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SERIES C - COMPLEX OR CONTROVERSIAL ISSUES.
TWO
C2 CHRIST THE BAPTISER
C2.1 CLEAN RIGHT THROUGH.
Steam-clean me Lord, right through inside. (a very free translation of Psalm 51:7)
Forgiveness is not enough. We are all conscious of the fact that evil makes us dirty. We feel dirty, even after contact with evil, whether or not we have been involved; more so if we have done it ourselves.
The sense of being defiled is not the same as the sense of guilt or shame. It has nothing to do with blame. It is experienced by the most sane, balanced and normal of people (although it can also lead to all kinds of psychological problems).
One reaction to it is revulsion, cover-up and lowered self-worth; another is to escape from it by wallowing in it. Then the dirt becomes packed solid and overlaid with more; after which it ceases to feel so bad.
In the system of sacrifices under the law of Moses there were offerings to deal, symbolically, with guilt and the need for forgiveness, and there were also ceremonial washings and sprinkling with ashes to deal with ceremonial uncleanness. Today if anyone wants a symbolic representation of it, go and watch a mechanic steam-cleaning a filthy engine. Look at it before and after and say, “Lord do that to me.”
It can be a messy process and may take time, unlike forgiveness which takes only an instant because forgiveness deals with sin in Heaven from God’s point of view. The clean-up deals with our inner selves on earth. It can hurt. And it leaves us without the protection of caked-on filth, restores revulsion to evil so that future contact with it sickens us more and more. But it leaves us clean.
C2.2 JOHN THE BAPTIST’S UNIQUE PARABLE.
The life-changing encounter with Christ is described and illustrated in many different ways. Each has its own emphasis although telling of the same transforming miracle.
John the Baptist had a particularly vivid picture for it. He had been standing in the river, taking people firmly in both hands and plunging them into the flowing stream.
(This is not a study of baptism as a subject; so let it be enough to say here that there are other ways of baptising people and the early church sometimes used them, but what John the Baptist was doing was plunging people into the flowing river. That is important if we are to understand his picture language.)
Speaking of the Messiah whose arrival he was about to announce, he said, “I plunge you into water but He shall plunge you into wind and fire,” - of course the word for “wind” was the same as the word for Spirit and the proper translation of what he said is, “He shall plunge you into the Holy Spirit.”
But words have feelings as well as meanings, and the statement felt like wind and fire.
What happens when Christ gets a person into His hands does feel like being plunged into wind and fire. It is also properly described as being plunged into the Holy Spirit. The word “baptizo” means plunge into (it is the plunging in that is baptism, pulling out again afterwards is a necessary sequel to prevent drowning).
John the Baptist’s promise is quoted in Matthew, in Mark, in Luke, in John and twice in Acts and many other illustrations are used to describe the same event. Jesus Christ changes people.
Many years ago a young farmer named John asked me a question, “Have you been baptised in the Holy Spirit?” Then seeing that I was puzzled and a little embarrassed by the question he rephrased it, “I mean, do you know Christ as Baptiser?” He got it right second time and by doing so helped me to discover the reality he was talking about. I don’t even know his surname but will thank him when I get to Heaven.
Soon afterwards I discovered what it was to relax in the hands of Lord I had already known as Saviour for years, to let Him plunge me in, and see loads of rubbish from my life floating away down the river (or blown away in the wind or burned up by the fire, depending on which metaphor you are using).
The Bible is full of picture language and it does not help to argue about the terminology - just see the picture and experience the fact. Once Jesus Christ takes me into His hands, nothing will ever be the same, but remaining in His hands is a daily act of the will on which depends the daily experience of baptism in the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is God, alive, powerful and Holy. He flows all round us, He permeates the human spirit, He enters every corner of conscious and subconscious life, cleaning, healing, repairing, remaking as new.
An old hymn provides a vividly accurate real-life description of the daily baptism in the Holy Spirit which comes from knowing Christ as Baptiser.
Love’s resistless current sweeping
All the regions deep within
Thought and wish and senses keeping
Now and every instant clean.
Knowing Christ as Baptiser has to do with purity. Immediately after speaking of plunging into wind and fire, John the Baptist spoke of Christ as a farmer winnowing grain - “He shall work right through His threshing floor, flinging every scrap of corn into the wind, for the chaff to be blown away from the grain.”
Matthew 3:12
Flinging corn into the wind could be described by the words, “Baptised into wind” and as wind and spirit were the same word it is obvious that John the Baptist meant to link the two pictures. Water, wind and fire are cleansing purifying forces.
Although plunging people into the Jordan was a single action, winnowing corn involves persistence and John specifically said “He shall work right through His threshing floor.” So knowing Christ as Baptiser is not only a matter of saying, “Twenty years ago I was Baptised in the Holy Spirit.” It involves Christ at work purifying me today.
Whenever we are concerned with an “experience” of God’s power shown actively in our lives, there are two obvious steps to take - one is read what the Bible has to say about it - the other is talk it over with our Heavenly Father. Experiences should neither terrify nor attract for their own sake. The experience of being plunged by Christ into water wind and fire of the Holy Spirit is one we all need if we are going to Grow in Christ or Go to the world as His representatives. It is neither a status symbol to boast of nor a theory to argue about but simply part of a relationship with Him.
C2.3 THE BIBLE REFERENCES.
John the Baptist’s promise is repeated in:
Matthew 3:11-12
Mark 1:7-8
Luke 3:15-17
John 1:32-34
Acts 1:5
Acts 11:16
and 1 Corinthians 12:12-14 uses similar imagery in a different context.
When you have studied all these references and their contexts you have studied everything the Bible has to say on this subject.
C2.4 THE CONTROVERSY.
In the early days of the Pentecostal and Charismatic movements, there were some who laid such emphasis on a single experience of Baptism in the Holy Spirit that others reacted against it and tried to explain it away.
So we have some who teach, for example, that it is directly linked with spiritual gifts (especially tongues) and that if you do not speak in tongues you are not Baptised in the Holy Spirit, conversely that if you do you are.
On the other side some theologians hurriedly produced theologies that effectively removed Baptism in the Holy Spirit from everyday Christianity. They said it happened once and for all at Pentecost, or only for a limited period etc. Others argued that it happened automatically to everyone at conversion.
Since we have studied every reference to it we can see how little foundation any of these ideas have. It is all much simpler. When we put ourselves in Christ’s hands He does a transforming miracle - cleans us up by plunging us in! There may or may not be other experiences such as receiving gifts of the Spirit.
C2.5 IT IS ALL ABOUT PURITY.
Because it is all about purity it a vital issue in evangelism today. The people who hear the Gospel have had impurity of one kind and another thrust upon them since childhood and need to know how to be clean; and if the church is to demonstrate God’s character, it needs to be clean itself.