The Three Baptisms

There is a baptism no water can perform and no hand can administer. It is the work of the Spirit Himself, and it happens the moment you believe.

For we were all baptised by one Spirit so as to form one body — whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free — and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Paul is not describing a ceremony. He is describing a placement. The Spirit takes you and immerses you into Christ — into His death, His life, and His body. You are not merely following Jesus. You are in Him.

This is why Paul can say, all of you who were baptised into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. The moment of faith is the moment of union. You are taken out of Adam and placed into Christ. Everything that is true of Him — His righteousness, His sonship, His acceptance, His life — becomes true of you.

What it means: regeneration. You were born again. You who were dead were made alive. You who were far off were brought near. You who were darkness became light. The Spirit Himself performed this baptism, and no ceremony, however sacred, can improve on what He has done.

What it represents: your union with Jesus and your entry into His body, the church. You did not join an organisation. You were joined to a Person — and to everyone else joined to that same Person.

Its purpose: to save you, to secure you, and to make everything true of Christ true of you. This baptism is complete the instant you believe. It is not a second experience you wait for. It is the foundation on which every other experience stands.

And it can happen anywhere — a prison cell at midnight, a bedside at 3 a.m., a quiet walk down a country road. The thief on the cross was baptised into Christ without a drop of water and was promised paradise that very day. The Spirit is the minister. Faith is the moment. Christ is the element.