Acts 15:7-8 “And when there had been much dispute, Peter rose up and said to them: "Men and brethren, you know that a good while ago God chose among us, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. (8) So, God, who knows the heart, acknowledged them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He did to us.”
The above quoted passage of scripture is the account of Peter explaining to the Jews what transpired when he preached the gospel to the gentiles in Caesarea. I want you to notice from this account the sequence of events as they unfolded. The Holy Spirit tells us that they first believed the message of the gospel. In other words they were born-again and baptized into Christ. When that happened, God then acknowledged them by baptizing them in the Holy Spirit. And so we see that on this occasion God Himself specifically baptized these gentile believers in the Holy Spirit after they believed. So why did God do that? He did that because He knew that the Jewish believers who were with Peter, would have to be convinced that these gentiles were genuinely saved, and only the baptism in the Holy Spirit could have done that. When the Jews saw what God had done they had no choice but to allow the gentiles to be baptized in water as well. And so we see that the sequence of baptisms in this account is similar to that of Paul’s, for the gentiles were first baptised into Christ when they were born-again. They were then baptised with the Holy Spirit after God had acknowledged them as being His sons and daughters. And then finally they were all baptised in water. But I want to draw your attention to the fact that Peter and the other disciples baptised the new gentile believers in water immediately after they were saved. And so we can see from all three examples that we have looked at, that water baptism was clearly practiced by the early church, and that in all instances, the requirement to qualify to be baptized in water, was that the person had to be born-again. And we also see that in all instances, that the early church baptised new converts as soon as possible after salvation.
Michael E.B. Maher
Comments