Why the Spirit-on-you?
1) One baptism
There are two verses found in Ephesians that have created much confusion in
the body of Christ. EPH 4:4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as also
you were called in one hope of your calling; 4:5 one Lord, one faith, one
baptism, Only one baptism? How can that be? This is the confusion. Many
want that one baptism to be the baptism into Jesus' death which replaced John's
baptism of repentance. In the baptism of death we identify with Jesus' death so
that we may be able to partake in his resurrection life. Is Jesus' resurrection
life limited to just the Spirit-in-us? No!
Jesus after His resurrection tells His disciples to wait for His promised
anointing in the Holy Spirit. ACT 1:4 And gathering them together, He
commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had
promised, "Which," He said, "you heard of from Me; 1:5 for John
baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many
days from now." Since Jesus is God incarnate, He would not have caused
the confusion to the one baptism scripture if He did not know the reality of one
baptism. How did Jesus know about
baptism? He was the first to experience the
two parts of the one baptism. MAT 3:13 ¶ Then Jesus arrived from Galilee at
the Jordan coming to John, to be baptized by him. 3:14 But John tried to prevent
Him, saying, "I have need to be baptized by You, and do You come to
me?" 3:15 But Jesus answering said to him, "Permit it at this time;
for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness." Then he
permitted Him. 3:16 And after being baptized, Jesus went up immediately from the
water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God
descending as a dove, and coming upon Him. Why would Jesus need to be
baptized? What righteousness was fulfilled? Jesus sought to be baptized by John to identify with His own
death that was only years away. In doing this not only would Jesus lead His
followers by example but also set new precedent. There may have been a need for
Him to do this seeing that He did posses a human body that was under the same
adamic sin. We can declare that when Jesus came out of the water He was, just as
we are, coming up to new life. But before He could come out of the water to new
life He had to go down into the water, which is a figure of death. Water baptism
is just that, an identification into the 
death of Jesus.
Was there a need for Jesus to do some kind of atonement for Adam's sin which He inherited
through physical birth? I don't know, but what we do know is that Jesus' experience
didn't stop here. After he identified with his own death (remember that Jesus
was half human) He came out of the water and immediately the heavens opened and
the Holy Spirit descended upon Him. Some of us may find a need to separate the
water part of this baptism from the descending of the Spirit, thus making this
story just about water baptism. If God knew that there would be confusion over
the idea of one baptism why would God allow both of these happenings to occur
together? Because Jesus' experience represents what the one
baptism is, water and spirit.
If this is not clear to us yet, let's look at what happened when Paul met
people who only knew John's baptism. ACT 19:1 And it came about that while
Apollos was at Corinth, Paul having passed through the upper country came to
Ephesus, and found some disciples, 19:2 and he said to them, "Did you
receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" And they said to him, "No,
we have not even heard whether there is a Holy Spirit." 19:3 And he said,
"Into what then were you baptized?" And they said, "Into John's
baptism." 19:4 And Paul said, "John baptized with the baptism
of repentance, telling the people to believe in Him who was coming after him,
that is, in Jesus." 19:5 And when they heard this, they were
baptized in the name of the Lord
Jesus. 19:6 And when Paul had laid his
hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began
speaking with tongues and prophesying. We can clearly see that the people
from Ephesus were water baptized in Jesus before they were baptized in the Holy
Spirit. This experience is nearly identical to Jesus'. We see both elements to
the one baptism, water and spirit!
What is being said is that just being baptized into the death of Jesus (water
baptism) is not enough. We must also be baptized into his resurrection life. GAL
3:27 For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with
(the anointed one) Christ. We can be clothed with the anointing if we fully
enter into Jesus' baptism. Why would we want to stop short of having everything
that is available to us? Jesus didn't move in any miracles until he was, 1)
water baptized and 2) Spirit baptized. ROM 6:5 For if we have become united
with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall be also in the
likeness of His resurrection,
