When Do We Receive the Spirit? (Two steps in Conversion?)
When Do We Receive the Spirit? (Two steps in Conversion?)
No one can be saved without having the Spirit. Romans 8:9 is very clear - anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Him. If you don’t have the Spirit, then you aren’t a Christian.
The question that comes up is this: How does this clear statement from Romans fit with what we see in the book of Acts?
The disciples do not receive the Spirit until Pentecost. It would be really hard to say that they weren’t true believers before that (after all, they confessed that Jesus was the Christ, and even though they didn’t follow Jesus perfectly, they did follow Him; also cf John 15:1-11)
In Acts 8:14-17 we read about Samaritans who were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus (they truly believe), but had not received the Spirit yet until the Apostles came and prayed for them and laid their hands on them.
It would appear that there is a similar two-step process in Acts 19:1-6. They had been baptized in John’s baptism of repentance, then Paul came and told them about Jesus, then they were baptized in the name of Jesus, and then (after believing in Jesus) Paul laid his hands on them and the Holy Spirit came upon them.
So, we have two or three examples in the book of Acts where people were saved and baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus, and yet they did not receive the Spirit until later. How does that fit with clear statements in the rest of the Bible that say to be a Christian means that you have the Spirit? The answer to this question is not only helpful for thinking through some topics related to the Holy Spirit, but I think it will also be helpful for understanding how the book of Acts fits into the NT.
First, I think it will be helpful to set the stage and remember the general structure of Acts.
The structure of Acts is pretty straightforward. Acts 1:8 is the general structure - you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. We see that play out through the book of Acts, first it focuses on Jerusalem, then Judea and Samaria, then all the Gentiles in all the world.
The other things that is helpful to remember about the book of Acts is that this is really part 2. Part 1 is the book of Luke. Luke wrote both these books and they are really meant to be thought about together. And this really leads to the first main idea to think about in order to answer our question…
Pentecost is evidence that Christ has completed His work.
Hebrews 10:12 says this, “But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God.” Sitting down at the right hand of God is the final step in the process of what Jesus came to do. Or, you might put it this way, Jesus sitting at the right hand of God is evidence that He has finished His work.
Peter’s sermon at Pentecost ties together the enthronement of Jesus with the giving of the Spirit
Acts 2:14-17 - At the beginning of the sermon, Peter states a motivation for his sermon: he's giving a biblically explanation for what is going on with the outpouring of the Spirit.
Acts 2:33-36 - Peter explains that the pouring out of the Spirit happens because Jesus is at the right hand of God and sends the Holy Spirit. The pouring out of the Spirit is evidence that Jesus is Lord and is sitting on His throne. You might say that it’s part of the coronation ceremony.
The same thing is also happening when the Spirit is poured out on the Samaritans and on the Gentiles. It is evidence that Jesus is on His throne and reigns, not just over Jerusalem, not just over Judea and Samaria, but over all the nations of the earth (Ps 2:6, 8).
So, let’s tie this together. The pouring out of the Spirit at Pentecost is evidence that Jesus has been enthroned. Jesus being enthroned is evidence that His work of salvation is now completed. Therefore, the pouring out of the Spirit is connected to Jesus' work of salvation. That's why the giving of the Spirit was a process in the book of Acts, but now it is a one-time event connected to conversion.
Just like Jesus doesn’t die more than once, Jesus doesn’t get enthroned more than once, and the Spirit doesn’t come in this way more than once. We don’t receive the Spirit separately from conversion anymore, that only happened once during the transition time between OC and NC when Jesus was completing His work. And really you could say that the sending of the Spirit was the completion of that transition.
This is why other places in the NT are so straightforward about having the Spirit or not having the Spirit, because the authors understand that what God was doing in Acts with the Spirit was not the pattern for how we receive the Spirit at conversion, instead it was the final step in that part of salvation history. Acts talks about the coming of the Spirit, it is evidence that Jesus has completed His work and is seated at the right hand of God. That work is completed, the Spirit has come, and now there is no delay in receiving the Holy Spirit at the point of conversion.
Why does all of this matter?
Understanding that we receive the Spirit at conversion helps us think through doctrinal positions that are held by Pentecostals and Catholics:
When charismatics talk about baptism in the Spirit, they don’t mean that you have the Spirit and then you get a fresh filling of the Spirit. They’ll talk about that with other language, but when they talk about being baptized with the Spirit, they’re talking about initially receiving the Holy Spirit. And they hold that receiving the Spirit happens separate from conversion (a two-step process). I think the evidence that we’ve looked at this morning shows that this is not a proper understanding of the Spirit's coming in Acts.
Best I can tell, Catholics believe that you receive the Holy Spirit at water baptism - at least not before baptism for sure (catechism 1265). That means that in their thinking, you receive the Spirit separate from conversion. I think what we’ve looked at this morning also shows that this idea is not biblical. And given the Catholic church's understanding of infant baptism, their belief that they receive the Holy Spirit at baptism has major theological implications.
So, while this might sometimes seem technical and not all that important, understanding how Romans and Acts complement each other regarding the Spirit helps guard our understanding of conversion, and that matters immensely.