On the way to the grocery store, I was listening to "Fresh Air" on National Public Radio. The program featured an interview with the director of a movie about the life of Bettie Page, a notorious model. The director said that Bettie was an active member of a religious group whose members experienced the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. Apparently she combined her deliberately chosen "playboy" lifestyle with her life in the born-again community.

Many religious groups that emphasize the Baptism of the Holy Spirit believe that faith in Christ is the decision to receive Christ’s death as a substitute for the death penalty, which justice demands for their own sins (Rom. 3:23–25 NRSV). In this transaction, the change happens outside the sinner. Since this vicarious death pays the penalty for all past and future sins, once a person is saved, he or she is always saved no matter how many deliberate sins occur in the future.

Members of such religious groups also understand that in religious experience the Holy Spirit changes feelings of guilt to feelings of ecstatic union with God as a witness of the Spirit that they have been born again (Rom. 8:16; 1 John 5:10). Often they understand Paul’s denial that we are saved by "works of the Law" (Gal. 2:16; Rom. 3:20, 28) as condemning a deliberate decision to obey because doing so would amount to legalism. With such convictions, Bettie Page could feel assured of salvation while continuing to deliberately disobey biblical laws about adultery.

The Baptism of the Holy Spirit is a metaphor that refers to salvation. The baptism does not occur unless the sinner metaphorically goes down into the water, that is, accepts it with a faith decision. Paul explains that in baptism the sinful self dies and is buried, and then, like Christ, is raised to "newness of life" (Rom. 6:3–4). God transforms the sinner. Jesus urged his followers to take up their crosses "daily" and follow him (Luke 9:23). This text suggests that Baptism of the Spirit is not a once-in-a-lifetime event. God creates an increment of new creation every day (2 Cor. 5:17).

Faith

The section in the Bible Study Guide for Thursday discusses the activity of the Spirit in producing the Baptism of the Spirit under the heading Faith. In the New Testament, one Greek root is translated as "believe" when used as a verb and as "faith" when used as a noun. There is no difference in meaning between the two English words.

Jesus told Nicodemus that everyone who accepts the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, who has faith in Jesus Christ, "who believes in him [Christ] may not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16). The last verse of the same chapter summarizes by saying, "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever disobeys the Son will not see life.…" (John 3:36).

This verse makes faith (obedience) the opposite of disobedience. If we understand "works of the law" to mean obedience of the law, this verse conflicts with Paul’s statement that "a person is justified by faith apart from works of the law" (Rom. 3:28).

Obedience

There is no conflict when we realize that by works of law Paul meant outward conformity contrary to or without a real commitment in the heart. The primary "work of the law" that concerned Paul in the book of Galatians was circumcision. Already in Deuteronomy, those who were in external conformity with the circumcision law were encouraged to let the Spirit circumcise their hearts, thus removing stubbornness (Deut. 10:16).

"Moreover, the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, so that you will love the LORD your God, with all your heart and with all you soul, in order that you may live" (Deut 30:6). Since uncircumcised Gentiles "who keep the law" are circumcised in heart (Rom. 2:26–27), the early Christian Church dropped the physical circumcision law (Gal. 5:1–2; Acts 15).

I once taught at a boarding academy that had rules requiring its young women to wear skirts longer than those worn by pastors wives in the conference. The founding principal hoped that modest dress would help males at the school avoid lustful thoughts and "committing adultery in the heart" (Matt. 5:28). One of the male faculty members "arrested" more girls for short skirts than the girl’s dean, who had primary responsibility for this odious task.

Some of the faculty wondered if this male’s work in terms of the skirt length law wasn’t in conflict with his obsession with well-shaped feminine legs. The failure of this short-skirt law to reduce lust should have encouraged the academy to eliminate it.

The works of the law that concerned Paul included preaching against stealing and adultery while actually stealing and committing adultery (Rom. 2:21–22). Paul preached against stealing and adultery (Rom. 13:8–10), but this was not a work of the law because he had made a faith commitment not to steal or commit adultery. His purpose for writing the book of Romans was "to bring about the obedience of faith" (Rom. 1:5; 16:26).

Truth

Paul asked the Galatians, "Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law, or by hearing with faith?" (Gal. 3:2). He also stated "faith comes from what is heard" (Rom. 10:17), meaning that becoming aware of true concepts is crucial for faith. It is important to evaluate ideas before making belief commitments.

"Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God; for many false prophets have gone out into the world" (1 John 4:1). The Bereans were more noble than the people of Thessalonica because they "examined the scriptures every day" to determine whether the gospel ideas taught by Paul were true. Here understanding precedes faith.

The word law is frequently used in the Bible to refer to the whole divine instruction in the Bible. Faith consists in really believing, that is, making a commitment that appropriates any aspect of the divine instruction as soon as it comes to awareness. This commitment accepts the Baptism of the Spirit. The Baptism of the Spirit is a metaphor for writing the truth on the heart (Jer. 31:33), for creating a new heart that is able to obey (Ps. 51:1,10: 2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15). This faith is both a gift totally produced by God and a self-determined decision to accept that gift.

When Abraham "believed" he did not make a commitment regarding the God-man who would die to pay the penalty for other people’s sins. Neither he nor anyone in his time was conscious of such ideas. He made a commitment regarding the covenant. This commitment accepted divine activity, which in turn empowered him to keep the covenant. The divine instruction he "heard" in this faith event was about the covenant. (Gen. 15:6; Gal. 3:6)

Feelings

One of the reasons that charismatic Christianity is growing so much faster than mainline Christianity is increased frequency of feeling among adherents that they have been baptized with the Holy Spirit. However, many people do not experience feelings of joy and assurance when they make genuine commitments of faith.

Such people should take heart from 1 John 3:20: "If our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things." Ellen White reports, "There may be no ecstasy of feeling" (Steps to Christ, 70). "Do not wait to feel that you are made whole, but say, ’I believe it; it is so, not because I feel it, but because God has promised’" (ibid., 51).

Without the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, "you can do nothing" (John15:5). Without your faith decision, the Holy Spirit cannot baptize you. With the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, "all things are possible" (Matt. 19:26).

EMAIL THIS ARTICLE