The Baptism With the HS; Gal. 3:27-29
The promise is ultimately
made to Abraham and his seed (singular) who is
identified in v.16 as the Lord Jesus Christ NASB “Now the promises
were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, ‘And to seeds,’ as
{referring} to many, but {rather} to one, ‘And to your
seed,’ that is, Christ.” So we see that even though the plural word promises is
talking about those promises encapsulated in the Abrahamic covenant they were
spoken to Abraham and to his seed (singular). Verse 19 NASB “Why the
Law then? It was added because of transgressions, having been ordained through
angels by the agency of a mediator, until the seed would come to whom the
promise had been made.” There we see that the promise is made to Abraham and
his seed, which is the Lord Jesus Christ.
If we are going to
understand this passage we must understand what promise means. The promised
blessing comes by faith alone in Christ alone, v. 22 “…so that the promise by
faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.” The promise in this
passage is the promise of God the Holy Spirit, v. 14 NASB “in order
that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so
that we would receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.” But there are
seven distinct ministries of God the Holy Spirit to the believer, so to which
one is it referring? We see in vv. 27 & 28 that it is the baptism of God
the Holy Spirit.
What exactly is the
baptism of God the Holy Spirit? The reason that this is important is that it is
critical for understanding the nature and the dynamics of the spiritual life in
the church age. There is a tremendous amount of confusion that has entered into
Christianity over the last 150 years over identifying what is the nature of the
baptism of the Holy Spirit. Remember there are seven distinct ministries of God
the Holy Spirit: a) Efficacious grace, i.e. when God the Holy Spirit takes the
faith of the spiritually dead unbeliever and makes it efficacious for
salvation; b) Regeneration. God the Holy Spirit creates and simultaneously
imparts to the believer a new human spirit; c) The filling of the Holy Spirit,
which is temporary—the believer can lose it, and recover it through the use of
1 John 1:9; d) Sealing of the Holy Spirit; e) Baptizing of the Holy Spirit; e)
Bestowal of spiritual gifts at the moment of salvation; f) Indwelling of the
Holy Spirit.
The baptism of the Holy
Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:13)
occurs once at the moment of salvation. Every believer is identified with
Christ in His death, burial and resurrection and is simultaneously created a
new spiritual species capable of utilising divine power. At the moment of
salvation the believer is placed into permanent union with Jesus Christ, positionally sanctified, which makes him a member of the
body of Christ and positionally higher than the
angels. This ministry of God the Holy Spirit is unique to the church age and is
not ecstatics, emotional or experiential. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is
occurs at the moment of salvation for every believer. It is not an experience,
it is not an emotion, and it is not signified by speaking in tongues or any
other phenomena. The baptism of the Holy Spirit, just like justification, is
known to the believer only by subsequent study of the Word of God. Problem: Is
there one baptism of the Holy Spirit or two? (Explained in
the previous lesson).
Galatians 3:27 NASB “For all of you who were baptized
into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.” There we have an
aorist passive participle. Who performs the action of the verb? It is not stated.
1 Corinthians 12:13 NASB
“For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body…” baptizo [baptizw]
is the main verb—ebaptisthemen [e)baptisqhmen]
is an aorist passive indicative of baptizo.
Passive means that the subject is acted upon by someone. In an active voice the
subject performs the action; in a passive voice the subject receives the
action. Who is the subject of the verb in this verse? It isn’t stated. We just
have an agent, “by one spirit.” That is a dative clause. So we go back to the
very first mention of the baptism of the Holy Spirit in Mark 1:4 NASB
“John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness preaching a baptism of repentance
for the forgiveness of sins…. [8] I baptized you with water; but He will
baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” The first use of the word “baptize” here is
an aorist active indicative. John is performing the action of the verb, but
then “he will baptise you” is a future active indicative, and who is the
subject of “will baptize you? The subject is “he.” Whoever “he” is performs the
action of the verb—“he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit,” en pneumati [e)n pneumati], the same
phrase is in 1 Corinthians 12:13, “by one spirit,” which doesn’t state the
subject of the verb, it states the one through whom the action is performed but
not the agent, not the one who performs the action. This may seem like a minor
point but the implications are critical for understanding the dynamics of the
spiritual life and everything that God has for us. What we see in this prophecy
is that John the Baptist is saying that Jesus Christ is the one who performs
the action of baptism by means of the God the Holy Spirit.
A statement of the baptism
of the Holy Spirit: “This occurs at the point of salvation when the person
believes in Christ as their personal saviour. The Holy Spirit brings each
believer into union with Christ.” Who is the subject of that sentence? What is
the verb? The verb is “brings into union.” That is the meaning of baptism, to
identify us with Christ. The meaning of baptism is always identification. Who
performs the action of the verb in that sentence? God the
Holy Spirit. Is that what Mark 1:8 says? “He [Jesus Christ] will baptise
you with the Holy Spirit.” Matthew 3:11
NASB “As for me, I baptize you with [by mean of] water for
repentance…” John performs the action. John’s baptism was for repentance [e)ij plus the
accusative of metanoia] to
signify identification of the coming of the messianic kingdom. “… but He who is
coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He [Jesus
Christ] will baptize you [future active indicative] with [e)n pneumati] the Holy Spirit and fire.” The picture that John is
presenting is that just as he takes somebody and plunges them into water to identify
them with the new state of repentance, Jesus is going to take the new believer
and metaphorically plunge them into the Holy Spirit—cleansing and
identification with Christ—in order to identify them with Himself in terms of
retroactive positional truth.
1 Corinthians 10:1, 2 NASB
“For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under
the cloud and all passed through the sea; and all [the people] were baptized (aorist
passive indicative) into (e)ij—what
they are identified with) Moses in the cloud and in [en/ e)n clause] the sea.” They are identified with by means
of the cloud and the sea. This is a very technical formula in the Greek for
stating baptism. There is a group who is baptized, someone who performs the
action—subject of the active form of the verb—then there is the instrument used
to perform the identification, indicated by an en
clause, then the new state of identification indicated by an eis clause.
1 Corinthians 12:13 NASB “For by one Spirit [en pneumati—indicating the instrument used to perform baptism]
we were all baptized [aorist passive indicative] into one body…” The one who
performs the action is not mentioned in this verse at all because the emphasis
isn’t on Christ doing it. The emphasis that Paul is making in 1 Corinthians 12
is the unity of the body because the Corinthians were all divided and making a
big issue out of their different spiritual gifts. “…whether Jews or Greeks,
whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.” Notice
the similarity. There is no distinction between slave or free, Jew or Greek; we
are all one, we have all partaken of the same thing.
Galatians 3:27 NASB “For all of you who were baptized
into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.” The words “into Christ” is our eis
clause. That is the new state into which we are identified. We are identified
with Christ and we clothe ourselves with Christ. So how do we understand baptism?
Just as John the Baptist would use water symbolically to indicate the
identification of this person with the new state, so Jesus Christ uses the Holy
Spirit. Titus 3:5 NASB “He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which
we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of
regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit.” Here we see how regeneration is
related to the baptism of the Holy Spirit. They are not the same thing but they
are related. Jesus Christ takes the believer, uses the Holy Spirit in cleansing
and in regeneration, and in that process is how He identifies the believer with
His own death, burial and resurrection. The result of that is the imputation of
the righteousness of Christ.
The result: Galatians 3:28
NASB “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor
free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
In other words, you Galatians have been mislead by the Judaisers
and are still making an issue out Judaism. But because of what has happened at
the cross and at Pentecost, because of this unique ministry of God the Holy
Spirit, there is no longer racial/ethnic distinctions
according to the Mosaic Law in the present church age.
Galatians 3:29 NASB “And if you belong to Christ, then
you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise.” If you are a
believer, then there are two conclusions: you are Abraham’s offspring, and
because you are Abraham’s offspring you are heirs according to the promise.
What promise is this? Verse 14 NASB “in order that in Christ Jesus
the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we would receive
the promise of the Spirit through faith.” So according to verse 29 if you belong
to Christ you are a believer and an heir according to the promise, i.e. that
you have received the baptism of the Holy Spirit at the moment of salvation. If
we go through Acts—1:5; 2 at Pentecost; 11:16; 19:46—we will see that some
passages there is speaking in tongues but in others there is the baptism of the
Holy Spirit and no speaking in tongues. There is no set pattern in Acts. Acts
is an historical book, a transitional book, and you never ever go through a historical
or transitional book as the basis for doctrine. You can’t go to Acts to find a
solution, which is what the Pentecostals say, you go to the epistles.