By Bob Vaughn -
uca@uncommonanswers.com
"Contending for the faith once delivered to the saints"
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Baptism
- In the Spirit, In the Water, & Into the Body!
Scriptures teach in Ephesians 4:5 that there
is "one baptism". Of the seven types of baptisms mentioned in the Bible
the two that stand out the most are "water baptism" and "spirit
baptism". Another type of baptism, preached less and needed most, and I
believe the "one baptism" spoken of in Ephesians 4:5, is "baptism into
the body of Christ". This baptism happens at salvation - God does it,
and therefore it is, very probably, the "one baptism" in Ephesians 4:5.
Contrary to popular teaching,
Spirit
baptism happened once on the day of Pentecost shortly after Jesus'
ascension.
· The disciples were told by Jesus that they
were to be baptized with the Holy Ghost (Acts 1:5).
· John the Baptist told ALL the people that
Jesus would baptize them with the Holy Ghost and fire (Luke 3:16).
· Peter, quoting the prophet Joel, said God had
poured out His Spirit on ALL flesh (Acts 2:17).
· After this day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit,
having been poured out on all flesh, began to convince the WORLD of
sin, righteousness, and judgment (John 16:8).
· Today as then, we all-- baptized in the Holy
Spirit--find the Lord not far off but near, for in Him we live and move
and have our being (Acts 17:27-28).
All these voices in the
scriptures
teach us that God’s Spirit has been poured out on ALL flesh - in Him we
all live, move and have our being.. Nowhere in scriptures do we find
men being baptized in the Spirit after the day of Pentecost in Acts 2.
But men since that day, beginning with the apostles, have been being
FILLED with the Holy Spirit. When anything is baptized in a substance
it is surrounded by the substance, but it is not filled until the
substance comes inside. ALL flesh is baptized in the Holy Spirit but
NOT ALL FLESH have been filled with the Holy Spirit.
Water baptism is thought by many to be instrumental in the washing away
of sins. Although the scriptures clearly teach that only the blood of
Jesus has power to redeem us from our sins, there are some scriptures
that, being read without careful consideration may influence a person
to believe water baptism takes away our sin..
· I Peter 3:20, in speaking of Noah and his
family being saved in the ark, says he was saved "by" water. The Greek
text more properly says "through" water,
but
anyone without the Greek who
knows the story of Noah (Genesis 8,9) knows that he was saved IN the ark, THROUGH the
water. It was Noah's
getting into the ark that saved him, not the water.
Likewise, we are saved by being baptized into Christ,
our ark (Romans 6:3-4).
· Acts 2:38 says, "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."
Acts 2:38, as
well as, Romans10:9-10 & Acts 16:31 & John 3:16 & John 3:36
& Romans 10:13 when read in context all
teach REPENTANCE and
CONTINUED OBEDIENCE as the way. Matthew 26:28 says,
"For this is my blood of the new testament which is shed for the remission
of sins".
Jesus' blood is the cleansing
agent applied to our sins as we TRUST and OBEY.
· Mark 16:16 teaches that belief, when
accompanied by water baptism saves, and that the man who doesn't
believe shall be damned.
But NOTHING is said of the believer who
isn't yet baptized. Baptism as an act of obedience to our Lord should
be a part of our early Christian growth,
but to try to render condemnation to a believer who
can't be baptized or hasn't yet been baptized because of lack of knowledge
or opportunity is reading to
much into this passage. We are saved so that we can obey, we aren’t saved by what we do
(Ephesians 2:8-10).
Water baptism, done in obedience, is a physical show of a spiritual
event - of our being baptized into the body of Christ (Romans 6:3-4).
I believe baptism into the body of Christ is the baptism spoken of in
Ephesians 4:5.
Let's examine the scriptures:
· I Corinthians 12:13: "For by one Spirit are
we all BAPTIZED INTO ONE BODY".--Clearly, in this baptism we are
all brought into one body--that of
Christ--by
the Holy Spirit, not brought into
the water by the pastor..
· Galatians 3:27: "For as many of you as have
been baptized into Christ have put on Christ".--We are baptized into
Christ, not into water, therefore we
have put Him
on.
· Romans 6:3-4: "Know ye not that so many of
us as were BAPTIZED INTO JESUS CHRIST were baptized into his death?
Therefore
we are buried with Him
by baptism
into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the
glory of the Father, even so we also should
walk in newness of life.". When
we are baptized into Jesus Christ
are we partakers of His death, His burial and his
resurrection. Only then can we live the new life.
When we are in His body, we are partakers of the benefits of His death
(Romans 6:3). We then put to death, by faith (Romans 6:11), the deeds
of the "old man" (Romans 8:13-14, I Corinthians 12:13). Our "old man",
BAPTIZED INTO CHRIST'S BODY, is dead and buried with Him. We are now
resurrected with Him and live in NEWNESS OF LIFE (Romans 6:4,.
Ephesians 4:24).
Bob Vaughn