Jesus was Baptized with Fire
“But Jesus said to them, “You don’t know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?”” (Mark 10:38 WEB)
At the cross, Jesus drank the cup of God’s wrath for sins (Isaiah 51:17, 22, Revelation 16:19) to its dregs, and He was baptized with the fire of judgment for sins (Matthew 3:12).
““I came to throw fire on the earth. I wish it were already kindled. But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how distressed I am until it is accomplished! Do you think that I have come to give peace in the earth? I tell you, no, but rather division. For from now on, there will be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three. They will be divided, father against son, and son against father; mother against daughter, and daughter against her mother; mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.”” (Luke 12:49-53 WEB)
Jesus didn’t come to join this world system, but to disrupt and change it. He did not come in peace to forge a friendship or peace treaty with Satan, but to destroy the devil’s strongholds using the fire of the Holy Spirit. He came to declare war against the devil, to save us out of his clutches.
At the cross, Jesus received the baptism of the fire of judgment and cried out “It is finished”, so that we could be forgiven; washed so clean that we can have the Holy Spirit inside us today.
Jesus saw the positive outcome that would arise from His suffering and death, so He willingly allowed the Father to baptize Him with fire.
Every sin was punished in Jesus’ flesh so that we can receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit today and be endowed with His power.
The Spirit-filled church is the fire that Jesus was looking forward to throw onto the earth, to destroy the corrupt and evil world system. We are His army, spreading like wildfire, setting the devil’s strongholds ablaze.
Through the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Satan’s strongholds are crumbling. The church is on the offensive against the gates of Hell.
“The cup of blessing which we bless, isn’t it a sharing of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, isn’t it a sharing of the body of Christ? Because there is one loaf of bread, we, who are many, are one body; for we all partake of the one loaf of bread.” (1 Corinthians 10:16-17 WEB)
For Jesus, it was a cup of curse that He drank. At the cross, He received the vinegar (which represented the curse that He bore upon Himself) after every sin was fully judged in His flesh (John 19:28).
Thanks to His sacrifice, we can drink the cup of blessing today which is the Lord’s Supper. When we partake of it, we remember how Jesus shed His blood (containing His life) for us so that we could receive every blessing.
He endured the baptism of fire so that we could have the baptism of the Holy Spirit. He drank the cup of wrath and curse so that we could partake of the cup of blessing.
This is the grace of God—we can freely receive the good that we didn’t deserve because Jesus took all the bad that we did deserve.
Let us praise Him and remember His sacrifice, especially during this Passover week as we behold His journey to the cross, the tomb, and the resurrection!
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