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Baptism of the Holy Spirit
(From Forerunner Commentary)

Matthew 3:13-16  (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up) This scene supplies us with two patterns. First, though Jesus did not need what it symbolically pictures, He went through a baptism to show an example of what others should do. To paraphrase His response to John, Jesus said, "Let's do it anyway because I have to show what a righteous man should do." The second pattern is that God sent His Spirit. Christ did not need it—He had it from the beginning! God, however, gave Him a visible representation of it so that we learn that we will also receive the Spirit of God sometime after baptism. John W. Ritenbaugh You Must Be Born Again!

Matthew 28:19  (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up) Speaking "in the name of" something does not necessarily mean that one is speaking of the name of a personality. A cliché we hear frequently in old crime movies illustrates this. Sometime during the film, a policeman invariably comes running out with his gun drawn and aimed at the suspect, and he says, "Stop in the name of the law!" Does the law have personality? Is it a personality? No, it is an inanimate thing. The policeman was commanding the robber to stop in the name of an authority, the law. So just because the baptism formula includes within it the authority of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit does not mean that the Holy Spirit is a Person. It is mentioned, undoubtedly, as the means through which the repentant sinner is brought to the point of being baptized. God tells us clearly that the Holy Spirit is given to convict us of sin (John 16:8-9). God stirs up our minds by the power of His mind, using His Spirit to lead us to think of things in a way that we never have before, and He thereby brings us to repentance. By the same means, He also reveals to us the real Jesus, and by the same means, He gives us the power to believe in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sin. The Holy Spirit, then, is the power that God uses to bring us to that point. John W. Ritenbaugh The Holy Spirit

Acts 9:17  (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up) Special spiritual gifts are given through the laying on of hands. Usually, the Holy Spirit was given by the laying on of an elder's hands, confirming baptism. However, Acts 8:14-17 says that the Samaritans received the Holy Spirit after baptism, while Acts 10:44-48 says that it fell upon Cornelius' household before baptism. Sometimes God makes exceptions to work out His own will and plan. Timothy received special spiritual gifts from the hands of the elders, including the gifts of wisdom and teaching. Paul reminded him that ordination bestowed such gifts upon him and that he needed to stir up God's Spirit to use them. Martin G. Collins Basic Doctrines: The Laying On of Hands

Acts 11:15  (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up) What Peter confirms here is that the receiving of the Holy Spirit is, indeed, also the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The receiving and the baptism of the Holy Spirit are synonymous. John W. Ritenbaugh Pentecost and the Holy Spirit

1 Corinthians 12:13  (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up) If we are baptized by the Spirit of God, we are a part of that body, and we are responsible to Christ within it. John W. Ritenbaugh What Is the Work of God Now? (Part 5)

 

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