Excerpt from Baptized in the Spirit by Dr. Frank D. Macchia, p.153-154 I will show my Pentecostal colors here and insist that, whatever else it is, Spirit baptism is a powerful experience received with or at a moment distinct from Christian initiation. This is not to say that the Pentecostal experience is unrelated to initiation and cannot serve to confirm it or bring greater fulfillment. But Christian initiation by grace through faith cannot be dependent on a certain experience or understanding of experience for its validity. God is not dependent on the adequacy of our experience or response of faith as judged according to precise biblical patterns in order to bind us to Christ by the power of the Spirit. Most Pentecostals acknowledge this. But Spirit baptism as an eschatological participation in the kingdom of God by faith involves Christian initiation and a release of the Spirit in life for power in witness. The broad theological framework of Spirit baptism as a divine act in inaugurating the kingdom of God involves theologically for Luke and the Pentecostals an experience of the Spirit in power for witness. That Pentecostals ask the church to seek a definite experience of Spirit baptism as a renewal of faith and a prophetic anointing for service with or distinct in time from Christian initiation need not be interpreted as taking anything away from Christian initiation as that decisively initial point of identification with Christ as the one in whom all spiritual blessings may be found (Eph. 1:3). Rather, the experience of Spirit baptism cherished by Pentecostals brings to our awareness theological insights inherent in the meaning of initiation itself. When a Pentecostal falls to her knees speaking in tongues in submission to God and to God’s will for her life, her initial act of faith through confession and baptism can be viewed retrospectively in the light of that experience as her ordination service as a Spirit-baptized “minister” for God. Likewise, Christian initiation should be interpreted in the churches in a way that an expectation of conscious experiences of the Holy Spirit in power is cultivated. The Pentecostal experience of Spirit baptism has theological implications for how we view Christian initiation as well as the lifelong walk of faith. One enters Spirit-baptized existence at Christian initiation. But the experience of Spirit baptism connected to and following from initiation is meant to bring to conscious participation the justice of the kingdom, the growth in sanctifying grace, and the charismatic openness to bless others and to glorify God that begins in Christian initiation. These experiences are to be ongoing. We have been baptized in the Spirit, we are being baptized in the Spirit, and we will be baptized in the Spirit. Christian initiation cannot exhaust the reality or even the theology of Spirit baptism, given the eschatological view of it developed above. Spirit baptism has decisive roots in Christian initiation, but it is also to be reaffirmed in the daily walk in the Spirit as well as in definite moments of Spirit-filling. Ultimately, it is realized in cosmic transformation. In the light of a theology of Spirit baptism as an eschatological dynamic (both now and not yet), we can affirm both the event of initiation and the ongoing experiences of the Spirit that characterize Spirit baptism as participation in Christ as the King and the Spirit as the kingdom.
Posted on: Sat, 10 Jan 2015 16:23:23 +0000
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