Is There a Second Spirit Baptism?

Baptized in the spirit. 1 Corinthians 12:13, “We were all baptized by one spirit into one body, whether Jews or Greeks.” Here’s the differing views here, two main views that we’re going to discuss. First view, that baptism in the spirit is concurrent with conversion. In other words, when you come to faith in Christ, you are baptized in the spirit at that moment. It’s concurrent, it happens at the same time.

Defining Second Spirit Baptism

Second view is that baptism in the spirit is subsequent to conversion, and there are many who believe that after you come to faith in Christ, there is another point later where you’re baptizing the spirit. That’s why they talk about a second baptism in the spirit and just personal note… Well, I’ll give the personal note in a minute. Differing views, concurrent or subsequent, case for a subsequent spirit baptism. I want to think about both of them.

The case for a subsequent second spirit baptism, people will say the disciples experienced regeneration or their salvation before Pentecost. In other words, the disciples were saved before they received the Holy Spirit like they did before Pentecost. And that’s why Jesus told the disciples to wait to be baptized with the Holy Spirit because there was something else to come.

Even though they were already regenerated, even though they had already been converted, there was something else to come. The disciples then received a baptism of the spirit after regeneration. So for the disciples, they received a baptism of the spirit after regeneration, and then proponents of subsequent second baptism would say this pattern is then repeated throughout the Book of Acts, Acts 8, Acts 10, and Acts 19. We’ll read just brief portions here, the last half of Acts 8, 12 through 17.

“When they arrived, they prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit had not yet come upon any of them.” They had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. So here’s a group of people that apparently have been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus, but they had not received the Holy Spirit. So Peter and John placed their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit. Subsequent, pattern here. Acts 10, this is Peter. He goes to Cornelius and his household. Peter said midway through that passage, “Can anyone keep these people from being baptized without water? And they have received the Holy Spirit just as we have. So I order that they be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.” So there’s a distinction here between baptism of the spirit and baptizing in the name of Christ.

You get to Acts 19, you get to the end of this passage, some guides at Ephesus that are approached and well, I’ll just starting at the beginning there. “There he found some disciples and asked them, ‘Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?’ And they answered, ‘No, we’ve not even heard that there’s a Holy Spirit.'” So Paul asked them, “‘Then what baptism did you receive?’ ‘John’s baptism,’ they replied. Paul said, ‘John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is in Jesus.’ On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them and they spoke in tongues and prophesied. There were about 12 men in all.”

So you got this pattern where there’s baptism in the name of the Lord Jesus, them baptizing in the Spirit, and even when they’re baptized in the spirit or the spirit comes on and they’re prophesying in tongues, speaking in tongues and prophesying.

When Does Baptism In The Spirit Happen?

So does baptism in the spirit happen at conversion or after conversion, at a subsequent time? Here’s what I want to do, defining spirit baptism. There are seven different places in the New Testament where it talks about either baptism with the Spirit or in the Spirit. And it’s the same language that’s used in the original language of the New Testament, baptism with the Spirit or in the Spirit.

 Here’s the seven. First four are from John the Baptist. They’re parallel. All four of these passages parallel one another when John the Baptist is talking about how Jesus would baptize with the Holy Spirit. So you see all four of those, “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire, he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit,” talking about Jesus.

Next two times you see this phrase used is the Pentecost. “John baptized with water. But in a few days you’ll be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” This is Jesus speaking to his disciples. Then next Acts 11:16. “Then I remembered the Lord had said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.'” So both of them talking about how the disciples will be baptized with the Holy Spirit, referring to Pentecost. And then you got one phrase in Paul. One time Paul writes, “For we were all baptized by one spirit into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free, and we’re all given the one spirit to drink.” So based on those seven passages, are there any conclusions we can draw? Here’s what I believe the conclusions are that we can draw. Number one, for Paul baptism by or in or with the spirit again…

Well, let me say this and I’ll elaborate. For Paul, baptism by, in, or with the Spirit occurs at conversion. It’s what he’s saying in 1 Corinthians 12:13. “We were all baptized by one spirit into one body.” “All, all of us baptized by one spirit into one body.” Now those who say there’s a subsequent baptism at this point say, “Well, he says baptism by the Spirit there and the others talk about baptism with the Spirit or in the Spirit.”

 But really that distinction really can’t be supported because the original language of the New Testament, they’re mirroring each other in these different circumstances. What Paul is saying to the believers at Corinth is that when they came to Christ, they were baptized by one spirit into one body, i.e., when they became Christians, they were all baptized. This wasn’t, “Some of you have been baptized with the spirit and some of you have not been.”

We were all baptized by one spirit into one body. So that’s what Paul is saying there. Begs the question, “Well, what about Pentecost? What was going on with the disciples there?” Yes, the disciples were regenerated. They were born again before Pentecost. However, the question we need to ask is, “Is this narrative, the story, normative?” Normative.

In other words, “this story, is it what’s normative for every believer, this is what happens for every believer? They wait and are baptized by the Holy Spirit.” What’s happening with the disciples happens for every believer. I think the answer is no. Very clearly I think the answer is no. Pentecost demonstrates a unique shift in redemptive history. This is based on all the things we’ve seen. There’s obviously something going on at Pentecost that is incredibly unique. Jesus’ disciples were living in a time of covenant transition.

Follow with me. Here’s what I mean by that. Regarding Jesus, they understood the new covenant. They believed in an ascended Messiah. No question. They believed in Jesus before that happened. But regarding the spirit, up until Pentecost, they were still living with an old covenant experience of the Spirit. The spirit had not come down in this new covenant picture in Acts chapter 2.

Incomplete Experience Of the Spirit

They had an incomplete experience of the spirit. So what’s going on in Acts chapter 2, follow with me here, is that at Pentecost disciples with an old covenant experience of the spirit become disciples with a new covenant experience of the spirit. Does that make sense? What happened that was completely new in Acts chapter 2, first time for them, these were disciples who had faith in Jesus, but they were still living with an old covenant experience of the Spirit. And something unique happened in Acts 2 where the whole picture was changing into a new covenant picture.

So as a result of the unique shift in redemptive history that’s going on here, I don’t think there’s similarity, I don’t believe there’s similarity between us and the disciples at this point. There’s not one of us in this room who has lived at any point with a old covenant experience of the Spirit as followers of Jesus Christ. None of us have. This is not something that we have had. Instead, when come to Christ… And this is exactly what happens at Pentecost when Peter preaches and 3000 people are saved. And what happens when they’re saved? They receive what? They receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. When they’re saved right there, Jesus and the Spirit, two for one, Jesus and the Spirit both in their conversion experience. That is the pattern that we would see all throughout the new covenant from then after. What about those other second experiences in Acts?

What about Acts 8? What about Acts 10? What about Acts 19? Well, what’s interesting is you go back and look at those three experiences, none of these experiences even mentioned the phrase “baptism in the spirit.” None of them are talking about baptism in the spirit. Instead, what’s happening is this new covenant realization of the spirit is simply and clearly following the plan of the spirit. Here’s what I mean by that. What you’ve got is, in Acts 8, Samaritans receiving the Spirit, just as they had been promised, “The Spirit will come upon you and be witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria.” And the picture is as the gospel goes to new people. Acts chapter 10, Cornelius, now we see that God’s spirit is coming upon Gentiles too. This is inaugurating. This whole picture in the Book of Acts, it’s not giving us normative experiences for how everything’s going to happen from here on out.

Instead, this is the first time we’re seeing the plan of the Spirit unfold. In Acts 10 and 19, in addition to the fact that this is unfolding what’s seen in Acts 1 and 8, in Acts 10 and 19, those people were not just hearing about the Holy Spirit for the first time, they were hearing about Jesus for the first time. Acts 10, these are God-fearing Gentiles who Peter comes to them and he tells them about Jesus and the Spirit, same time. Acts 19, same picture. These are guys who received John’s baptism. They say to them, “Well, no, you need baptism in Christ and you need the spirit.” Both, same time. I think the result is the New Testament therefore does not teach a subsequent second baptism of the Spirit to be sought after conversion. If this were so important, then why would scripture not teach this to us, very clearly teach this to us?

Baptism of the Spirit Occurs at Conversion

Instead, the New Testament is teaching that baptism of the spirit occurs at conversion. Now, I know that there are folks in here maybe who would say, “But I had a second experience. There’s something that happened at a different time for me than my conversion.” I remember, this is the personal kind of angle, in college, a good friend of mine, we would go to lunch every week and we had some differences theologically and this was one major one. I mean he told me he was praying for me to get a second baptism and we went off for the summer one summer, came back and he said, “Did something happen to you on July 17th or whatever?” And I was like, “No.” And he’s like, “What? I was praying that you get the second baptism that day.” And so I missed it on July 17th. And I kept telling him, “I got the two for one, Jesus, the Spirit at the same time.”

So I know that there are folks who have had some kind of experience post-conversion that has been called second baptism. Now, here’s what I would encourage us to do then. In light of that, let us still think about this from the practical implications. Number one, I believe as followers of Christ, we need to be confident in our baptism.

And by that I mean when we come to Christ, we receive a spirit, a spirit of God. Not a quarter of the Spirit or half of the Spirit, we receive the spirit of God when we come to faith in Christ. Baptism in the Spirit is a distinctive blessing for new covenant believers. This didn’t happen for old covenant. Baptism in the Spirit is a universal blessing for new covenant believers. In other words, all of us have it. That’s the whole point of what Paul is saying in Corinthians, “You are all baptized into one body.” So be confident in your baptism.

Two Class Christianity

What happened when the spirit opened your eyes and regenerated your heart is he indwelled you as well. Be confident in that. Second, beware of two class Christianity. One of the things I fear when talking about second baptisms is we create a two-tiered system in Christianity where some have experienced one baptism and others have experienced two baptisms. And there’s a whole level of spirituality here that some haven’t gotten to and it creates a two class system of Christianity the New Testament does not teach. It does not teach, and I think it’s harmful to the church. There were plenty of opportunities if that was true for Jesus to say or for Paul to tell or Peter to tell any of these churches that were struggling in the New Testament, “You need to be baptized in the Spirit,” for Jesus in Revelation 2 and 3 of these churches that are struggling, “You need to be baptized in the spirit.” But it doesn’t say that.

There’s not a two class Christianity that’s being set up here. But I want to be careful here because those of you who have had some kind of experience, subsequent two conversion, here’s what I want to encourage you with. I want to encourage, and this is really speaking to me and to those of us who may not have had another experience, to be cautious in our judgment.

We don’t need to compromise on scripture, and I don’t believe there is clear warrant in scripture for a second baptism in the Spirit. At the same time, we don’t encourage one another in Christ by negating each other’s experiences. If you have had some kind of second experience, or third or fourth experience, something that’s happened in your life subsequent to conversion, I don’t want to negate that.

Maybe there is something that’s gone on in your life there, but I don’t think biblically it’s a wise to call it baptism in the spirit. Instead, maybe there’s some other things that might be called that are more biblical. Yes, there are definitely spiritual markers we come to. There are definitely times we come to in our spiritual life where the spirit of God transforms us maybe in a amazing way, in a leap ahead in our spiritual walk kind of way, and it makes sense, this next picture there. Be active in seeking the spirit. Here’s the way it works.

Oftentimes people will be told that they need to be baptized and they need to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And here’s what they’re encouraged to do. Confess all your known sins, repent of any remaining sin in your life, trust in Christ to forgive your sins, commit areas of your life to the Lord’s service that have not been under his submission, yield yourself fully to Christ, and believe that he’s going to empower you in a new way, and equip you with new gifts for ministry.

Now, if you do those things, that’s great. Definitely do those things. And when you do those things, let’s not be surprised when something really big happens. When we say, “There’s areas of my life that are not under submission to his spirit. I want to submit to him completely and totally and get rid of unconfessed sin in my life,” that kind of preparation leads to mighty moves of the spirit in our lives. So that’s a good thing, but we need to be biblical in talking about those experiences.

How Do We Know If The Spirit Is Working In Our Lives?

We don’t have a basis in scripture for talking about those experiences as baptism in the spirit. Instead, there’s all kinds of other terminologies that scripture uses, whether it’s anointing, whether it’s being filled with the spirit, a new step and fullness of the spirit, and growth in godliness. There’s all kinds of other terminologies, other words that would be better used there, that are more biblical, because baptism in the spirit is certainly not associated with a subsequent something that happens after conversion.

It’s what happens at conversion. So be biblical in talking about the experiences or your experiences with the spirit. Look for the fruit of the spirit and focus on the filling of the spirit. Here’s what I mean by that. Here’s how we know the spirit is working in our lives. He’s bearing fruit and he’s filling us. I really think that fullness of the spirit, being filled with the spirit is oftentimes what people experience when they have this second experience.

 It’s a supernatural feeling. There’s a fullness that comes over someone that may change and empower people for ministry in entirely new ways. So if you’ve had a second experience, my encouragement to you based on the word, based on as best as I can and understand the word, my encouragement to you would be to consider and really look in the word to see how the word would describe that experience, because baptism in the spirit is not the best way to describe that.

And I would also encourage you to be careful, not to look at others in a two class sense of Christianity, and tell people, “You need to be baptized in the spirit so that you can be at the same level that I am.” I think it’s good for us to spur one another on toward Christ and encourage each other to seek the spirit, but not in a false way like that. If you’ve not had that kind of second experience or third experience or fourth experience, my encouragement to you would, “Be cautious in your judgment of others, help others think through these things, but in your own life, seek the spirit. Seek more and more and more and more of the spirit.”