The First Christian Baptism
I. The double condition of baptism is repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. (1) Repentance, or the resolute turning and changing of the life, to face right round, away from old sin towards new holiness, was the one demand of John, the first baptizer. Yet even the change of mind, as he preached it, and as the people performed it at his bidding, was a much less thorough thing than the repentance which Peter preached. It was more like a reformation of manners than a renewal of the heart. No mere sweeping of the life as clean as might be (such as John's brief ministry had effected) could turn into saints men whose hands were red with the blood of Christ, whose hearts were filled with hatred to Christ. They must be born again, and the repentance which goes with that means nothing less than a reversal of the innermost springs and sources of moral action; the slaying of one nature, or one set of ruling tendencies, that another may come to life. (2) A second condition Peter asked which John had not asked faith in Jesus as the Messiah. In this one fact, the identification of the man of Nazareth whom Pilate crucified, with the promised anointed Son of God, lies the centre of gravity of the whole Apostolic testimony; and though the word faith is not once named, yet such a cordial acceptance of this fact, as implies reliance upon Jesus Christ for salvation, is plainly the chief differentiadistinguishing Apostolic from Johannine baptism.
II. The difference is not less wide in that which the new baptism expressed and sealed to the faithful. Two blessings are named by St. Peter remission of sins, and the gift of the Holy Ghost. There are Christians, indeed, who live today as if the Holy Ghost were not yet given. They believe, as men used to believe, who only hoped for mercy to come. They have no more than half thrown off the shackles of a legal spirit, and are as joyless as if Christ had not risen. But this is their own fault not the fault of their time. We are Gospel saints; baptized not into John's, but Christ's own baptism. Let us arise and claim our heritage. Let us invoke the Spirit who came at Pentecost to come to us; for "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty," there is life, there is joy in the Lord.
J. Oswald Dykes, From Jerusalem to Antioch,p. 81 (see also Preacher's Lantern,vol. iv., p. 257).