BAPTISM INTO
THE LORD JESUS
CHRIST
6. Spirit-filled
Baptists that are sent by the Lord Jesus Christ
The word “apostle” is derived from the Greek verb “apostello”
which means “to send”, and in the New
Testament it means “a person who is sent”
or “a messenger” sent on a mission for a
particular purpose. During His earthly
ministry, the Lord Jesus Christ sent His twelve apostles to proclaim the
Kingdom of God was at hand. (Mt. 10:1-8)
The Lord also sent seventy of His disciples to proclaim the same
message. (Lk. 10:1-9) After His death
and resurrection, the Lord Jesus Christ spoke to His disciples: “Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send
you.’ And when He had said this, He
breathed on them, and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are
forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” (Jn.
20:21-23) Receiving the Holy
Spirit is the sign of being sent by the Lord Jesus Christ. On the evening after the Lord’s
resurrection, the disciples had received only a measure of the Holy
Spirit. The full measure was yet to
come. It came on the Day of Pentecost when “they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to
speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” (Acts 2:4) Speaking with tongues is evidence of
receiving the Baptism of the Holy Spirit (Acts 10:44-46; 19:6).
The power and
authority of remission and retention of sins are the keys to the Kingdom of
God. Our Lord Jesus said, “And I will give
you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be
bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” (Mt. 16:19; 18:18) This tremendous power and authority is given
only to Spirit-filled ministers who are sent by the Lord Jesus Christ (Jn.
20:21-23; Acts 1:8). In what way can
this power and authority be exercised?
There are two definite steps in which the authority of remission and
retention of sins can be applied.
1.
Through preaching of the
Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ In
His Great Commission our Lord Jesus Christ said that “repentance and remission of sins should be
preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.” (Lk. 24:47) The Gospel of Jesus Christ “is the power of
God to salvation for every one who believes” (Rom. 1:16). “For whoever calls upon the name of the LORD
shall be saved. How then shall they
call on Him whom they have not believed?
And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a
preacher? And how shall they preach
unless they are sent? As it is written:
How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring
glad tidings of good things!” (Rom. 10:13-15) It is clearly stated that preachers of the
Gospel of Jesus Christ are sent by the Lord.
The message that they bring must include repentance and remission of
sins.
2. Through Baptism
in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ Also in His Great Commission our Lord
gave this commandment: “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every
creature, He who believes and is
baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.” (Mk.
16:15-16). The disciples of Jesus Christ obeyed His
commandment. They preached the death,
burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and also repentance. They baptized those who believed in Him and
repented of their sins. On the Day of
Pentecost Peter preached, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of
Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the
Holy Spirit.” (Acts 2:38) “Then those who gladly received his word
were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them.”
(Acts 2:41)
It must be clearly understood that God is the only Person in
the whole universe who can remit and retain the sins of mankind (Isa. 43:25;
Lk. 5:21). “Then Jesus came and spoke to them, saying,
‘All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.” (Mt. 28:18). As God who manifested Himself in the
flesh the Lord Jesus Christ has the power and authority to forgive sins (Lk.
5:20-24). This power and authority of
remitting and retaining sins is vested in the three elements belonging to the
Lord Jesus Christ. They are in His
Name, His Blood and His atoning death.
1.
The Name of the Lord Jesus Christ save people from
their sins (Mt. 1:21). Through His
Name, whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins (Acts.
10:43). Baptism in the Name of the Lord
Jesus Christ remits sins (Acts 2:38; 22:16).
2.
The Blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ “is shed for many for the remission of sins.” (Mt. 26:28). His Blood can purge our conscience from
dead works (Heb. 9:14, 22). “To Him who loved
us and washed us from our sins in His own blood.” (Rev. 1:5). “This is He who came by water and blood -
Jesus Christ; not only by water, but by water and blood.” (1 Jn. 5:6)
3.
The Atoning Death of the Lord Jesus Christ “For
I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to
the Scriptures,” (1 Cor. 15:3) “. . .
He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.” (Heb. 9:26, 28;
Isa. 53:10)
God has placed all these three elements for the remission of
sins into water baptism so that any person who believes in the Lord Jesus
Christ and repent of his sins may be saved.
When the Lord spoke to His disciples about remission and retention of
sins He had implied water baptism in His Name, His Blood and His sacrificial death.
Let us remember that before the Lord gave the disciples
power to forgive and retain sins He first “breathed on them, and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy
Spirit.’” (Jn. 20:22-23) On
that evening when our Lord said those words He had only given a small measure
of the Holy Spirit. It was like a
foretaste of an appetizer to a banqueting feast. The disciples were not ready to preach and baptize anyone from
that point onwards. That is the reason
why our Lord “commanded
them not to depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the Promise of the Father, . .
. but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” (Acts
1:4-5) “Behold, I send the Promise of
My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued
with power from on high.” (Lk. 24:49)
“But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and
you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to
the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)
The authority and power of remitting and retaining sins lies in the
filling of the Holy Spirit. Only after
the disciples had been “filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with
tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance” that the apostle Peter was able to preach the
gospel with such great force and power that the listeners “were cut to the heart.” The Holy Spirit inspired Peter to preach
with conviction: “Repent,
and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the
remission of sins; and you shall receive the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 2:38) This statement is the clear scriptural
evidence that the authority and power of remission and retention of sins is
placed on the sacrament of baptism in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ. After receiving the baptism of the Holy
Spirit the disciples exercised this power and authority and baptized about
three thousand people on that day (Acts 2:41)
In reading through the Acts of the Apostles we shall find
that every one of the baptists have been filled with the Holy Spirit. Philip was a man who was filled with the
Holy Spirit (Acts 6:3-5). He went to
the city of Samaria to preach the things concerning the Kingdom of God and the
name of Jesus Christ, and there he baptized men and women (Acts 8:5,
12-13). He was also sent by the Holy
Spirit to preach and baptize the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:26-40). The Lord also sent Ananias , an obedient and
Spirit-filled Christian to baptize Saul, who later became known as Paul (Acts
9:17-18). The importance of the Holy
Spirit cannot be overemphasized in the sacrament of water baptism.
“For by one Spirit we were all baptized into
one body - whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free - and have all been
made to drink into one Spirit.” (1 Cor. 12:13)
The Holy Spirit is mentioned twice. The first one is related to water baptism and
the second is related to baptism of the Holy Spirit. (Acts 1:5) Paul had also made a distinction between
water baptism and baptism of the Holy Spirit (Acts 19:1-6). He connected the crossing of the Red Sea to
water baptism, and drinking the spiritual drink to baptism of the Holy Spirit
(1 Cor. 10:1-4; ref. Jn. 7:37-39). It
is safe to interpret “for by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body”
to mean that it is the Holy Spirit Who baptizes all Christians into the
Body of Christ - the Church of Jesus Christ.
If the Holy Spirit is the true Baptizer, then we must accept the truth
that the baptist who physically performs the water baptism is only acting as an
agent for the Holy Spirit.
The apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthian Church: “. . . But you are
washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the Name of the Lord
Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.” (1 Cor. 6:11) In the sacrament of water baptism the Name
of the Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit effect sins to be remitted. Without the Name of the Lord Jesus and the
Holy Spirit the person receiving baptism could not be washed, sanctified or
justified. The water baptism will just
be another ceremony or ritual for the spectator, and it will have no saving
effect because no sins are remitted.
The apostle John was an eye-witness to the miraculous
phenomenon of the blood and water flowing from our Lord’s side (Jn.
19:34-35). He later wrote: “This is He who
came by water and blood - Jesus Christ; not only by water, but by water and
blood. And it is the Spirit who bears
witness, because the Spirit is truth.” (1 Jn. 5:6) The blood
and water flowed out from the Lord’s side nearly two thousand years ago. When we administer water baptism in our
present time the water is tangible and visible, but where is the Blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ? The answer lies in
the presence of the Holy Spirit who is the witness. The Blood of Jesus Christ was offered through the eternal Spirit
(Heb. 9:14). Through the witness of the
Holy Spirit the Blood of Jesus Christ is present in the water during the
baptism because the Holy Spirit is truth and He is eternal. From this we can see that the baptist who
does not have the Holy Spirit is not qualified to administer water baptism
because he is not sent by the Lord Jesus Christ.
May God bless you.
