When did Paul receive the Holy
Spirit? He did not receive the Spirit on the Damascus road because Ananias came
that Paul might receive the Spirit. But did Paul receive the Holy Spirit when
he was healed as Ananias laid his hands on him? Or, did he receive the Holy
Spirit when he was baptized? From the perspective of Acts 2:38, we might argue
the latter, but the narrative offers no decisive answer to those questions.
Rather, the narrative assumes that faith, repentance, baptism, forgiveness, and
the reception of the Spirit are parts of the whole. Whatever the sequence, the
conversion narrative involved all the above and was incomplete without any of
them.
This is consistent with other
conversion narratives in Acts (8:11-13, 35-36; 16:14-15, 32-33; 18:8; 19:5).
Baptism immediately follows believing the gospel. Baptism was the concrete way
in which the gospel was received. Luke tells his story in such a way that the
conversion narrative has constitutive elements. Even when these are not explicitly
mentioned in every case, his narrative world assumes them. Luke, as a narrator,
intends to provide a holistic picture—conversion is our initiation into the community
of faith. The conversion narrative in Acts involves faith, repentance, and
baptism as hearers respond to the gracious message of God’s saving work in
Christ.
This is rather different than the
conversion narrative popular among contemporary revivalists. Nowhere does one
read in Scripture that conversion is asking Jesus into one’s heart through the “sinner’s
prayer.” Rather, the one who would call upon the name of the Lord is baptized
upon the name of Jesus. Ananias summons Paul to “arise and be baptized . . .
calling upon the name of the Lord” (Acts 22;16). In Acts, baptism is the
“sinner’s prayer.” (John Mark Hicks, Enter the Water Come to the Table:
Baptism and the Lord’s Supper in Scripture’s Story of New Creation [Abilene,
Tex.: Abilene Christian University, 2014], 66-67)
From Death to Life Through Water
Baptismal texts abound in Paul.
Paul uses the term “wash” or “washing” to describe the function of baptism (1 Cor.
6:11; Eph. 5:26; Titus 3:5), but mostly he employs some form of the root which
most translate as “baptize” or “baptism.” More significantly, the varied
contexts in which Paul employs baptismal motifs stress how important baptism is
to Paul (Col. 2;12; Eph. 4:5; Gal. 3:17; 1 Cor. 1:13-17; 12:13). However, Paul’s
use of baptism in Romans 6:3-4 is his most compelling discussion because of how
it is situated in the theological and narrative substructure of Romans 1-8. (John
Mark Hicks, Enter the Water Come to the Table: Baptism and the Lord’s Supper
in Scripture’s Story of New Creation [Abilene, Tex.: Abilene Christian
University, 2014], 82)
First, baptism marks our crossing from
death to life. Baptism involves movement. We move from slavery to freedom, from
death to life. Through baptism we cross the sea; we transition from old
humanity to new humanity.
Paul accentuates this movement
with the use of the preposition eis (into). Eis signifies movement,
a transition from one place to another, and, given Paul’s argument in Romans
3-8, a crossing over. We are (Rom. 6:3-4):
· Baptized
into Christ Jesus
· Baptized
into his death
· Buried
with him by baptism into death.
Baptism marks the moment when we
transition from living outside of Christ to resting in Christ. “In Christ” is Paul’s
language for living in the reality of God’s new creation. Union with Christ is
Paul’s way of talking about salvation. Baptism, for Paul, has soteriological
significance. This is all the more evident as Paul connects baptism with the
death and resurrection of Christ.
Our union with Christ means that
our experience becomes our own. We are not only baptized into his death,
but die with him in that baptism as we are plunged into death itself.
Our old humanity is crucified and buried with Christ just as Christ's own
Adamic humanity was crucified and buried. Jesus was raised as a new human, free
from death itself. So, also, we are raised a new humanity free from the guilt
and power of sin as well as the dominion of death. Our union with the death of
Christ is also our union with his resurrected life. We rise from the watery
grave to live a new life.
Second, baptism is a means of
grace. The action language of Romans 6 focuses on the moment of our
union with Christ in baptism: buried, raised, united, crucified, and died.
Baptism mediates this action as we die and rise with Christ. A single
word highlights this mediation: dia (by or through). We are “buried with
him by (dia) baptism into death.”
Dia denotes
instrumentality. Something happens through baptism. In traditional
sacramental language this is identified as a “means of grace.” God uses baptism
as a means. In, with, and under the waters of baptism, God gives grace, or,
more specifically in Romans 6, God unites us with the death and resurrection of
Christ. This language excludes any kind of mere symbolism. Rather, it is an
affirmation that something really happens in baptism, that is, God does
something. Just as in Israel’s crossing, so also in baptism, God liberates,
redeems, and saves.
Third, baptism is freed form
holiness. The exodus language is powerfully accentuated in Romans 6
through the imagery of slavery. Our Adamic bodies were “enslaved to sin.” But
those who have died with Christ, and thus died to sin, are “freed from sin.”
But this is no mere liberation from the guilt of sin. Rather, it is liberation
from the power of sin so that we might live to God. Our baptism means that,
having died to sin, sin will have no more “dominion” over us. We are freed from
the slavery of sin so that we might use our freedom for holiness and “present”
ourselves “to God as instruments of righteousness.” Freed from the bondage of
the Adamic humanity, our new humanity bears the fruits of holiness through the
power of the Spirit.
Fourth, baptism is the promise of
life with Christ. Just as Christ was raised never to die again because “death no
longer has dominion over him,” so those united to Christ will participate in
his resurrection and dominion over death. For “if we also live with him” (Rom.
6:8). This is the hope of “eternal life.” While many think of “eternal life” as
living in heaven with God forever, Paul believes it is the redemption of our
bodies, liberated from the bondage of decay.
Baptism affirms the redemption of
creation because it testifies to the future of our bodies. The resurrection of
our bodies is our liberation from the bondage of death, and whole creation will
participate in our glorious freedom. Our baptism, then, has cosmic meaning; it
bears witness to the glorious future of creation itself. Baptism is a cosmic
testimony!
Baptism in Romans 6, is the story
of a new exodus moment. We have entered a new country. We have moved from
living under the slavery of our Adamic humanity to the freedom of the new
humanity rooted in the death and resurrection of Jesus the Messiah. We are no
longer enslaved to sin but free to live in the Spirit. Death no longer has
dominion over us but we live in the hope of eternal life. Baptism not only
marks this new exodus, but it mediates to us the freedom, power, and hope of
life. (Ibid., 87-89)
