The apostle Paul writes that there is “one baptism” (Ephesians 4:5). He places it alongside “one Lord, one faith.” One. Not several. Not a selection. One.
And yet anyone who reads the New Testament attentively will notice the word baptism used in several different ways. John baptized. Jesus was baptized by John. The apostles were baptized in the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Cornelius received the same. John warned of a baptism of fire. Peter commanded water baptism for the forgiveness of sins. How can there be one baptism if the Scriptures describe several?
The answer is historical. Some of these belonged to specific moments in God’s unfolding plan and are no longer in force. One was a divine sign given to mark the beginning of new stages in redemptive history. One is a warning of judgment awaiting the unrepentant. And one — the one Paul says remains — is the baptism every Christian shares, commanded by Christ Himself, practiced by every apostle, and given to every convert in the book of Acts.
Let us take them in order.
The Baptism of John — Preparatory and Now Past
John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness preaching “a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (Mark 1:4). The crowds came to him, confessed their sins, and were baptized in the Jordan (Matthew 3:5–6). His purpose was clearly stated: to prepare Israel for the coming Messiah. “I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I” (Matthew 3:11).
John’s baptism was preparatory. It pointed forward to Christ. It was not yet the baptism Jesus would later command — and Scripture makes this unmistakable in Acts 19, when Paul encountered twelve men in Ephesus who had received only John’s baptism. They did not have the Holy Spirit. They had not even heard that the Holy Spirit had been given. And Paul had them baptized again — this time “in the name of the Lord Jesus” (Acts 19:5).
If John’s baptism had been sufficient, these men would not have needed a second baptism. But it was not. It belonged to a preparatory age, and when Christ came and His gospel went forth, it passed.
But what of Jesus’ own baptism? He too was baptized by John. Does that not complicate the picture? No — it clarifies it. When John protested that he was unworthy to baptize Jesus, Jesus answered: “Permit it at this time; for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15). Jesus did not need repentance. He had no sin to confess. He submitted to John’s baptism for one reason: obedience to the Father’s will. It was part of fulfilling all righteousness — completing every act of submission the Father required of the Son who came to stand in our place. His baptism was not a pattern of salvation. It was an act of obedience in a ministry entirely defined by obedience.
The Baptism in the Holy Spirit — A Sign, Given Twice
Both John the Baptist and Jesus spoke of a different baptism — one that Christ Himself would administer. John said: “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit” (Mark 1:8). Jesus repeated the promise to His apostles just before He ascended: “John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now” (Acts 1:5).
This was fulfilled at Pentecost. The Holy Spirit descended upon the apostles in a dramatic, miraculous outpouring — a sound like a rushing wind, tongues as of fire, and the apostles speaking in languages they had never learned (Acts 2:1–4). This was the baptism in the Holy Spirit Jesus had promised. It marked the beginning of the church and the inauguration of the gospel age.
Later, the same outpouring fell on the household of Cornelius (Acts 10:44–46). And when Peter reported this to the Jewish brethren in Jerusalem, he described it in precisely these terms: “The Holy Spirit fell upon them just as He did upon us at the beginning… I remembered the word of the Lord, how He used to say, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit’“ (Acts 11:15–16). Peter treated the Cornelius event as parallel to Pentecost — the same baptism, given for the same reason.
And that reason is crucial. In both cases, the baptism in the Holy Spirit served as a divine sign — at Pentecost, to authenticate that the promised age had begun and that the apostles spoke by the power of God; at Cornelius, to demonstrate to the Jewish brethren that God had opened the door to the Gentiles. Peter himself drew the conclusion: “Who was I that I could stand in God’s way?” (Acts 11:17).
Nowhere in the New Testament is the baptism in the Holy Spirit commanded. No one is ever told to seek it. No one is promised it as an ongoing personal experience. It was given by God, at His initiative, to mark specific moments in His redemptive plan. It did what it was given to do. And after Cornelius, Scripture records no further instance.
The Baptism of Fire — Judgment, Not Blessing
John’s full statement about the coming Messiah includes a phrase often misread: “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Matthew 3:11). Some have taken this as a promise of a second spiritual blessing — a “baptism of fire” for the faithful believer.
But John’s very next sentence makes the meaning plain: “His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor; and He will gather His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire” (Matthew 3:12). The fire is the fire of judgment. The wheat is gathered; the chaff is burned. Those who receive Christ receive the Holy Spirit. Those who reject Him await the fire.
This baptism is not something to seek. It is something to flee.
The Gift of the Holy Spirit Promised at Baptism
When Peter preached at Pentecost, he promised the crowd: “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38). He extended the promise to all: “For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself” (Acts 2:39).
Every baptized believer receives what Peter called “the gift of the Holy Spirit.” What this gift is, the New Testament describes in language the reader should let stand: the Spirit is given, received, dwells in the believer, seals him as God’s possession, and is sent into his heart.
- “If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him” (Romans 8:9)
- “The Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you” (Romans 8:11)
- “The Spirit of God dwells in you” (1 Corinthians 3:16)
- “Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you” (1 Corinthians 6:19)
- “God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts” (Galatians 4:6)
- “Sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance” (Ephesians 1:13–14)
- “By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit” (1 John 4:13)
The exact nature of this indwelling has been understood differently by faithful students. The Greek phrase in Acts 2:38 — “the gift of the Holy Spirit” — is grammatically ambiguous. Some have read it as the gift which is the Holy Spirit — the Spirit Himself given to reside personally in the believer. Others have read it as the gift which the Holy Spirit gives — spiritual life, regeneration, the new birth that the Spirit works in the one who obeys the gospel. The text alone does not settle the question, and we will not plant a flag on contested ground our argument does not require. The reader is invited to weigh the Scriptures above and draw his own conclusion.
What matters for our purpose is this: whatever this gift is, it is not the same thing as the baptism in the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and at the house of Cornelius, which was a miraculous outpouring serving as a divine sign. And it is not the same thing as the miraculous spiritual gifts that, as we will see next, were transmitted through the laying on of the apostles’ hands.
Miraculous Gifts and the Laying On of Apostolic Hands
There is yet another distinction to observe. Alongside the baptism in the Holy Spirit and the gift every believer receives at baptism, the early church witnessed a third category of Spirit-related phenomena: miraculous spiritual gifts — tongues, prophecy, healing, discerning of spirits, and others listed in 1 Corinthians 12.
How did these gifts come to ordinary believers? Acts answers this with remarkable clarity. When Philip preached in Samaria, the Samaritans believed and were baptized (Acts 8:12). They had received the gospel, been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus, and entered Christ. But the miraculous gifts did not come with their baptism. The text continues:
“Now when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent them Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. For He had not yet fallen upon any of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they began laying their hands on them, and they were receiving the Holy Spirit.”
— Acts 8:14–17
The Samaritans were already saved. They had been baptized. They had received whatever the “gift of the Holy Spirit” of Acts 2:38 is. But the miraculous manifestations — the outward gifts that accompanied the Spirit’s work in the early church — required something more: the laying on of apostolic hands.
Simon the former sorcerer saw this plainly, and it was precisely this he wanted to purchase: “Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was bestowed through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money, saying, ‘Give this authority to me as well, so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit’“ (Acts 8:18–19). Simon recognized what was happening — gifts came through apostolic hands.
The same pattern appears again in Ephesus. When Paul had baptized the twelve disciples who had previously known only John’s baptism, the text says: “And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking with tongues and prophesying” (Acts 19:6). Again: an apostle, laying hands, and miraculous gifts resulting.
This was the pattern. Miraculous gifts came to ordinary believers through the laying on of apostolic hands. And this pattern served a specific purpose — the gifts were necessary for the building up of the early church at a time when the New Testament had not yet been written, when young churches needed authenticating signs, and when the foundation of apostolic teaching was still being laid.
No New Testament text describes this transmission continuing beyond the apostles themselves. No one who received a gift through apostolic hands is recorded as passing that gift on to another. The means of transmission that Acts describes requires someone whom Scripture defines as an apostle — those personally appointed and sent by Christ. We will not argue this point beyond what the text warrants. We simply note what Acts shows and what Acts does not show. The reader may draw his own conclusions from the pattern.
The One Baptism That Remains
So we return to Paul’s declaration:
“There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all.”
— Ephesians 4:4–6
One baptism. Which one?
Not John’s — that belonged to a preparatory age and ended when Christ came. Paul himself had John’s disciples baptized again when he found them in Ephesus. If John’s baptism were the one that remains, that scene makes no sense.
Not the baptism in the Holy Spirit of Pentecost and Cornelius. That was a divine sign given at God’s initiative to mark specific moments in redemptive history. It was never commanded, never sought, and after Cornelius, never recorded again.
Not the baptism of fire. That awaits the unrepentant at judgment, and no one alive should wish to meet it.
What remains — the one baptism every Christian shares — is the baptism Jesus commanded in Matthew 28:19: “baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.” It is the baptism Peter preached in Acts 2:38: “for the forgiveness of your sins.” It is the baptism Paul describes in Romans 6, through which we are buried with Christ and raised to walk in newness of life. It is the baptism Paul names in Galatians 3:27, through which we are clothed with Christ. It is the baptism Ananias commanded Saul to receive in Acts 22:16, to wash away his sins calling on the name of the Lord.
That is the baptism this book is about. That is the baptism still required of every person who would follow Christ. That is the one baptism.