John Calvin Commentary Acts 8:16

"for as yet it was fallen upon none of them: only they had been baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus." — Acts 8:16 (ASV)

But here a question arises, for he says that they were only baptized into the name of Christ, and that therefore they had not yet received the Holy Ghost; but baptism must either be in vain and without grace, or else it must have all the force which it has from the Holy Ghost.

In baptism we are washed from our sins; but Paul teaches that our washing is the work of the Holy Ghost (Titus 3:5). The water used in baptism is a sign of the blood of Christ; but Peter says that it is the Spirit by whom we are washed with the blood of Christ (1 Peter 1:2). Our old man is crucified in baptism, that we may be raised up to newness of life (Romans 6:6); and from where does all this come, if not from the sanctification of the Spirit?

And, finally, what will remain in baptism if it is separate from the Spirit? (Galatians 3:27). Therefore, we must not deny that the Samaritans, who had indeed put on Christ in baptism, had also his Spirit given them. Surely Luke does not speak in this place of the common grace of the Spirit, by which God regenerates us so that we may be his children, but of those unique gifts with which God wanted certain people to be endowed at the beginning of the gospel to beautify Christ’s kingdom.

Thus, the words of John must be understood: that the disciples had not yet been given the Spirit, because Christ was still present in the world. This is not to say that they were altogether destitute of the Spirit, since they had from the Spirit both faith and a godly desire to follow Christ, but because they were not furnished with those excellent gifts in which the greater glory of Christ’s kingdom later appeared.

To conclude, since the Samaritans were already endowed with the Spirit of adoption, the excellent graces of the Spirit are heaped upon them. In these graces, God showed to his Church, for a time, as it were, the visible presence of his Spirit, so that he might establish forever the authority of his gospel, and also testify that his Spirit will always be the governor and director of the faithful.

They were only baptized. We must not understand this as spoken contemptuously of baptism; rather, Luke’s meaning is that they were only endowed at that time with the grace of common adoption and regeneration, which is offered to all the godly in baptism. As for this, it was an extraordinary thing that certain people should have the gifts of the Spirit given to them, which could serve to set forth the kingdom of Christ and the glory of the gospel. For this was its use: that everyone might benefit the Church according to the measure of his ability.

We must note this, therefore, because while the Papists try to establish their pretended confirmation, they are not afraid to break out into this sacrilegious speech: that those upon whom hands have not yet been laid are but half Christians. This is not tolerable now because, while this was a sign that lasted only for a time, they made it a continual law in the Church, as if they had the Spirit ready to give to whomever they wished.

We know that when the testimony and pledge of God’s grace is presented to us in vain, and without the thing itself, it is a despicable mockery. But even they themselves are forced to admit that the Church was beautified with these gifts for a time only, from which it follows that the laying on of hands, which the apostles used, ended when its effect ceased.

I will pass over the fact that they added oil to the laying on of hands (Mark 6:13); but this, as I have already said, was an act of excessive boldness: to prescribe a perpetual law to the Church, making that a general sacrament which was uniquely used among the apostles (Galatians 3:7; Romans 6:6); so that the sign might still continue after the thing itself had ceased.

And with this, they added detestable blasphemy, because they said that sins were only forgiven by baptism, and that the Spirit of regeneration is given by that rotten oil which they presumed to introduce without the Word of God.

The Scripture testifies that we put on Christ in baptism, and that we are engrafted into his body, so that our old man may be crucified, and we may be renewed in righteousness.

These sacrilegious robbers have misappropriated what they have taken from baptism to adorn the false facade of their sacrament.

Neither was this the invention of one man only, but the decree of a council, about which they babble daily in all their schools.