What is The Baptism of the Holy Spirit? Part 1
I have been sitting on
this topic for quite a while. It first occurred to me many months ago, but I think
that there has been something about it that has seemed daunting to me. I felt that now it was finally time to try to tackle this topic, and
as I began my research, I began to understand why this is a daunting
topic to try to explain. As I look at the material that I have collected
for the discussion of this topic, it is looking like this will be
another multi-part article, and I encourage you to read all of the parts
in order to gain a full understanding, to the best of my abilities to
present it to you.
I found one particular article about this topic on blueletterbible.org, that helped me to wrap my head around the basics of this topic; I have noted that article at the bottom of the page. But to say that it was helpful in understanding this topic would be overstating things. For example, following is a quote from that article that indicates the difficulty that one may have in discussing this topic; "One of the difficulties in trying to understand the meaning of the “baptism with the Holy Spirit” is that the phrase is never defined for us in the gospels. We are never told what it would accomplish."[a]. Maybe this is why this topic is seldom preached on from the pulpit. I don't recall ever hearing a sermon specifically about what baptism with the Holy Spirit is or does.
It is because of this vagueness around
the topic, even from the standpoint of a Biblical definition, that
everything that I state from here on in this article should definitely
be taken as an opinion only. Everyone has an opinion and none of us will
share the same opinions on everything, so the best that I can hope to
achieve on this topic is to add some context to your own opinions on
this topic and also to hopefully not confuse the issue for you. I am not writing on this topic from a position of knowledge, but rather, I am exploring this topic as I write this article, and I am taking you along on the journey. I have long had questions about this topic and I hope to answer my own questions and maybe some that you may have as well.
There
was one statement right in the beginning of the article that caught my
attention, and I had not yet realized that this was the case from my own
research, so this statement was an eye opener for me. That statement
is, "The phrase “baptism of the Holy Spirit” is not found in the Bible.
The Bible speaks of a baptism “with,” “by,” or “in” the Holy Spirit. It
never refers to the baptism “of” the Holy Spirit. Therefore the use of
this term should be abandoned."[a] By the time I found and integrated
that quote in this article, I had already decided on the title of this
article, but I left the title unchanged because that noted fact just highlights the
misconceptions around this topic even more.
I double checked that claim by searching for that specific phrase, "baptism of the Holy Spirit", in about eight to ten of the most popular Bible translations and, sure enough, that exact phrase does not appear in any translation that I checked. This speaks to the care that is given in the translation work of the versions of the Bible that we have available to us. How easy would it be for us to simply state "baptism of the holy spirit" when referring to this act, not realizing that it is not in alignment with the original language? So why has this phrase been avoided? Let's try to figure that out.
This will require some word-nerding. We need to look at the words "of", "with", "by" and "in", since these are the words that are either intentionally avoided or intentionally used in talking about baptism with the Holy Spirit. Here is where I pull out my handy World Book Dictionaries from 1976 to get some answers. The definitions of the above words are listed below, listing only those that may have a bearing on this discussion:
with - 1. in the company of; 2. among, into; 3. having, wearing or carrying; 4. by means of, by using; 8. in regard to; 12. in the keeping or service of: ie. to leave a package with a friend; 21. by
by - 3. through the means or use of; 9. with respect to, in relation to, concerning; 13. in imitation of
in - 4. with, having, by; 6. surrounded by, in the midst of;
I noticed in compiling that list, and I hope that you noticed too, that the word "by" is included in the definitions of all of the other words. So maybe "by" is the ideal word to investigate in this matter.
Using the first listed definition of "by", we see that the baptism by the Holy Spirit would seem to refer to the baptism being undertaken through the means or action of the Holy Spirit. When we read of Jesus' baptism by John the Baptist in Matthew 3, Mark 1 and Luke 3, we read first of the baptism of water as it was conducted by John the Baptist, then we read that "After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on Him, 17 and behold, a voice out of the heavens said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased." (Matthew 3:16-17).
So we see that Jesus is essentially receiving two baptisms here; first is the water baptism, which is what the church practices, and then is the baptism by the Holy Spirit. In Jesus' case, this second baptism is accomplished through a phenomenon that is visible, at least to John the Baptist according to Matthew, and by Jesus Himself as we read in Mark. Luke simply states this as a fact with no mention of who witnessed it, while we read in John 1 that John the Baptist testifies that he saw the Holy Spirit descend. So as far as we know, only Jesus and John the Baptist are actual witnesses to this, besides the Word of God. There we have three witnesses to the truth of the matter, John the Baptist, Jesus and the Bible, which is the Biblical standard for truth in testimony (two or three witnesses).
This Holy Spirit baptism is accomplished "through the means or use of" the Holy Spirit. So that first definition seems to check out as aligning with Scripture. It may be of use to note that the baptism by the Holy Spirit came about according to the apparent desires of the Holy Spirit; it was not called upon to happen by anybody, including Jesus. This also adds to the weight of the evidence that the baptism is "by" the Holy Spirit.
Using the same Scriptural evidences, we can also quickly surmise that the second definition also checks out in the same way. By the Holy Spirit descending upon Jesus, it is hard to argue against His Holy Spirit baptism occurring "with respect to, in relation to, concerning" the Holy Spirit.
This brings us to the last definition of "by" that we will look at; that being "in imitation of", and this may take a little longer to explore because we actually need to take a look back at the Old Testament to build a foundation of understanding.
We
have to keep in mind that, according to the Bible, prior to Jesus
receiving the Holy Spirit after His own water baptism, the record seems to show a split of the Holy Spirit coming upon people for just a short time and in order to accomplish a specific purpose, and then also coming upon some others for an extended period of time. Of course, after Pentecost, we are told that the Holy Spirit is available for all who believe in Jesus, and this is understood to mean that He will remain for the rest of our life.
First we'll look at the short term indwellings of the Holy Spirit. This will not be an exhaustive listing of all who acted in the Holy Spirit for a short time, but we read in Exodus 31 that Bezalel was filled with the Holy Spirit to provide knowledge in craftsmanship for the creation of articles for the Tabernacle; presumably an extended short period. In Judges three and six, we read of Othniel and Gideon receiving the Holy Spirit in order to accomplish specific purposes, and we read in Judges 14-16 of Samson repeatedly being filled with the Holy Spirit when he attacked his enemies. Of course, we could assume that the prophets were filled with the Holy Spirit whenever they prophesied, but we read of this specifically happening in Isaiah 61 and Ezekiel 11 for those two prophets.
The notable standouts regarding the presence of the Holy Spirit appearing to remain on them for an extended period are Moses, Saul and David, and I think we can also include the 70 elders in Numbers 11, where we read that the portion of the Holy Spirit that the seventy elders received was actually apportioned from what Moses possessed. In 1 Samuel 10 we read that "the Spirit of God came upon [Saul] mightily" after he had been anointed by Samuel to be the first king of Israel, and we read that the Spirit remained with Saul until Samuel later anointed David to be Saul's successor and the Spirit came upon David and left Saul (1 Samuel 16:13-14). I think it is notable that, to my knowledge, no other king of Israel or Judah held the presence of the Holy Spirit in the ways that Saul and David did, and that the kingdom of Israel fell apart shortly after Solomon's reign, who was the only the third king of Israel.
So we see that, for the most part, the Holy Spirit only came upon people for a time and for a purpose throughout the entire Old Testament, indicating also that this had been the case for all of history, until the point of Jesus' baptism by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit did not come on Jesus for only a short time, but the Spirit came upon Him for the rest of His life; as short as that was. And what was the purpose or the result of this? Jesus walked in a power and a presence that no man had ever walked in before or since.
Jesus lived not for Himself but for God. Luke's gospel tells us immediately after the account of Jesus' baptism by both the water and the Spirit, that, "Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led around by the Spirit in the wilderness 2 for forty days, being tempted by the devil." (Luke 4:1-2a). Through the temptations that Jesus endured at the peak of His physical weakness due to hunger and thirst, He relied on the Scriptures to rebuff the temptations that Satan was offering to Him. This may be one of the first examples that we can see of what living under the leading of the Holy spirit can lead to. I'm sure that it was the Holy Spirit that empowered Jesus to turn down Satan's offers and that it was the Holy Spirit that guided Him to the Scriptures to use to turn Satan away.
I have mused in the past that, though I do not deny that Jesus was wholly God and wholly man, it was likely Jesus' understanding of how to live under the Holy Spirit that empowered Him to accomplish all that He did. I think that this was to be an example to us for how we are supposed to strive to live. Always listening to the leading of the Holy Spirit; always willing to obey. This is not usual for Christians to believe or pursue. It calls for complete surrender to His will, which is contrary to human nature and requires not just one decision, but a continuous flow of conscious decisions to obey God fully.
Jesus lived this way. Are we not called to emulate Him in our own lives? We can't do that by our own strength; we will fail every single time. The only way for us to even achieve progress towards success in living the way Jesus did is to imitate Him under the power and influence of the Holy Spirit. This imitation of Jesus is also imitation of the Holy Spirit, since it is by the leading of the Holy Spirit that Jesus undertook His ministry. So the final definition of "by" also aligns with what we read of in Scripture regarding the baptism by the Holy Spirit; it should lead to the imitation of the Holy Spirit.
I haven't yet figured out why the Bible seems to avoid using the phrase "baptism of the Holy Spirit". As I wrote that sentence, it occurred to me that this phrase is less personal than using the words, "by", "with" and "in". "Of'" is almost a detached explanation of the baptism; like the Holy Spirit is doing something to you rather working in you, living in you. The baptism by the Holy Spirit is supposed to be a personal experience that changes you, so perhaps inferring that it is something that is done to you by an outside source is just too impersonal for God's liking.
This article isn't that long, but it has taken me three or four days to write what you have just read. The research and rewrites that I have undertaken to get just this article out have taken a lot of time and I have a lot more information to share, but I think I will end this part of this exploration here. I will write more articles on this, but due to the weight of the subject matter, I may not be able to post them in sequence, so I hope that you will return to find the rest of the submissions that I will make on this subject over the next week or two; hopefully no longer than that.
[a] - https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/stewart_don/faq/baptism-with-the-holy-spirit/01-what-is-the-baptism-of-the-holy-spirit.cfm
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