Willingness, Desire and Baptism

In the New Testament, water baptism follows a basic pattern of personal willingness coupled with personal desire.  This is one reason why many Christian churches require the individual being baptised to have an understanding of the spiritual significance of water baptism after being born again by the Gospel.  Being baptised is symbolic that as Jesus died, was buried and rose again from the dead, we who were once dead in sins have now been raised to new, everlasting life by the power of the Gospel.  We are baptised in water in obedience to Christ, for identification with Christ and as a public testimony we have chosen to follow Christ.  Our salvation hinges upon our personal choice to repent and trust in Jesus, and the decision to be baptised in water is also a personal choice that requires our willingness.

I see a connection between our willingness to submit ourselves to God in receiving the Gospel to be saved from our sins (for God will not force forgiveness or salvation upon anyone), and the necessity of our willingness to submit to water baptism as well as submission before God to be baptised with the Holy Spirit.  Now when I came to faith in Jesus as a child, I did not know anything about being baptised in water.  It was only after several years I learned that Christians were called to make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, Jesus Christ the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and to teach them to observe all Jesus had commanded.  Once I understood Jesus had called me to be baptised as His disciple--and that I was to follow His example of being baptised Himself--I went forward at a church baptism in Mission Bay in San Diego to be baptised by another Christian.

Another thing I did not realise when I came to faith in Jesus is I could be baptised with the Holy Spirit--the birthright of every Christian.  During my youth and into adulthood, I was like the believers Paul met in Ephesus in Acts 19:1-2:  "And it happened, while Apollos was at Corinth, that Paul, having passed through the upper regions, came to Ephesus. And finding some disciples ² he said to them, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" So they said to him, "We have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit."  I did not realise this spiritual baptism Peter identified as "the promise of the Father" to curious onlookers in Acts 2 was for me.  When I first heard about the Holy Spirit coming upon believers to empower them to be His witnesses, I was uncomfortable with the idea.  My pastor asked a question God used to soften my heart:  "Don't you want all God has for you?  If God has a spiritual gift to give you, wouldn't you desire it?"  In time I decided I did desire and and would welcome any spiritual gift He would give me.  Convinced it was God's will for me to be baptised with the Holy Spirit (1 John 5:14-15), I asked and God baptised me.

Water baptism and baptism with the Holy Spirit for Christians both involve personal desire and willing submission, these always involve another person.  No one is baptised in water by themselves, and no one is baptised without the Person of the Holy Spirit.  When Philip shared the Gospel with the Ethiopian eunuch, the eunuch immediately asked if he could be baptised, and this correlates with someone who receives baptism with the Holy Spirit at the same time as conversion.  In my case, I had no idea about the Holy Spirit or the baptism Peter experienced and spoke of, and it was only at a later time I learned of it and was brought to a place of willing submission to God, to ask and receive that baptism by faith in Jesus and God's promise.  What R.A. Torrey said is true about baptism with the Holy Spirit rings true of water baptism:  everyone baptised knows that have been, when it happened, and that it was not gradual.  Praise the LORD for the gracious blessing of the Holy Spirit given beyond measure to fill us day by day.