What Did John the Baptist Mean When He Said Jesus Would “Baptize with Fire”?

What does it mean to be baptized with the Holy Spirit and with fire? Today, W. Robert Godfrey helps us understand this striking phrase from John the Baptist and what it reveals about Christ’s role in judgment and salvation.

NATHAN W. BINGHAM: Joining us this week on the Ask Ligonier podcast is Dr. W. Robert Godfrey, chairman of Ligonier Ministries. Dr. Godfrey, what is meant by the phrase “baptism with fire” that John the Baptist said Jesus would perform?

W. ROBERT GODFREY: That’s a really good question. I don’t know if I have a really good answer. This is what I have thought as an answer to that question: I think John comes with the water of baptism and is saying: “My water is symbolic. My water is preparatory. My water says you need to be washed.” But then I think John goes on to say: “I’m not the Messiah, and so my water doesn’t actually wash you. It points to your need of washing. It points to the promise of what God will do when Messiah comes, but only Messiah can deliver the reality. I’m giving you the symbol and the water, but Messiah will bring the reality. Jesus will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire” (see Matt. 3:11; Luke 3:16).

And I think what John is indicating there—and I think what Jesus does do—is that Jesus comes with the word of salvation, and for those who receive the word of salvation in faith, it’s a sign that Jesus has sent the Holy Spirit there because only by the Holy Spirit can we respond, can our hearts be regenerated, can we have faith. And so, I think what John is saying is, “When the Messiah comes, and when He preaches the gospel, where there’s faith, that’s a sign that He’s baptized with the Holy Spirit. And where there’s resistance and rejection”—as the Pharisees rejected him—“there will be a baptism of fire, which is judgment.” So, I think that’s what John is pointing to, that when you hear Jesus, there’s an outcome—either the positive outcome of life or the negative outcome of judgment. And I think the fire points to that judgment to come for those who will not respond to the preaching of the gospel.

And that, of course, carries over as to the meaning of our baptism, and we could have an interesting discussion about the exact relationship of Christian baptism to John’s baptism. But I think the crucial point here is that Christian baptism, too, speaks to us of the call to faith in the word of the gospel, and that there will either be the positive outcome from that call to faith and from baptism by the work of the Holy Spirit, or there will be judgment to come. And in a certain sense, Scripture seems to indicate that judgment is more severe on those who heard and had opportunity to respond.

So, this is a very, very serious issue, and I think that’s why it’s so seriously said in the Gospels that the Pharisees, by and large, refused to be baptized with the baptism of John, because the Pharisees, I think, viewed baptism as a washing that was fit for gentiles who were becoming God-fearers. And gentiles, after all, were filthy and needed to be washed, but the Pharisees were insistent that they were not filthy and therefore did not need to be washed and were precisely rejecting the preaching of John and of Jesus later.