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Scripture Reading: John 14:16-20, 26; 15:26; 16:7, 11, 13-15; 20:19-22
The Son’s sending of the Spirit is the initial item of the second section of God’s New Testament economy (see chart in chapter 1). The verses included in the Scripture Reading at the beginning of this chapter from John 14, 15, and 16 were prophecies or promises when they were spoken by the Lord. The fulfillment of these promises is in John 20. Thus, the disciples’ breathing in of the Spirit in John 20 was the initiation of the second section of God’s New Testament economy from Acts through Jude. In the first section of the four Gospels the disciples were with the Son. In the second section they began to be with the Spirit. The central person in the four Gospels was the Son, who was with the Father and by the Spirit. After the disciples had received the Holy Spirit intrinsically as their essence, they began to be with the Spirit as the Son with the Father.
John 14, 15, and 16 are the contents of the last message given by the Lord while He was on this earth. These three chapters are profound, mysterious, and divine. No Bible student can exhaust the understanding of these chapters. All the verses quoted from these chapters in the Scripture Reading are concerning the Spirit. Also, these three chapters are structured with the Divine Trinity — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.
In John 14 the Lord Jesus revealed to His disciples that He and the Father are one (vv. 8-11). He as the Son was present with them. They all saw Him, they all were with Him, and they all could touch Him. However, they wanted to know the Father. Philip said to the Lord, “Show us the Father and it is sufficient for us” (v. 8). Then the Lord unveiled to them that He and the Father are one. He is in the Father, and the Father is in Him. He and the Father lived together, worked together, and spoke together. When the Son spoke outwardly, the Father worked inwardly (v. 10). There is no way to divide the Son from the Father. When you see the Son, you see the Father (v. 9).
Following this, in 14:16 the Lord said, “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter, that He may be with you forever.” Another Comforter means that the Son was already there as the first Comforter. The Son was a Comforter, but the Son asked the Father to give the disciples another Comforter. This may sound like there are two Comforters. Actually, 14:16-20 shows that the other Comforter to be given was the reality of the Comforter who was asking the Father. The Comforter was there talking to the disciples and was there asking the Father to give them another Comforter. This other Comforter is the Spirit of reality. Verse 17 says, “Even the Spirit of reality, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him; but you know Him, because He abides with you and shall be in you.” This verse reveals a great advancement because the original Comforter was only abiding with the disciples but not in the disciples. By that time the Son was only able to be with the disciples, but He was unable to be in them. The other Comforter, however, would not only be with the disciples but would also be in the disciples.
In verse 18 the Lord continued, “I will not leave you as orphans; I am coming to you.” While the Lord was speaking, He was coming. His going was His coming. He had come to the disciples to be among them, but He could not be within them. He had come already to be with them, but He could not get into them, so He had to have a further coming to enter into them. Actually, the Lord’s going was really His coming into the disciples.
Verse 19 says, “Yet a little while and the world beholds Me no longer, but you behold Me; because I live, you also shall live.” This verse shows that when the Lord would come further into the disciples, He would live in them to make them live in Him. In this verse the Lord was telling the disciples that they would behold Him because He would live in them to make them live in Him. Only the believers would have this privilege, but the world would not have it. The Lord would come into the disciples and live in the disciples so that they might be in Him and live in Him. In verse 20 the Lord continued, “In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.” “That day” was the day of resurrection. On the day of resurrection the disciples would know that the Lord was in the Father, that they were in Him, and that He was in them. This is coinherence.
These verses also tell us that the Son of the Trinity was asking the Father of the Trinity to send the Spirit of the Trinity to be another Comforter so that He could enter into the disciples. The disciples could live in Him, and He could live within the disciples. Eventually, the disciples would realize that this other Comforter is just the original Comforter. They would also realize that they were in the Son, the Son was in the Father, and the Son with the Father was in them. These three parties are within one another, and they all coinhere one with the other.
John 14:26 says, “The Comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things and remind you of all the things which I have said to you.” In this verse it is hard to say what the phrase in My name modifies. Does the Father in the Son’s name send the Spirit, or does the Father send the Spirit in the Son’s name? Is the sending One in the Son’s name, or is the sent One in the Son’s name? This is ambiguous not only in English but also in the Greek text. In My name means “as the Son.” Did the Father as the Son send the Holy Spirit, or did the Father send the Holy Spirit as the Son? Which denotation should we take? If the Father in the Son’s name sent the Spirit, this means that the sending Father and the Son are one. If the Father sent the Spirit in the Son’s name, this means that the Spirit and the Son are one.
The Father sending the Spirit in the Son’s name must be the first denotation. This means that the Spirit and the Son are one. Because the Spirit and the Son are one, the Spirit can be sent by the Father as the Son. This interpretation indicates strongly that the Spirit is the Son. The Father sending the Spirit in the Son’s name means that the Father sent the Spirit as the Son. This verse could also mean that when the Father was sending the Holy Spirit, He was doing the sending as the Son. In other words, the Father, in the Son’s name, sent the Spirit. This indicates that the Son and the Father are one, and this is the second denotation. This sentence is full of ambiguity. Despite this ambiguity, both interpretations are correct. This verse first denotes that the Father sent the Spirit as the Son. Second, it denotes that the Father as the Son sent the Spirit.
The Father sending the Spirit as the Son indicates that the Son is the Spirit. The Father as the Son sending the Spirit indicates that the Son is the Father. Therefore, the ambiguity of this verse denotes that the Son is both the Father and the Spirit. At least two verses in the Bible confirm this interpretation. Isaiah 9:6 says, “A child is born to us, / A Son is given to us; / And the government / Is upon His shoulder; / And His name will be called / Wonderful Counselor, / Mighty God, / Eternal Father, / Prince of Peace.” This verse shows that the Son given to us is called Eternal Father. Isaiah 9:6 shows that the Son is the Father. Also, 2 Corinthians 3:17 says, “The Lord is the Spirit.” This verse denotes that the Son is the Spirit. The ambiguity of John 14:26 shows that the Son is both the Father as the Sender and the Spirit as the sent One. Hallelujah! The Son is both the Sender and the sent One (Zech. 2:8-11), the Father and the Spirit.
John 14:26 shows that the Son is both the Sender, the Father, and the sent One, the Spirit. When the Lord Jesus spoke this word, He uttered it in such a way to indicate that He was the Sender, the Father, and that He was also the sent One, the Spirit. The Son is all-inclusive. He is the Son as the Father and as the Spirit. He is the Father as the Son, and He is the Spirit as the Son. The asking One is the Son, the Sender is the Son, and the sent One is also the Son. The Asker, the Sender, and the sent One are all one. This is wonderful! This One is the Son as the Father and as the Spirit. We all need to go back over these two portions of the Word: John 14:16-20 and verse 26. We need to eat these verses (Jer. 15:16) and make them our spiritual food (1 Cor. 10:3).
John 14:26 says, “The Comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things and remind you of all the things which I have said to you.” In this verse the Father is the Sender of the Spirit. John 15:26 says, “When the Comforter comes, whom I will send to you from with the Father, the Spirit of reality, who proceeds from with the Father, He will testify concerning Me” (lit.). In this verse the Son sends the Spirit “from with” the Father. The Greek word that we have translated “from with” is para, which means “by the side of.” The sense here is from with. In 14:26 the Sender is the Father, but in 15:26 the Sender is the Son. Also, in 14:16 the Son was the Asker, and in 15:26 the Son is the Sender. These verses indicate that the Father and the Son are one. When the Father was the Sender, that was the Son’s sending. When the Son was the Sender, that was the Father’s sending.
In 15:26 the Son would send the Spirit from with the Father. This means that the Son would send the Spirit and the Father also. Therefore, the sent One was not only the Spirit but also the Father, because the sent One would come from with the Father. The Son sent the Spirit not only from the Father but also with the Father. Also, in both 14:26 and 15:26 the Spirit as the Comforter was to be sent. In 14:26 the Spirit would be sent in the name of the Son, which means that the Spirit would be sent as the Son. In 15:26 the Spirit would come with the Father as the sent One. The main point in these verses is this: the Spirit would be sent as the Son, and the Spirit would come with the Father. This is why the second section of the chart in chapter 1 on God’s New Testament economy shows the Spirit as the Son with the Father. When the Spirit comes, He comes as the Son with the Father. These two verses show that the Sender is both the Father and the Son, and the sent One is the Spirit as the Son with the Father. The Father and the Son are both the Sender and the sent One. The Spirit is only the sent One as the Son with the Father; thus, He is the consummation of the Divine Trinity. When He comes, the Triune God comes. When the Triune God comes, He comes first as the Spirit, then as the Son, then with the Father. Thus, the Spirit comes to us as the Son with the Father, and this is the Triune God reaching us. When the Triune God reaches us, He reaches us as the Spirit. He comes as the Spirit, and this Spirit is as the Son with the Father.
In the first section of God’s New Testament economy, we saw the Son with the Father by the Spirit, who was the embodiment of the Triune God. This embodiment of the Triune God was in one person, Jesus Christ. In the second section of God’s New Testament economy, we see the Spirit. The Spirit is as the Son with the Father to be the consummation of the Triune God in the church. The embodiment of the Triune God was in Jesus Christ. The consummation of the Triune God is now in the church. This indicates that now the Triune God not only reaches us; He is also in us, in the church. The One who is in the church is the wonderful Spirit as the Son with the Father to be the consummation of the Triune God. The Father is in the Son (14:10) who is the Spirit in us (2 Cor. 3:17; John 14:17; 2 Tim. 4:22). After the Son’s resurrection He became the Spirit as the Son with the Father to be the consummation of the processed Triune God to live in the church in the divine oneness.
When this Spirit comes to us as the Son, He comes with all that the Son has accomplished, attained, and obtained. The first item of the Son’s accomplishments is His incarnation. Then the Son accomplished human living. Many Christians neglect this item, but we all must realize that for God to live on this earth for thirty-three and a half years was a great thing. The very Creator of the universe, which includes the heavens, the earth, and billions of items, lived on this earth as a man among men, even in a poor family. This is marvelous that God the Creator would live as a man on this earth for thirty-three and a half years. He experienced the human life, the human sufferings, all the human sorrows, all the human problems and troubles, and all the trials and temptations. He experienced all these things, and He passed through all these things. Such a human living was accomplished by Jesus. He also accomplished an all-inclusive death, an excellent and marvelous resurrection, and an exalting ascension. Thus, the accomplishments of Christ include His incarnation, human living, death, resurrection, and ascension. These are all included in and attached to the person of Christ.
The attainments of Christ include His ascension “far above all the heavens” (Eph. 4:10). The visible clouds may be considered the first heaven, and the sky, the second heaven. The third heaven must be the heaven above the heavens (2 Cor. 12:2), the highest heaven (Deut. 10:14; Psa. 148:4), where the Lord Jesus and God are today (Eph. 4:10; Heb. 4:14; 1:3). His ascension to the third heaven means that He attained to the highest place in the universe. He ascended on high, and nothing is higher than Him (Eph. 1:21). This is spacewise; according to space, He is the highest. Christ also attained to the height of all the virtues. He attained to the height of all morality. His attainments include Him being a mingling of the divine attributes with the human virtues, issuing in a life in the highest standard of morality. Ephesians 1:21 also tells us that His attainments include His being “far above all rule and authority and power and lordship and every name that is named.” His attainments also include His being crowned with glory and honor in ascension (Heb. 2:9). Glory is the splendor related to Jesus’ person; honor is the preciousness related to Jesus’ worth, value, and dignity, which is related to His position (2 Pet. 1:17; cf. 1 Pet. 2:17; Rom. 13:7). In 1 Peter 2:7 the Greek word for preciousness is the same as that for honor in Hebrews 2:9.
In addition to His attainments Christ obtained the kingship, the lordship, and the headship, including all authority. This embodiment of the Triune God is not only a wonderful person but a wonderful person with the highest accomplishments, attainments, and obtainments. We must remember that when the Spirit comes into us as the Son, this includes all the Son’s accomplishments, attainments, and obtainments.
The Spirit comes into us not only as the Son but also with the Father, including the Father’s plan, the Father’s choosing (Eph. 1:4), the Father’s predestination (v. 5), and the Father’s glory (John 17:22). The divine title of the Father, especially in the New Testament, comprises His plan, His selection, His predestination, and His glory. The Spirit comes into us as the Son with the Father, which includes all that the Son has accomplished, attained, and obtained and all the Father’s plan, selection, predestination, and glory.
This is why we say that the Spirit we have received is the all-inclusive Spirit. According to the type in Exodus 30, this Spirit is a compound Spirit (vv. 22-25). The compound ointment in Exodus 30 was composed of various spices compounded together with olive oil. This compound ointment is a picture, a type, of the all-inclusive compound Spirit as the consummation of the Triune God. We must praise the Lord that this Spirit is in the church, in you and in me!
In John 16:7-11 the Lord Jesus told the disciples, “I tell you the truth, It is expedient for you that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Comforter will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you. And when He comes, He will convict the world concerning sin and concerning righteousness and concerning judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe into Me; and concerning righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you no longer behold Me; and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.” These verses tell us that when the Comforter, the Spirit of reality, comes, He will convict the fallen sinners of three things: of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. These three things are related to three persons: sin is related to Adam, righteousness is related to Christ, and judgment is related to Satan. We fallen human beings were all born of sin in Adam. In Adam we were sinful, but, praise the Lord, we can be in Christ. The only way to be freed from sin is to believe in Christ, the Son of God (v. 9). In Adam we inherit sin, but in Christ we inherit righteousness. If we believe in the resurrected Christ, He is righteousness to us, and we are justified in Him (Rom. 3:24; 4:25). If we do not repent of the sin in Adam and believe in the resurrected Christ, the Son of God, we will remain in sin and share the judgment of Satan for eternity (Matt. 25:41). When the Spirit comes, He convicts the unbelievers with these three things. The sinners who are born in Adam must believe in the resurrected Christ so that they may have Him as their righteousness. If they do not believe, they will be judged by God as Satan is. When the gospel is preached in a proper way, those who hear will have the desire not to remain in Adam but to be transferred into Christ. These people will be regenerated and saved. To them, the convicting Spirit will become the regenerating Spirit (John 3:6), the Spirit of life (Rom. 8:2), the Spirit of reality, dwelling within them (John 14:17).
In John 16:13-15 the Lord said, “When He, the Spirit of reality, comes, He will guide you into all the reality; for He will not speak from Himself, but what He hears He will speak; and He will declare to you the things that are coming. He will glorify Me, for He will receive of Mine and will declare it to you. All that the Father has is Mine; for this reason I have said that He receives of Mine and will declare it to you.” By reading the context of these verses, we can see that the reality refers to what the Father has, what the Son has, and what the Spirit receives of the Son and of what the Father has. What the Father has is a reality, what the Son has is a reality, and what the Spirit receives is also a reality.
These verses show that what the Father has becomes the Son’s, what the Son has is received by the Spirit, and what the Spirit receives is disclosed to us. The Father, the Son, the Spirit, and we, the believers, are all involved in this process. The Father has many riches. He is the source, the origin. All that the Father has becomes the Son’s. The Son has the unsearchable riches (Eph. 3:8). Whatever the Father has is the Son’s, and all that the Son has is received by the Spirit. Since what the Spirit receives is disclosed, or transmitted, into us, we become the very destination. The Father is embodied in the Son, the Son is transfigured as the Spirit, and the Spirit is the reaching of the Divine Trinity to us. All the riches of the Triune God reach us in the Spirit. So we are the destination of the Triune God. All that the Triune God is and has has been disclosed, conveyed, transmitted, into us. Because we are organically united to the Spirit, that is, organically united to the processed Triune God, whatever He is and has is now our portion as our inheritance.
We must apply these verses to our experience. Do we have all that the Father has, all that the Son has, and all that the Spirit has received? Has the Spirit disclosed all that the Father has and all that the Son has to us in our experience? Actually, we have received everything that the Triune God is and has, but we have been too veiled to see and experience what we have received. Not only do we not know this fact in our experience, but we also do not know it in the Word. For years I never realized that all that the Father has is the Son’s, all that the Son has was received by the Spirit, and the Spirit discloses to us what He receives.
These verses unveil to us the transmission of the Divine Trinity — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit — into the believers. In these verses the Lord said, “All that the Father has is Mine.” The Father as the source, as the origin, has a lot of riches. All that the Father has becomes the Son’s. The Son not only has what the Father has, but also He has all the riches in His incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. All that He has is in addition to what the Father has. All these riches contained in the Son are received by the Spirit, and the Spirit discloses them to us. This disclosing is a transmission of all the riches of what the processed Triune God is and has into our being. This means that whatever the processed Triune God is and has is to be our element, our essence, our being, making the processed Triune God the very essence of our being. Thus, we all become God-men.
In John 7:37-39 we are told clearly that such a Spirit of life, which is the living water, “was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified” (v. 39). In other words, before Jesus’ death and resurrection, such a compound Spirit, the life-giving Spirit, the all-inclusive Spirit as the consummation of the Triune God, was not yet. The Spirit of God was there already, as was the Spirit of Jehovah, but the Spirit who gives life, the compound Spirit, the all-inclusive Spirit, was not yet until Jesus was crucified and glorified in resurrection (Luke 24:26). After His resurrection He came back to the disciples as the Spirit because through His death and resurrection He finished the entire process to make the Spirit complete. After His death and resurrection the Spirit was completely compounded to be the life-giving Spirit.
John 20:19-22 shows that on the evening of the day of resurrection Jesus came to His disciples as such a Spirit: “When therefore it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and while the doors were shut where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst and said to them, Peace be to you. And when He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. The disciples therefore rejoiced at seeing the Lord. Then Jesus said to them again, Peace be to you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you. And when He had said this, He breathed into them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit.” When the Lord came back to the disciples on the evening of the day of resurrection, He still had a body, because He showed the disciples His hands and His side. The doors were shut to the room where the disciples were, yet Jesus came and stood in their midst. The Bible does not tell us how He got into the room. Our human mentality just cannot understand such a thing. His body was spiritual, yet it still could be touched. This was the resurrected Jesus with a spiritual, resurrected body (1 Cor. 15:44).
The Lord Jesus then breathed into the disciples, and He asked the disciples to receive that breath. He called that breath the Holy Spirit. In Greek, the Holy Spirit also means “the Holy Breath.” The Holy Spirit is the breath of the Son. We cannot say that the breath is one person and the breather is another person. These verses show clearly that the Spirit is not another person but the very breath of the Son. We should not consider that the breather is a person and the breath is another person. Actually, the breath is one person with the breather. The resurrected Christ as the life-giving Spirit is the breath. This indicates that Christ the Son coming back in resurrection is the Spirit. This is why some of the early students of the Bible called such a Christ “the pneumatic Christ.” The Christ in John 20 is the very pneumatic Christ in resurrection. After He had accomplished all His processes, He became the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45), and this life-giving Spirit is the pneumatic Christ.
Most Christian teachers teach that the Spirit did not come until the day of Pentecost. Actually, the Spirit came on the day of resurrection (John 20:1, 19, 22). He first came as life in a secret way, signified by the breath of the resurrected Christ. The resurrected pneumatic Christ came back to His disciples secretly in the night, in a place not open to others, and breathed Himself into His disciples. When we breathe, nobody sees what we breathe. Breathing is something secret. What we breathe cannot be seen, but it is so real. Also, the very breath breathed into our intrinsic being is very, very vital. If you do not eat for ten days, you may still live. Also, you may not drink for two days, and you may still live. But try not breathing just for five minutes. If you stop breathing, even for five minutes, you will die. This shows how crucial breathing is, and this breathing did not happen on the day of Pentecost, openly, with a big loud voice. This breathing happened silently, secretly, on the evening of the day of Christ’s resurrection.
We must realize that this breathing is more crucial, more vital, than the mighty wind on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:2). Many Christians have only seen the mighty wind blowing on the day of Pentecost. They have never seen the silent, soft, secret breathing on the day of resurrection. Dear saints, consider these two things. Which is more vital, the breath or the mighty wind? If a person is dying and you put him under the mighty wind, this mighty wind will not help him. But if you give a dying person oxygen to breathe in, this is life-saving. In like manner, the silent, soft, secret breathing on the day of resurrection was life-saving. Actually, it was more than life-saving; it was life-imparting and life-supplying. All those natural disciples, through that breathing on the day of resurrection, received the Spirit of the divine, uncreated life of God. All of them were enlivened, quickened, and filled with the Spirit. They became persons not living by themselves but by the Spirit, persons one with the Triune God intrinsically in their essence.
I believe we all have seen that the period of time from the Lord’s conception to His sending of the Spirit was a complete process of what He went through while He was here on this earth. His conception brought God into man, making divinity one with humanity. This was the beginning of His incarnation. His birth carried out this wonderful incarnation that made God one with man, that brought divinity into humanity, and that even mingled God as one with man. He was a God-man who lived on this earth for thirty-three and a half years as a man living God as His life. He was fully qualified to die a death that accomplished God’s full plan. After this death He entered into resurrection, and through His resurrection, man was brought into God.
His incarnation brought God into man, and His resurrection brought man into God. Through this two-way traffic, the mingling of God and man was fully accomplished. Through the incarnation God became flesh. Through the resurrection this God-man became a life-giving Spirit. In His resurrection He came back to His disciples as the Spirit. He was now the pneumatic Christ. He is still the God-man, but His humanity had been resurrected and designated into the sonship of God (Rom. 1:3-4). Such a One, the pneumatic Christ as the Spirit, came back to His disciples and breathed Himself as the Spirit into them. From that day onward He became truly one with His disciples. He became the very intrinsic being of His disciples essentially. This resurrected Christ, this pneumatic Christ, this Christ as the Spirit, entered into His believers to be their very essence and to be their life essentially on the day of His resurrection.
