Baptism in the Spirit
How do people receive the Spirit? First, the Spirit regenerates, gives us a new birth, which we’ll talk more about in chapter 41. In the new birth, the Spirit is like the wind, which goes anywhere it wants (John 3:8). So in the first instance, it is not we who receive the Spirit, but it is the Spirit who receives us.
This initial regeneration is sometimes called in Scripture the “baptism in the Holy Spirit.” Paul describes it this way in 1 Corinthians 12:13: “For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.” Cf. Matt. 3:11; John 1:33; Acts 1:5; 11:16. You see that the baptism of the Spirit includes all believers. In fact, the baptism of the Spirit is what makes us one body. Without that baptism, we are not part of the body of Christ. So everyone in the body has been baptized in the Spirit.
Some people think that the baptism of the Spirit is an experience that comes after conversion. But 1 Corinthians 12:13 and other texts show that that is not so. Everybody who is converted, everyone who is a Christian, is baptized in the Spirit. There are not two groups in the church, one baptized in the Spirit and the other not. If that were true, it would be a basis for disunity, rather than, as Paul says, a basis for unity.
Nor is this a repeated experience. It happens at regeneration, at the new birth. And as we will see, the new birth happens only once.
In the baptism of the Spirit, the Spirit comes on us with power to serve Jesus as his covenant people. He unites us to all the other people in his body, so that together with them we may do God’s work in the world.
John M. Frame, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Christian Belief (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2013), 926–927.
How do people receive the Spirit? First, the Spirit regenerates, gives us a new birth, which we’ll talk more about in chapter 41. In the new birth, the Spirit is like the wind, which goes anywhere it wants (John 3:8). So in the first instance, it is not we who receive the Spirit, but it is the Spirit who receives us.
This initial regeneration is sometimes called in Scripture the “baptism in the Holy Spirit.” Paul describes it this way in 1 Corinthians 12:13: “For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.” Cf. Matt. 3:11; John 1:33; Acts 1:5; 11:16. You see that the baptism of the Spirit includes all believers. In fact, the baptism of the Spirit is what makes us one body. Without that baptism, we are not part of the body of Christ. So everyone in the body has been baptized in the Spirit.
Some people think that the baptism of the Spirit is an experience that comes after conversion. But 1 Corinthians 12:13 and other texts show that that is not so. Everybody who is converted, everyone who is a Christian, is baptized in the Spirit. There are not two groups in the church, one baptized in the Spirit and the other not. If that were true, it would be a basis for disunity, rather than, as Paul says, a basis for unity.
Nor is this a repeated experience. It happens at regeneration, at the new birth. And as we will see, the new birth happens only once.
In the baptism of the Spirit, the Spirit comes on us with power to serve Jesus as his covenant people. He unites us to all the other people in his body, so that together with them we may do God’s work in the world.
John M. Frame, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Christian Belief (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2013), 926–927.
