Holy Spirit Baptism—Just The Facts, Please

by Bryan Gibson

April 4, 2008

Much has been written and said about Holy Spirit baptism, sometimes with little concern for what the New Testament actually teaches. We will do our best to stick with the facts in this article.

John the Baptist promised that “one mightier than I” would baptize with (“in”—ASV) the Holy Spirit (Matthew 3:11; Mark 1:8; Luke 3:16). That this One would be Jesus was confirmed to John in a remarkable way. God told John, “Upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit” (John 1:33). John saw what God described when he baptized Jesus (John 1:32; Matthew 3:13-17), and so he knew for sure that Jesus was the One who would baptize with the Holy Spirit.

Here is where we need to be careful. We might assume that Jesus baptized people with the Holy Spirit on a regular basis, but we can only find two instances in the New Testament specifically described as Holy Spirit baptism.

First, Jesus promised the apostles that He would baptize them with the Holy Spirit (Luke 24:49; Acts 1:4-5, 8). He specifically told the apostles to wait in Jerusalem until they received this promise, and it was there in Jerusalem that they were baptized with the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:1-4, 33).

Jesus baptized the apostles with the Holy Spirit to give them power for their work as His witnesses (Acts 1:8; 4:33). They were empowered in basically two different ways. First, the Holy Spirit revealed all truth to them (John 14:26; 16:13), so that what they spoke and what they wrote was inspired of God. Secondly, they were empowered to perform miracles, in order to confirm that what they were teaching came from God (Acts 14:3; Mark 16:20).

There is only one other example specifically called Holy Spirit baptism in the New Testament—a Gentile named Cornelius and his household (Acts 10:44-48; 11:15-18). That this was an unusual event can be seen in Peter’s words when he recounted what happened: “And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them, as upon us at the beginning” (Acts 11:15). To describe this unique event, Peter had to go back to the time when the apostles were baptized with the Holy Spirit (“at the beginning”).

Cornelius and his household were baptized with the Holy Spirit for a special purpose: to convince the Jews that God made no distinction between them and the Gentiles, to show that the Gentiles could be saved through Jesus Christ—without having to be circumcised and keep the law of Moses (Acts 11:17-18; 15:5-11). It had this very effect on the Jews in Jerusalem because this was their reaction when Peter told them everything that had happened: “Then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life” (Acts 11:18).

Baptism with the Holy Spirit is not something we should seek today—in fact, it was not even sought by the people cited in the examples above. It had a unique purpose for the apostles and for Cornelius and his household. We don’t need it for the reasons the apostles did, because all truth has been revealed and confirmed. And we certainly don’t need it for the reason it was given to Cornelius and his family, because we can learn the same lesson from what happened to them. The “one baptism” of Ephesians 4:5 is water baptism, and it is necessary for the remission of sins (Acts 10:47-48; 2:38; 8:35-39). Holy Spirit baptism was a promise, fulfilled in only certain individuals; water baptism is a command that everyone must obey.

We hope that we have not left the impression that the Holy Spirit has no role in our salvation today.  Please consider the other articles within this topic that deal with the work of the Holy Spirit today.