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TOPIC: Torrey, R.A. - Person and Work of Holy Spirit (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: 20 The Baptism With the Holy Spirit
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ONE of the most deeply significant phrases used in connection with the Holy Spirit in the Scriptures is " baptized with the Holy Ghost." John the Baptist was the first to use this phrase. In speaking of himself and the coming One he said, " I indeed baptize you with water unto re- pentance : but He that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear : He shall bap- tize you with the Holy Ghost and wfify fire " (Matt* lii. n). The second "with" in this passage is in italics. It is not found in the Greek. There are not two different baptisms spoken of, the one with the Holy Ghost and one with fire, but one baptism with the Holy Wind and Fire. Jesus afterwards used the same expression. In Acts i. 5, He says, " For John truly baptized with water ; but ye shall be baptised r ; with the Holy Ghost not many days hence." WEen this promise of John the Baptist and of our Lord was fulfilled in Acts ii. 3, 4, R. V., we read, " And there appeared unto them tongues parting asunder, like as of fire ; and it sat upon each one of them. And they were all I filled /with the Holy Spirit." Here we have another expression "filled with the Holy Spirit " used synonymously with " baptized with the Holy Spirit."
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We read again in Acts x. 44-46, " While Peter yet spake these words^ the Holy Ghost fell on all them" which- heard the word. And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished 5 as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost. For, they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God." Peter himself afterwards describing this experience in Jerusalem tells the story in this way, a And as I began to speak, the Holy Ghost fell on them, as on us at the beginning. Then remem- bered I the word of the Lord 5 how that He said, John indeed baptized with water 5 but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost. Forasmuch then as God gave them the like gift as He did unto us who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ ; what was I 5 that I could withstand God ? " (Acts xi. 15-17). Here Peter distinctly calls the experience which came to Cornelius and his house- hold, being baptized with the Holy Ghost^ so we see that the expression " the Holy Ghost fell " and 4C the gift of the Holy Ghost " are practically synonymous expressions with u baptized with the Holy Ghost." Still other expressions are used to describe this bless- ing, such as "..receive the Holy Ghost" (Acts ii. 38; xix. 2-6) ; " th<s . Holy Ghost came on them " (Acts xix. 2-6); ".gift 'of the Holy Ghost " (Heb. ii. 4; I Cor. xii. 4, ii, 13); "I send the promise of My Father upon you ; " and a endued with power from on high " (Luke xxiv. 49).
What is the baptism with the Holy Spirit ?
In the first place the baptism with the Holy Spirit is a definite experience of which one may and ought to know
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whether he has received It or not. This is evident from our Lord's command to His disciples in Luke xxiv. 49 and in Acts i. 4, that they should not depart from Jerusa- lem to undertake the work which He had commis- sioned them to do until they had received this promise of the Father. It is also evident from the eighth chap- ter of Acts, fifteenth and sixteenth verses, where we are distinctly told, " the Holy Spirit had not as yet fallen upon any of them" It is evident also from the nine- teenth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, the second verse, R. V., where Paul put to the little group of dis- ciples at Ephesus the definite question, " Did ye re- ceive the Holy Ghost when ye believed ? " It is evi- dent that the receiving of the Holy Ghost was an ex- perience so definite that one could answer yes or no to the question whether they had received the Holy Spirit. In this case the disciples definitely answered, a No,'* that they did not so much as hear whether the Holy Ghost was given* They did not say what our Author- ized Version makes them say, that they did not so much as hear whether there was any Holy Ghost. They knew that there was a Holy Ghost ; they knew furthermore that there was a definite promise of the baptism with the Holy Ghost, but they had not heard that that promise had been as yet fulfilled. Paul told them that it had and took steps whereby they were definitely baptized with the Holy Spirit before that meet- ing closed. It is ^equally evident from Gal. iii. 2 that the baptism with the Holy Spirit is a definite experience of which one may know whether he has received It or not. In this passage Paul says to the believers in
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Galatia, cc This only would I learn of you. Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?" Their receiving the Spirit had been so definite as a matter of personal consciousness, that Paul could appeal to it as a ground for his argument. In our day there is much talk about the baptism with the Holy Spirit and prayer for the baptism with the Spirit that is altogether vague and indefinite. Men arise in meeting and pray that they may be baptized with the Holy Spirit, and if you should go afterwards to the one who offered the prayer and put to him the question, a Did you receive what you asked ? Were you bap- tized with the Holy Spirit ? " it is quite likely that he would hesitate and falter and say, " I hope so " ; but there is none of this indefiniteness in the Bible. The Bible is clear as day on this, as on every other point. It sets fpjth. an experience SQ .defiftltj.ani^a.i^al^that one may know whether or not he has received the bap- tism with the Holy Spirit, and can answer yes or no to the question, cc Have you received the Holy Ghost ? " In the second place it is evident that the baptism with the Holy Spirit is an operation of the Holy Spirit distinct from and additional to His regenerating work. This is evident from Acts i. 5, "For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence." It is clear then that the disciples had not as yet been baptized with the Holy Ghost, that they were to be thus baptized not many days hence. But the men to whom Jesus spoke these words were already regenerate men. They had been so pronounced by our Lord Him- self, He had said to them in John xv. 3, u Now ye are
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clean through the word which I have spoken unto you." But what does clean through the word mean? I Peter I. 23 answers the question, u Being lorn again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, ly the word of God, which Hveth and abideth forever." A little earlier on the same night Jesus had said to them in John xiii. 10, R. V., " He that is bathed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit : and ye are clean but not alL" The Lord Jesus had pronounced that apostolic company clean i.e., regenerate men with the exception of the one who never was a regenerate man, Judas Iscariot who should betray Him (see verse 1 1). The remaining eleven Jesus Christ had pro- nounced regenerate men. Yet He tells these same men in Acts i. 5, that the baptism with the Holy Spirit was an experience that they had not as yet realized,
that still lay in the future. So it is evident that it is
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one thing to be born again by the Holy Spirit through the Word and something distinct from this and additional to it to be baptized with the Holy Spirit* The same thing is evident from Acts viii. 12, R. V., compared with the fifteenth and sixteenth verses of the same chapter. In the twelfth verse we read that a large company of disciples had believed the preaching of Philip concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, and cc had been baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus " (v. 16, R. V.). Certainly in this company of baptized believers there were at least some regenerate persons. Whatever the true form of water baptism may be, they undoubtedly had been baptized by the true form, for the baptizing had been
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done by a Spirit-commissioned man, but in the fifteenth and sixteenth verses we read, u When they (that is Peter and John) were come down, they prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost : for as yet He was fallen upon none of them : only they had been baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus." Baptized believers they were, baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus they had been ; regenerate men some of them most assuredly were, and yet not one of them as yet had received, or been baptized with, the Holy Ghost. So again, it is evident that the baptism with the Holy Spirit is an operation of the Holy Spirit distinct from and additional to His regenerating work. A man may be regenerated by the Holy Spirit and still not be baptized with the Holy Spirit. In regeneration^ there is the importation pj life by the Spirit's power, and the one who receives it is saved : in the baptism
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with the Holy Spirit, there is the imgartation of power, and the one who receives it is fitted for service. The baptism with the Holy Spirit, however, may take place at the moment of regeneration. It did, for example, in the household of Cornelius. We read in Acts x. 43, that while Peter was preaching, he came to the point where he said concerning Jesus, u To Him bear all the prophets witness, that through His name whoso- ever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins," and at that point Cornelius and his household believed and we read immediately, " While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word. And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because
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that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost." The moment they believed the testi- mony about Jesus, they were baptized with the Holy Ghost, even before they were baptized with water. Regeneration and the baptism with the Holy Spirit took place practically at the same moment, and so they do in many an experience to-day. It would seem as if in a normal condition of the church, this would be the usual experience. But the church Is not in a normal condition to-day. A very large part of the church is in the place where the believers in Samaria were before Peter and John came down, and where the disciples in Ephesus were before Paul came and told them of their larger privilege baptized believers, baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus, baptized unto repentance and remission of sins, but not as yet baptized with the Holy Ghost. ^Nevertheless the baptism with the Holy Spirit is the birthright of every believer^ It was purchased for us by the atoning death of Christ, and when He ascended to the right hand of the Father, He received the promise of the Father and shed Him forth upon the church, and if any one to-day has not the baptism with the Holy Spirit as a personal experience, It is because he has not claimed his birthright. Potentially, every member of the body of Christ is baptized with the Holy Spirit (i Con xii. 1 3), u For in one Spirit, we were #// 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/* But there are many believers with whom that which is potentially theirs has not become
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a matter of real, actual, personal experience. All men are potentially justified in the atoning death of Jesus Christ on the cross, that is justification is provided for them and belongs to them (Rom. v. 18, R. V.), but what potentially belongs to every man, each man must appropriate to himself by faith in Christ ; then justifica- tion is actually and experimentally his and just so, while the baptism with the Holy Spirit is potentially the possession of every believer, each individual believer must appropriate it for himself before it is experimentally his. We may go still further than this and say that it is only by the baptism with the Holy Spirit that one becomes in the fullest sense a member of the body of Christ, because it is only by the baptism with the Spirit that he receives power to perform those functions for which God has appointed him as a part of the body. /'As we have already seen every true believer has the Etoly Spirit (Rom. viii. 9), but not every believer has the baptism with the Holy Spirit (though every believer may have as we have just seen)> It is one thing to have the Holy Spirit dwelling within us, perhaps dwelling within us way back in some hidden sanctuary of our being, back of definite consciousness, and something far different, something vastly more, to have the Holy Spirit taking complete possession of the one whom * He inhabits. There are those who press the fact that every believer potentially has the baptism with the Spirit, to such an extent that they, clearly teach that every believer has the baptism with the Spirit as an actual experience. But unless the baptism with the Spirit to-day is something radically
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different from what the baptism with the Spirit was in the early church, indeed unless it is something not at all real, then either a very large proportion of those whom we ordinarily consider believers are not believers, or else one may be a believer and a regenerate man without having been baptized with the Holy Spirit. Certainly, this was the case in the early church. It was the case with the Apostles before Pentecost ; it was the case with the church in Ephesus ; it was the case with the church in Samaria. And there are thousands to-day who can testify to having received Christ and been born again, and then afterwards, sometimes long afterwards, having been baptized with the Holy Ghost as a definite experience. This is a matter of great practical importance, for there are many who are not enjoying the fullness of privilege that they might enjoy because by pushing individual verses in the Scriptures beyond what they will bear and against the plain teaching of the Scriptures as a whole, they are trying to persuade themselves that they have already been baptized with the Holy Spirit when they have not. And if they would only admit to themselves that they had not, they could then take the steps whereby they would be baptized with the Holy Spirit as a matter of definite, personal experience.
The next thing which is clear from the teaching of Scripture is that the baptism with the Holy Spirit is always connected with, and primarily for the purpose of testimony and service*.
Our Lord in speaking of this baptism which they were so soon to receive in Luke xxiv. 49 said, " And
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behold I send the promise of My Father upon you : but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high" And again He said in Acts i. 5, 8, u For John truly baptized with water ; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. . . . But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you : and ye shall be witnesses unto Me^ both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." In the record of the fulfillment of this promise of our Lord in Acts ii. 4, we read, cc And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance." Then follows the detailed account of what Peter said and of the result. The result was that Peter and the other Apostles spoke with such power that three thou- sand persons that day were convicted of sin, renounced their sin and confessed their acceptance of Jesus Christ in baptism and continued -steadfastly in the Apostles' doctrine and fellowship and in the breaking of bread and in prayers ever afterwards. In the fourth chapter of Acts, the thirty-first to the thirty-third verses, we read that when the Apostles on another occasion were filled with the Holy Spirit, the result was that they "spake the word of God with boldness* 9 and that "with great power gave the Apostles their witness to the resur- rection of the Lord Jesus" And in the ninth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, we have a description of Paul's being baptized with the Holy Spirit We read in the seventeenth to the twentieth verses, " And Ananias went his way, and entered into the house $
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and putting his hands on him said, Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou earnest, hath sent me, that thou mightest re- ceive thy sight, and be filed with the Holy Ghost. And immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales : and he received sight forthwith, and arose, and was baptized. And when he had received meat, he was strengthened. . . . And straightway^ he preached Christ in the synagogues, that He is the Son of God," and in the twenty-second verse we read that he cc confounded the Jews which dwelt at Damascus, proving that this is the Christ" (R. V.). In i Cor. xiL we have the fullest discussion of the,l)^|)|isi*with*the Holy Spirit founcf lunTany passage in the Bible. This is the classical passage on the whole subject. And the results there recorded are gifts for service. ^The baptism with the Holy Spirit is not primarily intended to make believers happy, but to make them useful.^ It is not intended merely for the ecstasy of the individual believer, it is intended primarily for his effr^s^rcy in service. 1 do not say tlui iue baptism with the Holy Spirit will not make the believer happy ; for as part of the fruit of the Spirit is "joy," if one is baptized with the Holy Spirit, joy ..must inevitably result. I have never known one to be baptized with the Holy Spirit into whose life there did not come, sooner or later, a new joy, a higher and purer and fuller joy than he had ever known before. But this is not the prime purpose of the baptism nor the most important and prominent re- sult. Great emphasis needs to be laid upon this point, for there are many Christians who in seeking the
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baptism with the Spirit are seeking personal ecstasy and rapture. They go to conventions and conferences for the deepening of the Christian life and come back and tell what a wonderful blessing they have received, refer- ring to some new ecstasy that has come into their heart, but when you watch them, it is difficult to see that they are any more useful to their pastors or their churches than they were before, and one is compelled to think that whatever they have received, they have not re- ceived the real baptism with the Holy Spirit. Ecstasies and raptures are all right in their places. When they come, thank God for them the writer knows some- thing about them but in a world such as we live in to-day where sin and self-righteousness and unbelief are s~o triumphant, where there is such an awful tide of men, women and young people sweeping on towards eternal perdition, I would rather go through my whole life and never have one touch of ecstasy but have gpjKfc to witness for Christ and win others for Christ and thus to save them, than to have raptures 365 days in the year but no power to ste