To be baptized is to be immersed into something or someone. John states that Jesus “will baptize … with the Holy Spirit” (Matt. 3:12). Thus the Holy Spirit will be “put into” believers. In one sense, therefore, the baptism with the Holy Spirit is indicative of actual forgiveness of sins. By proclaiming a repentance-baptism and pointing to a Spirit-baptism, John fulfills Isaiah 40:3, the task of the “voice of one crying in the wilderness to prepare the way of the Lord.”5 (See Ezek. 36:25–27; 39:29