Now we come again to the matter of the baptism in the Holy Spirit. We all must realize that all the major steps taken by the Lord are once for all. Incarnation was once for all! Crucifixion was once for all! Resurrection was once for all! Ascension was once for all! The Lord’s coming will be once for all! Then, what about the baptism? Many Christians think that the baptism in the Spirit occurs many times. But this is not true. Christ does not need to be incarnated again whenever someone is saved. He did this once for all. Neither does He need to be crucified again when we confess our sins. His crucifixion is once for all. We believe it, take it, and enjoy it. In the same way, the resurrection and ascension are once for all. Now we must also see that the baptism is once for all.
The real meaning of the baptism in the Holy Spirit is the putting of us into Christ. “As many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” Formerly we did not have Christ. Then Jesus put us all into Himself, so that we have put on Christ. The baptism is to put us all into the Spirit, who is Christ (2 Cor. 3:17), for the formation of the Body. We all have been baptized in one Spirit into one Body. This is not a personal matter; it involves the whole Body. God’s intention from eternity past is to have a Body for Christ. When He ascended to heaven in His inauguration, Christ received the life, the Spirit, and all the gifts. Then after ten days, He came to put all of us into Himself. On the day of Pentecost, He put the Jewish part of His Body into Himself, and then later in the house of Cornelius He put the Gentile part of His Body into Himself. He finished it. We all were baptized. He put us into Himself in a corporate way once for all for the formation of the Body. Nothing could be clearer from the pure Word.
Incarnation means the mingling of divinity with humanity. Crucifixion means the termination of all old things, resurrection means the germination of all the new things, ascension means the inauguration of Christ, and the baptism means the putting of us into Christ for the formation of the Body. The coming advent of Christ is the completion of the corporate mingling of divinity with humanity for eternity. This is the governing principle of the Bible.
We all must realize that the baptism in the Spirit was accomplished once for all. It has been completed in two parts: with the Jews at Pentecost, and with the Gentiles in the house of Cornelius. In these two parts, the entire baptism in the Spirit was fully accomplished. In Matthew 16 the Lord Jesus told Peter that He would build His church and give him the keys to the kingdom. There was not just one key, but two. On the day of Pentecost Peter used one key, and in the house of Cornelius he used the other. At the same time, the ascended Head baptized these two parts of His Body into Himself. Only these two cases are called in the Scriptures the baptism in the Holy Spirit. There is no third case.
In Acts 2, at the time of Pentecost, the disciples and many new converts received the baptism in the Spirit. Then two or three days later, five thousand were saved. It does not say anything about the baptism in the Spirit there. Many times in the book of Acts people were saved, but the baptism in the Spirit is not mentioned.
Besides the two cases at Pentecost and the house of Cornelius, the book of Acts gives us another three cases. One is the case of the Samaritans in Acts 8. The second is the case of Saul of Tarsus in Acts 9. The third is that of the Ephesians in Acts 19. Why are these three cases mentioned, and others are not? It is because all these three cases are peculiar. The Samaritan case is peculiar because the Jews would not recognize the Samaritans. The case of Saul of Tarsus was peculiar because he was saved directly through the Lord Jesus. Then the Lord told Ananias that Saul was saved, and he must go there to confirm it so that Saul might become a useful vessel to the Lord. So Ananias went to lay hands upon Saul of Tarsus, as Peter and John went to lay their hands on the Samaritans to confirm what the Lord did to them.
The third case with the Ephesians was also peculiar. They had heard the Gospel, but only the partial Gospel with the baptism of John from Apollos (Acts 18:24-25). They did believe in Christ, but in an inadequate way. So Paul preached the full Gospel to them, laid hands on them, and they received the Spirit.
Only these three peculiar cases needed the recognition by the laying on of hands. Nothing is mentioned about all of the regular cases. There was no laying on of hands at Pentecost or in the house of Cornelius because these were cases when Christ as the Head of the Body directly put His Body into Himself. There was no intermediate instrument. All the other three peculiar cases had the laying on of hands by some representative of the Body, because at that time the Body had been baptized into Christ already. There was no need for the Head to baptize individual believers any more. But the Body had to confirm the new members by its representatives. Then whatever had been accomplished on the Body would flow into the new members through the channel of the laying on of hands.
Whenever someone refers to the case of the Samaritans or of the Ephesians for the baptism in the Spirit, we must also refer them to the case of the three thousand or of the five thousand (Acts 2:41; 4:4) where nothing concerning the baptism in the Spirit is mentioned. The same is true of the multitude at Corinth (Acts 18:8). Many times in the book of Acts it tells us that many people believed in the Lord Jesus without mentioning the baptism in the Spirit. Therefore, we all must be clear that the baptism in the Spirit was fully accomplished once and for all by the Head. He was the baptizer and He was also the Spirit into whom He baptized His Body. He baptized His Body into Himself once for all. From henceforth He never did it again. The most that was needed was for the Body to send some representatives to the peculiar cases to lay hands upon them that they might receive what had already been accomplished on the Body. For the ordinary cases, there was no such need. Normally, when we are baptized into water, that is an indication that we have been baptized into Christ already in the once-for-all baptism in the Spirit.