The Promise of the Spirit
In the first part of this series, titled Filled with the Spirit: A Biblical Examination, we saw from Scripture that the phrase “filled with the Spirit” is not used anywhere in the Bible to describe a 2nd or 3rd work of grace, but as a reference to the Holy Spirit inspiring and empowering a person to say or do something.
In this part, we want to examine in detail what the Bible says the promise of the Spirit is.
The Promise of the Spirit; The Blessing of Abraham
Galatians 3:13,14
13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us–for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”–
14 so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith. (ESV)
Why did Christ redeem us from the curse of the Law? It is that in Him we might receive the blessing of Abraham so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
What is the blessing of Abraham? Some think that it was his material wealth, but nothing could be further from the truth.
Genesis 22:18 says, ‘and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.”‘ In speaking about this, Paul wrote:
16 Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, “And to offsprings,” referring to many, but referring to one, “And to your offspring,” who is Christ.
17 This is what I mean: the law, which came 430 years afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise void.
18 For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by a promise.
24 So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. (Galatians 3:16-18, 24 ESV)
Note the phrasing of those words. The blessing of Abraham was/is righteousness or justification by faith.
Galatians 3:8
8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” (ESV)
God’s word to Abraham that “in you shall all the nations be blessed” was a direct reference to the justification of the Gentiles by faith. The blessing that “all the nations” would receive is justification by faith through Christ.
The purpose of Jesus’ death and resurrection ultimately is that we might receive the promise of the Spirit. And the means of receiving it is stated: by faith.
The promise of the Spirit is the regeneration of the heart that happens when a man is saved by faith in Jesus Christ.
If any have not the Spirit
Romans 8:9-11
9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. (ESV)
Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Him. By implication, the believer receives the Spirit of Christ at the new birth. Note also that nowhere does the Bible state that the believer receives half or part of the Holy Spirit at the new birth.
Sealed with the promised Spirit
Ephesians 1:13-14
13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,
14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
When is the believer sealed with the promised Holy Spirit? Note the term, “the promised holy Spirit”. When does the believer receive the promise of the Spirit?
Ephesians chapter one agrees with other passages that it is at the point of believing – the point of salvation. Nowhere does the Bible state that a person receives the Holy Spirit after being saved.
Baptised with the Holy Ghost
We shall examine all the mentions of baptism with the Spirit briefly.
When speaking about Jesus and His mission, John the baptist said:
Matthew 3:11-12
11 “I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” (ESV)
The comparison is clear. John stated that his ministry was that of bringing people to repentance to make way for the Lord. Then he stated that the ministry of Jesus would be to baptise people with the Holy Spirit and fire.
Clearly, John was equating salvation with the baptism with the Holy Spirit. Or was he not?
Again in Mark 1:7-8, John said:
7 And he preached, saying, “After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.
8 I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
Notice the juxtaposition again. John presented the baptism with the Holy Spirit as Jesus’ mission.
Luke 3:16 and John 1:33 say exactly the same thing. Jesus Himself affirmed this when He said in Acts 1:4-5:
4 And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me;
5 for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” (ESV)
Later in Acts chapter 11, Peter, in defending his going to Cornelius’ home to preach the Gospel, said:
15 As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as on us at the beginning.
16 And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’
17 If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God’s way?”
18 When they heard these things they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.” (ESV)
Note Peter’s statement. It is a clear testimony to what the baptism with the Spirit means. Peter affirmed that the baptism with the Spirit IS the gift of salvation.
Baptised with the Spirit into the Body
1 Corinthians 12:13
13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body–Jews or Greeks, slaves or free–and all were made to drink of one Spirit. (ESV)
When a person believes on the Lord Jesus Christ, such a one is baptised into the Body. The agency of that baptism is the Holy Spirit. The Baptiser Himself is the Lord Jesus Christ.
So, what happened on the day of Pentecost?
To understand what happened on the day of Pentecost, and subsequent occurences, we need to see what God’s plan for establishing the Gospel was.
Hebrews 2:1-4
1 Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.
2 For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution,
3 how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard,
4 while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.
Reading from verse one, there is no doubt that the writer was referring to salvation in this passage. Secondly, he was writing about how this message of salvation was introduced to them by those who had walked with jesus.
Then Verse 4 states clearly that God confirmed the establishment of this Gospel “by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will“.
In other words, God gave different manifestations to confirm the foundational work of the apostles. And He did this as it pleased Him. Note: the signs and wonders were manifestations of the Spirit to confirm the message of salvation that was being established. If you have gotten that, we can now examine the events of the book of Acts.
Act 2:1-4
1 When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place.
2 And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.
3 And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them.
4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them
utterance.
The promise of the Spirit – the promise made by the Father was first fulfilled on that day when the Holy Spirit was poured out. Those who believed on the Lord received His Spirit and were baptised into the Body. But what of the tongues of fire, and the speaking with other languages?
Those were manifestations of the Spirit to confirm that salvation had come! In addition, we shall see later in Peter’s experience at Cornelius’ home why God gave this sign or confirmation.
At Cornelious’ Home
The full account of how Peter ended up in Cornelious’ home can be found in Acts chapter 10. As Peter declared the Gospel to them, the Bible says:
Act 10:44-47
44 While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word.
45 And the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles.
46 For they were hearing them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter declared,
47 “Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?”
Now, if we understood Hebrews 2:4 clearly, it is easy to see what happened here: Peter preached, the hearers believed and got saved – and to confirm to Peter and the other Jewish believers that these Gentiles indeed had now believed same as them and been regenerated, God granted the same manifestation that He gave on the day of Pentecost.
Note that before this time, the Gospel had not been deliberately taken to the Gentiles. As a matter of fact, in chapter 11, Peter was actually challenged by the Jewish brethren over his trip to Cornelius’ home.
Again, his response is instructive:
Act 11:11-18
11 And behold, at that very moment three men arrived at the house in which we were, sent to me from Caesarea.
12 And the Spirit told me to go with them, making no distinction. These six brothers also accompanied me, and we entered the man’s house.
13 And he told us how he had seen the angel stand in his house and say, ‘Send to Joppa and bring Simon who is called Peter;
14 he will declare to you a message by which you will be saved, you and all your household.’
15 As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as on us at the beginning.
16 And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’
17 If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God’s way?”
18 When they heard these things they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.”
See how Peter tied the subject of salvation to the baptism with the Spirit that John the baptist had spoken about. And observe how the manifestation of the Spirit, by way of speaking in another language, was a means of confirming to Peter and the others that salvation was also for the Gentiles.
Keypoints about Tongues
1. The only references and examples of tongues that we have in the Bible are of people speaking a real human language that they have never learnt. There is no mention of the flesh-induced babbling and stammering that is seen today (Acts 2:5-11).
2. Biblical tongues is a manifestation of the Spirit. It happens as the Lord wills (1 Corinthians 12:11).
3. There is NO mention of tongues in the Bible as a private prayer language that anyone can use anytime he so desires. In all of Paul’s treatise on the subject in 1 Corinthians 12-14, he treats tongues in public and in prayer as manifestations of the Spirit.
4. There is no mention of tongues as evidence of receiving a second or third work of grace in the Bible. The singular work of grace that God did through Jesus Christ is received at the new birth.
5. All mentions of tongues are within the context that it is one of the manifestations of the Spirit.
6. There is no mention of tongues as being available to all believers or that all believers are to experience it.
Conclusions
In not one place in Scriptures is there a mention of the baptism with the Spirit as a second or third work of grace. When a person gets saved, he receives the Holy Spirit. He receives the promise of the Spirit. he is baptised with the Spirit into the Body of Christ.
He may experience manifestations of the Spirit as the Lord wills, to confirm the awesome work that God has done on the inside, and then he may not (more probably). It is as the Lord wills.
There are many more passages we can examine, and I encourage the reader to do so, and in all of them it is clear that the promise of the Spirit made by the Father is what is referred to in the Bible as the baptism with the Spirit. It is a reference to salvation, just as the following terms: regeneration, new birth, justification, etc are all different references to that same work of grace that Jesus works in people when they believe on Him.
The doctrine of baptism with the Spirit as taught and practised in Pentecostalism and its numerous offshoots is a grave error. Azusa street was a major blow on sound doctrine and on Christianity as a whole.
