In our study of Mark we are presently in Mark 10:38; Where Jesus asks James and John if they are prepared to drink the cup that He is going to drink of and be baptized with His baptism.

Because of this statement we have taken up a brief study on the doctrine of baptism and the doctrine of the cup. We saw that the word baptize means to be identified with something.

We left off last time with Jesus' double identification. First He became identified with the human race through the virgin birth and it was the humanity of Christ that actually hung on the cross.

The deity of Christ could never be confined to the cross because the deity of Christ is omnipresent. This means that in order to become our savior Christ had to first become identified with the human race.

Then having become a member of the human race, having been born without a sin nature, and having lived an impeccable life without personal sin He was qualified to become identified with the sins of the sin nature and be judged by God.

So in the baptism of the cup Christ bore our sins in His own body on the cross, and this is the second identification. At the same time He also rejected the human good that comes from our OSN's area of strength so God rejects human good even though people generally don't.

It takes a doctrinal person to be able to recognize "good" as evil and there are very few doctrinal people around these days.

God can never accept energy of the flesh human good under any circumstances so the issue of divine good versus human good is the great issue in the gospel. Every one who decides for Jesus Christ by simply believing in Him accepts what Christ did and accepts His work exclusively. Eph 2:8-9; is identified with divine good.

This is as simple as "believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for a moment of time and you will be eternally saved." Acts 16:31;

Everyone who rejects Christ as savior is depending upon his own good deeds and by default is identified with human good. Scripture tells us that salvation is "not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us." Titus 3:5;

In fact, good deeds of man or man's righteousness are as "filthy rags" in His sight (Isa 64:6: KJV) and the more "human good" works that are performed for salvation the farther one is away from salvation.

This is why Paul referred to himself as the worst sinner ever. 1Tim 1:15; Net note 19 God's perspective on human good works is that less is more. Rom 4:5; mankind has a hard time understanding that principle because mankind does not understand God. 1Cor 2:14;

The baptism of the cross was a double identification. Jesus Christ was identified with the human race and as a member of the human race when He bore the sins of the entire world was identified with the sin, and that was how God solved mankind's sin problem.

This is why the only way to appropriate God's solution for sin and be saved is faith alone in Jesus Christ alone.

The baptism or identification of the Holy Spirit is not an experience; it is simply one of the 40 things that happen to the believer at the moment of salvation and one of the five things the Holy Spirit does for the believer at the moment of salvation.

1Cor 12:13; "For by one Spirit are we baptized into one body (every believer is identified with or entered into union with Christ) … " This is the baptism of the Spirit. it is not an experience. It cannot be perceived empirically. It is only perceived by means of faith (doctrine).

If you actually did experience it in your mortal body you would be instantly incinerated because the humanity of Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father.

It is something God does for us that we learn about after salvation from our acquisition of God's Word from the communication of a pastor-teacher under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit.

The baptism of the spirit that establishes an irrevocable position for every believer at the moment of salvation is one of the most misunderstood of all of the baptisms.

The baptism of the Spirit is associated with the first advent of Christ, Acts 1:5; where Jesus told the disciples that "John truly baptized with water but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit in a few days," ten days actually. The Day the Church began on Pentecost 33AD.

Before that, in John 14:20; Jesus said: "… and you in Me, and I in you," this was the first prophecy of the baptism of the Spirit.

The baptism of fire that is the subject of Matt 3:11; is identification with fire. The baptism of fire is connected with the second advent of Christ. When He returns to the earth He finds two kinds of people: believers and unbelievers.

All unbelievers are cast off the earth by fire and all believers go into the millennial reign of Jesus Christ.

These are the real baptisms we will now look at the ritual baptisms. Ritual baptisms always involve water and the water is literal but it always represents something else.

For example we have John's baptism where the water represented the kingdom of God, and when the people who believed in Jesus under John's ministry were baptized the water represented the their entrance into the kingdom.

The baptism of Jesus was just as unique as Jesus is; as unique as His hypostatic union, as unique as His crucifixion. Many people were crucified during the course of preparing the way for the Roman Empire but only one person had a unique crucifixion and that was Jesus Christ.

Many people were baptized under John the Baptizer's ministry but the baptism of Jesus was unique.

For Jesus, the water represented the plan of God, the cross, and when Jesus was baptized He simply said the same thing that one would say in a dedication: "I am going to the cross and am going to die for the sins of the world."

That is the baptism of Jesus. He was not identified with any kingdom because He is the kingdom. So we need to remember that the baptism of Jesus Christ was unique and in His case the water represented the cross .

There was also a third ritual baptism that the believers of the early church practiced. The water in this case represented the body of Christ and when the person went into the water he was saying in effect: "I am identified with Christ in His death," by means of retroactive positional truth and/or identification with Christ on the cross.

This ritual baptism involves two things: first the believer goes into the water and while he is in the water this is a picture of death in retroactive positional truth, and second when he comes out of the water he is identified with life and that is a picture of current positional truth.

The believer's coming up out of the water represented their identification with Christ and their becoming a new creature. 2Cor 5:17; "if any man be in union with Christ he is a new creature. (spiritual species)"

This brings us to a brief discussion of " the baptism of the cup" that Jesus is discussing with James and John our passage in Mark 10:38;

The first use of the word "cup" is in reference to the cross. Matt 20:22; Mark 10:38; Matt 26:39;

This is because "the cup" contained the sins of the world and Jesus Christ who was sinless would be judged for all the sins of the word by God the Father. Isaiah 53:4-6; 2Cor 5:21;

Christ drank the cup. John 18:11; Drinking from the cup is a picture of His receiving the judgment of God for sin because sin violates God's perfect integrity. Sin violates His holiness or His perfect righteousness and justice.

This judgment was placed on Jesus when He drank "the cup" aka when He bore the sins of the world on the cross.

God's judgment is against sin but the sins were poured out upon Christ. He drank the entire cup (He bore the sins of the entire world 1John 2:2;) therefore the Father's judgment was poured out upon Him.