Gospel of John [Joh 16:12-15]. The Doctrine of the HS, part 20. Rom 1:7; 8:28, 30; Tit 3:5.

Title: Gospel of John [JOH 16:12-15]. The Doctrine of the HS, part 20. 1CO 12:13; Php 2:1-8; EPH 4:4-6.

 

Announcements/opening prayer:  Conference and cancelled classes

 

 

The new nature provides a will to do the will of God, and the power of God provides the enablement to accomplish this end in spite of the innate sinfulness of the sin nature.

 

Eternal life and the new nature are inseparably united. The dynamic of the new nature is fully realized when the will succumbs to the will of God.

 

This is when the wonder of the Christian experience becomes a fountain of love, joy, and peace within the heart of the believer. We see and experience the effects of what God has done.

 

HEB 10:31 For you showed sympathy to the prisoners, and accepted joyfully the seizure of your property, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and an abiding one.

 

Efficacious grace and regeneration both come with the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

 

Efficacious grace, regeneration, baptism of the Spirit, indwelling of the Spirit, and the sealing of the Spirit all happen simultaneously at the moment of salvation.

 

Baptism of the Spirit: Being entered into the body of Christ for a living unity and united to Jesus Christ in a reality of common life with Him.

 

L.S. Chafer writes in his book Grace:

A sphere is that which surrounds an object on every side and may even penetrate that object. To be within a sphere is to partake of all that it is and all that it imparts. Thus the bird is in the air, and the air is in the bird; the fish is in the water and the water is in the fish; the iron is in the fire and the fire is in the iron. Likewise, in the spiritual realm, Christ is the sphere of the believer’s posi­tion. He encompasses, surrounds, encloses, and indwells the believer. The believer is in Christ, and Christ is in the believer. Through the baptism with the Spirit, the Christian has become as much an organic part of Christ as the branch is a part of the vine, or the member is a part of the body. Being thus conjoined to Christ, the Father sees the saved one only in Christ, or as a living part of His own Son, and loves him as He loves His Son (EPH 1:6; JOH 17:23).

 

EPH 1:4-6

In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved

 

JOH 17:23

 I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, that the world may know that Thou didst send Me, and didst love them, even as Thou didst love Me.

 

The baptism of the Spirit is the one work Him which is found only in the present dispensation.

 

As this ministry is not found in the Old Testament and is not included in any prophecies regarding the millennium, it is peculiarly the work of the Holy Spirit for the present age, beginning with Pentecost and ending at the resurrection of the righteous when the living church is translated.

 

Baptism is sometimes improperly linked with the other ministries of indwelling or regeneration. While these occur simultaneously in a point of time they must be distinguished sharply in their nature. Sometimes baptism is identified with the filling of the Spirit. This is a terrible error since the believer is never admonished to be baptized by the Spirit.

 

Some of the holiness movements attempt to link the baptism of the Spirit with the temporary spiritual gifts of the early church and their exercise. This is found to be erroneous as well.

 

Because of the maze of conflicting opinions, the student of the word of God must stay close to the Scriptures as he must do with all essential doctrines.

 

Baptism mentioned in the gospels, and thus prior to Pentecost, are prophetic: MAT 3:11; MAR 1:8; LUK 3:16; JOH 1:33.

 

All references to baptism after Pentecost treat the baptism of the Holy Spirit as an existing reality.

 

The major passage is:

 

1CO 12:13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.

 

All Christians were baptized by the Holy Spirit at salvation. The Corinthians were guilty of gross sin and it was true of them.

 

It is evident from this passage that all Christians are baptized by the Holy Spirit, and that all who enter the number of the body of Christ do so because they are baptized by the Spirit. It may be noted that this passage is found in an epistle addressed to a church which is guilty of gross sins, of factions, and defection from the faith. Yet they are reminded that they are baptized by the Spirit. This work of the Spirit is not directed toward those who are free from guilt, nor is it held as an objective or height to reach. It is rather stated to be the universal work of the Spirit in every believer.

 

Christians are never exhorted to seek the baptism of the Spirit.

 

We are exhorted to be filled with the Spirit and to walk by means of the Spirit, but never to be baptized since it is a direct result of faith in Christ, accomplished by the omnipotence of God and not the free will of the believer.

 

One of the important results of B/HS is the union with all believers in the body of Christ in a living unity.

 

1CO 12:13 says that we are all baptized into one body.

 

Php 2:1 If therefore there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion,

 

Php 2:2 make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose.

 

Php 2:3 Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind let each of you regard one another as more important than himself;

 

Php 2:4 do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.

 

Php 2:5 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus,

 

Php 2:6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped,

 

Php 2:7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.

 

Php 2:8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

 

With Christ as the head of the body, the union of believers in the body is intimately connected with the fact that all believers are placed into union with Christ Himself forever.

 

B/HS places the believer into union with Christ forever and thereby sharing common life with Him.

 

This was anticipated by Christ in:

 

JOH 14:20 "In that day you shall know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.

 

Before the person who said yes to the common grace gospel and was subsequently baptized by the Holy Spirit, he was in Adam in which he could only partake in Adam's nature, sin, and destiny of death. But through this work of the Spirit of God the believer was removed from his position in Adam, and was placed in Christ.

 

All the benefits of his salvation rest upon his position. He is justified, sanctified, and delivered in victory forever. He has total access to God. He possesses Christ's inheritance and glory. The very real experience of these phenomenal and eternal gifts are now possible for him because of his unalterable position in Christ.

 

Baptism is also an identification. Your ID is the Lord Jesus Christ. Your citizenship and permanent address is in His New Jerusalem.

 

Naturally, this has been confused with water baptism which was not given as a means of salvation but as a symbol of the baptism of the Spirit.

 

Before water baptism could be administered to converts, the glorious reality of identification with Christ was already a fact, made real the moment of saving faith. Having been joined to Christ by the baptism of the Spirit, the believer is identified with the work of Christ on the cross and His triumph in resurrection. Water baptism was the symbol of the baptism of the Spirit which ef­fected the identification, but it was not the portrayal of the result of this identification, nor of the process of salvation. It is a sad reflection on the church’s spiritual discernment to observe the historic emphasis upon the ritual without the recognition of the baptism of the Holy Spirit which it represented. Today, many churches perform water baptism as a ritual and do not believe it has anything to do with salvation. They are correct, the ritual of water baptism has nothing to do with salvation. If their own conviction is to continue this as a ritual then they have the right to do so without interference or judgment from other churches who do not perform the ritual. It should not be a source of division in the body of Christ. I personally believe that it was a ritual for the early church  due to the need of impressing upon a believer the reality of the baptism of the Spirit. They did not have the completed canon of Scripture and much was still building in the Church. This demanded many temporary spiritual gifts and I believe water baptism fits into the same category. I have no animosity towards any pastor or church that continues the ritual as long as they do not believe that it is necessary for a person to be saved and or spiritual. I don't think any believer who knows the truth should not harbor any animosity towards them either. In human hands this ritual became a divisive force in the church instead of the portrayal of the unity of the body of Christ and its identification with Christ.

 

There is one baptism as there is one faith and one Lord.

 

EPH 4:4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling;

 

EPH 4:5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism,

 

EPH 4:6 one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.

 

All believers have the same Lord, are in the same body, have the same Spirit, the same call to election, the same doctrine of faith, the same Father, and we share in the one baptism of the Spirit.