To be baptized is to be baptized into the name (denoting the person) of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, into an organic union with the processed Triune God. This is revealed by the Lord’s word in Matthew 28:19: “Go therefore and disciple all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Baptism is to bring repentant people out of their old state into a new one by terminating their old life and germinating them with the new life of Christ so that they may become kingdom people. John the Baptist’s recommending ministry began with the preliminary baptism by water only. Now, after the Lord Jesus accomplished His ministry on earth, passed through the process of death and resurrection, and became the life-giving Spirit, He charged His disciples to baptize the discipled people into the Triune God. This baptism has two aspects: the visible aspect by water and the invisible aspect by the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38, 41; 10:44-48). The visible aspect is the expression, the testimony, of the invisible aspect; whereas the invisible aspect is the reality of the visible aspect. Without the invisible aspect by the Spirit, the visible aspect by water is vain; and without the visible aspect by water, the invisible aspect by the Spirit is abstract and impractical. Both are needed. Not long after the Lord charged the disciples with this baptism, He baptized them and the entire church in the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12:13) on the day of Pentecost (Acts 1:5; 2:4) and in the house of Cornelius (Acts 11:15-17). Then, based upon this, the disciples baptized the new converts (Acts 2:38), not only visibly into water but also invisibly into the death of Christ (Rom. 6:3-4), into Christ Himself (Gal. 3:27), into the Triune God (Matt. 28:19), and into the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:13). The water, signifying the death of Christ with His burial, may be considered a tomb to terminate the history of the baptized ones. Since the death of Christ is included in Christ, since Christ is the embodiment of the Triune God, and since the Triune God is one with the Body of Christ, to baptize new believers into the death of Christ, into Christ Himself, into the Triune God, and into the Body of Christ is to do one thing: on the negative side to terminate their old life and on the positive side to germinate them with a new life, the eternal life of the Triune God, for the Body of Christ. Hence, the baptism ordained by the Lord Jesus in Matthew 28:19 is to baptize people out of their life into the Body life for the kingdom of the heavens.
The word “into” in 28:19 indicates union, as in Romans 6:3, Galatians 3:27, and 1 Corinthians 12:13. The same Greek word is used in Acts 8:16; 19:3, 5; and 1 Corinthians 1:13, 15. To baptize people into the name of the Triune God is to baptize them into spiritual and mystical union with Him.
In Matthew 28:19 there is one name for the Trinity. The name is the sum total of the divine Being, equivalent to His person. To baptize believers into the name of the Trinity is to immerse them into all the Triune God is.
By the time the Lord Jesus gave the charge to His disciples recorded in 28:19, He had already died an all-inclusive death on the cross, had been buried, had entered into Hades to overcome the power of death and everything related to it, and had come out of death and had entered into resurrection. Furthermore, He, the pneumatic Christ, had already breathed Himself as the life-giving Spirit into the disciples (John 20:22). Having done all this, He charged them to disciple the nations and to bring them into the Triune God so that they may have an organic union with Him. However, the Lord Jesus did not tell the disciples to baptize the discipled nations into the Triune God but to baptize them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. To baptize believers into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit is in fact to baptize them into the processed Triune God.
Unless baptism in the Holy Spirit is specifically designated, the word “baptism” in the New Testament indicates baptism through water implying the significance of the baptism in the Spirit. Even the water baptism of John the Baptist pointed to Spirit baptism. Although John’s baptism did not imply the Spirit, it nevertheless pointed to the Spirit. With the Lord Jesus and the apostles baptism implies both the water and the Spirit. This principle applies to the baptism mentioned by the Lord Jesus in Matthew 28:19. Therefore, to baptize believers into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit is to baptize them both in the water and in the Spirit. Physically, we baptize believers in water, yet the water symbolizes the divine name, the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This means that when we put people into the water of baptism, we put them into the person of the Triune God so that they may have an organic union with Him.