Baptisms (Conclusion)

Why Baptism in Water and in Spirit? – The Necessity and Essentiality of Both!

Acts 22:16 - And now why tarriest thou? Arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord. [Emphasis added are mine]

Hebrews 9:14 - How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? [Emphasis added are mine]

According to the scriptures, water baptism is the act of faith through obedience that applies the blood of Christ to our lives, washing away our sins and purging our conscience from the guilt and shame of our own sin and failures and more specifically from dead works to serve the living God.

Romans 6:3 - Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? [Emphasis added are mine]

Water baptism is an act of faith through obedience that immerses us into his death.

Romans 6:4 - 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. [Emphasis added are mine]

We are unashamed to baptize in His name and call upon Jesus because we are enjoined to Jesus in His death.

Baptism in water and in Spirit (“Baptisms”) is an act of faith through obedience that allows us to say and experience that “I died and am resurrected alive in Christ”.

We are buried, by water baptism, into His death. This is how we die. And in the same manner that Christ was raised up by the glory of the Father -His most precious Holy Spirit- we also walk in the newness of life by His Holy Spirit of resurrection.

Romans 8:1-5 - There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. [Emphasis added are mine]

The newness of life is according to the new law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus. We are free from the old law of sin and death. We do not need to fulfill the law in order to obtain righteousness, but He has made a way that the righteousness of the law be fulfilled in us.

By walking in the Spirit, which was an impossibility before becoming born again, we walk according the new law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus. This law supercedes the old law and frees us from the law of sin and death.

Romans 6:5 - For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:

We have been planted (past tense) together in the likeness of His death (by baptism in water) and shall be also in the resurrection (by baptism in the Spirit who will bring this to fruition).

Romans 6:6 - Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed {destroyed meaning inactivated – to render idle, unemployed, inoperative, to cause a person or thing to have no further efficiency, power, force or influence}, that henceforth we should not serve sin.

The “sin factory” that is our flesh has been inactivated. It has been rendered powerless and inoperative. Jesus did this so that we should not serve sin anymore. We had no choice beforehand. We were not lead or empowered by the Spirit of Christ in anything we did. We did whatsoever our previous father (satan) willed. But now, we are no longer forced to serve sin. We can leave that sin factory and walk in “Spirit factory” that only produces righteousness.

II Corinthians 13:4 - For though he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him by the power of God toward you.

He was crucified through weakness, His flesh, yet He liveth forever by the power (the Spirit) of God. We also our weak in Him because of our flesh, but we strengthen and overcome by the power (the Spirit) of God.

Being baptized in water and in Spirit allows us to confidently and boldly say and live out that,

Galatians 2:20 - I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. [Emphasis added are mine]

Faith defined is a fully persuaded belief that is ensued by action coinciding with that belief. It is not simply a mental assent of knowledge or truth. It is not simply agreeing with something that is true. Biblical faith provokes that person to act upon that belief in some fashion and allow it to dictate their actions. A synonym that I think is better suited to the biblical definition of faith is the word trust. Trust has more of the connotation of surrendering or abandoning one’s self into the care of another. Biblical faith is absolutely and undeniably active in nature and expression.

By faith we are crucified already with and in Christ. We live, but it really isn’t us, it’s Christ living in and through us. We live by the faith of the Son of God. The faith of the Son of God is a life that is completely abandoned and surrendered to the will of God, just as the man Jesus the Christ.

We no longer have to serve sin because Jesus (God) doesn’t sin and if we walk in the Spirit we will not sin.

Romans 6:7 - For he that is dead is freed from sin. [Emphasis added are mine]

I Peter 2:24 - Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.

If we by faith are truly dead then we are freed from sin. That is a powerfully liberating truth. We live, not for ourselves (we died), to serve God for Him, by Him, and through Him. We live no longer to sin, but unto righteousness.

Romans 6:9,10 - Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. [Emphasis added are mine]

Death will never have dominion over us. We will never die again because we live unto God and that is eternal. Our flesh may die, but that is just the housing of who we are. We are spirits and our spirits live eternally in Jesus. God never died, but His flesh did. He raised up that body and glorified it and He lives forever.

He died once. We died once – in the baptism in water in His precious name. We live now, by the Spirit, unto God forever, never to die again.

Romans 6:14 - For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. [Emphasis added are mine]

Sin will not have dominion over us because we are not under law. We are now under grace – the spiritual empowerment of His Spirit causes us to walk in righteousness. He fulfills righteousness in us because He is doing and living through us. It is not us. It’s all about Him being the “One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all” (Ephesians 4:6)

The penalty of sin is death. The law of sin and death simply states if you sin you die. We were all under the law and that penalty. But God made a way for us to come out from under that law. When we obey the gospel of Jesus Christ we get baptized in water. Not only for the forgiveness of sins, but because Jesus paid the death penalty. When we die in Him, we also die to the law.

Ephesians 5:25b - even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;

In the Old Covenant, because of the law, if a man and woman were married they remained married until death one’s death. If the man or the woman died, the other man or woman became free again. Obeying the gospel of Jesus Christ is how God made a way for us to die to the law, without paying the penalty of death because Christ already gave Himself up for the church. That resulted in us being free to walk according the freedom found in the new law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus. This new law is not a license to sin, but a divine empowerment to serve the living God.

Titus 3:5 - Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; [Emphasis added are mine]

We were baptized into the body of His death (through water) – “the washing of regeneration”. But we were baptized also into the body of His life - the body of the resurrected Christ (through His Spirit) – “the renewing of the Holy Ghost”.

1 Corinthians 6:11 - And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God. [Emphasis added are mine]

We are washed, sanctified and justified by both the name of the Lord Jesus at water baptism and the Spirit of our God at the baptism of the Spirit. Again the work here is shown to be inseparable.

I Corinthians 10:1,2 - Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; [Emphasis added are mine]

Even the New Covenant shows that the Old Covenant did not separate the “baptisms”. All were baptized into Moses (a type or foreshadow of Jesus) in the cloud (type or foreshadow of the baptism in the Spirit) and in the sea (type or foreshadow of the baptism in water).

Galatians 3:27 - For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

Being baptized into Christ refers both into His death (for he didn’t remain dead and neither did we) and into His life (because He resurrected and so did we in Him). We can say we are dressed with Christ.

I Corinthians 12:13 - For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. [Emphasis added are mine]

By the one and only Spirit of God we were baptized into His body (the Church). Is His body (the Church) dead? His physical body that resurrected represented His spiritual Church (body). So one Spirit baptized us into a living body, the living body of Jesus Christ that is active and present throughout the world today bringing light and hope to a dark and lost world.

Colossians 2:12 - Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead. [Emphasis added are mine]

Again, Paul claims we were buried (past tense) in baptism with Him. That is why water baptism is a type of death and burial of/with Jesus Christ. But we are risen (present tense), right now, with Him through the faith of the operation of God. The operation of God is akin to the Holy Spirit of God that raised Him from the dead. It is the Holy Spirit that enlivens our mortal bodies and empowers us to serve a living God.

I Peter 3:21 - The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ: [Emphasis added are mine]

Repentance is akin to death - dying to our lusts and desires that are contrary to God. Baptism is akin to burial, but Peter said that baptism also now saves us by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We have a good conscience toward God because we have obeyed His gospel and come to Him on His terms. Again, Peter will not separate the water and the Spirit. He recognizes both and affirms the essentiality of both.

Knowing that we died, were buried and are now risen (resurrected) in Him, these next three passages should have a whole new meaning:

Matthew 16:25 - For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.

Mark 8:35 - For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it.

John 2:25 - He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.

We must lose our life for His sake before we can find true life.

We must lose our life for His sake and the gospel’s to actually save it.

We must hate our own life (the life that acts independent and undependent upon God) to keep the eternal life that is only found in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Death and burial are necessary to be resurrected. We cannot be resurrected into a new life in Christ Jesus without dying first. So both baptism in water and in the Spirit are necessary for all of the aforementioned reasons. They are essential to becoming born again (John 3:3-5).