We have yet to contemplate the chief and crowning glory of Pentecost.
The endowments conferred on the apostles, and the new spirit infused
into the church, were but subsidiary means; glorious indeed; but only as
they ministered to a more glorious end. The signs and wonders of the day
were but an index hand which pointed away from themselves, and directed
all interest and attention to that end. It appears, in the baptism of
repentance, then first administered by the ascended Savior from his
throne; the first fruits of which were the three thousand converts of
that day, and the harvest of which still coming in, will only then be
complete, when all his redeemed shall have been gathered from every
nation and kindred and people and tongue.
The baptism of John is called “the baptism of repentance.”—Acts xix, 4.
But it was so, only as the rock in the wilderness was Christ; only as
the bread and cup of the supper are the body and blood of the Lord. “The
baptism of repentance, for the remission of sins” which he preached
(Mark i, 4), was not his own. He preached “saying that they should
believe on him that should come after him, that is, on Christ
Jesus.”—Acts xix, 4. He confessed his own weakness, and the emptiness
and futility of his own baptism, which was only a symbol, calling men to
repentance, but without power to confer it. “I, indeed baptize you with
water, unto repentance; but he that cometh after me is mightier than I,
whose shoes I am not worthy to bear; he shall baptize you with the Holy
Ghost.”—Matt. iii, 11. Jesus, after his resurrection, told his
disciples,—“Thus it is written and thus it behooved Christ to suffer,
and to rise from the dead the third day; and that _repentance and
remission_ of sins should be preached in _his_ name, among all
nations.”—Luke xxiv, 46, 47. A few days after the baptism of Pentecost
had been received, Peter, in the presence of the rulers of Israel,
testified.—“Him hath God exalted with his right hand; a Prince and
Savior, for to _give repentance_ to Israel, and the _forgiveness of
sins_.” Acts v, 31. “The forgiveness of sins,” here, is the same in the
original, as “the remission of sins,” in the other places, and
especially in the statement concerning John’s preaching. This identity
of language is undoubtedly designed to indicate identity of subject. The
baptism which John preached,—that of which his own was the figure,—was
the true baptism of repentance and remission, which Jesus was enthroned
to dispense,—the baptism which, on the day of Pentecost, he bestowed, by
the outpouring of the Spirit, whose office it is to work repentance and
to seal remission. The doctrine concerning this baptism, may be thus
briefly summed. By it, as given by the Lord Jesus, the Spirit is
breathed into the subjects of grace, entering them as a Spirit of life.
This is regeneration, the immediate effect of which is a new nature
formed after the image of God in righteousness and true holiness. The
indwelling Spirit and the new nature, inspired by him, lust against the
flesh and loathe sin; and by consequence induce a true repentance and
turning from it, and a pursuit after holiness. At the same time, the
Spirit with which they are baptized, being in Christ as the head and
source of life to all the body, and in them as members, unites them to
Him by such a tie,—the tie of the one infinite Spirit common to both; so
that they are, with him, one body, and therefore, in him, partake in the
merits of his righteousness, and in it are justified.
In that last discourse of our Savior, to which we have already so fully
referred,—that discourse which was an immediate anticipation and
prophecy of Pentecost,—this subject is presented in a form of great
interest and prominence. In fact, the thoughtful reader will find that
entire discourse to center upon the two correlative ideas of the unity
of the Persons in the Godhead, and the unity of believers, in Christ.
Moreover, these two doctrines are presented as sustaining the most
intimate relation to each other. In answer to Philip’s request, “Lord
show us the Father,” Jesus emphasizes with reiteration his own unity
with the Father, and exhorts the disciples, “Believe me that I am in the
Father and the Father in me.” Then, having promised to secure for them
the presence and illumination of the Comforter, he says, “Yet a little
while and the world seeth me no more, but ye see me; because I live, ye
shall live also. At that day, _ye shall know_ that _I_ am _in my
Father_, and _ye in me and I in you_.”—John xiv, 8-11, 19, 20. This he
illustrates by a parable. “I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that
abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit, for
without me (severed from me) ye can do nothing.”—Ib. xv, 1-8. In the
wonderful prayer which closed that discourse, Jesus recurs to this
theme, in language which from any other lips would have seemed profane,
so closely does he identify us with the glory of the Godhead. “Neither
pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me
through their word, that they all may be one; as thou Father art in me,
and I in thee, that they also may be one in us; that the world may
believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I
have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one; I in them,
and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world
may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them as thou hast loved
me.”—Ib. xvii, 20-23. The “glory” which the Father gave the Son and
Jesus gives his people, “that they may be one,” is the Holy Spirit, who
is called “the Spirit of glory and of God,” who rests on his people (1
Peter iv, 14), and “the glory of the Father,” by whom Christ was raised
from the dead. (Rom. vi, 4. Compare viii, 11; and 1 Peter iii, 18.)
Such is the relation which by the baptism of the Spirit is established
between Christ and the Father and believers. Touching the manner and
process of it, the following are the most important points.
1. Each Person of the Godhead severally co-operates in this work of
grace. The Father is its Author and source, by whom the Son was
commissioned for its execution and the Spirit given him to that end.
Hence, this gift of the Spirit to the people of God, whilst made through
the Son, is constantly referred to the Father, as being primarily and
essentially his gift. The Son, having purchased salvation through the
blood of his cross, is commissioned as sovereign administrator, to
dispense it to the redeemed,—“to give eternal life to as many as the
Father hath given him.”—John xvii, 2. In fulfilling this office, he, as
the Father’s representative and likeness, “can do nothing of himself,
but what he seeth the Father do.” And as the Father, having life in
himself, has given to the Son to have life in himself, and to quicken
whom he will (John v, 19-30), he bestows his salvation and quickens his
people, by shedding on them that Spirit of life which the Father shed on
him. The Spirit, thus given, dwells in the believer in his own proper
character, as being the efficient cause of life and holiness.
2. All is postulated upon the fact that the Spirit, as given to and
dwelling in all fullness in the Lord Jesus, is the principle and spirit
of his life; by which he was born of the virgin; by which he lived in
holiness, and offered himself a spotless victim to justice; by which he
was quickened and rose from the dead, and which, as his Spirit, the
breath of his nostrils, he now breathes into whom he will.
3. In baptizing his people, he imparts to them the same Spirit which is
thus in him, to be in them the Spirit of life, making their bodies his
temples and instruments (1 Cor. vi, 19; Rom. vi, 13); and their souls
the subjects of his pervasive and transforming power. (Rom. viii, 4, 5.)
4. In this baptism, the Holy Spirit is not sent as an outside messenger
or agent,—a third party coming _from_ Jesus to the objects of his grace.
To impress us with the height of his throne and the exaltation of his
majesty, he says, “I will _send_ him unto you.” But, in the same
discourse, he also says, “At that day ye shall know that I am in my
Father, and ye in me and I in you;” and moreover promises, that “If a
man love me, he will keep my words, and my Father will love him, and
_we_ will come unto him and make our abode with him.”—John xiv, 20, 23.
The Father and the Son are just as nigh the believer as is the Holy
Spirit, whose office it is to attest their presence and interpret their
communications to the soul. Since the Spirit is “the Spirit of
Christ,”—is given to him and remains in him in all fullness, it follows,
that only in him, can any one receive or enjoy the indwelling and graces
of the Spirit. Hence, the style in which, in the narrative of Pentecost,
the baptism is spoken of, not as the sending of a person, but the
shedding down of an element. “He hath shed forth _this_.”[87] Hence the
manner in which, in Peter’s quotation from Joel, it is repeatedly said,
“I will pour out _of_ my Spirit.”—Acts ii, 17, 18. And hence the
interpretation which Jesus, by anticipation, gave to the Pentecostal
baptism; when he breathed on the disciples and said, “Receive ye the
Holy Ghost;” and the sign of the outbreathed mighty breath. Hence Paul’s
testimony,—“Your life is hid with Christ in God;” and his declaration as
to himself,—“I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.” Christ and his
people breathe one Spirit and live one life. Baptized by that one Spirit
into one body, and all made to drink of that one Spirit, they are thus
one with him, “members of his body, of his flesh and of his bones.”—Eph.
v, 30. This union is only less close and intimate than that of the
Father and the Son. (John xvii, 21.) On it depends the whole process of
justification and grace.
Footnote 87:
Τουτο, in the neuter gender.