1. Systematic Theology II The Doctrine of the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit and the Church –
Spirit Baptism

2. References to Spirit Baptism
Matthew 3:11 “As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”
Acts 1:5 “for John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
Acts 11:16 [Peter reporting to the Church at Jerusalem] “And I remembered the word of the Lord, how He used to say, ‘John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’”
Romans 6:3-4 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
Galatians 3:27 For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
Colossians 2:12 having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.

3. A Definition of Spirit Baptism
“Baptism of the Holy Spirit is the judicial, objective, non-experiential placing of a true believer into the church, which is the body of Christ. It is a position in which God views the believer of this age differently than He regards other believers and bodies of saints. It is somewhat analogous to one’s citizenship; it is not subjective. It is a recognition by a certain jurisdiction that one belongs, that he is part of the in-group because various legal factors make him eligible. By means of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, believers between the Day of Pentecost and the Rapture of the church are recognized by God as members of the body of Christ; they have the judicial status of being “in Christ” (McCune, p. 312).
1 Corinthians 12:13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.
Ephesians 1: In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation-- having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God's own possession, to the praise of His glory.

4. Water or Spirit Baptism?
Romans 6:3-4 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
This baptism is the means by which we are joined with Christ and thus must be Spirit baptism, though water baptism pictures this reality.
Galatians 3:27 For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
Same argument applies here as with Rom 6; this is speaking of the baptism that actualizes union with Christ. Being clothed with Christ is judicial and positional.
Remember that this is in response to the question, “Should we continue in sin, that grace might increase?” McCune is distinguishing between Spirit baptism and water baptism.

5. Water or Spirit Baptism?
Ephesians 4:4-5 There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism
This is the Spirit baptism that all genuine believers undergo, in a context of the universal church.
Colossians 2:11 and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ; having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. And when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions,
Does the spiritual circumcision described here happen at conversion or a water baptism?
All of these assume water baptism of believers, not infants.

6. Baptism of John the Baptist
John the Baptist – Was he anticipating the baptism by the Holy Spirit as inaugurating the Church?
“Baptism in water to John spoke of identification and initiation, undoubtedly from the milieu of Jewish proselyte baptism and his own practice of the baptism of repentance in view of the impending messianic kingdom he was announcing to Israel. John’s water baptism identified the recipients as believers in the message he preached that consisted of the revelation concerning God’s messianic king and his reign according to the Old Testament prophets. John’s baptism incorporated those believers into a band of disciples who were preparing, by repentance and faith, for the coming of Israel’s long-awaited messiah and the inauguration of his kingdom. If so, the ideas of identification, initiation and incorporation were accordingly the basics that John understood were connected with the Coming One’s use of the Holy Spirit in a non-physical baptism.
John of course could not envision a new body of Christ composed of Jew and Gentile believers as equals, separate from national Israel, which would in God’s favor supplant the apostate nation for an undetermined period of time, a time culminating in the messiah’s advent” (McCune, pp ).
John understood what he was saying, but said more than he knew.

7. The Time of Spirit Baptism
Spirit baptism as described in the New Testament is limited to the church age, as seen by the following.
All References to Spirit Baptism in the Gospels are Future
Matthew 3:11 “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Matt 3:11b).
The Day of Pentecost Marks the Beginning of Spirit Baptism
Jesus said it was close: Acts 1:4-5 And gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, "Which," He said, "you heard of from Me; for John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now."
Peter said it happened “at the beginning”: Acts 11:15 “And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them, just as He did upon us at the beginning. And I remembered the word of the Lord, how He used to say, ‘John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’”
The Rapture of the Church Terminates Spirit Baptism
1 Thessalonians 4:16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord.
Peter’s words connect what happened with Cornelius to both Jesus’ words and the first outpouring at Pentecost. Ask: How do people get “in Christ”?

8. The Time of Spirit Baptism
The Time of the Church Age Helps to Establish the Time of Spirit Baptism
The Revelational “Mystery” of the Church
Ephesians 3:4-6 And by referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit; to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel,
The Teaching of Christ
Matthew 16:18 “And I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church”
The Death of Christ
The death of Christ and the atonement it provided had to precede the birth of the Church and the coming of the Spirit.
The Resurrection and Ascension of Christ
After His resurrection and Ascension, Christ sat down at the right hand of the Father as the Head of the Church, where He remains until His return.
Argument from Silence
There is no mention of the Church in the OT.
Church was a mystery in the OT; Christ predicted its beginning future to His own earthly ministry.

9. The Agent and Means of Spirit Baptism
Christ is the baptizer and the Spirit is means of baptism. In other words, Christ uses the Holy Spirit as the means to baptize believers into the body of Christ.
Acts 2:33 “Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which you both see and hear.”

10. The Characteristics of Spirit Baptism
Spirit Baptism is Universal Among Believers of This Present Church Age
1 Corinthians 12:13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.
The One Baptism
Ephesians 4:5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism
Absence of a Command to Be Baptized with the Spirit
This implies that Spirit baptizes automatically accompanies conversion.
1 Cor 12:13 is speaking of the universal church. Eph 4:5 is speaking of universal aspects of Christianity. “Be filled with the Spirit” is a command.

11. The Characteristics of Spirit Baptism
Spirit Baptism Occurs at Regeneration and Is Not Repeated
“The first subjective redemptive contact of the person with the Holy Spirit is at the moment of regeneration; this work is not repeated” (McCune, p. 325). This work seals the believer as God’s own.
Spirit Baptism Is Non-Experiential
That is, it is not based on or derived from experience. It is an objective work of God.

12. The Results of Spirit Baptism
Membership in the Body of Christ
“The Lord Jesus Christ, by the agency of the Holy Spirit, completes a spiritual transaction whereby the believer is placed into His spiritual body and reckoned by God thereafter as a part of this particular group of saints, having judicial union with Christ (“in Christ”) and with every other church saint (Rom 12:5)” (McCune, p. 326).
Union with Christ
“Union with Christ is a permanent spiritual bond between the believer and Jesus Christ that results from Spirit baptism…[it] includes union with His death, burial, and resurrection in a judicial sense” (McCune, p ).
Union with All Other Christians
Unity was Christ’s prayer for His followers (John 17:21-23). “This oneness was and is being answered by the ongoing baptizing work of the Holy Spirit by which saints of the church age are united to each other with an inseparable bond” (McCune, p. 327).
Not an Enduement of Power
Many have confused Spirit baptism with some subjective experience subsequent to conversion, with special evidences or power.
We have looked at most of the relevant texts for these already.

13. Next Time: The Doctrine of the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit and the Christian