WE take it as Wesley did, that “by one Spirit,” is by the direction of one Spirit, we are all immersed into one body. It is clear that the baptism alluded to is the initiatory rite, for there is no other baptism into one body. The immersion in the Spirit is not into one body, or into anything. At the house of Cornelius they were immersed into Christ after they had been immersed in the Holy Spirit. The immersion in the Spirit was to convince Peter and his Jewish brethren that God intended to receive the Gentiles as well as the Jews. Hence, when Peter, in his rehearsal of the matter to his Jewish brethren, when he came to this, exclaims, “What was I that I should withstand God?”
The “one baptism” of Paul is the initiatory rite—the baptism of the Commission, connected with the faith and repentance for the remission of sins, and will remain as long as there is one to believe, repent or seek remission of sins. The faith, repentance, confession, immersion and remission of sins stand connected in the gospel of the grace of God, and we see not how any man can be so perverted as to try to evade any one of these items.