Baptism is a sign and seal of the promise of the gospel. It presents to our eyes what we hear with our ears in the preaching and gives us a living picture of what it means to be washed in the blood of Christ.
If John the Baptist’s preaching was a proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ (click here to read about that), then it follows that his baptism was fundamentally the same as Christian baptism. John preached repentance and the remission of sins through faith in Jesus Christ as the way of entry into the kingdom. He baptized those who confessed their sins (Matt. 3:6) as a sign of these gospel truths. He said, “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance” (Matt. 3:11), and Mark records that he “came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins” (Mark 1:4). This is very same way that Acts 2:38 describes Christian baptism: “Then Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and let everyone of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.” The heart of Christian baptism is remission of sins through the blood of Jesus, and John’s baptism signified the same thing.
Yet the Scriptures seem to indicate that John’s baptism was different from Christian baptism. John himself said, “I indeed baptize you with water… but He who who is coming after me is mightier than I… He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Matt. 3:11). And Acts 19:1–7 records the story of some disciples who had been baptized into John’s baptism and had not received the Holy Spirit. Paul’s response to them was, “John indeed baptized with a baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on Him who would come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus.” He then baptized them in the name of the Lord Jesus and “when Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied” (Acts 19:6).
What was lacking in John’s baptism? The anointing of the Holy Spirit. Other passages teach a connection between Christian baptism and the Holy Spirit. “John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now” (Acts 1:5). “Be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ… and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38). “Can anyone forbid water, that these [Cornelius and his household] should not be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” (Acts 10:47). Usually the gift of the Holy Spirit followed baptism, but in the case of Cornelius God confirmed for doubting Peter that baptism was also for Gentiles by giving the gift of the Spirit first. When Jewish believers in Judea questioned him he said, “As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them, as upon us at the beginning. Then I remembered the word of the Lord, how He said, ‘John indeed baptized you with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ If therefore God gave them the same gift as He gave us when we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could withstand God?” (Acts 11:15–17).
But all this is not to say that the charismatics are right to teach that baptism with the Holy Spirit is a second blessing and a communication of the extraordinary gifts of speaking in tongues and prophesying. Though those gifts were at times associated with baptism, the fundamental meaning of baptism with the Holy Spirit is the washing away of sin. Baptism with water is the sign; baptism with the Holy Spirit is the reality to which the sign points. “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 baptism of the Spirit washes away sins (Acts 22:16), baptizes us into Christ’s death (Rom. 6:3), and clothes us with Christ (Gal. 3:27).
But there is another dimension to baptism with the Spirit that we must not ignore. We receive from Him not only the washing away of sins but also an anointing which makes us prophets, priests and kings with our Lord Jesus Christ.
The extraordinary gifts of tongues, prophecy and so on are only external manifestations of this internal and invisible gift. The external gifts were for a few; the internal gift for all. “This is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: ‘And it shall come to pass in the last days,’ says God, ‘That I will pour out of my Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your young men shall see visions, Your old men shall dream dreams. And on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days, and they shall prophesy'” (Acts 2:16–18). The anointing of the Holy Spirit is not primarily for extraordinary gifts to a few, but for anointing to office for all. It is a fulfillment of the prophecy of Jeremiah 31:34: “No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.” “You have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things” (1 John 2:20).
After His baptism by John, Jesus also received this anointing. The Holy Spirit descended on Him in the form of a dove, and God proclaimed Him to be His beloved Son, in whom He was well-pleased (Matt. 3:17). That explains why Jesus answered the question about His authority to cleanse the temple with another question: “The baptism of John—where was it from? From heaven or from men?” (Matt. 21:25). He was not just confounding their impertinence but appealing to the God-given sign of His authority. He had been anointed with the Spirit. It was part of the work given Him by the Father that He should cleanse the temple.
Therefore the errors of the charismatics are:
- That they separate baptism with water from baptism with the Holy Spirit. Water baptism signifies and seals the giving of the Holy Spirit.
- That they misunderstand the anointing of the Spirit. It is not primarily a bestowing of secondary, temporary, and extraordinary gifts, but an adding to the washing away of sins the gift of becoming prophets, priests and kings with Christ.
- That they limit the anointing with the Spirit to the few who receive the extraordinary gifts, whereas the Holy Spirit anoints every Christian. In fact, anointing of all who are in Christ is why the name Christian (anointed one) is blessedly appropriate for every true believer. We all are prophets to know the Lord in the special sense of Jeremiah 31:34, we all are priests to offer our bodies as living sacrifices (Rom. 12:1), and Christ has even made us kings to reign on the earth (Rev. 5:10).
Baptism signifies and seals it to all true believers.