What does it mean in John 20:22 that Jesus breathed on the disciples and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit?"

There is a great difference between these two scriptures. It is clear from John 7:39, that the Holy Ghost was not bestowed upon believers, did not come to dwell in them in the sense of Acts 2, until after that Jesus was glorified. It is also seen from the words of the Lord Himself that He did not regard the action in John 20 as in any way anticipating the special blessing of Pentecost. (See Luke 24:49; Acts 1:4-5.) Distinctly understanding this will prepare us to consider the meaning of the Lord's words in John "Receive ye the Holy Ghost," etc. It is, in fact, the fulfilment of John 10:10: "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." Before the cross, during His earthly sojourn, His disciples, who really believed on Him, had life; but it was only from Him in resurrection that they could receive it "more abundantly." But the fact that they did so receive it involves the new place taken by the Lord as risen from among the dead. He was the Second Man in incarnation; but He did not take His place as such, and indeed was not in the condition of the Second Man, until after the resurrection. It is this fact which imparts to the scene in John 20 all its significance. Jesus had already revealed to the disciples, through Mary, that His Father was now their Father, and His God their God. He had thus associated them with Himself in His own relationships; and thenceforward He was the Head of a new race. When therefore He came into their midst, where they were assembled, after that He had spoken peace unto them, shown them His hands and His side, commanded them to go forth in the power of the peace He had bestowed, He communicated the life more abundantly to enable them to enter upon their new place and relationships: a life, the full issue of which would be conformity to His own condition in glory. It should also be remarked that the very form in which He communicated the Holy Ghost, as the power of life, explains its meaning. "He breathed on them;" and, turning back to Genesis, we read that "the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." (Gen. 2:7.) The first man was quickened by a divine communication of breath, was then "made a living soul;" "the last Adam," as a quickening Spirit, breathed of His own life in resurrection upon His disciples, and they lived in its power through the Holy Spirit. This contrast, moreover, involves undoubtedly the truth of the person of the Lord; but into this we do not here enter.

Such then is, we apprehend, the truth of this scene and action. What the disciples received in this way was the Holy Spirit as the power of life, corresponding with what we find in Romans 8:1-11; to receive the indwelling Spirit as power, as the anointing, as well as the earnest, the seal, and the Spirit of adoption, they had yet to wait until the day of Pentecost. And hence it was not until Pentecost that they were brought into the full Christian position.

There is a great difference between these two scriptures. It is clear from John 7:39, that the Holy Ghost was not bestowed upon believers, did not come to dwell in them in the sense of Acts 2, until after that Jesus was glorified. It is also seen from the words of the Lord Himself that He did not regard the action in John 20 as in any way anticipating the special blessing of Pentecost. (See Luke 24:49; Acts 1:4-5.) Distinctly understanding this will prepare us to consider the meaning of the Lord's words in John "Receive ye the Holy Ghost," etc. It is, in fact, the fulfilment of John 10:10: "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." Before the cross, during His earthly sojourn, His disciples, who really believed on Him, had life; but it was only from Him in resurrection that they could receive it "more abundantly." But the fact that they did so receive it involves the new place taken by the Lord as risen from among the dead. He was the Second Man in incarnation; but He did not take His place as such, and indeed was not in the condition of the Second Man, until after the resurrection. It is this fact which imparts to the scene in John 20 all its significance. Jesus had already revealed to the disciples, through Mary, that His Father was now their Father, and His God their God. He had thus associated them with Himself in His own relationships; and thenceforward He was the Head of a new race. When therefore He came into their midst, where they were assembled, after that He had spoken peace unto them, shown them His hands and His side, commanded them to go forth in the power of the peace He had bestowed, He communicated the life more abundantly to enable them to enter upon their new place and relationships: a life, the full issue of which would be conformity to His own condition in glory. It should also be remarked that the very form in which He communicated the Holy Ghost, as the power of life, explains its meaning. "He breathed on them;" and, turning back to Genesis, we read that "the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." (Gen. 2:7.) The first man was quickened by a divine communication of breath, was then "made a living soul;" "the last Adam," as a quickening Spirit, breathed of His own life in resurrection upon His disciples, and they lived in its power through the Holy Spirit. This contrast, moreover, involves undoubtedly the truth of the person of the Lord; but into this we do not here enter.

Such then is, we apprehend, the truth of this scene and action. What the disciples received in this way was the Holy Spirit as the power of life, corresponding with what we find in Romans 8:1-11; to receive the indwelling Spirit as power, as the anointing, as well as the earnest, the seal, and the Spirit of adoption, they had yet to wait until the day of Pentecost. And hence it was not until Pentecost that they were brought into the full Christian position.

The words of commission were followed by words of impartation, coupled with a peculiar action. He breathed on — or, more correctly, into — them, and said, "Receive ye Holy Ghost," for the definite article "the" is lacking in the original. We must observe the connection between this and what is recorded as to the creation of Adam in Genesis 2:7. As to his body, he was formed of the dust of the ground but the spiritual part of him came into being by the Lord God breathing into his nostrils the breath of life, and thus it was he became a living soul. Now our Lord, who is the last Adam, is a quickening or life-giving spirit, as we read in 1 Corinthians 15:45, and here we see Him breathing into His disciples His own risen life.

But this being so, why did He say, "Receive ye Holy Ghost"? Because His own life as the risen Man is in the energy of the Holy Ghost. He was, "put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit" (1 Peter 3:18). On the Day of Pentecost, as recorded in Acts 2, the disciples did indeed receive the Holy Ghost, as a Divine Person indwelling their very bodies, but here we have something preliminary to that. On the very day that Jesus entered upon His risen life as quickened in and by the Spirit of God, He imparted it to His own.

We behold the One that gave Himself for us, with adoring affections, and know that "He that sanctifies and they who are sanctified are all of one;" that all that He is, we are now, "as he is, so are we in this world." (1 John 4:17) For this epistle is but the moral continuation in us of that wonderful scene of John 20:17-23. In keeping with the position in which the Lord was thus manifested, we see Him breathe on the disciples, and say, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost." In figure this looks on to the gift of the Holy Ghost when Jesus should be glorified; till then, it was in present fact connected with life, as the power of it in its new condition, in Christ risen. He had come that they might have life; this breathing was that they might have it more abundantly (John 10:10), have it in the risen Christ, a condition in which it never existed before, with an accession of power never before connected with it. Hence it is not "receive ye life," nor "the Holy Spirit," but "Holy Spirit," as the breath of the life in power of the risen Lord.

The setting of the verses in relation to other truths in the passage is important. It is into the midst of the disciples, found together within closed doors for fear of the Jews, that the Lord Jesus came, that memorable first day of the week upon which He rose from the dead. He greets them with the peace He had made for them through the blood of the Cross, and shows them His pierced hands and His side. Then He sends them forth to carry that peace to others. Next he breathes on them and says, "Receive ye the Holy Spirit." This recalls to us the action of God with Adam in Eden, when He "breathed into his nostrils the breath of life." Now, He who had ever given life to whom He would, stands forth as the "last Adam" in all the triumph of His work accomplished for the glory of God, to bring them into the possession of life in a new way, in which it never had existed before; namely, in a risen Christ, past every question of sin, death, the judgment of God, and the power of Satan. He breathes on them — not giving them the Spirit — they had still to wait for Him as the promise of the Father till the Day of Pentecost, as we know. It was the Holy Spirit as the power of life (as Rom. 8:2). For we must distinguish the Spirit as the power of "life in Christ Jesus," from the Spirit indwelling; though now that He has come, both are made good in fact to the believer at the same moment, that is, when he receives the Spirit. This was the more abundant life of which the Lord spoke in John 10:10, "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly" — a life of peace and liberty and power then, and of conscious association with Christ in the position and relationships into which He has entered as Man risen from the dead.

"He breathed on them" His own resurrection life, communicated by the Holy Ghost. Although symbolising the gift of the Holy Ghost, He was not yet sent, for Jesus was not yet ascended on high, but He was communicated as the power of life by the risen Saviour. They live in the life of the risen Saviour. The divine life that had been communicated to them, by the action of the Holy Ghost, through the Word, as the new birth, now takes its full Christian character. The Holy Ghost is here viewed as life. It is as if the Lord had said, You have come to, and have Me, for your life. You are quickened with Me. You have life in association with Me. You are alive from the dead, in association with Me, in all that I am risen into, and are to possess it in the power of the Holy Ghost. It is the unfolding of the true character, and position of the Christian, who is a man in Christ, through the energy, and by the power of the Holy Ghost.

"And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and says to them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost." What is this! Clearly not yet the gift of the Spirit as a divine person to abide with them: for He said to the same disciples some days later, "Ye shall be baptised with the Holy Ghost not many days hence," "ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you"; and He told them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to "wait for the promise of the Father" (Acts 1). The Spirit came from heaven in fulfilment of this on the day of Pentecost; not before. To understand these words of the Lord in John 20 it is necessary to refer to Genesis 2:7. There we have the Lord God first forming the man's body of the dust of the ground, then breathing into his nostrils the breath of life. Here then, we have the Lord breathing His own risen life by the Holy Ghost into His disciples. They were converted men before, beyond all question; now they partake of the great blessing peculiar to Christianity, the risen life of the victorious Son of God. Let it be distinctly understood that all the saved from the very beginning of time have had divine life in their souls communicated to them by the Holy Spirit, but it could not be said of saints before the cross that they were partakers with a risen Christ. This is "life more abundantly," as the Lord speaks in John 10:10. The possession of this places us in Him beyond death and judgement. It is a life that Satan cannot touch, and that we cannot forfeit. It is heavenly in its character, and eternal in its nature. Heaven is its proper and suited sphere.

And when He had pronounced, "Peace be unto you," the second time, in connection with the mission, He breathed into them, and said, "Receive ye the Holy Spirit." It was not the Holy Ghost come down in person, as on the day of Pentecost, but the spirit as the power of life, life in resurrection breathed into them by Jesus, Head of the new creation, as He breathed into Adam the breath of natural life in the garden of Eden. This present breathing was power for their present new position.

Thus the disciples are fitted to go forth in the service of the Lord, as He can say, "As My Father has sent Me, even so send I you". They are to go forth to proclaim the grace of God to sinners, but they are sent forth from the assembly of the saints with the Lord in the midst. To carry out their mission, the Lord breathes on them, "and says to them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost". We know that actually the Holy Ghost did not come until Pentecost. Would this not rather be the new resurrection life lived in the power of the Holy Spirit? It would seem to be in contrast with the order in the first creation when God breathed into the nostrils of Adam the breath of life, and man became a living soul (Genesis 2:7). Now in resurrection, in view of the new creation order, the Lord breathes into the disciples a new life to be lived in the power of the Spirit — the life of which we read in Romans 8:2, "the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus".

We cannot but connect this with a title given to the Lord, though not in John, of "Last Adam" (1 Cor. 15:45): "The Last Adam is made a quickening Spirit." The contrast between the first and the Last, which we realize in His present action, is recognized and emphasized here. He is not Himself breathed into, as was the first man, but breathes into others. As the quickening Spirit, He communicates spiritual, divine life, such as we have seen to be the essential element in new birth. He is thus the Author of what is a new creation, higher in character than the old; and this is clearly what is symbolized in His present action.