SWBA HOME	CHRISTIAN BAPTISM INTO THE FATHER, THE SON, AND THE HOLY SPIRIT: The first generation of Jewish monotheistic disciples began their process of understanding a new experience of a triune God by asking, “Who or what is Jesus?” but for those who were not raised as either Jews or Samaritans and had not known the human Jesus of Nazareth, it was an immanent experience of the Holy Spirit that not only confirmed their own belief, but also enabled the longer-standing Jewish believers to recognise the same God at work in these newer disciples, as had been at work in themselves. It was not a common belief in the dogma of God or Jesus but it was a common experience of God the Holy Spirit that bound these Jewish and Gentile disciples together into a first-century community of faith. For many Christians today, some sort of basic “encounter” with the Spirit (some kind of personal “revelation” or “inner conviction”) remains as a common experience, as it has throughout Christian history.
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The recognition of another as a fellow-believer or fellow-disciple is seldom based on the common acceptance of a dogma or the common adherence to an agreed Creed or “Statement of Faith” (which can sometimes be a tool to exclude). It is more likely to be an instinctive recognition and an unspoken understanding of a common encounter with the Holy Spirit, even if the incidentals of the encounter with each individual bear little resemblance to each other. There is nevertheless an acceptance that there has been an encounter with the one and the same Holy Spirit.

This encounter is referred to as a “baptism” in or with the Holy Spirit. This is taught in the Gospels as a prophetic expectation,[1]  and in Acts as a promise.[2] Baptism into water is a physical symbol of this other baptism, a baptism into Christ or a baptism into the Holy Spirit.[3] Beasley-Murray observes,

“To imagine that one could be in Christ, in the Body, in the Kingdom, participating in the life of the new age and therefore a new creature, born anew and renewed by the Spirit, yet not possess the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of the Body, the Spirit of the Kingdom and the life of the new age is to be guilty of a serious misunderstanding of the Apostolic teaching. Where Christ is, there is his Spirit. A man is either in Christ or not in Christ; the New Testament does not allow of a compromise position. Similarly a man either has the Spirit or has not the Spirit; the Pauline theology allows of no compromise in this respect also. ‘If a man does not possess the Spirit of Christ he does not belong to him’ (Romans 8: 9). Hence baptism in the name of Christ, which is a ‘putting on’ Christ and a setting of a man in Christ, cannot be other than a baptism in the Spirit. So primitive Christianity believed. ‘You were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God’ (1 Corinthians 6: 11 ). ‘In one Spirit we were all baptized into one Body… and were all saturated in his outpouring (1 Corinthians 12: 13 ).” [4]

When Matthew recalled the words of Jesus’ “Great Commission” this baptism was also in the name of the Father,[5] which again is no mere formulation of words but is a reflection of the new relationship into which Christian disciples have entered.

The primary Christian uses of the term “baptism” specifically refers to the Spirit. The word itself has been transliterated into English because no other available term adequately conveys the full meaning of “baptisma”. It is usually translated as “to dip” or “to immerse” and conveys the notion of a process of immersion, submersion and emergence. But this clearly does not cover the full meaning of the word. It was originally used to describe something which had a greater and longer-lasting effect. For example, it was used to describe the process of dyeing cloth. Here the cloth, that was “dipped” into the dye, did not come out as it went in, for the dye had now been incorporated into the cloth itself. “Baptism” was also used to describe an overwhelming of the one thing by another, such as a ship being sunk into the sea.

A better word used in common English has been suggested by Joe Story (Manna House, Northampton) in his seminars on Baptism. He uses the word “dunk” from the old German “dunken”. This conveys not just the sense of being overwhelmed but also being saturated. Just as a biscuit “dunked” into tea is transformed by the incorporation of the liquid into itself, so a disciple is both overwhelmed and transformed by being dunked or baptised in or with the Holy Spirit. As we have noted there was something about this personal and subjective experience that was objectively recognisable by others within the community of faith as being a common or communal encounter with the divine, yet mysterious to those outside of that communion.[6]

One aspect of the ministry of the Holy Spirit to the post-resurrection Church is to confirm the inter-relationship of the Son and the Father and to draw into that relationship those who are the followers of the Son. It is this on-going incorporation into the relationships of the Triune God that is the life-long spiritual baptism into the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit that is symbolised by a one-off physical event of baptism into water.

Fiddes’ observes that “Theological debates about the sacraments in Christian history have tended to focus on notions of ‘substance”.[7]  This focus on the physical aspects of the ‘rite’ of baptism has in some cases blinded us to the sacramental meaning which is centred on the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the disciple rather than on a one-off event, which in the case of paedobaptism has, in some traditions, become a family event in which the subject of baptism is a passive participant - whether he or she likes it or not.

John quotes Jesus as saying to the first disciples in the upper room on the night of his arrest,

"If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counsellor to be with you forever-- the Spirit of truth… On that day you will realise that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.[8]

The other roles of the Holy Spirit according to the teachings of Jesus recorded in John such as living with, teaching, reminding, convicting of sin, guiding, making known, etc.[9] is all part of this process of drawing or breathing the disciple into a relationship with the Trinity (“I am in the Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.”) so that he or she can be breathed or sent out into the world to continue the work of God. This ongoing relationship of being breathed into and out from the Trinity has a transforming effect on the disciple and on the world.

This is what Fiddes calls “participation in God”, a doctrine in which,

“the whole triune life of God is open to the world, and in which we are drawn into communion with the relationships within God – into the interweaving movements of being which are like the relations between Father, Son, and Spirit. Participation in God overcomes the split between objective and subjective which has been an unhelpful part of our consciousness since the Enlightenment.”[10]

The Bible presents the story of a self-revealing God who has continually given humans a greater understanding of Himself, which affects the way that the individual sees him or her own self and the world. Yet God cannot be confined to the revelation given so far. God exists outside of time and space, outside of human experience, and outside of the extent of the self-revelation. Just as the Lord God is described in the Revelation to John as “alpha and omega”[11] so the author of Hebrews says that, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”[12] Although any current revelation of God points us towards where God is going and that revelation is therefore incomplete, yet God Himself is already there. As the One whose existence is not restricted by space and time God is already omega and unchanging. But this is not what mankind sees, nor can it be seen by any individual.

This self-revelation of God happens in and through those are drawn into and sent out from a relationship with God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This action of being breathed into and out of the divine is a continual process and it is the way in which disciples enter into the purposes of God and are sent out to implement them as a concurrent movement within an ongoing relationship. This brings us back to the first action of the resurrected Jesus who said to his first disciples:

"Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." And with that he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit”.[13]

The emergence of a doctrine of the Trinity finds its genesis in the revelation to the first disciples, of who Jesus is, in and by an immanent experience of the Holy Spirit. The monotheistic nature of God was never in question by the early Jewish followers of the Christ and this was taught to successive generations of Gentile converts. At no point is polytheism an acceptable option within emerging Christianity.

The centrality of Jesus as the pinnacle of God’s revelation was what distinguished Christianity from Judaism and indeed was the cause of their eventual separation. The author to the Hebrews (themselves possibly early Samaritan converts) teaches that the work of both Jesus and the Holy Spirit[14] is a continuation of the previous revelation of God enshrined in the Torah and was a new and superior revelation to what had been given before in which Jesus is the exact representation of God’s being and is equal in every respect to God.[15]

In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.[16]

The role of the Holy Spirit in the church cannot be over-estimated. It was this direct experience of what was perceived to be the divine Spirit that led the early Church to see the life, teaching, death and resurrection of Jesus as the continuation of God’s revelation, as well as seeing that revelation continuing beyond the resurrection and ascension through the promised Counsellor, the Holy Spirit.

This Holy Spirit was never defined, nor was a definition needed, within New Testament times. Although an individual and subjective encounter, it was also a communal and objective experience of the divine which was a mark of unity and orthodoxy. Hence Paul is able to say, “no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, "Jesus be cursed," and no one can say, "Jesus is Lord," except by the Holy Spirit.”[17]

Through their encounters with Jesus and the Holy Spirit the first generation of disciples perceived themselves to have been drawn into a relationship with God – whom they now called “our Father”.

This understanding of being drawn into a living relationship or communion with God was conveyed from that first generation to subsequent generations of Christians. They did not attempt to work out the details of the internal relationships within what became known as the Trinity. Rather they continued to be active participants within the mission of God as the gospel message or kerygma was conveyed from person to person, and country to country. The teaching or didache of the Church given to new converts was centred on the life and teachings of Jesus. It was much later on, when the church was teaching adults who were ‘nurtured into’, rather than ‘converted into’, Christianity, that Christian teachers and scholars started to raise questions about the nature of the internal workings of the Trinity. This was not a primary concern for disciples in the first century, although their experiences and their understanding of those experiences which led them to speak of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit were the foundations on which a later doctrine of the Trinity was constructed.

The relationships of the Trinity to the people of God, (the Church), and to the world remains at the heart of the mission of God to His Creation. The work of the Trinity continues to be the building of relationships, drawing us in and breathing us out, transforming disciples and helping those who have been drawn into those relationships to transform the world and by making disciples of all nations.

The foundations of this notion of a Triune God actively engaged with people in the world emerge during the first century as the result of what was perceived as a self-revelation of God as a “Father”, and as a “Son”, and as a Holy “Spirit”. It begins as an encounter with the divine and continues as a response to the question, “Who is Jesus and what is his relationship to or with God?”

This initial understanding, this emerging Christology, laid down the foundations for future generations who were later able to create new language to define a new dogma of a Triune God that still denotes and defines catholic Christian orthodoxy for all denominations today. It also remains at the heart of Christian Mission; for the one who was sent, still sends; and the work of the Triune God continues in and through disciplined followers of Christ today.

As part of that discipline of being a twenty-first century Christian follower of Jesus; and as a mark of our willingness to be obedient to the teachings of Christ; and as a symbol of the spiritual changes that are already taking place in one’s life (our true baptism into the Father, the Son, and the Spirit) – we willingly, and at our own request, subject ourselves to baptism into and under water.

Copyright (c) 2005 Peter Idris Taylor