What Is the “One Baptism” in Ephesians 4:5?

What Is the “One Baptism” in Ephesians 4:5?
by Jack Cottrell (Notes) on Friday, January 8, 2010 at 8:18pm

A RECENT QUESTION: Does 1 Cor. 12:13 teach that water baptism or Spirit baptism brings a sinner into union with Jesus Christ? What about Gal. 3:27 – is it water or Spirit baptism? What is the ONE baptism of Eph. 4:5?

MY REPLY: Though some (such as mid-Acts dispensationalists) deny it, water baptism has been the church’s practice from its beginning on the Day of Pentecost. (We cannot infer this from John’s practice of baptizing in the Jordan River, since John’s baptism and Christian baptism are NOT the same thing.) The baptism Jesus commanded in the Great Commission (Matt. 28:19) must be water baptism, since he commanded his disciples to administer it. Water is specifically mentioned in connection with baptism in Acts 8:36 and 10:47. Paul personally baptized some of his converts (1 Cor. 1:14-16), which shows that this baptism was with water.

It is also true that every Christian has been baptized in the Holy Spirit, as 1 Cor. 12:13 says: “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body.” In chapter 8 of my book on the Holy Spirit, “Power from on High: What the Bible Says About the Holy Spirit” (College Press, 2007), I show that Holy Spirit baptism, as promised by John the Baptist and by Jesus, is the same as the universal promise of the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38-39). I also show that it has no necessary connection with speaking in tongues, contrary to the Pentecostal and Charismatic view, and contrary to the traditional “two-episode” view (Pentecost and Cornelius) which is popular in the Restoration Movement.

The conclusion is that every Christian has been baptized in water, and has also been baptized in the Holy Spirit. Thus it appears at first as if each of us has experienced two baptisms. How then can Paul assert in Eph. 4:5 that one of the unifying foundational pillars of the church is that we have just “one baptism”? The only reasonable and biblical answer is that water baptism and Spirit baptism are not two separate baptisms, but simply two aspects or two sides of a single act. The “one baptism” in Eph. 4:5 is the convert’s baptism in water, which is also at the same time baptism in the Holy Spirit. As an analogy, in the same verse Paul asserts that Christians have but “one Lord,” and we know that he has two natures: human and divine. Likewise the one baptism has two sides: human and divine, physical and spiritual, water and Spirit. This is consistent with John 3:5, which says we are “born of water and the Spirit.” Heb. 10:22 likewise says that we have had “our hearts [=spirits] sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.” The 19th century Restoration scholar Moses Lard says, “At the instant when the body is immersed in water,… the immersion of the human spirit takes place in the Holy Spirit. The inner man is then immersed as well as the outer, [the former] in Spirit, [the latter] in water” (“Baptism in One Spirit into One Body,” ín “Lard’s Quarterly,” I, March 1864).

Why is it, then, that most of the Protestant world, contrary to Paul’s clear statement in Eph. 4:5, assumes and teaches that there are actually TWO separate baptisms in a Christian’s experience, one a baptism in the Spirit and the other a baptism in water? Because they are under the sway of Zwingli’s new doctrine of baptism, created in A.D. 1525, which totally separated water baptism from conversion and salvation. Zwingli is the actual originator of the modern “faith only” approach to salvation, which says that the sinner is saved the moment he believes, which is also the time when Spirit baptism occurs. Then at some later time water baptism is applied as a testimony to the salvation that has already been received.

So, if modern Protestants distinguish two entirely separate acts called baptism, which one is in view in Eph. 4:5? The most common answer is that this verse refers to Spirit baptism. As Alfred Martin says, “The one baptism is undoubtedly the baptism of the Holy Spirit” (“The Wycliffe Bible Commentary,” Moody 1962, p. 1310). Merrill Unger declares that Paul, “in speaking of the ‘one baptism’ in Ephesians 4:5, is speaking of Spirit baptism” (“Baptism and Gifts of the Holy Spirit,” Moody 1974, p. 33). The idea that this verse refers to water baptism, he says, “teeters perilously on the precipice of the error of baptismal regeneration” (ibid., 118). Once these folks have separated Spirit baptism (the saving event) from water baptism (the subsequent testimony), they then proceed to identify every NT text that connects baptism with salvation as a reference to Spirit baptism only. They usually do this with texts such as Gal. 3:27; Rom. 6:3-5; Col. 2:12; and obviously 1 Cor. 12:13.

This approach is, of course, in direct contradiction with the simple affirmation of Paul in Eph. 4:5 that there is ONLY “one baptism.” In opposition to this false approach, we must recognize that whenever the NT speaks of Christian baptism, it is speaking of the one event that combines baptism in water with baptism in the Holy Spirit. My conclusion to the section on this subject in my book, “Power from on High,” is as follows (pp. 330-331): “We must stop dividing the one baptism into two events; it is one event with two distinct aspects. Also, we must stop dividing the biblical texts about baptism into two separate lists, i.e., one with references to water baptism and the other with references to Spirit baptism. There is only one Christian baptism. Whenever baptism is mentioned in the NT in the context of the church, it is WATER baptism; and it is also SPIRIT baptism.”

Comments

What Is the “One Baptism” in Ephesians 4:5? — 14 Comments

  1. To Bro.? Garringer. There are none so blind as those who ‘will’ not see.

  2. Baptism in water and the receiving of the Holy Spirit seem to be separate events in the book of Acts, always separated by a period of time (at least days for the new believers in Samaria) and sometimes involving prayer and laying on of hands.

    • You are assuming that every “reception” of the Holy Spirit was for salvation. There are at least two other ways and purposes for which the Spirit was received, even on the day of Pentecost: (1) for the purpose of bestowing miraculous powers (Acts 2:1-13), and (2) for the purpose of enabling Peter to speak an inspired sermon (Acts 2:14ff., a la John 16:13). As for Acts 8, see http://jackcottrell.com/uncategorized/the-holy-spirit-and-acts-8/ .

      • Whatever the purpose, the receiving of the Holy Spirit – is – the receiving of the Holy Spirit. And the event of being baptized in water and being baptized in the Spirit are separate events (“baptism” “gift” “pouring out” “coming upon” being used interchangeably in reference to the Spirit). The natural and clear reading of the relevant texts indicates that these believers did not “have” the Spirit – in any sense – at the time of their baptism in water. If they did, Luke does not seem to be aware of it. (His word choice indicates, they did not.) NOTE: I am not saying that water baptism is a dispensable factor in regard to salvation and commitment to Christ. I am simply saying that baptism in water and baptism in the Spirit are separate events.

        • Bobby Garringer, in Ephesians 4 it couldn’t be made simpler: there is one baptism.

          If this ‘one baptism’ had been baptism in the Spirit as distinct from baptism in water, it would have been associated with ‘one Spirit’ and not with ‘one Lord’. But the point Paul makes is that Jewish and Gentile believers alike (as in 1 Cor 12:13) acknowledged one Lord, shared one faith in Him, and had undergone one baptism into His name — a baptism which was immersion in water but whose inward reality involved their ingrafting into Christ by His Spirit.

          The same truth reappears in Eph. 5:26 where it is the Church as a corporate entity that Christ in love purchased with His life, ‘that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word’. The ‘washing of water’, accompanied by the word of confession (the
          answer of a good conscience, according to 1 Peter 3. 21), is again linked to the regenerative cleansing within and `renewing of the Holy Spirit’ (Titus 3. 5).

          Paul writes to the Galatians: ‘as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. . . you are all one in Christ Jesus’ (Gal. 3. 27, 28). Is this water-baptism or Spirit-baptism? It is both. Paul does not contemplate the one without the other. Those who first read his words would not have failed to recognize a reference to their baptism in water. The same holds true for Paul’s comments in Romans 6:3ff and 1 Cor. 12:13. The meaning is not in doubt: baptism in the Spirit occurs when individual believers are baptized in water.

          What is described in historical books like Acts is not necessarily what is normative for faith and practice. Acts gives us the history; Paul give us the theology.

  3. Does your Holy Spirit a Biblical study include your explanation of how you show that Holy Spirit baptism, as promised by John the Baptist and by Jesus, is the same as the universal promise of the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38). I tried to find Power from on High: What the Bible Says About the Holy Spirit” in logos but they don’t have it anymore.
    Thx
    Mark

    • Yes, the entire chapter 8 is about baptism in the Holy Spirit, and includes what you are referring to.

      • Thank you. I was convinced that Baptism (water) was a condition of salvation about 11 years ago after some extensive study. Since then I have been studying the doctrine of Baptism that supports this view off and on since. Also been trying to convince my bible study group of the necessity of baptism. Baptism with the Spirit versus water baptism has been a recent argument against the necessity of water baptism. Prior to discovering your website my response was that Baptism with the Spirit was a two time occurrence. Coffman offers compelling arguments for this view. However after reading some of your articles and buying Baptism a Biblical view I find your view compelling if not more convincing biblically and logical. So really wanted this part of your argument. Thanks for the speedy response.

  4. When would have the people baptized by John have received the Holy Spirit? Would they of had to be baptized again to receive the holy spirit?

    • Everyone baptized by John the Baptist had to be baptized later in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sins and for the gift of the Holy Spirit. John’s baptism was not the same as Christian baptism. On Pentecost the Apostle Peter said to his Jewish audience, “Repent, and be baptized EVERY ONE OF YOU . . . .” Many in the audience would have been baptized by John, but that did not matter. They now had to be baptized with Christian baptism, which began on the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2.