Pentecost. Some Christians were upset that Peter went to Gentiles. To satisfy these misguided Christians, Peter narrated what happened in the house of Cornelius. When recounting his experience with the Gentiles in the house of Cornelius, Peter described the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at that occasion as the baptism with the Holy Spirit as it is clear in Acts 11:15-17:

¹⁵“As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit came on them as he had come on us at the beginning. ¹⁶Then I remembered what the Lord had said: ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ ¹⁷So if God gave them the same gift as he gave us, who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could oppose God?”

Peter clearly understood the outpouring of the Holy Spirit as the baptism with the Holy Spirit. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit to Gentiles was done exactly in the same way as to Jewish believers so that they would recognize that Gentiles are believers in Christ as the Jewish believers. It is this argument that Peter used in the first church council in Jerusalem to indicate that Gentile Christians should not be burdened with ceremonial aspects of the Mosaic Law, such as circumcision. His argument is stated in Acts 15:8:

God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us.

Fourth, the interpretation that the baptism with the Holy Spirit is the outpouring of the Holy Spirit better explains how the Holy Spirit comes into the believer. The Bible speaks of the Holy Spirit being in the believer in several passages. For example, Apostle Paul assured the Corinthians that the Holy Spirit lived in them in 1 Corinthians 6:19:

Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;

But there is no other place where he taught explicitly of how the Holy Spirit came to be in the Corinthians or any other believers for that matter. The reason the apostle did not teach how the Holy Spirit came to be inside of the believer is that he understood that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit is that means by which the Holy Spirit lives in a person that he taught using imagery in 1 Corinthians 12:13 that we have examined.

We have provided reasons for our interpretation that the baptism with the Holy Spirit is the outpouring of the Holy Spirit by the Lord Jesus to the church so that the individual believer is personally indwelt by the Holy Spirit and benefits from the presence of the Holy Spirit in person’s life. However, there are two facts we want to bring to your attention. First, not everyone that receives the outpouring of the Spirit remains full of the Spirit. For if this was not the case, when the apostles selected the seven men to serve the early church in administration of material affairs of the church, they would not have specified that the men chosen should be full of the Holy Spirit since all the early disciples experienced this outpouring of the Holy Spirit. But because not everyone that experienced the outpouring of the Holy Spirit remains full of the Holy Spirit then the qualification that includes being full of the Holy Spirit is given in Acts 6:3:

Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them

The phrase full of the Spirit means one who is completely under the control of the Spirit. He is the person who remains under the normal filling of the Spirit, which we describe as being under the control of the Holy Spirit. Second, we must be careful to note that there is a difference between the baptism with the Holy Spirit and the filling of the Holy Spirit. Baptism with the Holy Spirit is a one-time event in the life of the believer at the point of salvation while the filling of the Holy Spirit occurs several times in the life of a believer. In fact, the normal Christian living requires constant normal filling of the Holy Spirit. For without the normal filling of the Holy Spirit, no believer could live the Christian life; this is the reason we are commanded to be filled of the Spirit in Ephesians 5:18:

Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.

The phrase be filled with the Spirit is better translated be filled of the Spirit to indicate the Holy Spirit is control of the believer instead of thinking of a content that is filled, say, with fluid. In any event, the fact that baptism with the Spirit happens to every believer at the point of salvation indicates that it is an example of unity in the body of Christ.

We end our study by reminding you of the responsibility you have as a believer in Christ. You should Recognize the unity and diversity in the church of Christ and act accordingly. In other words, you should not expect uniformity in the body of Christ whether you measure people by their ethnicity or by their social standing. God has created diversity in the body of Christ because each believer has been uniquely placed in the church of Christ to carry out a unique function that helps in the church fulfilling its function on the earth. So, do not try to eradicate diversity. Cherish it with focus on the unity that exists in the body of Christ.

07/01//22