Acts 10:46 continues, “For they heard them speaking in tongues and magnifying God.” Speaking in tongues was not the unique issue of receiving the Holy Spirit economically, because the magnifying, that is, the praising of God, was also one of its issues in this case, as prophesying was also one of its issues in the case of the twelve believers in Ephesus (19:6). Hence, speaking in tongues is not the only evidence of receiving the Holy Spirit economically; neither is it the necessary evidence, because there is at least one case of the receiving of the Holy Spirit economically, the case of the Samaritan believers (8:15-17), which does not mention speaking in tongues. In the case of Saul of Tarsus (9:17) concerning this matter, there is also no mention of speaking in tongues, although he told us later in 1 Corinthians 14:18 that he spoke in tongues.
The Gentile believers in the house of Cornelius received the Holy Spirit economically, as the early apostles and the Jewish believers did on the day of Pentecost (2:4), directly from the ascended Head. Only these two instances are considered in the New Testament as the baptism in the Holy Spirit (1:5; 11:15-16). By these two steps the Head of the Body baptized all His believers once for all, both Jewish and Gentile, into His one Body (1 Cor. 12:13). Hence, the baptism in the Spirit was an accomplished fact carried out by Christ in His ascension both on the day of Pentecost and in the house of Cornelius. All the other cases—the Samaritan believers in chapter eight, Saul of Tarsus in chapter nine, and the twelve Ephesian believers in chapter nineteen—are not considered the baptism in the Holy Spirit according to the revelation of the New Testament. These cases were only the believers’ experiences of the once-for-all accomplished baptism in the Holy Spirit.
In Acts, concerning the believers’ receiving the Holy Spirit economically, that is, the Holy Spirit’s falling upon them, only five cases are referred to. Two of them are for the accomplishment of the baptism in the Holy Spirit. These are the instances which took place on the day of Pentecost and in the house of Cornelius. The other three, the cases of the Samaritan believers, Saul of Tarsus, and the twelve believers in Ephesus, are all considered extraordinary, needing some members of the Body of Christ to identify them with the Body by the laying on of hands. Besides these five cases, in many cases of conversion, such as the three thousand (2:41), the five thousand (4:4), the Ethiopian eunuch (8:36, 38-39a), the many who believed in Antioch (11:20-21, 24), the many cases in chapters thirteen and fourteen under Paul’s preaching ministry, Lydia in Philippi (16:14-15), the jailer in Philippi (16:33), the believers in Thessalonica (17:4), the believers in Berea (17:10-12), the believers in Athens (17:34), the ruler of the synagogue and many other believers in Corinth (18:8), and the believers in Ephesus (19:18-19), there is no mention of the believers’ receiving the Holy Spirit economically—the Holy Spirit’s falling upon the believers— because in all these cases the believers were brought into the Body of Christ through their believing in a normal way, and they had no particular reason for some member of the Body of Christ to bring them into the identification with the Body by the laying on of hands. According to the principle of God’s New Testament economy, they all should have received the Holy Spirit essentially for life and economically for power in a normal way through their believing into Christ.
In verse 47 Peter answered, “Can anyone forbid water that these should not be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit even as we?”
Then in the next verse Peter charged those in the house of Cornelius “to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.” This indicates that we should pay attention to water baptism, signifying the believers’ identification with Christ’s death and resurrection (Rom. 6:3-5; Col. 2:12), as well as to Spirit baptism. Spirit baptism signifies the reality of the believers’ union with Christ in life essentially and in power economically, whereas water baptism is the believers’ affirmation of the Spirit’s reality. Both are needed, and neither can replace the other. All believers in Christ should properly have both.
Cornelius and his household were baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. To be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ is to be baptized in the sphere of the name of Jesus Christ, within which is the reality of baptism.
The “name” in verse 48 denotes the person. To be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ is to be baptized into the Person of Christ (Rom. 6:3; Gal. 3:27) to have an organic union with Him through faith.
In this message we have covered a number of matters, but the main thing we need to see is the Head of the Body completing the baptism of His Body into the all-inclusive Spirit, who is actually He Himself. We have pointed out that on the day of Pentecost, Christ, the Head of the Body, baptized the Jewish believers into the Spirit. That was the first step, the first instance of Christ baptizing the Body into the Spirit. Then in the house of Cornelius He, as the Head of the Body, baptized all the Gentile believers into the Spirit. This was the second step, the second instance. By these two steps, these two instances, Christ, the Head of the Body, baptized His entire Body into the Spirit.
For more than fifty years we have been studying this matter of the baptism into the Holy Spirit. In 1933 Brother Nee and I had a thorough talk regarding this. We came to see that of the five cases of the Holy Spirit falling upon the saints in the book of Acts, only two are called the baptism of the Spirit. As we have seen, the first is the case of the Jewish believers on the day of Pentecost, and the second is the case of the Gentile believers in the house of Cornelius. These two cases were the two instances of the accomplishment of the baptism in the Holy Spirit. The three other cases of the Holy Spirit coming upon the believers—the case of the Samaritan believers, the case of Saul of Tarsus, and the case of the believers in Ephesus—are not called the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, in the great many cases of conversion recorded in Acts, there is no mention of the Holy Spirit falling upon the believers economically. May we all see that in Acts only two cases are called the baptism in the Holy Spirit and that through these two cases Christ as the Head of the Body accomplished the baptism of His Body in the Holy Spirit once for all.