Paul (formerly known as Saul) recounts the story of his conversion three times in the book of Acts in chapters 9, 22 & 26. In the first two accounts the Bible associates the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and the removal of sins with baptism.
17 So Ananias departed and entered the house. And laying his hands on him he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” 18 And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized; (Acts 9:17-18 ESV)
12 “And one Ananias, a devout man according to the law, well spoken of by all the Jews who lived there, 13 came to me, and standing by me said to me, ‘Brother Saul, receive your sight.’ And at that very hour I received my sight and saw him. 14 And he said, ‘The God of our fathers appointed you to know his will, to see the Righteous One and to hear a voice from his mouth; 15 for you will be a witness for him to everyone of what you have seen and heard. 16 And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name.’ (Acts 22:12-16 ESV)
Harmonizing Saul’s conversion accounts
Much like the way accounts differ in the gospels, we see certain facts emphasized, and others not mentioned at all. It is up to us to reconcile the various conversion accounts so that they harmonize instead of being placed in opposition to each other. It is reasonable to conclude that the Holy Spirit had not yet come to indwell Saul until his immersion even though Act 9:17 might, at first glance, appear to imply otherwise.
Ananias said he was sent so that Saul might regain his sight and receive the Holy Spirit. However, the wording does not necessarily infer that his being filled with the Spirit would happen right at that moment. When harmonizing the parallel accounts in Acts 9 and 22, it seems probable that Ananias restored Saul’s vision prior to anything else happening.
Confirming the message
What reason is there to think so? One of the main purposes of miracles was to confirm the authority of the messenger and the authenticity of the message (Mark 16:20). If a person could perform a bonafide miracle, this gave weight to what he had to say. Since God healed Saul’s blindness through Ananias, Saul had every reason to pay attention to what Ananias had to say.
Were Ananias’s words of Act 22:14-16 spoken after the “scales” fell from Saul’s eyes (in Act 9:18), but before his immersion? If we were to merge the two conversion accounts in chronological order, perhaps it would look something like this:
So Ananias departed and entered the house. And laying his hands on him, he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight.
[And he said, ‘The God of our fathers appointed you to know his will, to see the Righteous One and to hear a voice from his mouth; for you will be a witness for him to everyone of what you have seen and heard. And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name.’]
Then he rose and was baptized
Saul was still in his sins after praying and fasting for three days
Even though Saul had seen Jesus on the road to Damascus and was praying and fasting for three days (Act 9:9, 11), he was still in his sins. Ananias told him to be immersed and in so doing his sins would be washed away (Act 22:16). Here again we see the removal of sins connected with immersion. It was during Saul’s immersion that the Holy Spirit washed away his sins. We have several clear cut statements in Scripture related to the indwelling of the Spirit and the removal of our sins.
First, only saved people have the Spirit (Rom 8:9). The Spirit saves us when He indwells us and not before. Second, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit happens simultaneously with the forgiveness of sins. Peter said that immersion in water is for the forgiveness of sins. It is related to the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38). Third, we see a direct statement in Acts 22:16 that Saul’s sins would be washed away during immersion.
Deniers have an insurmountable theological obstacle
Those who wish to deny that baptism is directly connected to salvation have a very thorny theological problem to deal with. Peter specifically said immersion is related to the forgiveness of sins. Ananias confirmed Peter’s statement when he told Saul his sins would be removed during immersion.
The water didn’t wash away Saul’s sins. The Holy Spirit did that when He came to live inside Saul. Like the purification washings of the Old Testament, the baptismal waters illustrated what the Spirit was doing to Saul’s heart. The Spirit is the purifying agent in our conversion. The timing of this purification is during baptism in water.
Saul received the “washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit” (Tit. 3:5-7). He was cleansed “by the washing of water with the word” (Eph. 5:26). Saul was “born again” “of the water and the Spirit” (John 3:3, 5).
The Spirit indwells during immersion
Based on passages we have studied so far, it is inconsistent to assume that one’s sins could be removed separate from the indwelling of the Spirit. The passages teach that this all happens during immersion.
Ananias also told Saul he was to call on the name of the Lord as He was being baptized. What does this mean? More on that in the next post.