During our “Questions from Jesus” series, we’re encouraging Faith Church attendees to submit questions they may have to Jesus and/or to Faith Church through the number (219) 440-2463. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be trying to answer some of the questions submitted on this blog. Check back weekly as new questions are added.
We’ll tackle 2 in this post:
- Does my child have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit if he/she is baptized but has not publicly accepted Christ or made profession of faith? In Acts 2, it says we receive the Holy Spirit when we are baptized.
- Where did you (Jesus) go after You were crucified but before You rose from the dead?
Does my child have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit if he/she is baptized but has not publicly accepted Christ or made profession of faith? In Acts 2, it says we receive the Holy Spirit when we are baptized.
I would say that if your child has faith in Jesus Christ as his/her Savior, then God’s Spirit is in him/her; this would be regardless of whether or not the child has been baptized or made a public profession of faith. Perhaps the clearest place to show this is Ephesians 1:13-14: “In [Jesus] you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.” The inspired words of the Apostle Paul here connect the possession of the Holy Spirit with our belief in Jesus, that we receive the Spirit when we believe.
The relationship between the Spirit and baptism in the book of Acts is interesting. In Acts 2:38, Peter tells those gathered to repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of sins and that they will receive the Holy Spirit (with 2:39 reminding us of the promise being for our children as well, one of the reasons we baptize our children); these are people hearing the gospel for the first time, with Peter calling for them to believe and respond. But over in Acts 10, the Holy Spirit fell upon the god-fearing Gentile Cornelius and others before they were baptized (Acts 10:45-48); their baptism happens after they have received the Holy Spirit. Acts 8 has an interesting story in which people are baptized but the Spirit does not come upon them until the apostles come to lay hands on them (with Simon one who was baptized but seems never to have the Spirit in him). There are a variety of issues to note about these passages (as the book of Acts shows the people of God expanding from the Jewish nation to men and women of all nations), but I think these are helpful reminders that there must not always be a hard and fast rule that the Holy Spirit comes after baptism or with baptism. What does seem common is the link between the Spirit and belief in Jesus.
In addition, it is also good to remember what happens (and does not happen) in the physical rite of baptism. In the Reformed tradition, we teach that baptism is a sign and seal of God’s grace to us, in that the water shows us that God truly washes our sin away and we are forgiven if we believe; the act of baptism, however, does not save us or physically wash away our sins, as we saved by grace through faith in Christ alone (see Ephesians 2:8-9). I say this so that we are reminded that baptism itself does not bestow the Holy Spirit upon a man, woman, or child; it is a sign of the outpouring and cleansing work of the Holy Spirit (see Ezekiel 36:25-27) that happens by faith.
Therefore, it would seem that the indwelling of the Spirit is something that happens when someone places their faith in Christ (Ephesians 1:13-14), when they are born of the Spirit (John 3:5), with all who believe having the Spirit (Romans 8:9) and being baptized in the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:13). While we celebrate that and mark that with a public profession of faith process and it is symbolized in baptism, it is not in the ceremony or the service that the Holy Spirit comes, but rather when a child or a person believes; this often happens in some private conversation or moment. We are called to go public with our faith, to confess Jesus publicly and celebrate that commitment (which is what profession of faith does), but this is not the means through which one receives the Spirit, nor is baptism; baptism shows us this truth and profession of faith celebrates it.
Where did you (Jesus) go after You were crucified but before You rose from the dead?
A related question that I commonly get is what is meant in the Apostles’ Creed when we say that Jesus descended into hell, as that would seem to imply that between the cross and the resurrection, Jesus would then be in hell – but that doesn’t seem right in that hell is the place where God is not, so how could Jesus be there? A number of the sayings on the cross point against this understanding of Jesus spending the days between the cross and the resurrection in hell. In particular, Jesus tells the condemned man on the cross who believes in him that “Today, you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43), implying that the thief and Jesus were going to the same place upon death. In addition, Jesus gives his spirit to the Father on the cross (Luke 23:46), which would not be true if he then went to hell, and Jesus did not need to go to hell to complete his work of salvation since on the cross he declares, “It is finished” (John 19:30). Finally, the idea that Jesus had to go down to hell to bring Old Testament saints out of it (as some argue) seems to ignore the fact that Jews at the time believed that believers in God were in God’s presence at death, with nothing to indicate otherwise (see Luke 16:26). Rather than Jesus going down to hell for those three days, it would seem that the Apostles’ Creed is speaking about the fact that Jesus experiences the agony of hell for us on the cross in that he is being punished for sin (ours, not his!) and the Father turns his face away from him (for more on the meaning of this phrase and related issues, see my blog post from last July on the creed here: https://wearefaith.org/blog/he-descended-to-hell/).
If Jesus didn’t go to hell for these three days, then where did he go? In light of his comments on the cross noted above, it would seem that Jesus’s spirit/soul went to the same place where the soul of one who dies believing in Jesus goes, which would be the presence of God. Jesus would be there awaiting the resurrection of his body, just as is the case for other men and women as they await for the resurrection of their bodies (for more on heaven as the intermediate state and the resurrection as the ultimate hope for believers, see the answer to another one of your questions at https://wearefaith.org/blog/questions-from-you-about-easter-and-heaven/).
We’ll look at some more questions next week.
Questions about Bible or theology? E-mail them to Pastor Brian at Theology@wearefaith.org. You can also subscribe to get weekly e-mails with our blog posts by filling out the info on the right side.
