Reading: “I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.” John 1:33

We should not think of our salvation only in terms of deliverance from sin, guilt, or from hell. There is a very positive aspect of salvation that we often overlook; growth and development, liberty and blessing in the Holy Spirit.

John the Baptist, the last Old Testament prophet, preached that work of the Lord Jesus, like two sides of the one coin, would be to remove sin and baptize with the Holy Ghost (John 1:29-33). The use of the Greek language here, as John Stott points out (Baptism and Fullness, 23-24) describes not a single event, but a “characteristic” of Jesus’ ministry. Just as He is taking away the sin of the world, so He is also baptizing with the Holy Spirit. The two must go together. If Jesus has removed from you the guilt and power of sin, then He has most definitely baptized you with the Holy Spirit. “Reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:11).