THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IN THE BELIEVER
1
THE HOLY SPIRIT AND SALVATION
The gift of salvation has been provided by the work of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Father provided the sacrifice for our sins, the perfect Lamb of God. Christ, the Son, took our place and died on the cross for our salvation. It was the power of the Holy Spirit that enabled Christ to pay the ultimate sacrifice for us:
Heb. 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?
The work of the Holy Spirit is so subtle and mysterious that apart from the knowledge of the Word of God, His work in the believer would scarcely be known. Yet that work in the believer’s salvation is clearly shown in:
John 16:
7 Nevertheless, I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter (Holy Spirit) will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.
8 And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:
9 Of sin, because they believe not on me;
10 Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more;
11 Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.
The Greek word here translated reprove in verse 8 means to convince or enlighten. The natural man, as a descendant of the fallen Adam, is totally incapable of believing in Christ for salvation:
Romans 3:
10 …There is none righteous, no, not one:
11 There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.
12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
If, then, it is impossible for us to believe in Christ in our own strength, it must therefore be the work of the Holy Spirit to enlighten us. The emphasis on the sin in John 16:9 is not referring to our sins of everyday living but the sin of not believing on Christ.
Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer, past President of Dallas Theological Seminary and author of his Systematic Theology, said, “It is the work of the Spirit to enlighten the unsaved with respect to the one determining sin, that they believe not on Christ.”
Subsequent to believing on Christ through the Spirit is the revelation that Christ died for our personal sins. The emphasis on the sins of I Corinthians 15:3 is referring to the fact that Christ died for all of the sins we have committed during our lifetime:
I Corinthians 15:
1 …I declare unto you the gospel…
2 …By which also ye are saved…
3 …how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;
4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures.
Once the Holy Spirit has enlightened us to believe in Christ as our Savior we discover that the scriptures are full of invitations to faith:
Acts 16:
30 …What must I do to be saved?
31 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved...
Romans 3:
22 Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference;
23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
Ephesians 2:
8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
9 Not or works, lest any man should boast.
According to John 16:7-11, the Holy Spirit enlightens the unbeliever concerning sin, righteousness and judgment. He reveals to them that the sin of rejecting Christ can be corrected by faith in the Savior. He imputes righteousness to the believer through Christ and finally shows us that Satan was judged at the death of Christ and thus believers are released from the power of the Devil.
2
THE INDWELLING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
Once the unbeliever accepts the prompting of the Holy Spirit and believes in Christ as his Savior, the work of indwelling begins by the Holy Spirit to bring the saint into perfection in the Body of Christ. The Holy Spirit indwells every believer at the time of salvation and never departs thereafter:
John 14:
16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
The Apostle Paul teaches that the gift of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is given alike to every believer:
Romans 5:
5 And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
The same truth is confirmed to every believer in:
I Corinthians 2:
12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
The Apostle Paul had to scold the Corinthian Christians for being worldly and carnal, yet he still insisted that they were the Temple of the Holy Spirit and were indwelt with Him:
I Corinthians 6:
19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.
Paul instructed the Galatians that the Holy Spirit was imparted to every believer at the time of his salvation not with any regard to good works or the works of the Law:
Galatians 3:
2 This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?
In Galatians 4:5 we learn that Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law that “we might receive the adoption of sons.” In the next verse we learn that because we are sons of God, He has sent the Holy Spirit into our hearts:
Galatians 4:
6 And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.
It is clear then that at the moment the Holy Spirit prompts a person to accept Jesus Christ as his Savior, he is forever indwelt with that same Spirit from God.
3
THE HOLY SPIRIT AS EARNEST
The word earnest means guarantee. When you buy a house you pay a down payment or earnest and are free to move into your new possession. The earnest means that you guarantee to pay the rest of the payments, so the home becomes yours. In the same way, the Holy Spirit is our earnest or guarantee that the eternal life that God promised us will indeed be ours:
II Corinthians 1:
21 Now he which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God;
22 Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.
II Corinthians 5:
5 Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.
Paul’s letter to the Ephesians clearly defines the work of the Holy Spirit as both sealer and guarantor of our blessings in glory. The word earnest in verse 14 means guarantee:
Ephesians 1:
13 In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise.
14 Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.
In Ephesians chapter 4 we are specifically told that the Holy Spirit has sealed us until the day of redemption. The seal here is the Holy Spirit Himself within the believer. He is the one that guarantees our entrance into the glories of heaven:
Ephesians 4:
30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.
4
THE FILLING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
As we have already seen, all believers have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Although there are no exhortations in the Bible to be indwelt with the Spirit, there are, however, many admonitions to be filled with the Spirit as in:
Ephesians 5:
18 …be filled with the Spirit
19 Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;
20 Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Being filled with the Spirit means allowing the Spirit to take control of a believer’s life so he may be able to live a life that is pleasing to God. The word of God contains many exhortations, both negative and positive to be filled with the Spirit. The book of Galatians contains both types. The first negative one is found in:
Galatians 5:
16 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things ye would.
18 But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.
19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time pasts, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
A positive type of the filling of the Holy Spirit is also found in Book of Galatians. Here are shown those characteristics that are evident in the believer who has yielded himself to the leading of the Spirit in his life:
Galatians 5:
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
It is important to remember that the Holy Spirit already indwells the believer. To be filled is to allow that Spirit to take control so as to manifest Christ in his everyday living.
The Spirit-filled life is allowing the Holy Spirit to fulfill in us all that Christ intended when He placed the Spirit in us. That Spirit-filled life is revealed through the believer when he rejects the fruit of the flesh and evidences the fruit of the Spirit in his everyday life.
5
THE BAPTISM OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
The meaning of the Greek word used for the baptism of the Holy Spirit means to put in or immerse. The word carries with it the thought of being put into something and remaining there. In the present case it refers to the Holy Spirit immersing the believer into the Body of Christ.
At the moment of salvation the Holy Spirit places every believer into the Body of Christ. From that moment on the believer is delivered from the headship of the first Adam and placed under the headship of Jesus Christ, the head of the Body. The believer then becomes a new creation in Christ.
John the Baptist taught in Matthew 3:11, Mark 1:8, Luke 3:16 and John 1:33 that there would be two different baptisms: water and the Holy Spirit. Notice the distinction in:
John 1: 33 And I knew him not: but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost.
Jesus also spoke about Spirit baptism:
Acts 1:
5 For John truly baptized with water: but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.
Acts 11:
16 Then remembered I the word of the Lord, how that he said, John indeed baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost.
In each of these cases, Jesus is the baptizer who baptizes believers with the Holy Ghost.
In the following scriptures, however, it is the Holy Spirit who baptizes the believer into the Body of Christ:
I Corinthians 12:
12 For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body so also is Christ.
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.
27 Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.
This baptism of believers into the Body of Christ is the one essential baptism recorded by the Apostle Paul for believers today in the age of grace.
Ephesians 4:
4 There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling;
5 One Lord, one faith, one baptism,
6 One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.
By this one baptism, which occurs on the day of salvation, all believers are united together into the Body of Christ, Jesus Christ himself being the head of the Body. It is this vital union with Christ that enables the believer to participate in the glory of Christ in the heavenlies for all eternity.
Galatians 3:
27 For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
The Greek scholar and President of Canyonview Bible College and Seminary, Dr. Ernest R. Campbell, has this to say about Galatians 3:27:
“The moment one believes on Jesus Christ as his Saviour he is identified with the Body of Christ, he is placed into the Church, through the baptism by the Spirit (cf. 1 Cor. 12:13; Eph. 4:5; Col. 2:12). The Holy Spirit produces this baptism according to the sovereign will of God (cf. 1 Cor. 2:10-11) in the process of history baptizing into the Body those chosen before the foundation of the world (cf. Eph.1:4). This baptism is a once-for-all transaction through which believers are made members of the Church, in which position they are sealed and secured unto the day of the redemption of their bodies.”
It is clear that this baptism into Christ in Galatians 3 and in the following passage in Romans 6 is the work of the Holy Spirit in placing the believer into Christ’s Body. Dr. Chafer comments on these passages as follows:
“Those baptized into Christ are baptized into His death, are buried with Christ by their baptism into the Savior’s death. No ordinance is intimated by these expressions…To discover in it only the outward form of a ritual ordinance, as many have done, is to surrender one of the most priceless assets in the whole field of Christian doctrine…”
Romans 6:
3 Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
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.
5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection.
Dr. Campbell’s comments on Romans 6:3 are given here:
“Now let us consider…the statement that “as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus we were baptized into his death.” The verb translated “were baptized” is in the aorist tense and passive voice, which means that at a given time in the past God the Holy Spirit baptized us into Christ i.e., identified us with the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:13; Gal. 3:27). The phrase “into Christ Jesus” is significant evidence which means that his baptism has identified us with the Body, the Church, and is apart from water.”
In Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament, the words planted together in Romans 6:5 have the meaning of: “have become united, have grown together; an intimate and progressive union.” This means that by the Holy Spirit’s baptism all believers are identified with Christ in His death, burial and resurrection. This truth is abundantly confirmed in:
Colossians 2:
9 For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.
10 And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:
11 In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:
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.
13 And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him having forgiven you all trespasses.
Here in Colossians chapter 2 we believers are spiritually identified with Christ in his death (the circumcision of Christ without hands), burial (buried with him in baptism) and resurrection (risen with him). Dr. Chafer says of this passage:
“The transformations which are here indicated, as they were also in Romans 6:1-10 could never be produced by any ritual baptism and to read ritual baptism into this passage is again to ignore the limitless realities for which Christ died, was buried, and rose again. It is to substitute a human effort for one of God’s most glorious achievements.”
Dr. Merrill Frederick Unger agrees and adds the following regarding Paul’s teaching about the Holy Spirit:
“In these passages (Romans 6:3,4; Colossians 2:12; Galatians 3:27; Ephesians 4:5) the holy Apostle is not considering ritual baptism at all… He is speaking of something infinitely higher - not of a mere symbolic ordinance that is powerless to effect intrinsic change, but of a divine operation which places us eternally in Christ, and into His experiences of crucifixion, death, burial, and resurrection.”
So then, let us give thanks that the indwelling and sealing work of the Holy Spirit together with our baptism into the Body of Christ are gifts of God that were given to us at the time of our conversion to Christ. Now we can rejoice with the Apostle Paul that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in us (I Cor. 6:19).
1
THE HOLY SPIRIT AND SALVATION
The gift of salvation has been provided by the work of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Father provided the sacrifice for our sins, the perfect Lamb of God. Christ, the Son, took our place and died on the cross for our salvation. It was the power of the Holy Spirit that enabled Christ to pay the ultimate sacrifice for us:
Heb. 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?
The work of the Holy Spirit is so subtle and mysterious that apart from the knowledge of the Word of God, His work in the believer would scarcely be known. Yet that work in the believer’s salvation is clearly shown in:
John 16:
7 Nevertheless, I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter (Holy Spirit) will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.
8 And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:
9 Of sin, because they believe not on me;
10 Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more;
11 Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.
The Greek word here translated reprove in verse 8 means to convince or enlighten. The natural man, as a descendant of the fallen Adam, is totally incapable of believing in Christ for salvation:
Romans 3:
10 …There is none righteous, no, not one:
11 There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.
12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
If, then, it is impossible for us to believe in Christ in our own strength, it must therefore be the work of the Holy Spirit to enlighten us. The emphasis on the sin in John 16:9 is not referring to our sins of everyday living but the sin of not believing on Christ.
Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer, past President of Dallas Theological Seminary and author of his Systematic Theology, said, “It is the work of the Spirit to enlighten the unsaved with respect to the one determining sin, that they believe not on Christ.”
Subsequent to believing on Christ through the Spirit is the revelation that Christ died for our personal sins. The emphasis on the sins of I Corinthians 15:3 is referring to the fact that Christ died for all of the sins we have committed during our lifetime:
I Corinthians 15:
1 …I declare unto you the gospel…
2 …By which also ye are saved…
3 …how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;
4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures.
Once the Holy Spirit has enlightened us to believe in Christ as our Savior we discover that the scriptures are full of invitations to faith:
Acts 16:
30 …What must I do to be saved?
31 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved...
Romans 3:
22 Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference;
23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
Ephesians 2:
8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
9 Not or works, lest any man should boast.
According to John 16:7-11, the Holy Spirit enlightens the unbeliever concerning sin, righteousness and judgment. He reveals to them that the sin of rejecting Christ can be corrected by faith in the Savior. He imputes righteousness to the believer through Christ and finally shows us that Satan was judged at the death of Christ and thus believers are released from the power of the Devil.
2
THE INDWELLING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
Once the unbeliever accepts the prompting of the Holy Spirit and believes in Christ as his Savior, the work of indwelling begins by the Holy Spirit to bring the saint into perfection in the Body of Christ. The Holy Spirit indwells every believer at the time of salvation and never departs thereafter:
John 14:
16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
The Apostle Paul teaches that the gift of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is given alike to every believer:
Romans 5:
5 And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
The same truth is confirmed to every believer in:
I Corinthians 2:
12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
The Apostle Paul had to scold the Corinthian Christians for being worldly and carnal, yet he still insisted that they were the Temple of the Holy Spirit and were indwelt with Him:
I Corinthians 6:
19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.
Paul instructed the Galatians that the Holy Spirit was imparted to every believer at the time of his salvation not with any regard to good works or the works of the Law:
Galatians 3:
2 This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?
In Galatians 4:5 we learn that Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law that “we might receive the adoption of sons.” In the next verse we learn that because we are sons of God, He has sent the Holy Spirit into our hearts:
Galatians 4:
6 And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.
It is clear then that at the moment the Holy Spirit prompts a person to accept Jesus Christ as his Savior, he is forever indwelt with that same Spirit from God.
3
THE HOLY SPIRIT AS EARNEST
The word earnest means guarantee. When you buy a house you pay a down payment or earnest and are free to move into your new possession. The earnest means that you guarantee to pay the rest of the payments, so the home becomes yours. In the same way, the Holy Spirit is our earnest or guarantee that the eternal life that God promised us will indeed be ours:
II Corinthians 1:
21 Now he which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God;
22 Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.
II Corinthians 5:
5 Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.
Paul’s letter to the Ephesians clearly defines the work of the Holy Spirit as both sealer and guarantor of our blessings in glory. The word earnest in verse 14 means guarantee:
Ephesians 1:
13 In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise.
14 Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.
In Ephesians chapter 4 we are specifically told that the Holy Spirit has sealed us until the day of redemption. The seal here is the Holy Spirit Himself within the believer. He is the one that guarantees our entrance into the glories of heaven:
Ephesians 4:
30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.
4
THE FILLING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
As we have already seen, all believers have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Although there are no exhortations in the Bible to be indwelt with the Spirit, there are, however, many admonitions to be filled with the Spirit as in:
Ephesians 5:
18 …be filled with the Spirit
19 Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;
20 Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Being filled with the Spirit means allowing the Spirit to take control of a believer’s life so he may be able to live a life that is pleasing to God. The word of God contains many exhortations, both negative and positive to be filled with the Spirit. The book of Galatians contains both types. The first negative one is found in:
Galatians 5:
16 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things ye would.
18 But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.
19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time pasts, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
A positive type of the filling of the Holy Spirit is also found in Book of Galatians. Here are shown those characteristics that are evident in the believer who has yielded himself to the leading of the Spirit in his life:
Galatians 5:
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
It is important to remember that the Holy Spirit already indwells the believer. To be filled is to allow that Spirit to take control so as to manifest Christ in his everyday living.
The Spirit-filled life is allowing the Holy Spirit to fulfill in us all that Christ intended when He placed the Spirit in us. That Spirit-filled life is revealed through the believer when he rejects the fruit of the flesh and evidences the fruit of the Spirit in his everyday life.
5
THE BAPTISM OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
The meaning of the Greek word used for the baptism of the Holy Spirit means to put in or immerse. The word carries with it the thought of being put into something and remaining there. In the present case it refers to the Holy Spirit immersing the believer into the Body of Christ.
At the moment of salvation the Holy Spirit places every believer into the Body of Christ. From that moment on the believer is delivered from the headship of the first Adam and placed under the headship of Jesus Christ, the head of the Body. The believer then becomes a new creation in Christ.
John the Baptist taught in Matthew 3:11, Mark 1:8, Luke 3:16 and John 1:33 that there would be two different baptisms: water and the Holy Spirit. Notice the distinction in:
John 1: 33 And I knew him not: but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost.
Jesus also spoke about Spirit baptism:
Acts 1:
5 For John truly baptized with water: but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.
Acts 11:
16 Then remembered I the word of the Lord, how that he said, John indeed baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost.
In each of these cases, Jesus is the baptizer who baptizes believers with the Holy Ghost.
In the following scriptures, however, it is the Holy Spirit who baptizes the believer into the Body of Christ:
I Corinthians 12:
12 For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body so also is Christ.
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.
27 Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.
This baptism of believers into the Body of Christ is the one essential baptism recorded by the Apostle Paul for believers today in the age of grace.
Ephesians 4:
4 There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling;
5 One Lord, one faith, one baptism,
6 One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.
By this one baptism, which occurs on the day of salvation, all believers are united together into the Body of Christ, Jesus Christ himself being the head of the Body. It is this vital union with Christ that enables the believer to participate in the glory of Christ in the heavenlies for all eternity.
Galatians 3:
27 For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
The Greek scholar and President of Canyonview Bible College and Seminary, Dr. Ernest R. Campbell, has this to say about Galatians 3:27:
“The moment one believes on Jesus Christ as his Saviour he is identified with the Body of Christ, he is placed into the Church, through the baptism by the Spirit (cf. 1 Cor. 12:13; Eph. 4:5; Col. 2:12). The Holy Spirit produces this baptism according to the sovereign will of God (cf. 1 Cor. 2:10-11) in the process of history baptizing into the Body those chosen before the foundation of the world (cf. Eph.1:4). This baptism is a once-for-all transaction through which believers are made members of the Church, in which position they are sealed and secured unto the day of the redemption of their bodies.”
It is clear that this baptism into Christ in Galatians 3 and in the following passage in Romans 6 is the work of the Holy Spirit in placing the believer into Christ’s Body. Dr. Chafer comments on these passages as follows:
“Those baptized into Christ are baptized into His death, are buried with Christ by their baptism into the Savior’s death. No ordinance is intimated by these expressions…To discover in it only the outward form of a ritual ordinance, as many have done, is to surrender one of the most priceless assets in the whole field of Christian doctrine…”
Romans 6:
3 Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
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.
5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection.
Dr. Campbell’s comments on Romans 6:3 are given here:
“Now let us consider…the statement that “as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus we were baptized into his death.” The verb translated “were baptized” is in the aorist tense and passive voice, which means that at a given time in the past God the Holy Spirit baptized us into Christ i.e., identified us with the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:13; Gal. 3:27). The phrase “into Christ Jesus” is significant evidence which means that his baptism has identified us with the Body, the Church, and is apart from water.”
In Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament, the words planted together in Romans 6:5 have the meaning of: “have become united, have grown together; an intimate and progressive union.” This means that by the Holy Spirit’s baptism all believers are identified with Christ in His death, burial and resurrection. This truth is abundantly confirmed in:
Colossians 2:
9 For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.
10 And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:
11 In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:
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.
13 And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him having forgiven you all trespasses.
Here in Colossians chapter 2 we believers are spiritually identified with Christ in his death (the circumcision of Christ without hands), burial (buried with him in baptism) and resurrection (risen with him). Dr. Chafer says of this passage:
“The transformations which are here indicated, as they were also in Romans 6:1-10 could never be produced by any ritual baptism and to read ritual baptism into this passage is again to ignore the limitless realities for which Christ died, was buried, and rose again. It is to substitute a human effort for one of God’s most glorious achievements.”
Dr. Merrill Frederick Unger agrees and adds the following regarding Paul’s teaching about the Holy Spirit:
“In these passages (Romans 6:3,4; Colossians 2:12; Galatians 3:27; Ephesians 4:5) the holy Apostle is not considering ritual baptism at all… He is speaking of something infinitely higher - not of a mere symbolic ordinance that is powerless to effect intrinsic change, but of a divine operation which places us eternally in Christ, and into His experiences of crucifixion, death, burial, and resurrection.”
So then, let us give thanks that the indwelling and sealing work of the Holy Spirit together with our baptism into the Body of Christ are gifts of God that were given to us at the time of our conversion to Christ. Now we can rejoice with the Apostle Paul that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in us (I Cor. 6:19).