Mark 1:7-8 Jesus Baptizes Us in the Holy Spirit

The Text

Mark 1:7-8 (CSB) He proclaimed, “One who is more powerful than I am is coming after me. I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the strap of his sandals. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

The Devotion

There are things we do in the church that are so important and so sacred. They are the utmost importance and these are things we should not do lightly. This is baptism and communion.

Communion is something that our church does every week. But do all people in the church take communion? No. Only those who believe, trust, and obey Jesus Christ as their God and Savior.

Likewise, does being baptized mean you are saved? Some churches say, "Yes!" But baptism is not a guarantee of what is going on in the heart but rather, bearing witness to what God has done in us. Look at what Paul writes in Romans 6 about what it means to be baptized:

Romans 6:1-5 (CSB) What should we say then? Should we continue in sin so that grace may multiply? Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Or are you unaware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be in the likeness of his resurrection.

Being saved by God is what God has done for you and in you. To put your faith, trust, belief, and obedience into Christ means that all of yours sins--past, present, future--are placed on the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. When Jesus was then buried in the tomb, he took those sins with him.

Romans 6:23 (CSB) For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Christ, who is holy, perfect, and righteous and who has never sinned, is risen to life by the power of Holy Spirit who is God.

To be baptized in church in water is to tell the entire world that Christ has baptize me in the Holy Spirit. In other words, for us to say that the Holy Spirit is dwelling in me, that means that the Spirit has made me a child of God, and now I live to God forever.