To be baptized in the all-inclusive consummated Spirit does not only put us, the believers, all together to be the Body of Christ, but also positions us to drink Him to receive the all-bountiful supply (Phil. 1:19) of the processed and transmitted Triune God, that we may be nourished to be the strong and active members of the Body of Christ for the carrying out of God’s eternal plan. When the Lord poured Himself out as this all-inclusive consummated Spirit upon His disciples, He accomplished the baptism in the Spirit. He passed through incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. Then He poured Himself out. For Peter, James, and John, the early disciples who were with the Lord throughout His earthly ministry, to be baptized in the Spirit was the last step they went through. However, for the house of Cornelius (Acts 10) to be baptized in the Spirit was the first step. Today we are just like the house of Cornelius. Our beginning is from the baptism in the Holy Spirit. When the house of Cornelius received the baptism in the Spirit, they began their spiritual life. They began to drink of the Spirit. This is why 1 Corinthians 12:13 tells us that “in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body...and were all given to drink one Spirit.” After we were baptized, we began to drink. To be baptized is to be put into Christ and to put Christ upon us (Gal. 3:27); then we begin to drink of Christ and to take Him in.
First, we are put into Christ; then we receive Christ into us. This corresponds to the Lord’s word in John 15:4 where He says, “Abide in Me and I in you.” He also said in John 14:20 that He was in the Father, that we are in Him, and that He is in us. We must firstly be in Him; then He will be in us. We are in Him by being baptized into Him, and we have Him in us by drinking of Him. To baptize people into water is a demonstration of the baptism of the Spirit. One who believes in the Lord is baptized into the Triune God. Then we demonstrate this by putting this one into water, signifying that he has been baptized into the Triune God, into Christ, into the all-inclusive Spirit. From this time onward, this baptized one begins to drink of the Spirit so the Lord can abide in Him.
Today the Lord has accomplished everything. The breathing of Himself into the believers has been accomplished, and His baptizing the believers in the Spirit has also been accomplished. Once we believe in Him, we receive His breathing and we receive His baptizing. He breathed once for all and He baptized once for all. In the book of Acts thousands of people believed in the Lord in many instances; there is no record that every time new believers came in, the Lord breathed again and the Lord baptized again. Breathing was accomplished and baptizing was also accomplished. When someone believes in the Lord, he gets into His baptizing. Then he is put into Christ and begins to drink Him in. Christ begins to abide in him. This baptized one and this drinking one is a new member in the Body of Christ.
In Matthew 28:19 the Lord Jesus charged His disciples to go and disciple the nations, baptizing them into the name, that is, into the Person, of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Spirit. To be baptized into the Person of the Triune God is to be baptized in the all-inclusive, consummated Spirit who is the ultimate consummation of the processed Triune God (Acts 1:5, 8). This means to be baptized into the riches of the Father, into the riches of the Son, and into the riches of the Spirit. To be baptized into the Triune God means to be brought into an organic union with the Triune God. We sinners, after believing into the Lord Jesus, have been baptized into the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. This produces an organic union. Now we, the baptized ones, are in this organic union. Therefore, whatever the Father has, whatever the Son has, and whatever the Spirit receives, all become ours.
Were you baptized into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit or into the name of the Lord Jesus? In Matthew 28, to be baptized is to be baptized into the Triune God. Then in Acts, to be baptized is to be baptized into the Lord Jesus (Acts 8:16; 19:5). This indicates clearly that the Lord Jesus, in Acts, is the consummation of the Triune God. He is the aggregate of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Then in the Epistles, the apostle defines baptism. He said to be baptized is to be baptized in the Spirit (1 Cor. 12:13). The New Testament tells us to be baptized into the Triune God, into the Lord Jesus, and in the Spirit. This indicates that the Lord Jesus is the totality of the Triune God, and the Spirit is the realization of the Lord Jesus. We all have been baptized in the Spirit, and this means to be baptized into the Lord Jesus which means to be baptized into the Father, the Son, and Spirit, into the Triune God. This baptism brings us into an organic union with the Triune God. Therefore, we become one with the Triune God, and whatever He is and has is ours because we are organically united to Him. This baptism in the Spirit is symbolized by the baptism in water (cf. Acts 9:17-18; 10:44-48). Baptism in water is a figure, the reality of which is the baptism in the Spirit. Without the Spirit as its reality, baptism in water immediately becomes an empty and dead ritual.