He that is bathed needeth not save to wash his
feet, but is clean every whit: and _ye are clean but not all_." The Lord
Jesus had pronounced that apostolic company clean--_i. e._, regenerate
men--with the exception of the one who never was a regenerate man, Judas
Iscariot who should betray Him (see verse 11). The remaining eleven Jesus
Christ had pronounced regenerate men. Yet He tells these same men in Acts
i. 5, that the baptism with the Holy Spirit was an experience that they
had not as yet realized, that still lay in the future. So it is evident
that it is one thing to be born again by the Holy Spirit through the Word
and something distinct from this and additional to it to be baptized with
the Holy Spirit. The same thing is evident from Acts viii. 12, R. V.,
compared with the fifteenth and sixteenth verses of the same chapter. In
the twelfth verse we read that a large company of disciples had believed
the preaching of Philip concerning the kingdom of God _and the name of
Jesus Christ_, and "had been baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus" (v.
16, R. V.). Certainly in this company of baptized believers there were at
least some regenerate persons. Whatever the true form of water baptism may
be, they undoubtedly had been baptized by the true form, for the baptizing
had been done by a Spirit-commissioned man, but in the fifteenth and
sixteenth verses we read, "When they (that is Peter and John) were come
down, they prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost: for as
yet He was fallen upon none of them: only they had been baptized into the
name of the Lord Jesus." Baptized believers they were; baptized into the
name of the Lord Jesus they had been; regenerate men some of them most
assuredly were, and yet not one of them as yet had received, or been
baptized with, the Holy Ghost. So again, it is evident that the baptism
with the Holy Spirit is an operation of the Holy Spirit distinct from and
additional to His regenerating work. A man may be regenerated by the Holy
Spirit and still not be baptized with the Holy Spirit. In regeneration,
there is the impartation of life by the Spirit's power, and the one who
receives it is saved: in the baptism with the Holy Spirit, there is the
impartation of power, and the one who receives it is fitted for service.
The baptism with the Holy Spirit, however, may take place at the moment of
regeneration. It did, for example, in the household of Cornelius. We read
in Acts x. 43,