I ended the previous entry by saying that the Biblical texts which speak of a Spirit-baptism point in one direction: that being “baptized in the Holy Spirit” is something that happens to every believer when they become a Christian. This is contrary to the view which says that Spirit-baptism is something that happens after (or subsequent to) conversion, making it something that believers should still seek after. There’s still a big ol’ “BUT” though that needs to be addressed here. It’s not enough to conclude this series with part 2, because although I concluded that the baptism of the Spirit happens to every believer upon conversion, there are clear examples in the book of Acts of the Holy Spirit coming upon people who were already believers in Christ. Soooooooooo…..yeah, what exactly do we do with that?
A major issue underlying the question of what exactly it means to be baptized in the Holy Spirit is whether or not the book of Acts is normative for all believers. For example, the Holy Spirit didn’t come upon the disciples until Acts 2, even though they were already believers. So is that how the Holy Spirit always works? Or is this instance unique to the time of Pentecost? Again, these instances of a subsequent Spirit-baptism in Acts seem to be a powerful counter-attack against the conclusion I came to in part 2. So if all believers are baptized in the Spirit at conversion, what in the world do we do with these stories? To answer, we must first look at…
The Holy Spirit in the Old Testament
It’s kind of weird to think of the Holy Spirit being in the Old Testament, but he’s there alright, and that’s actually pretty important to the discussion at hand. He shows up at various times and empowers people to do various things. Observe my primitive chart full of examples that I’m 99% indebted to Wayne Grudem for providing (his words are in the quotations):
The Holy Spirit…
-”empowered Joshua with leadership skills and wisdom (Num.27:18; Deut. 34:9)”
-”empowered the judges to deliver Israel from their oppressors” (Judg.3:10, 6:34, 11:29, 13:25, 14:6,19, 15:14)
-came upon Saul and stirred him up for battle (1 Sam. 11:6)
-equipped David for his duties as king (1 Sam.16:13)
-hovered over the waters on God’s first day of creation (Gen. 1:2)
-empowered Bezalel with artistic skill for his work on the tabernacle (Ex. 31:3, 35:31)
-empowered the elders appointed to help Moses (Num. 11:16-17)
I could go on and on, but two things need to grasped from this: First, the Holy Spirit was active in the Old Testament. Secondly (and this is extremely important), while he was active in the OT, his work wasn’t as powerful nor as extensive as it would come to be in the New Testament. He was only said to come upon some people, and even then his residence in them wasn’t necessarily permanent. After all, he departed from Saul in 1 Samuel 16:14. And David, in repenting of adultery and murder, prayed that God would not remove his Holy Spirit from him (Psalm 51:11).
Covenant 2.0
Again, the Holy Spirit did come upon people in the Old Testament, but in a far more limited sense. And since cool stuff happened when the Spirit came upon someone, such a limited work was not exactly ideal. That’s why God gets his people excited about the promise and expectation of a day when the Spirit would come in a far more extensive, permanent, and all-around powerful way. Moses, for example, longed for a day in which God would put his Spirit on all people (Numbers 11:29). And the prophets spoke of and looked forward to a day when God would make a new covenant with his people, the result of which would be a far greater work of the Spirit than they had previously known.
In Ezekiel, God says “‘I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.’” (36:26-27) Joel speaks of the new covenant age in this way: “‘And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit…And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.’” (2:28-29, 32)
In Acts 2, Peter says that the outpouring of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost is the fulfillment of what Joel prophesied. (See Acts 2:16-21) In other words, the age of the new covenant has arrived, an age characterized by an increased work of the Holy Spirit. This means that before the day of Pentecost, the disciples and other believers were still “Old Testament believers” who experienced a very real (though very limited) work of the Spirit. But with the arrival of the new covenant, the Spirit came in all his promised fullness. Old covenant saints became new covenant saints.
So to look at the Holy Spirit coming upon existing believers in Acts 2 then and say that all believers should seek the same thing is to miss the point of the passage. The focus isn’t on a personal experience the disciples had. The focus is on the transition from the old covenant era to the new covenant one. The disciples were living at a unique point in history, thus making their experience unique. The Holy Spirit came upon them as a result of the inauguration of the new covenant, and ever since then God’s saints have been new covenant believers. We don’t start off as old covenant believers and then transition to new covenant ones. We start and end in the new, meaning there is no transition between covenants. And if there’s no longer any transitioning between covenants, then there’s no outpouring of the Holy Spirit subsequent to conversion. Rather, he’s poured out upon believers at conversion.
So to sum up: Pentecost was about a shift in historical eras. It wasn’t primarily an individual event for the disciples. Or to say it another way: Pentecost was about the time they were living in, not about the quality of their faith. People living at that time who were already believers had become believers under the old covenant. The Spirit came on them later, not because that’s what happens to believers later on in their walks with Christ, but because the new covenant came later. They lived to see the beginning of the prophesied new covenant era in which all believers would be baptized in the Holy Spirit. And since everyone reading this has been born in this era, you’ve been baptized in the Holy Spirit if you’ve been saved.
So that clears up why the disciples were baptized in the Holy Spirit after their conversion at Pentecost. What it doesn’t clear up is why even after Pentecost there seem to be examples of the Spirit coming upon believers subsequent to conversion (see Acts 8, 10, and 19). I’ll explore that in the next entry.
