This note may take an unusual approach to the subject of baptism for a number of reasons:

1. We will note every use of the word in the bible

2. We will look at the meaning of the word

3. We will look closely at the context, and the meaning in that context.

To do this we will first note every time the word is used, and then categorise them according to their similarity of meaning in its context. We may find the same word has a slightly different meaning depending on the context in which it is placed. The interesting thing is that the same word will have different shades of meanings in different contexts, but as we will discover the overriding sense is still the same. Also we will note that it is used as a verb, and that in different tenses, and also as a noun, and there are other grammatical differences. Now let us note the overriding meaning.

This is not really an English, but rather a Greek word Anglicised. The Greek word for baptise is the verb "baptiso". Our historians tell us that it is a derivation of "bapto" to dip. No doubt we all have heard that to baptise is "to dip and not sprinkle". That is definitely wrong. The amazing thing about this word is that most christians do not have the faintest idea what it means. In fact it is generally viewed as just an ordinance. Ordinance means, "a decree, or a religious rite". Therefore the act done is nothing more than observing a set of rules. Christian baptism is radically different.

It is important to see how the word was used in the New Testament days. "The clearest example that shows the meaning of baptizo is a text from the Greek poet and physician Nicander, who lived about 200 B.C. It is a recipe for making pickles and is helpful because it uses both words. Nicander says that in order to make a pickle, the vegetable should first be 'dipped' (bapto) into boiling water and then 'baptised' (baptizo) in the vinegar solution. Both verbs concern the immersing of vegetables in a solution. But the first is temporary. The second, the act of baptising the vegetable, produces a permanent change."

On thing is certainly clear, the word means immersion, submergence, and emergence. In the New Testament most definitely, positively, and very emphatically christian baptism does not produce the change in the person being baptised. This must be repeated over and over again. Baptism does not change the person, but the act of baptism is symbolic of a spiritual transaction which has already taken place in the individual christian. It is also used appropriately with respect to other things that will become abundantly clear as we proceed in the study. We will discover this as we look at the word in its context. Not even in the wildest imagination can "baptiso" mean to sprinkle, or dip. The meaning is clearly described above, and we shall look at it in more detail later.

The word translated into English as "baptise" occurs 9 times in 7 verses in the New Testament.

Mat.3:11; Mark.1:4,8; Luke.3:16; John.1.26&33; 1Cor.1:17. Later in the notes we will place each verse in similar contexts, and discover more about the subject.

This word is used at least 55 times in the New Testament, and obviously has the same meaning as baptise above. It is usually in the past or other tense of the verb to ‘’baptise’, which in the Greek is baptiso. The verses are, Mat.3:3,6,13,14,16; Mat.20:22,23; Mark.1:5,8,9; Mark.10:39,39; Mark.16:16; Luke.3:7,12,21; Luke.7:29,30; Luke.12:50; John.3:22,23; John.4:1,2; John.10:40; Acts.1:5; Acts.2:38,41; Acts.8:12,13, 16, 36 38; Act.10:47&48; Acts.11:16; Acts.16:15; Acts.18:8; Acts.19:3,4,5; Acts.22:16; Rom.6:3; 1Cor.1:13-16; 1Cor.10:2; 1Cor.12:13; 1Cor.15:29; Gal.3:27. Again, with this word we will group them in those of a similar context.

The Greek word for the noun baptism is "Baptisma. Let us be clear, however, baptisma does not mean to dip or sprinkle even in the original Greek. It means immersion, submergence, and emergence just as the verb "baptiso" does. It is the act of being baptised, and it is used 22 times in the New Testament. See, Mat.3:6,7; Mat.20:22,23; Mark.1:4; Mark.10:38,39; Mark.11:30; Luke.3:2; Luke.7:29; Luke.12:50; Luke.20:4; Acts.1:22; Acts.10:37; Acts.13:24; Acts.15:25, Acts.19:3,4; Rom.6:4; Eph.4:5; Gal.2:12; 1Peter.3:21. Again this word can be categorised according to its context, and as stated before this will give us a better understanding of what the word means in scripture.

Go to Top of Page

Having said that we now will note that we will find this word in at least four different contexts.

1. John’s baptism

2. Baptism unto Moses

3. Unbeliever’s baptism

4. Christian baptism

5. Baptism of the Holy Spirit

6. The baptism of suffering of Christ on the cross

7. Christ follower’s baptism of sufferings.

8. Baptism into the body of Christ

The verses, which contained the words, "baptise", "baptised", and "baptism" have now been grouped together according to the similarity of the subject. The subject is discovered by the meaning of the words in the context in which they are found. It is interesting to note that, at just a short glance, we can identify at least eight different subjects that have been named above. Below the headings are listed and the verses relating to that subject are noted after which we will look more closely at the subject itself. It must also be noted that not every verse will be mentioned but if the reader takes the time to study each verse’s context he will find that the subject meaning will be strengthened.

Verses in this category are: Mat.3:6, 11, Mat.21:25; Mark.1:4, 5, 8, 9; Mark.11:30; Luke.3:3; 7; 12; 16; 21; Luke.7:29,30; Luke.20:4; John.1:26,33; John.3:22,23; John.4:1,2; John.10:40; Acts.1:5,22; Acts.10:37; Acts.11:16; Acts.13:24; Acts.18:25; Acts.19:3, their first baptism.

One must, first of all, be aware of the history and spiritual state of Israel. Suffice to say that God’s chosen people, at the time of the Lord’s advent, were a captive people and ruled from Rome. God has expressly told His people that if they departed from His Word the ultimate judgement was captivity. The nation had known captivity before, and we read the history of their national repentance in the books of Ezra, and Nehemiah. They returned to the Word of God and regained their freedom. At the time of the birth of the Lord they had reached the lowest of spiritual levels, and they were again a captive people.

That One coming was the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. He was their Saviour, and king, but He came as a babe in a manger. Who was the preceding messenger? It was John the Baptist. Having seen that, we now note the message he brought to the people of Israel. "As it is written in the prophets, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.

The exhortation to make the paths straight simply means to make a crooked path straight. It spoke personally and directly to the Israelite. It demanded his previous crooked or immoral life be changed to a moral one. Now the question could be asked, could baptism do that? Again the answer is, certainly not. John preached "the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins." which quite clearly means that there had to be an inward change of mind, and then an acknowledgement that the One coming was their Saviour God. This means that the person was convicted of their sinful position, and the need for forgiveness. Above all they would believe that this One was coming now. This was an exercise of faith, and the baptism was an acknowledgement of it.

Before leaving John’s baptism we should note that there were those who refused the pure grace of God about whom we read, "Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye." Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers:" Acts.7:51-52. How terrible to refuse God’s mercy, and accept Satan’s portion of eternal torment.

So far, in considering baptism it seems as if the whole thing is mechanical although we have just seen that it is an outward action resulting from an inward transaction. That is important. We have also noted that to be baptised in the true scriptural sense there must be a going down into the water, immersion, a going under the water, submergence, and a coming up out of the water emergence. What is needed now is to discover what the spiritual meaning is. We can be sure that we are not asked to do anything unless there is some deep significance in it. This we now do.

"Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; 1Cor.10:1-2.

Before we look into this verse we should be aware of the relationship between the Old and the New Testament. "Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come." 1Cor.10:11. The apostle Paul mentions the deliverance from Egypt and begins with the nation’s relationship to Their God.

This particular relationship begins when the Pascal lamb had been slain, the blood has been sprinkled on the doorpost and lintel, and the destroying angel had passed over. God has said, "when I see the blood I will pass over." Their obedient faith had saved their first-born. In type it answers to the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ saving us from judgement to come. The destroying angel is a type or picture of "The wages of sin is death". We can see that the blood saved, just as it saves today.

After the destroying angel passed over, and they were about to begin their three days journey out of Egypt the cloud always stood between the camp of the Egyptians and the children of Israel. The children of Israel were the Lord’s purchased possession, and He would lead them out of captivity. They were a separated people, and nothing would prevent this journey to freedom. The cloud was the perfect powerful protection against all the power of the enemy. That surely reminds of the cross. This reminds us that His death will be eternally between us and all the forces of Satan. His grip has been loosed, and we are free.

We then look at the sea. In the beginning the children of Israel stood on the Egyptian banks of that sea. They had an affinity with the enemy as they stood on his ground. However we next see the sea divided, and the people walked out of the land dry shod until they stood on the other side. They had left the enemy’s land. All this is a picture or type of baptism. We first have the going into the sea. Then there was the going through the sea, and that below water level. Finally, having gone through the sea they emerge dry shod on the opposite side to be forever outside Egypt and its control.

Go to Top of Page

Mat.3:6, 7, 11, 13, 14, 16.

There are untaught christians who think that the fire baptism is the baptism of the Holy Spirit or a description of the act of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The context makes the meaning of fire baptism (the word "with" is not in the Greek) as clear as the noonday sun. The baptism of fire has to do with the burning of the chaff.

The wheat represents the believer and the chaff represents the unbeliever, "Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn." Mat.13:30. The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity;" And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Mat.13:41-42 "So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just," Mat.13:49. "And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever" Rev.20:10,- "And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death." .Rev.20:14. "And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." Rev.20:15.

That there is eternal punishment in a lake of fire let there be no doubt. It is an absolute certain fact in the future for the unsaved. That it should be referred to, as a baptism is understandable. The sinner is immersed into the fire, he is submerged in the fire, but the difference is that there is no emergence or deliverance.

Mark.16:16; Acts.2:38; 41, Acts.8:12, 13, 16, 36, 38; Acts.9:18; Acts.10:47, 48; Acts.16:15; Acts,18:8; Acts.19:5 second baptism; Acts.22:16; Rom.6:3, 4; 1Cor.1:13, 14, 15, 16, 17; 15:29; Eph..4:5; Col.2:12; 1Peter.3:21. The terrible spiritual state of christians is clearly seen in their attitude to baptism. Very few are baptised as is clearly shown in the Word of God. They prefer the way of man rather than the way of God. If anyone can understand, and feel the debt of gratitude that is owed to the Lord then they will have a Holy Spirit desire to please the Lord. "And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour." Eph.5:2.

The first command to baptise was given to the disciples by the Lord, and it is recorded in Math.28:19, and Mark.16:16. It behoves us then to read carefully what the Lord actually says without adding to or taking away from His given Word. "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen. Math.28:19. "And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned." Mark.16:15-16.

Let us look at the "commission’ given by the Lord to His disciples.

1. The very first thing is that they are to go into all the world.

2. They are to then teach and preach then baptise those that believed.

3. They are to teach the believers "to observe all things I have commanded you".

When both passages are put side by side we see the first action by the disciples was to teach

all nations and to preach the gospel to every creature. In both passages we see that really the second operation was to baptise those who believed the teaching or preaching. Now just from these two verses alone there have come Satanic doctrines.

1. You do not have to be a believer to be baptised, and

2. baptism saves you.

In Mark’s gospel we read believing comes before baptism, and in Matthew’s gospel they are taught before they are baptised. In the passage in Matthew there is a double reference to teaching. The first thing was for them to teach all nations. Pure common sense tells us that you cannot teach someone who is not interested. That surely should be obvious, and when this is combined with the passage in Mark only believers were baptised. No unfortunately all this is not obvious. However God never leaves us in the dark. His Word is clear and final. Let us note, "And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God." Acts.8:36&37.

In this passage in Acts Philip is a Holy Spirit directed servant of the Lord. In the verses above he has a new convert beside him who, having heard the teaching and preaching of the Word of God, as spoken by Philip and recorded in the bible, saw water and asked to be baptised. Philip had only one question "do you believe with all your heart". It is rather silly, but one notes that he did not say "well, I do not care if you’re saved or not, I will baptise you". Nor did he say, "well, come on and be baptised and that will make you a christian or a child of God." Those two verses in Acts.8:35&36 forever puts to rest the evil doctrine that baptism does something for you.

Go to Top of Page

What Philip said was "If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest", and what the other said was, "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God." The man was born again, and on that basis, and that basis alone, Philip baptised him. This puts the meaning in the two verses, one in Matthew, and one in Mark in a real context. The disciples were to teach and preach the Word of God, and baptise the believers. Unfortunately many born again believers have not put that command in context, and thus not obeyed it.

The first recorded act of believer’s baptism is recorded in Acts.2:38 and 41, and it is very important to note how God Himself describes it, and the words used. "Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation. Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls." Acts.2:39-41

In this previous verse we have the fact reinforced that only believers were baptised. It is only "they that gladly received his word were baptised". Now that should be as clear as the noonday sun. The glad receivers of the Word were baptised. How then can a child be baptised when a baby does not have the mental capacity to understand any language in the first place? The answer to that question is, "very easily". Man can do any thing his mind dreams up. Of course he can wet a baby’s head. What is to stop him. Nothing! The vitally important question is "what authority does a man have to wet the baby’s head in the first place?" He has man’s authority. There is no way in all this world that he has the authority of God! Nowhere ever in all the bible do we read that babies are baptised or even unbelievers.

The point of the baby and unsaved baptism is that the baptised has now joined a "club", and it well may have some kind of mental power over that person for the rest of their life. One may ask how could that be? That again is very easy to understand. If you have to do something to be saved, then you most certainly will be asked by the club you have joined to do something to stay in the club. If you disobey then they will put the fear of "god", fire, or expulsion from heaven to force you into obeying their man made doctrines. Usually money and power is the real objective of these clubs irrespective of the names they give themselves. Let us remember there is only believer’s baptism taught in the bible.

To further reinforce all that which has gone before we now look at the example of baptism in Acts chapter 8 which we have noted before. We saw that the believer in verse 36 asked to be baptised. That, without doubt, shows up our modern day gospel in no uncertain manner. Do we always see the brand new convert ask to be baptised? The answer, rarely if ever! That in itself should make us think. Surely we are missing the mark.

Immediately on receiving the "yes" answer to Philip’s question, did he believe, the chariot was stopped. Now let us carefully note what did not happen next. Did Philip get some water from a bottle and sprinkle the believer’s head and tell him he was a child of God? Absolutely, positively, most definitely not!!! We read, in verse 38 and 39

And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they

went down both katabaino; descended

into the water, eis; in motion toward

And when they were come up anabaino; come up

out of the water, ek; up out of

Go to Top of Page

The point here is that if we rely on our own reasoning, intuition, belief, logic or anything else that comes from within us, it will be contrary to the mind of God.

"And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:" This verse simply means that as we were born and grew up we are spiritually dead.

Even if we have very little intelligence we should be able to understand what dead means. It simply means that we have no life, and furthermore we have no means of communicating with those that have life. But you say, "I have life!" You do, but it is not spiritual life it is natural life.

Furthermore, with very little intelligence you can quite clearly understand that you cannot see God, nor can you speak to Him. We are simply not in His sphere of activity, therefore, in effect dead to Him.

That is not all. In the verses in Ephesians above we take note of the fact that whilst we are in this natural state we are spiritually dead "in trespasses and sins". What we clearly read is that whilst unsaved, we, natural men, conducted our life according to the power of Satan. When saved, we who are spiritually dead, without contact with God are given spiritual life. Dead in trespasses and sins mean that we are unable to do anything but sin. We could never reach a standard that satisfied God, because we did not have spiritual life that is the power to obey and please God. Now whilst in this body we have an option. As believers we can either obey the Word of God, which is His mind for us, or we can revert to the old natural life and sin. It is sin no matter how good we thought the act or word was which originated from the old nature.

In Acts.8: 38-39 we read that they both went down into the water and came up out of it.

"And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him:" Mat.3.16. "And straightway coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon him:"

In each one of these verses the meaning is quite clear. The person being baptized went down into the water, and we clearly note that they came up out of the water.

In summing up this side of the explanation of baptism, we see, first of all, that the traveling candidate for baptism in Act.8 did not ask for the water bottle, for water he surely would have had in his caravan, but he asked to go down into the water. We then noted that at the Lord’s baptism he went down into the water and came up out of it. Now all that is clear from the language and grammar of the original language. However we have more than that. We have the spiritual meaning of baptism very clearly set out in Romans chapter 6.

We have now looked at the physical act of baptism, and seen the mechanics of it. In doing so we have noticed that most christians do not even know what the mechanical acts of baptism are and by resorting to the human brain and imagination we see all kinds of deviation from the clear scriptural practice. The worst offenders are those that rely on tradition for their wrong actions. Tradition is the most powerful of all errors, and seems to easily deceive even the born again christian. We commenced by saying that we would note all the occurrences of the word under study and, with the help of the Holy Spirit, would discover the mind of God in this important matter.

Go to Top of Page

In Romans chapter 6 the first two verses read, "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?" Rom.6:1-2.

There are those evil men who teach, that if the grace of God has covered all our sins, past present, and future, what does it matter if we continue to practice sin? If we do, God’s infinite grace will cover it! Again that is a lie of the Devil. It is this that the apostle Paul takes up in the first verses of Romans chapter 6.

We note the words above "How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?" What we may not understand is "we that are dead to sin". What we must know and understand is that these words do not mean that we can arrive at a state of sinless perfection. That is absolutely certain. Let us look at each verse one at a time.

We have a new association with the Lord. We have been "quickened", that is given spiritual life. "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." 2Cor.5:17. "Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; "And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:" Col 3:9-10

In the above two verses we see that a transaction has taken place whereby that which was dead, that is the whole personality of the one saved, as far as God is concerned, is counted to be dead, and we have been made a new creation. We must remember that, on this side of the grave or the rapture, our old original nature is still with us. Not only so, but also we can lapse back under control of the old nature due to sin and disobedience.

In the first verse above we have to put aside the old nature, and we move in the new sphere of the newly created nature. In the second verse we are told not to lie one to another as we should have stripped away the actions and power of the old nature. Well one may ask, "how can I possibly cease from sinning? Do we have to strive to become perfect?" We can never strive to be anything, most particularly to be perfect. To strive simply means that we have gone back to the old sinful nature to try and improve that which is totally corrupt. What can we do then?

The answer to that last question is very plainly put in the next verse, Rom.6.3:

The young believer has to realise that a number of things have happened at salvation:

1. He knows and feels that he is a new creation, "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." 2Cor.5:17.

Now all this can cause some anxiety because the young believer knows and feels sin, simply because the indwelling Holy Spirit convicts that believer of even the slightest sin. This believer’s dismay is caused by the fact that he discovers that he is capable of sinning, and he has not learnt the purposes of God for him. There are two things he really knows: that is that he is saved, and the Lord is coming back to receive him unto Himself. It is at this point that the grace of God prepares him to learn His for Him.

Verse 3 began with the question, "don’t you know?" Don’t we know what? That we are baptised unto His death. Now we discover more about it.

Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: sunthapto; buried together

that like as Christ was raised up egeiro; raised up

from the dead by the glory of the Father, ek; out from

even so we also should walk in newness of life. peripateo; potentially regulate one’s life

Go to Top of Page

Now note with great joy that it is by faith, that is, we implicitly believe that we have been raised with Him. Not only that, but also, "Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:" Eph.2:5-6, and again we have been blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places with Christ.

It is unfortunate that many new believers are not taught the last part of this fourth verse, "even so we also should walk in newness of life." We have been now given a commandment, "For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ." Gal.3:27. "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. "Col.3:1-2. This commandment to set our affections on the things above is a natural thing for the new believer, and we have been given the power to do so. It is now up to us.

For if we have been planted together in the likeness sumphutos; identified together with, grown up with

of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his and also

This verse reads as follows: We have been identified together with the likeness of His death and also with the likeness of His resurrection. We now have been clearly taught what being baptized into the death of the Lord Jesus Christ means. It means that we have been buried with Him, and we have been raised with Him. How do we know this? We know it by faith. That is by our faith in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Living word, and in His written Word

What should be obvious is the relationship between death, burial, and resurrection, and baptism. Baptism is symbolic, and it is a step in obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a public witness to the fact that one has been saved by faith, that one has died with Him, been buried with Him, and raised in newness of life. It is utterly impossible that wetting a baby’s head with water can have any relationship with christian baptism.

To begin with we must carefully note this verse; "There was a certain creditor which had two debtors: the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty. And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me therefore, which of them will love him most? Simon answered and said, I suppose that he, to whom he forgave most. And he said unto him, Thou hast rightly judged." Luke.7:41-43 "Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little." Luke.7:47. What we have read above are descriptions of real life experiences, and we note that there seems to be automatic degrees of love for the Lord depending on the past life of the one forgiven.

Having noted the above point we now can describe the believer’s experience at conversion. These experiences may not be in the chronological order for each one saved, but they are:

1. The feeling of sin and need, and maybe judgement to come.

2. A feeling of incredible gratitude for paying for that believer’s sin

Go to Top of Page

It is a personal experience or it is not salvation. If this is not present it may only be a mental assent to a "good" doctrine or thing. There is the feeling of owing a debt of gratitude, and the depth of that feeling will vary depending on what has been forgiven. Be that as it may, the next experience is that the old sins and vices have no grip or interest on the new believer. For example gamblers lose all interest in gambling, chain smokers in smoking, thieves in stealing, or whatever may have been the most powerful sins in the life. That will certainly vary with the individual, but unless that experience is there salvation is doubtful.

Indeed the new convert has risen in newness of life, but the old nature is still present with us.

Hence the warnings: "That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." Eph.4:22-24. We have three enemies, the world, the flesh, and the devil, all of which we must turn from, and we must maintain our new relationship with the Lord.

It has been said that baptism is an outward symbol of an inward transaction. We have seen that it has a close relationship with death, burial and resurrection. That is so. Therefore let us look at the passage in which we find some very interesting uses of the word baptism. This being so it behoves us to study it carefully as with all other scriptures.

For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, pascho; to suffer

the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, dikaios: a state of, being right, right standard

being put to death in the flesh, sarx; in the body

but quickened by the Spirit: zoopoieo; given life

We, who believe, will never suffer the pains of hell because about Him we read, "And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin." 1John.3:5. "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." 2Cor.5:21

Go to Top of Page

In summing up the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ we could say, "I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death." Rev.1:18. He was raised in the power of an endless life, and ever liveth to make intercession for us. "Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him." 1Peter.3:22.

It is utterly impossible for an English speaking person to read this verse and make sense out of it as it stands. In the first place verse 18 ends with a colon. "The colon is a stop preferred by some individuals to the semicolon". The semicolon joins, and which generally stands between related clauses. The colon, however, is often used to give emphasis.

Verse 19 starts with "by which". Normal understanding then asks, "by which", what? We are then forced to look at what precedes, and in this case we find the connection is the "Spirit". It is this Spirit "by which" He preached to the spirits in prison. One thing is absolutely certain the body of the Lord Jesus Christ never went into prison. He died and was buried with the body being in the grave three days until He was raised by the Holy Spirit. Could God, manifest in flesh, go into hell? That is absolute blasphemy. God is thrice Holy! We have now established three certain facts:

1. What preaching was done, with respect to the spirits in prison, was done by the Holy Spirit through

Noah, 2Peter.2:5.

2. God could never go into the place set aside for the punishment of sin. The Lord at death immediately went into paradise. Luke.23:43-46

3. There is no second chance to be saved. 2Cor.6:2.

These three facts are settled.

Go to Top of Page

Which sometime were disobedient, when once pote; in times past, previous ages

the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, makrothumia; patience

while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, kataskeuazo; get ready, prepare

that is, eight souls were saved by water. dia; through

We are now given the exact people who were preached to, and exactly when. They were the unsaved people in Noah’s day, and they were preached just before the flood that caused their death. "And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;" 2Peter.2:5. The "Which" to commence the verse 20 describes the spirits in prison. They watched whilst Noah built his ark, and in 2Peter.2:5 we see that Noah was the preacher. The ark itself being the given sign that judgement was coming to the world by way of a flood. This, these spirits ignored

How did Noah preach? In the very power of the Holy Spirit. Every born again believer from Adam to the end time can only effectively do the will of God in the power of the Holy Spirit. It is in this sense that Christ preached to the spirits in prison through the person of Noah, His servant. The passage is featuring the work of the Holy Spirit. It is interesting to note that Noah thus preached for over a hundred years, and we also note God patiently waited throughout that whole period offering salvation to any who would believe. In the end the unbeliever was drowned in the flood, and the eight believers were saved from the water by the ark. The ark being a type of Christ.

The like figure whereunto even baptism antitupos; a thing resembling another, its counterpart

doth also now save us sozo; saves from bondage

but the answer of a good conscience toward eperotema; enquiry

In this verse we see baptism mentioned again, and in an interesting way. First, note it is not baptism that saves, but the thing of which it is a figure. Just as the ark saved Noah and family from the judgement of God, the waters of death, so the Lord saves us from judgement to come by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The problem in the verse above is the word "answer". Let us notice it is not the putting away of the old nature, but baptism saves by appealing to the fact that we have been baptised into Christ’s death, considered buried with Him, but above all raised with Him in newness of life. The verse reads that we are saved by the resurrection of the Lord Himself. Our answer to all this is that real baptism proves that which we have received by faith. One has said, "I have a good conscience, and am seated with Christ in glory, and I am on the other side of death and judgement, and seated in Christ at God’s right hand", W T P Wolston. It is the believer’s appeal against Satan’s attack.

There are so many errors surrounding this doctrine that it becomes imperative that we look at each verse in which it is mentioned and study them. To make the study easier we will endeavour to break these verses up into groups. The groups being:

1. The Lord’s baptism

2. The Lord glorified is the baptiser

3. The purchased possession and its seal

4. Receiving the gift

When we talk about the Lord’s baptism and the action of the Holy Spirit we must have positively fixed in our mind that this event at Jordan was only a sign. Let us look at the facts.

Go to Top of Page

We are looking at the statements made by John the Baptist, and he was only baptising the repentant. This would put them into the right spiritual state to recognise the Lord when they saw Him. He very carefully explains why he is not to be compared with the Lord, in that he only baptised with water, but the Lord who came after him would baptise with the Holy Spirit (life), and He would baptise with fire (judgement). This we noted previously. He says that the real character and person was unknown up to this time, but He would be revealed by a sign to be given. This was a unique first time, and was never to be repeated in the history of God’s dealings with man. We next have the description of the incident, And I knew him not: but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. And I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God." John.1:33-34.

What we have already noted is that the baptiser is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and no one else. It was something that did not occur in John’s time of preaching, and we discover that it would not occur until after His resurrection. Furthermore the Lord had to fulfill the previous determined counsel of God. He first had to be crucified, and most importantly He had to be buried, raised, and glorified. "(But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified." John.7.39. This is definitely the first requirement for the gift of the Holy Spirit to those who believe, and it has nothing to do with the believer. This is strictly God’s business. This could not take place until His physical ascension, and glorification that we now study.

"But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." There is no uncertainty about the fact that there was no believer’s baptism of the Holy Spirit before this time.

He achieved the Father’s purpose and satisfied the righteous heart of His Father. Having done so we read, "Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Php.2:9-11.

It is from this position that He gives the Holy Spirit. However, it is, even more intimate than that. Each believer is immediately "baptised into His body". Nothing could be closer, as we see described in Ephesians 5:25-33, where the husband, wife relationship is used as a type.

What is beyond human thought is the fact that God had plans for the believer. "The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all." Eph.1:19-23. One will notice it is "his inheritance in the saints", the "exceeding greatness of His power to usward when He raised Him from the dead". We must also note that it is this body that completes the glory of the Lord, and we are His body. What infinite grace! There we have nothing of our own. We simply radiate the glory of God’s work.

Young and carnal believers are almost totally self centered. Everything revolves around them, and quite often, for them. The spiritual believer is Christ centered, and he looks at things with the Lord as the centre, and the Word of God is his guide. "What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." 1Cor.6:19-20. The carnal christian’s attitude is that he can do whatever he likes. The spiritual christian has a totally different attitude.

Go to Top of Page

14

He realises that he is totally indebted to another. This other One paid his infinite debt by shedding His own blood. It is vital to notice that the believer’s body is made the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. The carnal self centered person thinks that he can do something or be something for God. That is utterly impossible.

The sooner a believer realises that he has done nothing, and can do nothing for the Lord the better off he will be. In a sense we are given only one ability, and that is to obey the Lord. Our obedience is entirely up to us. We never had, and never will have throughout all eternity, the ability to do anything for the Lord unless what we do is empowered by the Holy Spirit in obedience to His Word.

How easy it is for the believer to forget that, when the Lord found us, we were dead in sin. Does one have to ask, "have you ever seen a corpse working?" It would seem so, because so many christians are "serving" the Lord in the flesh. By that we mean doing things supposedly for the Lord, but not according to the Word of God. Be that as it may, we have to be absolutely aware that the very moment we were saved, we, the "purchased possession", were sealed. "In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory." Eph.1:13-14

How often we fail to notice little words, and we automatically fill in the blank. In this case, more often than not, we hear believers saying sealed by the Spirit as if it is his own work. That is NOT TRUE. That must be emphasised. The Greek word used here is "sphragizo" which means the purchaser of a property has put his seal on the property indicating that he has secured it on a permanent basis, and will pick it up at a later date. The question can be asked, "if He has sealed us" how long will that last. And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption." Eph.4:30. In our case it is until the day of redemption. The seal is the Holy Spirit.

Notice the Word of God above. The believer is sealed WITH the Holy Spirit who then dwells within. For those who would try and distort the Word of God by saying, look the word is "after’ that ye believed. This is a special tense in Greek that gives the meaning "as having begun from a certain point, "inceptive aorist". The fact is that the sealing and the believing happened at the same time. In 1600AD English it was perfectly correct grammar to say "after that ye believed". "After", simply meant, "as a result of", in this case, believing.

To believe that we have to ask God to become the temple of the Holy Spirit is demonic to say the least. We are a new creation in Christ! We had nothing to do with it except to believe. "What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's. 1Cor.6:19-20

Those who propose a second blessing are blaspheming God. It is a doctrine from the very pit of hell. These are strong words, but probably not strong enough. Let us note. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:" Eph.1:3. Does God lie? Well, if you are asking God for another blessing, you are calling Him a liar to His face! If he says He has blessed you with all spiritual blessing, how can He give you another one? Let us cease calling God a liar, and accept the fact that, in infinite grace, we have been given every spiritual blessing when we were saved.

The above seems a long way round to describe Holy Spirit baptism, but the fact is that if you are not sound in the above doctrines you will never understand the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. You will end up looking for that which does not exist in God’s economy. Beware; it certainly exists in Satan’s armoury. He is the arch deceiver, and he will use his demons to imitate and impersonate anything that will serve his purpose of opposing the Lord.

We have noted that the Holy Spirit would not be given to believers in the church age until the Lord had risen bodily, and been glorified, seated at the right hand of God in the heavenly places.

Go to Top of Page

The purpose of the Holy Spirit was first of all given to show ownership, together with an absolute sure and certain sign that He would come again for His purchased possession. The seal Himself was the Holy Spirit who was given the moment the person believed and was saved. The Holy Spirit Himself was the seal.

In the verses above we are shown that the Old Testament believer and the Holy Spirit was very closely related. We find that:

1. The Old Testament scriptures were written by sanctified men who were moved by the Spirit of God.

2. God, in the Old Testament times, spoke through the prophets.

3. All scripture was given by God inspiring the writers.

4. We are expressly told that David spoke and prophesied when empowered by the Holy Spirit.

It means that the Holy Spirit was always available for the believer. One may ask, "Were there believers before the resurrection of the Lord?" Not a single human being descendent from Adam was ever saved, or will be saved except by faith. As believers in the church age are saved by faith so were the believers prior to the resurrection. Furthermore they looked forward to the day when the Messiah would come and save them through His work and person. So we, the church age believers look back. By grace are all saved by faith, and not of works.

We have seen above that when the church age believer is saved he is baptised with the Holy Spirit. Those saved prior to the resurrection were never baptised with the Holy Spirit. This being so, we can understand the prayer of David, "Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me". Psa.51.11. That indeed was a possibility for him and those saved during that period. Were they saved eternally? Yes indeed they were. Were they members of the church which was His body? No, indeed they were not!

Not only the disciples, but also the believers of that age were not baptised with the Holy Spirit prior to the resurrection. Let us note the Lord’s statement to them:

he breathed on them, and saith unto empusao; "This word used only once by the LXX translators in Gen.2:7 where God breathed on Adam and he became a living soul. Just as the original creation was completed by an act of God, so to the new creation was completed by an act from the Head of the new creation. (AWP Jo 20:22)"

them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: lambano; to take (imperative mood)

The breathing is purely symbolical, and once again it is an outward sign of a completed inward transaction. Although the word receive or take is in the imperative mood the believer really has no option. It is done for him by God. The most important factor is the fact that the disciples were not, at that time, baptised with the Holy Spirit. It is important to remember this.

The baptism with the Holy Spirit is intimately connected with the Old Testament type of the "Feast of Weeks" or "Pentecost".

Go to Top of Page

It is helpful to look at the relevant passages in the Old Testament to get a better understanding of the very special occasion, particularly in Acts chapters 1 and 2. In the book of Deuteronomy chapter 16 we find the type which speaks of the feast of weeks or Pentecost. Before that we should note that the feasts that preceded this feast were the "Passover", "Unleavened Bread", and the "First-Fruits". These are feasts; " Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ" Col.2:17. These three feasts came in order and spoke of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Excluding the "Sabbath" the Passover is first. "Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us: 1Cor.5:7. Each time the feast of the Passover was sacrificed it pointed forward to the Lamb of God whose sacrifice "taketh away the sin of the world". He is the Passover Lamb who saved us from the wrath of God.

This feast commenced the day after the Passover and continued for seven days. "Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." 1Cor.5:8. Let us be very clear about one thing, "leaven" is only ever used as a type of evil, and only evil, nothing else. In the Old Testament we read, "Unleavened bread shall be eaten seven days; and there shall no leavened bread be seen with thee, neither shall there be leaven seen with thee in all thy quarters." Ex.13:7. The type here is that the believer, to be in fellowship with the Lord, must put aside all evil. Furthermore to maintain this fellowship the believer must walk in the light as He is in the light. That is, in obedience to His Word.

"The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring into the house of the LORD thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk." Ex.23.19. "But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept." 1Cor.15:20.

This feast is closely connected to the Passover, and whilst the feast of Unleavened Bread was being held the feast of the First Fruits took place. The significant factor about this feast was that the children of Israel did not celebrate this feast until they were possessors of the land. "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming. 1Cor.15:22-23. The first fruit was indeed Christ risen from the dead. The Old Testament feast pointed forward to that day when the grave was opened, and He is now seated at the right hand of God where He has all power.

The feast of Pentecost is a type of the descent of the Holy Spirit to the waiting church in Jerusalem in Acts chapter 1. As we look at this offering we will see that there is a clear connection between this feast and the one preceding which was the feast of First Fruits. This is noted particularly in Leviticus chapter 23, and Deut.16. Let us now look at both. "And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the Sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven Sabbaths shall be complete." Lev.23:15. "Seven weeks shalt thou number unto thee: begin to number the seven weeks from such time as thou beginnest to put the sickle to the corn." Deut.16:9

In these verses we are brought back to the previous feast, and then to count 7 weeks from that date, and offer on the day after, a total of 50 days. There may be significance in the seven weeks as it is a perfect number, and there are 7 days in the week. So here we have the completion of a perfect period of time, but the feast did not commence until the first day after the completion of a perfect period of time. This was the first day of the week, the same day that Christ rose from the dead. We now have a perfect saviour risen from the dead, and after a perfect period of time ascended bodily into glory. We noted in Leviticus the connection with the Feast of the First fruits.

"Even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath shall ye number fifty days; and ye shall offer a new meat offering unto the LORD" Lev.23.16. "And thou shalt keep the feast of weeks unto the LORD thy God with a tribute of a freewill offering of thine hand, which thou shalt give unto the LORD thy God, according as the LORD thy God hath blessed thee:" Deut.16: 10. As we have noted the death, and resurrection of the Lord had to be accomplished before the descent of the Holy Spirit. It is interesting to note that in Leviticus the offeror had to offer a meat offering and in Deuteronomy it is called a freewill offering. It now behoves us to note the further information given in Leviticus 23.

"Ye shall bring out of your habitations two wave loaves of two tenth deals: they shall be of fine flour; they shall be baken with leaven; they are the firstfruits unto the LORD." Lev.23:17. We also discover that the freewill offering was a meat offering. Meat offering means a gift to God. It may not consist of meat. The two important things to note are that there were two loaves and they contained leaven.

At the descent of the Holy Spirit in Acts chapter 1 and 2 we discover that this new thing the church (the church which is His body) consisted of what were hitherto two separate things, Jew and Gentile. It was this act that united them. "For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many." 1Cor.12.12-14. We have not mentioned that, until the day of Pentecost, Jew and Gentile were two separate groups. At Pentecost; however, the believers in the two groups were made one. "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus." Gal.3:28. This was a new thing.

This new thing was believers baptised with the Holy Spirit, and made members of His body which is the church "Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all." Eph.1.23. This is this body into which every born again believer was then, and would henceforth be baptised into at conversion. "But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: Eph.2:13-16. All this took place only when the day of Pentecost arrived as recorded in the first two chapters of the book of Acts. It is now of the utmost importance to understand that there were two classes of people made one. First the Jew and then the Gentile were brought into this new thing.

The two loaves in Lev.23:15 contained leaven that always and only ever speaks of evil. One may ask, surely the church does not contain evil. That is perfectly true. The church does not contain evil, but the believer does. Obviously the type would be spoiled if it indicated that the church contained evil that was not dealt with by God, but it does. We notice that the feast also provided for the fact that God had divinely provided for the evil in the believer. God knows the worst about us, and has divinely provided for what He knows of us in His infinite wisdom.

Go to Top of Page

Of course the believer has sin within, and will have until the rapture, but the work of the Lord Jesus Christ has answered the question of sin within the believer. This is clearly shown in the fact that at this feast there were other sacrifices to be made. "Then ye shall sacrifice one kid of the goats for a sin offering, and two lambs of the first year for a sacrifice of peace offerings." Lev.23:19. The sin offering told of the fact that Christ would die for our sins, and He dies for ours. The penalty had been paid in full, and we are to find both peace and joy in the Lord Jesus C