“John answered them all, ‘I baptize you with water. But One who is more powerful than I will come, the straps of whose sandals I am unworthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” Luke 3:16.
Last section we considered the necessary role that repentance plays in our seeking - and re-seeking - for our Lord Jesus Christ. What is it that such a genuine recognition of our sinfulness and wretchedness would cry out for? Forgiveness? Cleansing? Jesus?
How about all of the above – in baptism?
William Hendriksen reminds us that John’s prediction pertaining to the coming of the baptism with the Holy Spirit and fire itself was “fulfilled on the day of Pentecost and during the era which it introduced.”[1] That includes us.
Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones takes the teaching a step further when, in reference to 1 Corinthians 12:13, he asserts that, “Our being baptized into the body of Christ is the work of the Spirit, as regeneration is His work, but this [in Luke 3:16] is something different; this is Christ baptizing us with the Holy Spirit.”[2] That still includes us.
The Apostle Paul prays that the Ephesian Christians would come “to be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:19). That was a prayer for those who were already Christians. Even as Christians, even after all we have already received, there is yet still more to be given and received. Backsliding merely highlights this need in a greater way.
So what does it mean to be baptized with the Spirit?
Dr Lloyd-Jones, while helpfully reminding us that the purpose of this baptism is found in how it is generally used as a calling and anointing to the service of God, doesn't want us to get distracted from the fact that baptism with the Spirit brings to us, first and foremost, “a sense of the glory of God, an unusual sense of the presence of God.” Isn’t this what we are wanting - the presence of God and a renewed revealing of the glory of God in Jesus Christ? Isn't that what we are searching for?
This prospect is what the repentant backslider so desperately cries out for - firstly, the purging away of our sins by this baptism of fire, to the purifying and cleansing of our entire beings (there is mercy and grace in this fire for those in Jesus Christ!) And then, “once the sin within us is effectively dealt with, God welcomes us into a level of intimacy with Him we never dreamed possible”[3] - that is to say, a sense of the glory of God, and an unusual sense of the presence of God.
It was a desire for that intimacy with God that set us off on this journey. Can you feel how close it is now getting? Do you really believe that this is what is on offer to you in Jesus Christ?
As Fred A. Hartley III lays out the initial principles of the Holy Spirit's working, he says, “it is the Holy Spirit who drew us initially to Christ. It is the Holy Spirit who opened our hearts to Christ and who came to live inside us when we received Christ. It is the Holy Spirit who keeps us seeking hard after Christ so that every day we are falling more deeply in love with Christ.”[4] And as we can now see, it is also the Holy Spirit who brings us to Christ and who brings the glory of God and the presence of God in Jesus Christ to us – because the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ. To be baptised with the Holy Spirit is to be baptised with the presence of Christ.
The idea of baptism conjures up images of our being totally submerged in this glorious work of the Holy Spirit; to be filled to overflowing; to be stood under the refreshing waterfall of this glorious out-pouring of the Holy Spirit - bringing us to Christ; bringing Christ to us so that we are submerged under the love and grace and wonder of Jesus Christ, completely, totally, thoroughly... to the point of complete cleansing; to the point of glorious refreshing; even to the point of anointing to service.
Fred A. Hartley III recalled the time when, as a young man, a lady in his church informed him that she was specifically praying that he would be given the gift of the Holy Spirit. “I already have the Holy Spirit!” he smugly stated (his words, not mine!). Smiling back, the lady replied, “But does the Holy Spirit have you?”[5]
We cannot find Jesus Christ, or ever hope to be able to come into His presence, without the work of the Holy Spirit. For the Holy Spirit to come and submerge us beneath the power of His gracious holiness, purging us of our sin, revealing the glory of God to us (perhaps over anew, perhaps to a fuller revelation) and bringing us into the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ once again ought to be the desire of our hearts if our desires are for Jesus Himself. Jesus freely and fully offers Himself to us - read through the epistles of Paul to see many of the wonders that that entails. Why would we be satisfied with anything less than the revealing of the glory of God and the unusual presence of God - or, in other words, Jesus Christ Himself?
John the Baptist was trying to remind the people that “though he could exhort them to repent, and assure them of forgiveness, upon repentance; he could not work repentance in them, nor confer remission on them.”[6] But pointing toward Jesus, he said, “But He can! He alone baptizes with the Holy Spirit and with fire.”
“See, the Lord is coming with fire.” Isaiah 66:15.
[1] William Hendriksen, The Gospel of Luke, (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1997), p.210. [2] D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Joy Unspeakable: The Baptism and Gifts of the Holy Spirit, (Eastbourne: David C Cook, 1995), p.24. [3] Lloyd-Jones, p.94. [4] Fred A. Hartley III, Prayer On Fire: What Happens When The Holy Spirit Ignites Your Prayers, (Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2006), p.47. [5] Hartley III, p.49. [6] Matthew Henry, Matthew Henry’s Commentary: The Four Gospels, (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1974), p.373.