NOTES for Mar 1:7-8
Speaking of the coming Messiah, John mentions a washing "with the Holy Spirit." What does he mean? And why was such a washing impossible in pre-Christian times? Did God's breath not fill the world then as it does now? It did, of course. All the prophets of Israel spoke of the breath of Yahweh, of the Spirit of the Lord, and the movement of that breath was unquestionably familiar to them. And yet there is something special in the washing with God's breath of which John speaks. What were purifying washings in pre-Christian times?
They were part of the purification ritual, with which that ritual began. It was assumed that impurity stains a person both from outside and from within, and that one had to be purified from it both outwardly and inwardly. Ritual washings were used for outward purification: water, as people thought, carried away everything from which a person wanted to cleanse himself, his body, and his life. But this was not enough: a special purifying sacrifice always followed the washing, and then, through sprinkling with sacrificial blood sanctified by God, the person was cleansed from within.
God's presence, of course, also sanctified the body already washed with water, but most importantly it sanctified the soul and heart, freeing them from the consequences of committed sin or contact with impurity. But such cleansing, alas, did not guarantee freedom from future sin. Meanwhile, in the Kingdom of the Messiah there can be no place for sin. To become its inhabitant, one must be completely changed, become so alien to sin that it will never again enter the life of the one seeking the Kingdom.
Of course, a fallen person is not capable of this. But what is impossible for man is possible for God and for the Messiah sent by Him. He can wash a person not with water and not with sacrificial blood, but with that divine breath which can not only cleanse a person but completely transform him. This transformation becomes for the seeker of the Kingdom the final purifying washing and the final sanctification. A washing and sanctification after which there will be no more place for sin in his life. At least insofar as that life belongs to the Kingdom.