Today, I get baptized!

Well, I'm actually writing this on Tuesday, but posting it today. I'm scheduling it for the approximate time I am baptized. So, in extreme excitement, I'm going to do a post about what I have learned about baptism. Some of these things I've spoken of before, but some I have not.

There are three baptisms that I know of. They are the baptisms of

• Christ
• Water
• the Holy Spirit

It's fitting that there are three baptisms. Three is a holy number that is repeated throughout the Bible. The two that are referred to directly in the Bible are the "baptism of water" and "the baptism of the Holy Spirit". This is significant because both of those baptisms are public displays or proclamations of the first baptism, that is "the baptism of Christ". And what is the baptism of Christ? Simply it is the believing in Jesus, that He was the Son of God, that He died to pay the debt of sin and that He rose on the third day to give you everlasting life in Him and the confession of that to others. That is the first baptism that occurs in truth for all believers.

The baptism of Christ is pronounce throughout many parts of the Bible. Some quick references for you would be these.

Jn 3:16–18 (ESV) - "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God."

Ro 10:8–11 (ESV) - ...The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame."

Mt 10:32–33 (ESV) -"So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven."

Now, of course, we can not take the line "with the mouth" too literally here. God is about the heart above all things and it is physically impossible for some to actually speak. The idea here is that they confess their belief publicly. But let's throw a couple of scenarios out here.

What if in the throws of delirium and death, a man comes to believe in Christ, but can not confess his belief? He's dying, delirious, yet he has just believed. Is that man saved? Does that man spend eternity with Christ? He has not confessed before men, he has not made any public demonstration, he hasn't had the opportunity to do so. I contend that God is the God of grace and over and over again he looks to the heart condition of the person. Circumstance can and will interfere with everything that a person is capable of doing, but the heart is true regardless.

I think the truly important thing is this. Do not deny Jesus before men. However, let's take a moment here to remember that God is sovereign. He is the God of Grace and has said that as many times as a man sins against you and turns and asks forgiveness, forgive them. Would he tell us any differently than he does himself? Are we not in Christ and is Christ not in us?

The second and third baptisms don't come in any specific order. Nominally the baptism of the Holy Spirit will happen after the baptism of water. Just as all those that were baptized by the Holy Spirit in Acts 2:1-4 were previously baptized by Jesus or John in water, so usually within the Bible itself does the baptism of the H.S. happen after the baptism of water. There is one major exception that occurs that I have discovered so far. There may be more, but I haven't read them yet.
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Ac 10:44–11:1 (ESV) - "While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. And the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles. For they were hearing them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter declared, “Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to remain for some days. Now the apostles and the brothers who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God."

Here God baptizes in the Holy Spirit before they are baptized in Water. Why is this significant? Well it shows that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is more than the impartation of power to back up the authority they already have. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is also a public proclamation. Just as we proclaim our belief and changed being to the public via the baptism of Water, God proclaims our belief and changed being to the public via the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

So, we believe Christ, proclaim that belief to the public via the ACTION of baptism in water and God anoints us with the tongue of flame that is the Holy Spirit^{Acts 2:3} as a statement that we are HIS children.

This is also shown in the baptism of Jesus by John.^{Mat 3:13-17} After Jesus is baptized, the Holy Spirit descends upon him like a Dove and God proclaims "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased"^{Mat 3:17} God proclaimed Jesus his child when the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus, so also does he proclaims us his children when the baptism of the Holy Spirit comes upon us. However, Jesus was the Son of God before the proclamation, so also are we children of God before the baptism of the Holy Spirit because we were born in Jesus through the baptism of Christ, through his death and resurrection.

So, as yet I haven't been baptized in the Holy Spirit, well as of this writing, I can't speak for between now and the actual posting on Sunday. But I look forward with great excitement to my Proclamation to the world.

I am a Son of God, because Jesus is my Lord and HE was the First Son of God and payed the debt of death for my sin by dying on the cross, then redeemed my death to life by rising from the dead three days later. And just as he is sat at the right hand of God in heaven, so am I now sat at the right hand of God in heaven, not in the future when this earthly body dies, but right now in the present I am sat there, my name written on the throne in the genealogy of God, a prince of heaven.

Praise be to God!

I'll post the actual baptism video later when I get it.