NOTES for Mar 1:7-8
Speaking of the coming Messiah, Mark mentions washing "with the Holy Spirit." What does he mean? And why was such washing impossible in pre-Christian times? Did God's breath not fill the world then just as it does now? It did, of course. All Israel's prophets spoke of the breath of Yahweh, of the Spirit of the Lord, and the blowing of this breath was certainly familiar to them. And yet in the washing by God's breath of which John speaks there is something special. What were cleansing washings in pre-Christian times?
They were part of the cleansing ritual with which that ritual began. It was presumed that impurity stains a person both from outside and from inside, and that one had to be cleansed from it both from outside and from inside. Ritual washings were used for outward cleansing: water, it was thought, carried away everything from which a person wanted to cleanse himself, his body, and his life. But this was not enough: a special cleansing sacrifice always followed the cleansing washing, and here, through sprinkling with sacrificial blood sanctified by God, a person was cleansed already 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 against sin in the future. Meanwhile, in the Messiah's Kingdom there can be no place for sin. To become its resident, one must be completely changed, become so alien to sin that it will never again enter the life of the one who seeks the Kingdom.
For fallen man, of course, this is beyond his strength. 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 that can not only cleanse a person, but also completely transform him. This transformation becomes for the seeker of the Kingdom the final cleansing washing and the final sanctification. A washing and sanctification after which there will no longer be a place for sin in his life. At least insofar as this life belongs to the Kingdom.