Spiritual Gifts part 97. Our High Priest lives to deliver us to the utmost

Pastor-Teacher

John Farley

Thursday,

March 17, 2011

The Doctrine of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit

C.  The Baptism of the Spirit is the ministry of God the Holy Spirit in placing every new believer into permanent union with the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ and His Body the Church.

Point 4. Definition and description of the Baptism of the Spirit.

1.The baptism of the Holy Spirit is a real baptism, an actual identification, in which God the Holy Spirit, at the moment we believe in Christ, places or enters the new believer in union with Christ.

2. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is the means of forming the royal family of God during the Church Age.

3. The result of the baptism of the Spirit, union with Christ, is also called “positional truth” or “positional sanctification”.  

4. At the same time as entering us into union with Christ, a new spiritual species is created through the baptism of the Spirit.

2Co 5:17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ,  he is  a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.

5.  The baptism of the Holy Spirit is not an experience, 1Co 12:13.  

6. There is only one baptism that unifies the royal family of God.

Eph 4:5  one Lord, one faith, one baptism,

7.  The baptism of the Holy Spirit is for the Church Age only.  There is no reference to it in the Old Testament, and there is no reference to it beyond the Church Age.

8. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is performed universally to each and every believer during the Church Age.

1Co 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.

9. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is not equated with the function of any particular spiritual gift (such as tongues).

10.  The baptism of the Spirit could not occur until there was the strategic victory of Jesus Christ in the angelic conflict.

Now there was the need for a universal priesthood, since every believer was now a target of satan, 1Pe 3:21.

Peter points  to the baptism of the Spirit as the thing that protects our conscience against the attacks from the kingdom of darkness in the form of persecution and accusations.

Our priesthood operates through Jesus Christ our great High Priest.It is a benefit and a result of the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

This is not talking about justification, but rather bringing the believer all the way to glorification after he or she has been justified.

He is able to carry the believer right through all trails, temptations and infirmities, unto the completion of the journey of this life, and present him or her faultless in the day of the Rapture.

Past:  Eph 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is  the gift of God;

Present: 1Co 1:18 For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

Future:Rom 13:11 Do this, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed.

The conscience here relates to the soul condition of the believer after salvation when undergoing unjust treatment.