(Writing this paper for a theology class was so helpful to me. I’m grateful for this semester’s opportunity to grow in understanding and appreciating the work of the Holy Spirit!)
From the first prophet to the latter prophets, God’s people anticipated a time when the Lord would send the Spirit upon all his people (Num 11:29; Ez 26:26-27; Joel 2:28-29). This universal expansion of scope and internal experience of depth would surpass the old covenant saints’ limited and transient knowledge of the Spirit’s work. When John the Baptist ended the intertestamental prophetic silence, the heart of his message was the coming of the Messiah, who would baptize the repentant with the Holy Spirit. This baptism with the Spirit is the fulfillment of prophecy: a greater new covenant relationship with God through the indwelling of the Spirit, resulting in power for mission, unity, communion, and holiness. This paper’s brief survey of relevant New Testament passages will further suggest that this baptism occurs at the time of conversion and not as a secondary experience.
Defining Baptism with the Spirit
Of the seven New Testament references to baptism with the Spirit, six are connected with the preaching of John the Baptist. The only component of John’s message directly quoted in all four gospels is his prophecy that the Christ would baptize “with the Spirit” (Matt 3:11; Mark 1:8; Luke 3:16; John 1:33). In Acts 1:5, Jesus references John’s baptism as a point of comparison for what was coming soon: the disciples would be baptized “with the Holy Spirit.” Following Pentecost, Peter quotes Jesus’s words in Acts 11:16. It seems that the Gospel authors saw this Spirit baptism as the key theme of John’s preaching. John the Baptizer heralded a superior baptism by a superior Baptizer, the fulfillment of prophecy and inauguration of a new work.
The words of Jesus and Peter in Acts 1 and 11 directly connect the baptism of the Spirit to the day of Pentecost. Immediately before Jesus ascended, he repeated the promise that Spirit baptism was yet future, though only days away (Acts 1:5). Peter then references “the beginning” as the time when the Holy Spirit came and the believers at Jerusalem spoke in tongues, which was clearly the day of Pentecost (Acts 11:16; 2:2-4). The result of this initial fulfillment of the promised baptism with the Spirit was a unified church on mission, boldly preaching the gospel and joyfully living in community (Acts 2:40-47).
There is some overlap between the terminology of baptism and filling with the Spirit. The prophecy of Pentecost was baptism, and the description of Pentecost was “they were all filled with the Spirit” (Acts 2:4). Spirit fullness is both described throughout Acts and prescribed in Ephesians (Acts 4:8; 9:17; 13:9; Eph 5:18). Spirit baptism may be compared to water baptism, an initiatory event picturing the present reality and future lifestyle of repentance and faith. Once baptized in water, a believer continues “to walk in newness of life,” though he is not repeatedly baptized (Rom 6:4). To be baptized with the Spirit is an initiatory filling with the Spirit: the filling continues, though the baptism is not repeated.
In a discourse on the diversity of gifting and unity of membership in the body of Christ, Paul writes “by/in one Spirit we are all baptized into one body” (1 Cor 12:13). The most fundamental identity of a Christian is his union with Christ, which is realized at the point of conversion and demonstrated in union with the church, Christ’s body on earth (Eph 1:3-14; 2:19-22; 5:29-32). Being baptized into Christ’s body can only reference conversion. Whether this is the same baptism John prophesied depends on the exegetical significance of one prepositional phrase. English translations are divided in their rendering of the Greek phrase en eni pneumati: “by one Spirit” or “in one Spirit.” The Greek preposition en can express both means and agency. The translation by indicates agency: the Spirit is the one baptizing believers into the body. The alternate translation in indicates means: Christ does the baptizing, by means of the Spirit, into his body. The latter connects this text to the prior references of baptism with the Spirit, clarifying that it occurs at the moment a believer is united to the body of Christ – his conversion.
For four reasons, the baptism of 1 Corinthians 12:13 should be understood with the latter rendering: “in/with one Spirit we are all baptized into one body.” First, as Wayne Grudem notes, the translation in/with parallels the structure of 1 Corinthians 10:2, a baptism by means of one entity into the location of another.[1] Second, “in/with” maintains continuity of translation. It is difficult to see a compelling reason to translate the phrase en pneumati and a cognate of baptism differently from the other six New Testament occurrences: “with the Holy Spirit.” Third, Daniel Wallace observes that this text presents a superlative parallel to John’s baptism. In John’s prophecy, Christ is explicitly the agent of the baptism.[2] There is no other reference in Scripture to the Spirit’s being an agent of baptism. Finally, the strongest argument for “in/with” is the underlying grammatical structure: the passive voice verb “we are baptized,” followed by the preposition en with a dative case noun. If the noun, “one Spirit,” were to indicate agency, the more likely wording would be the preposition hypo or dia followed by a genitive case noun.[3] Perhaps the translation that best conveys the function of means and maintains the English continuity from prior texts could be “with one Spirit we were all baptized into one body.”
This text, therefore, is the clearest proof that the baptism with the Spirit prophesied by John and promised by Jesus occurs at conversion, when the believer is united to the body of Christ. The context highlights spiritual gifts and the necessity of diverse unity in Christ’s body. Baptism with the Spirit ushers the believer into the new covenant ministry of the Spirit who indwells, unifies, and bestows gifts to edify the church and proclaim the gospel (1 Cor 12:7). In Acts 2, 10, and 19, the reception of the Spirit was followed by speaking in tongues. J. Rodman Williams rightly observes that the gift of tongues was “clear evidence that the Holy Spirit had been given” in these accounts.[4] However, 1 Corinthians 12:4-11 teaches that there is no single gift given to all believers. This contradicts the conclusion that tongues must be the proof of Spirit baptism, since baptism with the Spirit is promised to all who believe.
Considering Possible Secondary Experiences
An alternate position proposes that baptism with the Spirit is a secondary experience that believers must earnestly seek subsequent to conversion, and several passages in Acts would seem to suggest this. The first baptism with the Spirit, Pentecost, was certainly secondary to conversion. However, this experience was unique to the earthly ministry of Jesus. Jesus had told his disciples that it was necessary for him to leave so he could send the Spirit; as long as Jesus was with them, the Spirit would not come (John 16:7). Pentecost was a formative event for the birth of the church, not a normative event for the life of the church.
In Acts 1:8, Jesus issued a prophetic imperative that his followers would be his witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and “to the end of the earth,” and the Spirit’s coming at Pentecost would inaugurate the mission. When the gospel reached Samaria in Acts 8, people were converted, but the Holy Spirit did not “[fall] on any of them” until the apostles arrived and laid hands on them (Acts 8:5-17). The text may seem to use synecdoche: “the apostles heard that Samaria had received the word of God” (Acts 8:14). However, to this point in Acts, the narrative has not emphasized the place of conversions, focusing instead on the people who were converted (2:41, 47; 4:4, 21; 5:13-14; 6:1). In Acts 6:7, Luke references conversions in Jerusalem immediately before the persecution that scattered the church. Samaria’ssubsequent reception of the word is more than a literary device: it is a significant and shocking step for Jewish Christians with deep prejudices. The delay of receiving the Spirit by the Jewish apostles’ hands affirmed the unity of the fledgling church: Samaritans were included in the one body.
The account of John’s disciples in Acts 19:1-7 may seem to indicate a delayed reception of the Spirit following conversion. However, the text does not suggest that these people were converted prior to Paul’s teaching; their conversion and Spirit baptism were parts of the same event.[5] It seems significant that the intermediate step of laying on hands occurs for new believers who had been previously baptized by John. Perhaps this was necessary to emphasize that they had finally received what John prophesied: the Christ’s baptism with the Spirit.
Scripture is void of commands to seek a Spirit baptism secondary to conversion. Acts 2, 8, and 19 do not provide a plan for believers to follow, and there is no textual indication that the early church saw these events as prescriptive. Rather, Christians in Acts believed the gospel, and God chose to baptize some with the Spirit by means of the apostles’ laying hands on them. It is an exegetical stretch to infer from these descriptive passages that Jesus expects his people must follow a process to receive what he expressly promised: he will baptize with the Spirit all who come to him, uniting them to his body and blessing them with new covenant power.
This position does not discount the validity or value of experiences called “second blessings,” or baptism with the Spirit following conversion. God blesses awareness and repentance of sin, earnest desire for the Spirit’s fullness, and humble faith. Grudem explains that these actions taken by many sincere believers desiring a second blessing are commanded in Scripture, and they certainly lead to spiritual growth. He further suggests that what is considered a second experience may actually be the genuine conversion of nominal churchgoers.[6] If experience is interpreted by Scripture, believers can understand these experiences to be significant parts of the ongoing filling with the Spirit that is commanded following salvation.
Conclusion
The promise of baptism with the Spirit is fulfilled for every Christian at conversion: he is united to Christ’s body, given gifts to edify that body, and empowered for holiness. Baptism with the Spirit initiates the ongoing fullness of the Spirit, strengthening the believer for warfare as the Spirit wields his sword against the kingdom of darkness (Eph 5:18-6: 20). Just as at Pentecost, the baptism of the Spirit is missional. May his church be so filled and empowered to proclaim the gospel, until the joy of his presence in us is augmented by our presence before him.
[1] Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2000), 768.
[2] Daniel Wallace, Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1996), 32, 374.
[3] Wallace, Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics, 433-435.
[4] J. Rodman Williams, Renewal Theology, vol. 2: Salvation, the Holy Spirit, and Christian Living, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1990), 211.
[5] Gregg R. Allison and Andreas J. Kostenberger, The Holy Spirit, Theology for the People of God (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2020), 395.
[6] Grudem, Systematic Theology, 779-780.