Acts 10:47

Acts 10:47. Can any forbid water? The true translation is ‘ the water,' the baptismal water, the ‘water sanctified unto the mystical washing away of sin.' The highest blessing of all, the Holy Spirit, had been received: hence the minor gift, which was emblematic of the other, and which procured admission into the Church of Christ, could not be refused. Moreover, there is a strong testimony here to the importance of Baptism. On the one hand, indeed, nothing can be more emphatic than this narrative in its assertion that God can communicate His highest spiritual gifts irrespectively of all ordinances; but, on the other hand, it is asserted with equal emphasis, that divinely-appointed ordinances are not to be disregarded. ‘Non dicit,' says Bengel, ‘Habent Spiritum, ergo aquâ carere possunt.' Lechler, in Lange's Homiletical Commentary, has a striking sentence at this place: ‘The peculiar manner in which the question is expressed sounds as though there was attributed to the water of Baptism conscious and energetic will, as though Peter had said, If no one has been able to hinder the Spirit from coming upon these people, so also no one can restrain the water which wills to flow over them at Baptism.' Another thought also comes into the mind in considering these incidents. The baptisms appear to have taken place in the house; and the question arises whether they were effected by sprinkling or by immersion.

Which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we. The fact that in this instance, and in this instance only, the Holy Ghost was received previously to Baptism, has been the subject of many notes by commentators. There was sufficient reason, on this occasion, if we may reverently say so, for deviation from the common rule. No ordinary attestation would have sufficed to make the Divine command perfectly clear, that the Gentiles were to be admitted at once, and on equal terms with Jews, to the blessings of Christianity. This was in fact a second Pentecost: and may we not add that there was a close parallel between this occasion and the first Pentecost, in the fact that the open communication of the Spirit took place in both cases before the administration of baptism? (See Acts 2:4; Acts 2:41.)