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Scripture Reading: Acts 1:5, 8; 2:1-4; 10:44-48; 11:15-16
In this message we shall consider a matter that will help us to understand God’s economy in the record of the New Testament. We shall see that in God’s economy certain things, in particular the baptism in the Holy Spirit, have been accomplished once for all.
For the carrying out of the steps required by God’s righteousness, holiness, and glory, the Triune God has passed through incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. In addition to these four matters, we have the breathing of the Holy Spirit into the disciples (John 20:22) and the pouring out of the Spirit upon them.
The incarnation, the crucifixion, the resurrection, the breathing of the Spirit into the disciples, the ascension, and the outpouring of the Spirit upon the disciples are all eternal. They are not temporal matters; that is, they are not limited by the element of time. Consider the crucifixion, for instance. According to our understanding, Christ was crucified nineteen hundred years ago. But Revelation 13:8 speaks of “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” This indicates that in the sight of God Christ was slain from the foundation of the world, from the time the created world came into being. Christ was crucified from the beginning of the existence of the material world because His redemption must cover the whole of the created universe. Concerning this, Hebrews 9:12 indicates that Christ has accomplished an eternal redemption. His redemption is not temporal; it is eternal.
Suppose we use a circle to signify eternity, and then at a certain place on the circle we place a cross signifying the crucifixion of Christ. Where in relation to the cross on the circle would you put Old Testament saints such as Abraham and Moses, and where would you put all the believers in Christ throughout the centuries? It would be difficult to say, according to such a diagram, who is before the cross and who is after. The point we are making here is that the crucifixion is eternal and covers the entire span of need that began from the existence of the universe, from the foundation of the world. Ever since created things came into being there has been the need of the death of Christ. Therefore, in the sight of God, Christ’s death began from the foundation of the world. This is the reason Revelation 13:8 says that the Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world.
Concerning the Lamb being slain from the foundation of the world, we need to be very careful and accurate in our reading of the Scriptures. Although Christ was slain from the foundation of the world, He was foreknown by God before the foundation of the world. Regarding this, 1 Peter 1:20 says that Christ “was foreknown before the foundation of the world.” Christ was foreordained, prepared, by God to be the redeeming Lamb for His elect according to His foreknowledge before the foundation of the world. This means that Christ was foreknown and prepared in eternity. But His death was accomplished from the foundation of the world; that is, it was accomplished in time. Although it was accomplished in time, Christ’s redemption is eternal. Because what Christ accomplished through His death is eternal, it is called in Hebrews 9:12 an eternal redemption.
Before the crucifixion there was the incarnation, and after the crucifixion there were the resurrection, the breathing of the Spirit into the disciples, the ascension, and the outpouring of the Spirit. All these things were accomplished in time, but without the element of time. Therefore, these things are eternal. (See the two inserted diagrams. [diagram 1] [diagram 2])
Because the crucifixion of Christ is eternal, Paul could say, “I have been crucified with Christ” (Gal. 2:20). With Paul, we can declare that we also have been crucified with Christ. This means that we were crucified with Christ long before we were born. When were we crucified with Christ? We were crucified with Him from the foundation of the world. Therefore, we were crucified before we were born.
Since Christ was crucified from the foundation of the world, there is no need for a repentant sinner to ask the Lord Jesus to die for him. If this were necessary, then the Lord would need to die again and again. However, He was crucified once for all; He died once for all.
The principle is the same with Christ’s incarnation, resurrection, ascension, breathing of the Spirit into His disciples, and the pouring out of the Spirit upon His disciples. It is not the case that whenever someone believes in the Lord Jesus, it is necessary for Him to breathe the Spirit into that one, or pour out the Spirit upon him. On the contrary, the breathing of the Spirit into the believers has been accomplished once for all in John 20. In the same principle, Christ, the Head of the Body, has baptized all His believers, every member of the Body, into the Spirit once for all in two steps. The first step was on the day of Pentecost, when the Jewish believers were baptized in the Holy Spirit. The second step was in the house of Cornelius, when the Gentile believers were baptized in the Holy Spirit.
Suppose we are about to baptize a new convert. As we baptize him, we need to realize that the breathing of the essential Spirit and the pouring out of the economical Spirit have taken place once for all. Therefore, we should not say to a new convert, “Now that you believe in the Lord Jesus, you have received the essential Spirit. After a while, the economical Spirit will fall upon you.” We should not understand the essential Spirit and the economical Spirit in this way.
Let us use the making and eating of a sandwich to illustrate how the incarnation, the crucifixion, the resurrection, the breathing of the essential Spirit, the ascension, and the pouring out of the economical Spirit apply to us today. In preparing a sandwich we may take two slices of bread. We then may apply mayonnaise to the bread and put on turkey, cheese, tomato, and lettuce. In the preparation of such a sandwich we go step by step. But in the eating of the sandwich, we do not take first the bread, then the turkey, and then the other elements of the sandwich. Instead, we take all the ingredients of the sandwich at once. In like manner, the six matters of Christ’s incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, breathing of the Spirit, ascension, and outpouring of the Spirit are applied to us at the same time. They were accomplished step by step, but they are applied to us simultaneously. Using the illustration of the sandwich, we may say that the incarnation is the bread, that the crucifixion is the turkey, and the resurrection, the breathing of the Spirit, the ascension, and the pouring out of the Spirit are yet other ingredients. When we come to eat this all-inclusive “sandwich,” we do not first “eat” the “bread” of the incarnation and then the “turkey” of the crucifixion. Rather, we take the whole sandwich at one time. We do not consider which item comes first and which comes last.
We have given many messages in the effort to point out what the Triune God has accomplished. The Triune God in the Son became flesh. That was the incarnation. The incarnation has been accomplished once for all, and there is no need for it to be repeated. Likewise, Christ was crucified and died once for all. Furthermore, He was resurrected, He breathed Himself as the life-giving Spirit into His disciples, He ascended, and He poured out Himself as the all-inclusive Spirit once for all. Christ has accomplished all these things, and He has accomplished them once for all. Now all these matters are included in the Lord’s name. Therefore, when we call on the name of the Lord Jesus, we receive all these things.
There is no need for us to analyze what we receive through calling on the name of the Lord Jesus. We should not ask ourselves, “Have I received the essential Spirit? Has the economical Spirit fallen upon me? Perhaps I have the essential Spirit within me, but I wonder if I have the economical Spirit. Maybe the economical Spirit will leave me, although the essential Spirit will not leave. If the economical Spirit leaves, when will He come back?” It is not a healthy practice to analyze these matters in this way.
Instead of engaging in unnecessary analysis, we need to see the divine revelation in the New Testament. The Bible presents the incarnation, the crucifixion, the resurrection, the breathing of the essential Spirit, the ascension, and the pouring out of the economical Spirit as accomplished facts. In the Old Testament there were types, figures, and shadows, but there were not the accomplished facts. But according to the New Testament, within a period of less than thirty-four years, six eternal matters were accomplished. As we have strongly emphasized, these six eternal and accomplished things are the incarnation, the crucifixion, the resurrection, the breathing of the life-giving Spirit, the ascension, and the outpouring of the all-inclusive Spirit. Because all these have been accomplished, whenever a sinner repents, believes in the Lord Jesus, and is baptized in water, which represents the Triune God, Christ, and the death of Christ, he receives everything. This means that he participates in Christ’s incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, breathing of the Holy Spirit, ascension, and outpouring of the Spirit. If a new believer realizes this, he will be full of praise to the Lord.
Believers may analyze their experience of the Holy Spirit because of the influence of their religious background or of the peculiar teachings common among certain Christians today. We should not analyze our experience in this way, and we should not follow the inaccurate teachings concerning the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Instead of analyzing our experience, we should praise the Lord for all we have received.
Suppose someone asks you if you have received the Holy Spirit. This question actually applies to an extraordinary case, like the case of the twelve believers in chapter nineteen of Acts. The two other extraordinary cases in Acts are those of the Samaritan believers and Saul of Tarsus. Today, however, there are no extraordinary cases. Hence, if you are asked whether you have received the Holy Spirit, you should boldly reply, “Yes, I definitely have received the Holy Spirit!” In giving such an answer we need to realize that actually we received the Holy Spirit more than nineteen hundred years ago and that now day by day we are enjoying Him by faith.
The New Testament presents a picture of accomplished facts. These facts are now bequests in the will, the testament. In this will, this testament, Christ’s incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, breathing of the Spirit into us, ascension, and pouring out of the Spirit upon us have all been bequeathed to us. Of course, Christ Himself and the Triune God are included in the bequests in this will. Today we inherit these bequests. Therefore, we should simply take them by faith and enjoy them. Whenever we sense the need for the essential Spirit or the economical Spirit, we should say, “Amen! In the testament I have the essential Spirit and the economical Spirit as well. All that I need has been bequeathed to me.”
Luke’s record in the book of Acts concerning the baptism in the Holy Spirit is clear and complete. This record, of course, is found in various places in the twenty-eight chapters of Acts. Because of this, we need to study this book carefully with regard to the baptism in the Holy Spirit.
Although in Acts there are many cases of conversions, only two cases are called the baptism in the Holy Spirit. As we have seen, the first case is that of the Jewish believers on the day of Pentecost; the second is that of the house of Cornelius. These two cases were used by the Head in the heavens to carry out the baptism of His Body in the Holy Spirit.
Concerning the baptism in the Holy Spirit, the Lord Jesus said in 1:5, “John indeed baptized in water, but you shall be baptized in the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” This was accomplished in two sections. First all the Jewish believers were baptized in the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. Then all the Gentile believers were baptized in the house of Cornelius (10:44-47; 11:15-17). In these two sections all genuine believers in Christ have been baptized in the Holy Spirit into one Body once for all universally (1 Cor. 12:13). Therefore, what happened on the day of Pentecost and in the house of Cornelius was the fulfillment of Acts 1:5.
Peter’s word in Acts 11 proves that what happened in the house of Cornelius was the second step in Christ’s baptizing His Body in the Holy Spirit once for all. Peter said, “As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as also on us at the beginning. And I remembered the word of the Lord, how He said, John indeed baptized in water, but you shall be baptized in the Holy Spirit” (vv. 15-16). Therefore, the record in Acts strongly indicates that only these two cases are considered the baptism in the Holy Spirit. In these two instances the Head Himself did something directly on His Body. There was no third party, no intermediary, between the Head and the Body.
As we read through the book of Acts, we see that Luke describes three extraordinary cases concerning the receiving of the Holy Spirit economically. The first case concerns the Samaritan believers. In the eyes of the Jewish believers, the Samaritan believers were strange. Due to their background, the Jewish believers would have had difficulty recognizing the Samaritan believers. Therefore, in this extraordinary case the Head did something to indicate and confirm that He had accepted the Samaritan believers as members of His Body. Hence, instead of doing something directly with respect to the economical Spirit, Christ the Head withheld the economical Spirit until two apostles, Peter and John, came from Jerusalem to Samaria to lay their hands on the Samaritan believers so that they might receive the Holy Spirit (8:14-17). Only then did the economical Spirit fall upon them, and that was strong evidence that the Samaritan believers had been accepted as members of the Body. In this extraordinary case there was the need for the laying on of hands by a member of the Body of Christ.
The second extraordinary case was the case of Saul of Tarsus, who had been a leading persecutor of the followers of Jesus. We have already considered this case in some detail. Here we would point out again that because Saul was such a persecutor and was saved directly by the Lord not through the preaching of any believer, no one would believe that he had become a member of the Body of Christ. Thus, in his case there was the need of another member of the Body to lay his hands upon him so that the economical Spirit may come upon him. The extraordinary case of Saul required the laying on of hands by a member representing the Body.
The last of the three extraordinary cases recorded in Acts is that of the believers in Ephesus (19:1-7). Regarding those believers, there was the need to make up the deficiency in the ministry of Apollos. His ministry lacked a complete revelation of God’s New Testament economy. Because those believers had heard only the inadequate preaching of Apollos and knew only the baptism of John, they also needed the laying on of hands of a member of the Body in order to receive the economical Spirit. These three extraordinary cases recorded in the book of Acts reveal a particular need for the laying on of hands by a member of the Body.
In addition to the five cases of the believers on the day of Pentecost, the Samaritans, Saul of Tarsus, the house of Cornelius, and the believers in Ephesus, there are many other cases of conversions found throughout the book of Acts. In none of those cases is there any mention of the laying on of hands in order to receive the economical Spirit. The reason for this is that all those cases are normal. However, certain of today’s Pentecostal teachings try to make every case an extraordinary case. But unlike the Samaritans, Saul of Tarsus, and the believers in Ephesus, we are not extraordinary cases that require the laying on of hands. Rather, in a normal way and by faith we participate in the baptism in the Holy Spirit that has been accomplished by the Head on the Body once for all.
