The ”third” kind of baptism came in Matthew 28.19. Before Jesus ascended into heaven, he spoke to his disciples one last time, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Firstly, this baptism was a baptism in the name of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Secondly, this baptism symbolized that this person who is being baptized, had accepted God’s gift of his Son for the forgiveness of his sin. I will call this the Christian baptism. Some Christians call this the baptism of the Holy Spirit. This baptism was not a baptism of proselytes who converted to the Jewish faith, or even a baptism of repentance in preparation of the coming of the Messiah (for the Messiah had already come). As a matter of fact, while John the Baptist was still baptizing people for repentance, he already gave a heads up that there would come one day when the Messiah would baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire. This Messiah is mightier than he. John the Baptist wasn’t fit to even remove his sandals.
Romans 6.1–4
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore, we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
It is important for me to say here that the Christian baptism doesn’t save anyone. Sinners come to salvation not because they were baptized in a Christian baptism. Being baptized is not hard to do. One answers a few questions from a pastor, gets a little wet, and the person is baptized. Anyone can be baptized, and think he or she is saved. Sinners, however, are saved when they come to know Christ as Savior and Lord. The Christian baptism is, therefore, only an external sign of an inner transformation.
The Christian baptism is not the same thing as the baptism of John the Baptist. A person who is baptized in the baptism of John the Baptist has not yet been baptized in the Christian baptism. One needs to be baptized in the Christian baptism, (if indeed he or she had accepted Christ for the forgiveness of sin). We learned about this biblical principle from the account of Apollos in the Book of Acts.
Acts 18.24–26
Now a Jew named Apollos, an Alexandrian by birth, an eloquent man, came to Ephesus; and he was mighty in the Scriptures. This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he was speaking and teaching accurately the things concerning Jesus, being acquainted only with the baptism of John; and he began to speak out boldly in the synagogue.
Acts 19.1–5
It happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the upper country and came to Ephesus, and found some disciples. He said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” And they said to him, “No, we have not even heard whether there is a Holy Spirit.” And he said, “Into what then were you baptized?” And they said, “Into John’s baptism.” Paul said, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in Him who was coming after him, that is, in Jesus.” When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
In summary, even though all baptisms in the Bible are “biblical”, they are not the same. Please be careful and, as Billy taught us, read the Bible slowly. When you and I were baptized in a baptistry, or lake, or a horse feeding trough, we were baptized in the Christian baptism. We were baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We were baptized because we had received God’s gift of his Son as forgiveness of our sin, and now we need to be baptized. We were not baptized in the way Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River. They are not the same thing. For this reason, I do not agree when some say Jesus was baptized as an example for us to follow him, and be baptized like him. But that is a discussion for another day.
In the 1st century, many hard criminals were punished by crucifixion. But that man who was crucified that day in Calvary was no ordinary man. He was the Son of God. He died in our place, and he was sacrificed for us, so we could have life eternal. It had to be this way because our sin was great, and so terrible. Baptism is not a choice. Those who have accepted God’s gift of his Son receive forgiveness, and must be baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, to the glory of our God. Hallelujah, what a Savior.