The baptism of the Holy Spirit

It needs to be established first of all that the Holy Spirit is not merely the power of God that works in believers, but a Person in the Trinity (1 John 5:7) with whom believers need to have a relationship. A clear indication of this fact is Luke’s testimony (Acts 13:2) of the Holy Spirit speaking in the first person when He gave instruction that Barnabas and Saul be separated for the work of the ministry. The Holy Spirit also acted on his authority by sending them on their mission (v.4).

An Old Testament study (which falls outside of the scope of this study) will reveal that God enabled prophets, priests and kings (for example Acts 1:16; 28:25 1Pet.1:10-12; 2 Pet.1:21) to minister in the power of the Holy Spirit, but the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on all flesh was delayed until the coming of Christ to inaugurate the Kingdom (Joel 2:28). 

Jesus received the Holy Spirit at his water baptism (Matt.3:16). The ministry of not even Jesus, the perfect, sinless Son of God, started before baptism in water and the Spirit (John 2:4). Peter confirmed that Jesus was “anointed” with the Holy Spirit and with power (Acts 10:38). 

After his resurrection and before his ascension Jesus told the disciples that they would receive the “Promise of My Father” (Luke 24:49; Acts 2:33), which was that they would be baptized with the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:5) and receive power to be his witnesses throughout the earth (v.8). In Acts 2:1 and 4 we see the fulfilment of this promise. This baptism in the Spirit is in fact an infilling with the Spirit (Acts 4:8, 13, 31; 6:3, 5, 8; 7:55; 9:17; 13:52). Was Pentecost a once-off event (which seems to be the view of Heyns [1978:295]), meaning that all people who would put their faith in Christ from that day forward would automatically have the infilling of the Spirit? Or on whom would the Holy Spirit be poured out, and at what instance? 

In Peter’s first sermon after he received the Spirit at Pentecost, he gave the following instruction: “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 2:38). In Acts 17:30 (see also 26:20) Paul declares that “God … now commands all men everywhere to repent”. Christ also taught that we need to repent (Matt.4:17) of our old way and commit to obey his Word. Repentance is the choice to step away from the dominion of Satan and into the dominion of Christ (Col.1:13) and to turn away from the old way of life and to turn to a new life in Christ (Col.3:3). It is a turning away from the sinful nature which was inherited from Adam (Rom.5:12), and a commitment to follow the way of Christ (Eph.2:1-3; Col.2:13; Col.1:21), which is made possible by the power of his Spirit, which is the reason God gives the Spirit to those who repent. 

Paul says that God gives the Spirit as a guarantee” (2 Cor.1:22; 5:5) “of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession” (Eph.1:14) and they “were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise” (v.13) “for the day of redemption” (4:30). Therefore, by giving the Holy Spirit God the Father marks a person as his own (Acts 15:8) and not through water baptism. 

Peter continued by saying (Acts 2:39) “the promise [of the Spirit] is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself”. Does this imply that when parents are baptized and receive the Spirit, their children will automatically receive the Spirit also? Or is the gift of the Spirit available only to those who believe and repent? Peter and the other apostles say that God gives the Holy Spirit to “those who obey Him” (Acts 5:32). Peter explains to Jewish believers (Acts 11:17) that the Holy Spirit is given to Gentile believers as well. He asks “if then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God's way?”. The key words here are “when we believed”. The Jewish believers respond (v.18) by saying “then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life”. Thus far it is clear that faith in Christ, obedience and repentance to life are requirements for receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit. 

Strong’s (#4100) says of this Greek word pisteuo (believe) that it

is more than credence in church doctrines or articles of faith. It expresses reliance upon and a personal trust that produces obedience. It includes submission and a positive confession of the lordship of Jesus.

A person therefore not only has to believe in Jesus Christ, but also turn to follow Him (repent), which means to obey Him. Jesus also said that obedience to his word would be the evidence that a person loves Him (John 14:23).  Furthermore Paul says that “no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except in the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor.12:3). What is needed is a heart (attitude) that is in submission to the Lordship of Christ. If someone has truly made Jesus his Lord (evident through word and deed), that person receives the Holy Spirit. John says that “whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.” The Lordship of Christ in an individual’s life is not possible without the intimate relationship with the Holy Spirit.  A person can therefore not follow Christ without the infilling of the Spirit. 

Conversely, those who hear but do not believe and repent will not receive the gift of the Spirit.  Although Luke didn’t mention explicitly that Stephen, who was filled with the Spirit and with power and consequently doing great wonders and signs among the people (Acts 6:5, 8), explained the gospel message to those who disputed with him (v.9), I think it can be safely assumed that he did so. Those who disputed with him thus heard and understood the message, but did not repent and turn to Christ. Instead they resisted the Holy Spirit (Acts 7:51). They were “uncircumcised in heart and ears” (Acts 7:51). The circumcision was a sign of the Abrahamic covenant relationship with God. Those who were “uncircumcised in heart” would then refer to someone who had not made a commitment to obey Christ and therefore not yet part of the new covenant (Luke 22:20). Those who resist the Holy Spirit are therefore those who don’t belong to Christ.  

After Samaria not only heard but received the word of God (in other words they believed it) (Acts 8:14), they did not automatically and immediately have the infilling of the Holy Spirit. Peter and John were sent to them to pray for them to receive the Holy Spirit “for he had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.” (v.16). They had both received the word of God and were baptised (presumably in water) in the Name of Jesus, but none of these two events automatically included Spirit baptism. Peter and John had to pray and lay hands on them to receive the Holy Spirit (vv.15 and 17).

Similarly, Saul needed prayer and the laying on of hands for the infilling of the Spirit after his dramatic conversion on the Damascus road where Jesus even appeared and spoke to him in an audible voice (Acts 9:3-4, 17). Later in his ministry, when Paul found some disciples at Ephesus who had been baptised into John’s baptism, he discovered that neither had they received the Spirit and nor did they know that there was a Holy Spirit (Acts 19:1-7). After Paul told them about the Holy Spirit and baptized them in the Name of Jesus, they received the Spirit through Paul’s laying on of hands. These two baptisms (in Christ and in his Holy Spirit) were separate events in this case. 

As seen with the Samaritans, Ephesians and Saul, receiving the word of God and baptism in the Name of Jesus does not necessarily secure the automatic and immediate infilling of the Holy Spirit. From these examples the praying and laying on of hands, notably by another Spirit-filled believer, seem to be necessary when it becomes clear that a person has put his faith in Christ but has not yet been baptized in the Spirit (see section 3.3 “Witness of the Spirit” below). 

It was not the same in the case of the conversion of the Roman centurion Cornelius. The “the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word” (Acts 10:44) while Peter was still preaching the gospel to Cornelius and his relatives and friends, and before Peter laid hands on anyone to receive the infilling of the Holy Spirit. Clearly they received the baptism of the Spirit without the laying on of hands. Not even prayer by another believer is mentioned, but only that they “heard the word”. Luke doesn’t mention whether all of those present believed the message of Jesus Christ and repented before they received the Holy Spirit, but at least he says nothing that would cause one to believe otherwise. 

I know a missionary couple in the Middle East who shared the gospel message with a Muslim man. After he repented from Islam and turned to Christ, they were only starting to teach him (all that Jesus had commanded) and hadn’t yet taught him about the Holy Spirit and that he needed to be baptized in the Spirit. When he saw them again, he tried to describe to them a strange thing that happened to him while he was alone in his house. The evidence of praying in tongues was to them the confirmation that the event that he described was in fact the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

At this point in time my preliminary answer to the question of whether salvation and Spirit baptism happens at the same or different times is “both are possible and both can be seen in Scripture”. For Cornelius and his companions it happened at the same time and for the Ephesians it happened at different times. 

At the cross Jesus interceded for mankind to receive mercy from the Father. Reconciliation with the Father is now available to all, but since He is a relational God, He requires a personal response from each individual, which involves faith, repentance and submission to his Lordship. He then confirms that a person belongs to Him through giving him his Spirit. The manifest presence and power of the Spirit can be experienced by such a person. The laying on of hands is sometimes necessary when it becomes clear that a believer is not yet filled with the Spirit.

The omnipresence of the Spirit of God doesn’t automatically bring us into an intimate relationship with Him. Scripture clearly testifies that the power of the Holy Spirit which is manifested in believers is due to His infilling of believers individually. The testimony of Scripture is that Pentecost was only the first outpouring on those who have already repented.

The relationship between the infilling of the Spirit and salvation now needs more attention.