May, 1941
T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
180
4. It is an initial blessing relating to position rather than a subsequent ex perience relating to condition. 5. It is a onCe-for-all experience never to be repeated. 6. Every reborn child of God is bap tized with the Spirit. There is no degree of age or stage of experience. All are equally baptized. 7. Baptism and fullness are not syn onymous words or experiences. And I say it for this reason: We are never commanded in Scripture to be baptized with the Spirit. We are commanded to be filled with the Spirit. All were bap tized with the Spirit. We cannot be come a part of the Body of Christ with out it, but you and I know that there are many people now that live and die as Christians without ever once being filled with the Spirit. - * As long as I live, I shall ,never ask to be baptized with the Holy Spirit: The moment I received the Lord Jesus Christ as my personal Saviour, I was baptized with the Holy Spirit and brought into the oneness of the Body of the Lord' Jesus Christ. But 1 do want to be filled with the Holy Spirit. I want and need' that great, precious, and glorious bless ing. % - • So may I explain further: Baptism means introduction into a totally new position; it means, corporation into, Christ, into the Church, and into the Spirit. It makes us one with Christ, who is our sanctification, and it makes us one with the blessed Spirit who is our sanctifier. It opens the fountain of full ness and makes Christ the fullness of the Church and of the Christian. That fullness of Christ is made potential for every one of us through the baptism with the Spirit. Being filled with ihe Spirit is the actual introduction into a totally new condition that corresponds With qur new position. It is the appropriation of Christ as our Sanctification, and it is allowing the Holy Spirit without hindrance to do His work as the Sanctifier. It is receiv ing the fullness that is in the fountain that was opened to us through the bap tism with the Holy Spirit. It makes the Christian and the Church the fullness of Christ. The baptism in the Spirit made Christ the fullness of the Church and the Christian, and now there is the re ciprocation. The Church and the Chris tian are the fullness of Christ. It.makes the'fullness of Christ personal. As I study the Scripture, I find that the baptism with the Spirit is Paul’s strongest appeal for the fullness of the Spirit. The condition should correspond with the position. Paul’s appeal to the Corinthians is in effect this: “Be what you are.” He does not make an appeal for them to become sanctified in order that they may be holy, but the basis of his appeal is, in reality, "Be holy be cause you are sanctified.” There is all the difference in the world between those two things.
The Meaning of the Experience Now let us come to an understanding of the meaning of the experience of the baptism in the Spirit. Historically it is the birthday of the Church. It marks the beginning of that divine-human union between Christ and the Qhurch. It marks the creation of the new man which is Christ in the Christian. It be gins that oneness mentioned in Ephe sians 4:4, 5: one Lord, one Body, one Spirit, one baptism. I am not talking about a federation of the churches. There is nothing in God’s Word about making one church organization. It is one Body, one Spirit, one baptism. So I believe personally that the key thought in the baptism with the Holy Spirit is oneness. It has to do with the oneness that we have with Christ the Head,, the oneness of the members of the Body with one another, the oneness that we are brought into by the Holy Spirit. Let us consider for a, moment one of the passages in the epistles that shows us most clearly the meaning of the baptism with the Holy Spirit, 1 Co rinthians 12:12, 13. Notice what word is used five times in these verses, what word is used four times, and two little words'that are used three times. Notice also the tense of the verbs. “For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all 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.” What word is used five times? Yes, the word “one.” What word is used four times? “Body.” What was one of those little words? “All” ‘was one; “in” was another. The issue is: Where are you? There is not a thing here about our condition. It is talking about our position —where we are and how we get there. Now let us gather up our words and put them together. First, we find "in” or “into,” a preposition relating to our position—where we are-._"One body” in dicates introduction into a new environ ment, incorporation of many members into one body, accomplished through the baptism in the Holy Spirit. "All” refers to every born-again believer, -the carnal Christian as well as the spiritual Christian. And,- then, it is past tense, “were . . . baptized” (R. V.), an already accomplished fact. Now I gather this a ll up and would give these seyen thoughts about what is the Scriptural meaning of thè baptism in the Holy Spirit: 1. It is an initiatory experience that takes place the moment we believe on Christ. 2. It is a sovereign act of God that places a believer in the Body of,Christ. 3. It is a fact of salvation to be be lieved and accepted rather than an ex perience to be sought and prayed for.
A Sufficient Salvation • Over in China a classical teacher was listening to me as I gave a message on the great truth of identification with Christ In His death, resurrection, and ascension. He came to all six meetings and listened most intently. He asked* one of the missionaries whether he might speak to her, and during the interview he was soundly con verted. She asked him why he had not accepted the Lord Jesus Christ during the eleven years he had been in that school and had heard the gospel daily. He said: “I believed the gospel. I believed that Christ gave His life for me, but I have unmentionable sins In my life, and I knew that even though I put my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour, I would just go out and do those sins again. It wasn’t until I saw salva tion in all its fullness through the work of the Holy Spirit, that I realized that it was a salvation sufficient for me.”—Ruth Paxson.- tally. On the Cross the crucified Saviour, laid down His life for the world: On Pentecost the exalted Lord sent down His Spirit for the Church. What the blood makes potential through the death of the Son, the baptism makes personal through the working of the Spirit, and there is no gospel message that is com-, plete without both. Allow me to emphasize the necessity for the preaching and teaching of this truth. At a Bible conference, a mission ary told me of being five yedrs on the mission field without knowing the in-, filling of the Holy Spirit, and described the tremendous change that came over an entire region when the missionary and then the native Christians entered into this experience. That night after. this testimony had been given, my co worker was talking with a group of girls of high school age, and one of those dear little girls prayed, “Lord, don’t let an other missionary go to the mission field without being filled with the Holy Spir it.” I pray the same prayer, and I could wish, too, that no pastor could go into a pulpit, ho Bible class teacher, Sunday- school teacher, or Christian worker go mto his field of service without know ing what it is to be filled with the Holy Spirit. I plead with all Christian leaders and with every true, earnest, born-again Christian to go out to give this mes sage about the Holy Spirit! There is no message in the world that is- so needed today! We cannot lay all the blame for the condition af the Church upon blatant modernism. We have also in the Church too much dead orthodoxy and unspir itual fundamentalism.
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