And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost:
On the evening of the first day after His resurrection Jesus stood among His fearful disciples behind shut doors, gave them peace, showed them His hands and side, and breathed on them to receive the Holy Spirit. His breath imparted true spiritual life, the life of Christ Himself dwelling in the soul to form His purity, faith and obedience in the witness. This was an initial endowment, a few drops before the fuller outpouring after His ascension at Pentecost, yet it was needed to prepare them for their entrusted work. By it He qualified and sent them as the Father had sent Him, to continue His work of preaching, healing and witnessing to His resurrection, and with it He joined authority concerning the remitting and retaining of sins. He still waits to breathe in the same way upon all contrite, believing disciples today, transfusing His own vital influence into them so that it is no more they that live but Christ living through their faculties.
Setting and Circumstances
The breathing belongs to the evening of the first day of the week after the resurrection, when the disciples were assembled behind shut doors for fear of the Jews in grief and fear. He stood in the midst of them and gave them peace, then showed them His hands and His side so that they were glad when they saw the Lord. He repeated peace and commissioned them as the Father had sent Him, and then breathed on them to give the Holy Ghost with authority to remit and retain sins.
It took place in the upper chamber at Jerusalem, the same upper chamber where He had met with the disciples for the last supper. He revealed Himself to them there twice during Passover week. He told them to remain in Jerusalem for a time before going to Galilee.
The gift was given during the forty days He remained on earth after the resurrection to further instruct the disciples and make them know His future office and work as a High Priest who can be touched with the feeling of their infirmities. He had already told His disciples He would be crucified and rise on the third day. Thomas's later refusal to believe their report shows the danger of rejecting that testimony and demanding personal sight. Doubt of that kind could still persist among people in the church and hinder their usefulness.
Meaning of His Breathing
His breath was the breath of true spiritual life, the very life of Christ imparted to qualify the disciples for their mission. To receive the Spirit in this breathing is to receive Christ's life into the soul. That receiving forms the receiver with His attributes, so that purity and faith and obedience mark the witness.
The breathing imparted the spiritual life and endowment without which none could witness for Him. Christian profession without this gift is lifeless. No evangelist is prepared to teach the truth, and no teacher is ready to represent Christ, until imbued with this spiritual life.
The breath of the Lord of life gives spiritual life and inspiration to every Christian worker, breathed into the soul and into the inner life. Through this action the Spirit of Christ is received into the inner life, making men His living witnesses and equipping them for service and success. He thereby uplifts and strengthens them, imbuing them with the divine nature so they can overcome corrupting influence. He knows how they are beset by temptation and how to meet them in every circumstance, and His victory shows what humanity can do by receiving the privileges of the divine nature.
Being thus breathed upon gives spiritual life with Christ abiding in the soul and a life-giving current circulating through him. That current sustains him by the life-giving power of the leaves of the tree of life. It nourishes him as sap from the parent vine nourishes the branches. Without this breathing, however great his apparent wisdom and capabilities and talents and endowments and intelligence, he will lead others in false paths and is not to be trusted as a safe guide for God's people.
The breath of divine life is needed to renew believers, to cure unbelief, and to give their service freshness and power. The Spirit thus breathed into the soul pleads for the conversion of sinners with inexpressible groanings. That indwelling pleading greatly increases the call that invites them to come to Jesus. Those in whose hearts the Spirit is present become channels of light and grace to the world.
Initial Gift Before Pentecost
The breathing was an initial, limited endowment, like a few drops before the fuller and abundant outpouring at Pentecost. It was not the full manifestation of the Spirit, which came only after the ascension. This first gift imparted peace and prepared the disciples for their entrusted work as witnesses to the resurrection and as teachers and repeaters of His words, precepts, teachings, and example. Their close association and companionship with Christ had fitted them to present His spotless character as the standard for human life, and continued communion with Him through study of His life and prayer would make His ministers more like Him, better able to lead others to Him and to teach His truth with fuller understanding as they carried out the work. Without the Spirit's quickening power they could not truly witness for Christ or teach as His representatives.
It was given for the special purpose of preparing them for their official duties and sacred trust in the church and of impressing upon them that they could not carry out their work without the Spirit. His breath was the breath of true spiritual life in the soul, the life of Christ, and receiving the Spirit is receiving Christ's life and being formed and imbued with His attributes, so that purity, faith, and obedience mark the witness. Only those thus taught inwardly by God and showing Christ's life are fit to represent Him and minister for the church, and this impartation enabled them to serve the church and exalt God's law, which expresses His character. Yet the greater outpouring after the ascension was still needed to fulfill their commission to preach the gospel to the world.
The disciples received the gift in its fullness only after the ascension, when before He left them He had told them to receive the Holy Spirit and they had surrendered themselves to His work through faith and prayer. The gifts of heaven were already theirs in Christ, but their actual possession depended on receiving the Spirit. That breathing is linked to a fuller outpouring of the Spirit, which strengthens earnest prayer and empowers those who work for God to present the truth, plead for sinners, and win souls to Christ.
Commission and Witness
The breathing gives the Holy Spirit to fit the disciples for the mission at the moment He sends them to carry on His own work as the Father sent Him. No follower is to presume to enter God's work, but to go only when the Spirit is evidently upon him, working only under the Spirit's supervision and teaching, and by that teaching the commission is sealed. The sending is the same kind of sending as that of the twelve and afterward the seventy, to preach the gospel with power in His name to heal the sick and cast out devils and free people from evil. That work is to be carried forward as one united effort, with ministry of the word united with medical missionary work, with no feature carried on independently or allowed to become all-absorbing.
The gift was for the special purpose of preparing them for their official duties and sacred trust in the church, impressing upon them that they could not carry out that work without the Spirit. Only those taught inwardly by God and formed with Christ's life are fit to represent Him and to minister for the church. The Spirit so given qualified them to bear witness to Jesus' resurrection, to repeat His teaching, words, precepts, and example, and to present His spotless character as the standard for human life. Their close association and companionship with Christ had fitted them for this witness, and continued communion with Him through study of His life and prayer would make His ministers more like Him and better able to lead others to Him and to teach His truth, with fuller understanding as they carried out the work.
Imbued with the Spirit they went out to witness for the truth, for they could not bear their message with power until they received the Spirit. By that breathing they received the Spirit of Christ into their inner lives and became His living witnesses, and receiving the Spirit in the heart still equips workers for service and makes their work successful. This impartation enabled them to serve the church and to exalt God's law, which expresses His character. It equips church representatives to serve with Christ's character, with spiritual discernment, and with care for church order.
Oneness With Christ
In breathing on them He gave Himself not only for His disciples but to them, breathing upon them the inspiration of His sanctifying Spirit and transfusing His own vital influence into His people. That gift means Christ Himself lives in His human agents and works through their faculties and capabilities, living through their faculties, speaking through their words, choosing His will and conforming them to His character. He is now represented throughout the world by His Holy Spirit in every part of His great moral vineyard.
Those who receive the Spirit must have their will submitted to His will and act with His Spirit. They are to cherish His principles, be controlled by His Spirit, and speak from sanctified hearts and lips rather than follow their own ways or live selfishly. Henceforth their lives cannot be divided and they cannot serve two masters; it is no more they that live but Christ that lives in them. In giving the Holy Spirit He gives His people the glory the Father gave Him, that He and His people may be one in God, with their way and will in submission to God's holy, just, and good will.
Through the Spirit He imparted His own sanctification and power to win souls to the gospel. The Spirit works in believers by bringing conviction of sin, making them receptive to truth and able to apply it personally, preserving them from temptation, and giving them wisdom to win others to Christ, so that through unity, good works, and love for one another they can represent Him to the world. He gives the inspiration of His Holy Spirit to all who are of a contrite spirit. Those who walk with humble repentance and firm purpose, trusting in Jesus, receive His Spirit, which is necessary for leading others to Him and for resisting retaliation prompted by Satan.
Authority Over Sin
On the evening of the first day of the week the risen Jesus came to the disciples assembled behind shut doors for fear of the Jews, stood in the midst, gave them peace, and showed them His hands and His side so that they were glad when they saw the Lord. He repeated peace, commissioned them as the Father had sent Him to continue His mission, and then breathed on them to give the Holy Ghost with words about sins remitted and retained. That gift is His legacy of peace to His church and comfort in a trying hour, placing the disciples under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. It gives all who accept Christ by living faith power to become sons of God as His students, who need not be troubled or anxious because He will ratify His word and fulfill all His promises, while the later scene in which some worship and some doubt shows that doubt can still persist among people in the church and hinder their usefulness.
Christ thus commissions Spirit-inspired representatives to serve the churches, and those who receive the Spirit and display Christ's character are to carry out the gospel commission in keeping with God's Word. This includes declaring that God forgives and cleanses those who confess their sins.
The inward work of the Spirit and the breath of Christ equip church representatives to serve with Christ's character, spiritual discernment, and care for church order. The authority to remit or restrain sins does not mean that people can remove guilt, since forgiveness belongs to God alone. It concerns the church's organized responsibility to address wrongdoing, give God's message, and apply censure, removing it when the person confesses and repents. The Spirit convicts people of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment, and the church's decisions must accord with God's word and receive Christ's approval.
Present Gift and Application
Jesus is still waiting to breathe upon all His disciples in the same way He breathed upon the first disciples to give the inspiration of His sanctifying Spirit and transfuse His own vital influence into His people. The same gift continues today, for Christ is present by His Holy Spirit in every part of His work and gives the inspiration of His Holy Spirit to all who are of a contrite spirit. In giving the Holy Spirit He gives His people the glory the Father gave Him, that He and His people may be one in God, with their way and will in submission to God's holy, just, and good will, so that it is no more they that live but Christ living in them as their will is submitted to His will and they act with His Spirit.
The verse calls for more dependence on the power and efficiency of the Holy Spirit and far less dependence on human agencies and human authority. Trust is not to be placed in the judgment of men who have no vital connection with Christ and are not directed by His Spirit, for those living divided from Christ without vital connection cannot be so inspired. Workers in distant localities are to receive wisdom and understanding directly from Him rather than waiting for human direction, while those who have an abiding Christ with meekness and lowliness are inspired with the wisdom of Christ in counsel through the transfusion of His Holy Spirit, with Christ living through the faculties of the consecrated human agent, choosing His will and conforming to His character.
God likewise breathes on sincere, contrite, penitent, believing disciples, while the self-sufficient do not receive the Spirit's inspiration. God wants people ready to receive the Holy Spirit, pictured as Christ breathing upon them, and to have Christ abiding in their hearts. They are to lay aside controversy, strife, dissension, and murmuring, seeking more of Christ and none of self. Spiritual power is poured out on those prepared to receive it through confession, repentance, and humility before God, and the breath of divine life renews believers, cures unbelief, and gives their service freshness and power so that the Holy Spirit's presence in their hearts enables them to serve as channels of light and grace to the world.
The same image of Christ's breath describes the Holy Spirit coming upon people gathered in prayer, bringing a sense of God's presence. When they petition for the Spirit to work, He breathes His Spirit upon them. In the scene of Jesus as the great High Priest before the Father in the holiest place, those who have followed Him there pray for the Father to give them His Spirit, and Jesus breathes the Holy Ghost upon them, bringing light, power, love, joy, and peace. Satan's counterfeit influence may bring light and power, but it lacks love, joy, and peace and is meant to deceive.
The quickening influence of the Holy Spirit opened their understanding so they could see to the end of that which was abolished. They understood that in Christ's death on the cross type had met antitype, saw Christ as the one great offering for the sin of the world, and understood more clearly the meaning of the sacrificial offerings which, having met their fulfillment in Christ, were no longer of value. The gift is Christ's legacy of peace to His church and comfort in a trying hour that they would be under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. It gives all who accept Christ by living faith power to become sons of God as His students, who need not be troubled or anxious because He will ratify His word and fulfill all His promises.
On the evening of the first day after His resurrection Jesus stood among His fearful disciples behind shut doors, gave them peace, showed them His hands and side, and breathed on them to receive the Holy Spirit. His breath imparted true spiritual life, the life of Christ Himself dwelling in the soul to form His purity, faith and obedience in the witness. This was an initial endowment, a few drops before the fuller outpouring after His ascension at Pentecost, yet it was needed to prepare them for their entrusted work. By it He qualified and sent them as the Father had sent Him, to continue His work of preaching, healing and witnessing to His resurrection, and with it He joined authority concerning the remitting and retaining of sins. He still waits to breathe in the same way upon all contrite, believing disciples today, transfusing His own vital influence into them so that it is no more they that live but Christ living through their faculties.
Setting and Circumstances
The breathing belongs to the evening of the first day of the week after the resurrection, when the disciples were assembled behind shut doors for fear of the Jews in grief and fear. He stood in the midst of them and gave them peace, then showed them His hands and His side so that they were glad when they saw the Lord. He repeated peace and commissioned them as the Father had sent Him, and then breathed on them to give the Holy Ghost with authority to remit and retain sins.
It took place in the upper chamber at Jerusalem, the same upper chamber where He had met with the disciples for the last supper. He revealed Himself to them there twice during Passover week. He told them to remain in Jerusalem for a time before going to Galilee.
The gift was given during the forty days He remained on earth after the resurrection to further instruct the disciples and make them know His future office and work as a High Priest who can be touched with the feeling of their infirmities. He had already told His disciples He would be crucified and rise on the third day. Thomas's later refusal to believe their report shows the danger of rejecting that testimony and demanding personal sight. Doubt of that kind could still persist among people in the church and hinder their usefulness.
Meaning of His Breathing
His breath was the breath of true spiritual life, the very life of Christ imparted to qualify the disciples for their mission. To receive the Spirit in this breathing is to receive Christ's life into the soul. That receiving forms the receiver with His attributes, so that purity and faith and obedience mark the witness.
The breathing imparted the spiritual life and endowment without which none could witness for Him. Christian profession without this gift is lifeless. No evangelist is prepared to teach the truth, and no teacher is ready to represent Christ, until imbued with this spiritual life.
The breath of the Lord of life gives spiritual life and inspiration to every Christian worker, breathed into the soul and into the inner life. Through this action the Spirit of Christ is received into the inner life, making men His living witnesses and equipping them for service and success. He thereby uplifts and strengthens them, imbuing them with the divine nature so they can overcome corrupting influence. He knows how they are beset by temptation and how to meet them in every circumstance, and His victory shows what humanity can do by receiving the privileges of the divine nature.
Being thus breathed upon gives spiritual life with Christ abiding in the soul and a life-giving current circulating through him. That current sustains him by the life-giving power of the leaves of the tree of life. It nourishes him as sap from the parent vine nourishes the branches. Without this breathing, however great his apparent wisdom and capabilities and talents and endowments and intelligence, he will lead others in false paths and is not to be trusted as a safe guide for God's people.
The breath of divine life is needed to renew believers, to cure unbelief, and to give their service freshness and power. The Spirit thus breathed into the soul pleads for the conversion of sinners with inexpressible groanings. That indwelling pleading greatly increases the call that invites them to come to Jesus. Those in whose hearts the Spirit is present become channels of light and grace to the world.
Initial Gift Before Pentecost
The breathing was an initial, limited endowment, like a few drops before the fuller and abundant outpouring at Pentecost. It was not the full manifestation of the Spirit, which came only after the ascension. This first gift imparted peace and prepared the disciples for their entrusted work as witnesses to the resurrection and as teachers and repeaters of His words, precepts, teachings, and example. Their close association and companionship with Christ had fitted them to present His spotless character as the standard for human life, and continued communion with Him through study of His life and prayer would make His ministers more like Him, better able to lead others to Him and to teach His truth with fuller understanding as they carried out the work. Without the Spirit's quickening power they could not truly witness for Christ or teach as His representatives.
It was given for the special purpose of preparing them for their official duties and sacred trust in the church and of impressing upon them that they could not carry out their work without the Spirit. His breath was the breath of true spiritual life in the soul, the life of Christ, and receiving the Spirit is receiving Christ's life and being formed and imbued with His attributes, so that purity, faith, and obedience mark the witness. Only those thus taught inwardly by God and showing Christ's life are fit to represent Him and minister for the church, and this impartation enabled them to serve the church and exalt God's law, which expresses His character. Yet the greater outpouring after the ascension was still needed to fulfill their commission to preach the gospel to the world.
The disciples received the gift in its fullness only after the ascension, when before He left them He had told them to receive the Holy Spirit and they had surrendered themselves to His work through faith and prayer. The gifts of heaven were already theirs in Christ, but their actual possession depended on receiving the Spirit. That breathing is linked to a fuller outpouring of the Spirit, which strengthens earnest prayer and empowers those who work for God to present the truth, plead for sinners, and win souls to Christ.
Commission and Witness
The breathing gives the Holy Spirit to fit the disciples for the mission at the moment He sends them to carry on His own work as the Father sent Him. No follower is to presume to enter God's work, but to go only when the Spirit is evidently upon him, working only under the Spirit's supervision and teaching, and by that teaching the commission is sealed. The sending is the same kind of sending as that of the twelve and afterward the seventy, to preach the gospel with power in His name to heal the sick and cast out devils and free people from evil. That work is to be carried forward as one united effort, with ministry of the word united with medical missionary work, with no feature carried on independently or allowed to become all-absorbing.
The gift was for the special purpose of preparing them for their official duties and sacred trust in the church, impressing upon them that they could not carry out that work without the Spirit. Only those taught inwardly by God and formed with Christ's life are fit to represent Him and to minister for the church. The Spirit so given qualified them to bear witness to Jesus' resurrection, to repeat His teaching, words, precepts, and example, and to present His spotless character as the standard for human life. Their close association and companionship with Christ had fitted them for this witness, and continued communion with Him through study of His life and prayer would make His ministers more like Him and better able to lead others to Him and to teach His truth, with fuller understanding as they carried out the work.
Imbued with the Spirit they went out to witness for the truth, for they could not bear their message with power until they received the Spirit. By that breathing they received the Spirit of Christ into their inner lives and became His living witnesses, and receiving the Spirit in the heart still equips workers for service and makes their work successful. This impartation enabled them to serve the church and to exalt God's law, which expresses His character. It equips church representatives to serve with Christ's character, with spiritual discernment, and with care for church order.
Oneness With Christ
In breathing on them He gave Himself not only for His disciples but to them, breathing upon them the inspiration of His sanctifying Spirit and transfusing His own vital influence into His people. That gift means Christ Himself lives in His human agents and works through their faculties and capabilities, living through their faculties, speaking through their words, choosing His will and conforming them to His character. He is now represented throughout the world by His Holy Spirit in every part of His great moral vineyard.
Those who receive the Spirit must have their will submitted to His will and act with His Spirit. They are to cherish His principles, be controlled by His Spirit, and speak from sanctified hearts and lips rather than follow their own ways or live selfishly. Henceforth their lives cannot be divided and they cannot serve two masters; it is no more they that live but Christ that lives in them. In giving the Holy Spirit He gives His people the glory the Father gave Him, that He and His people may be one in God, with their way and will in submission to God's holy, just, and good will.
Through the Spirit He imparted His own sanctification and power to win souls to the gospel. The Spirit works in believers by bringing conviction of sin, making them receptive to truth and able to apply it personally, preserving them from temptation, and giving them wisdom to win others to Christ, so that through unity, good works, and love for one another they can represent Him to the world. He gives the inspiration of His Holy Spirit to all who are of a contrite spirit. Those who walk with humble repentance and firm purpose, trusting in Jesus, receive His Spirit, which is necessary for leading others to Him and for resisting retaliation prompted by Satan.
Authority Over Sin
On the evening of the first day of the week the risen Jesus came to the disciples assembled behind shut doors for fear of the Jews, stood in the midst, gave them peace, and showed them His hands and His side so that they were glad when they saw the Lord. He repeated peace, commissioned them as the Father had sent Him to continue His mission, and then breathed on them to give the Holy Ghost with words about sins remitted and retained. That gift is His legacy of peace to His church and comfort in a trying hour, placing the disciples under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. It gives all who accept Christ by living faith power to become sons of God as His students, who need not be troubled or anxious because He will ratify His word and fulfill all His promises, while the later scene in which some worship and some doubt shows that doubt can still persist among people in the church and hinder their usefulness.
Christ thus commissions Spirit-inspired representatives to serve the churches, and those who receive the Spirit and display Christ's character are to carry out the gospel commission in keeping with God's Word. This includes declaring that God forgives and cleanses those who confess their sins.
The inward work of the Spirit and the breath of Christ equip church representatives to serve with Christ's character, spiritual discernment, and care for church order. The authority to remit or restrain sins does not mean that people can remove guilt, since forgiveness belongs to God alone. It concerns the church's organized responsibility to address wrongdoing, give God's message, and apply censure, removing it when the person confesses and repents. The Spirit convicts people of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment, and the church's decisions must accord with God's word and receive Christ's approval.
Present Gift and Application
Jesus is still waiting to breathe upon all His disciples in the same way He breathed upon the first disciples to give the inspiration of His sanctifying Spirit and transfuse His own vital influence into His people. The same gift continues today, for Christ is present by His Holy Spirit in every part of His work and gives the inspiration of His Holy Spirit to all who are of a contrite spirit. In giving the Holy Spirit He gives His people the glory the Father gave Him, that He and His people may be one in God, with their way and will in submission to God's holy, just, and good will, so that it is no more they that live but Christ living in them as their will is submitted to His will and they act with His Spirit.
The verse calls for more dependence on the power and efficiency of the Holy Spirit and far less dependence on human agencies and human authority. Trust is not to be placed in the judgment of men who have no vital connection with Christ and are not directed by His Spirit, for those living divided from Christ without vital connection cannot be so inspired. Workers in distant localities are to receive wisdom and understanding directly from Him rather than waiting for human direction, while those who have an abiding Christ with meekness and lowliness are inspired with the wisdom of Christ in counsel through the transfusion of His Holy Spirit, with Christ living through the faculties of the consecrated human agent, choosing His will and conforming to His character.
God likewise breathes on sincere, contrite, penitent, believing disciples, while the self-sufficient do not receive the Spirit's inspiration. God wants people ready to receive the Holy Spirit, pictured as Christ breathing upon them, and to have Christ abiding in their hearts. They are to lay aside controversy, strife, dissension, and murmuring, seeking more of Christ and none of self. Spiritual power is poured out on those prepared to receive it through confession, repentance, and humility before God, and the breath of divine life renews believers, cures unbelief, and gives their service freshness and power so that the Holy Spirit's presence in their hearts enables them to serve as channels of light and grace to the world.
The same image of Christ's breath describes the Holy Spirit coming upon people gathered in prayer, bringing a sense of God's presence. When they petition for the Spirit to work, He breathes His Spirit upon them. In the scene of Jesus as the great High Priest before the Father in the holiest place, those who have followed Him there pray for the Father to give them His Spirit, and Jesus breathes the Holy Ghost upon them, bringing light, power, love, joy, and peace. Satan's counterfeit influence may bring light and power, but it lacks love, joy, and peace and is meant to deceive.
The quickening influence of the Holy Spirit opened their understanding so they could see to the end of that which was abolished. They understood that in Christ's death on the cross type had met antitype, saw Christ as the one great offering for the sin of the world, and understood more clearly the meaning of the sacrificial offerings which, having met their fulfillment in Christ, were no longer of value. The gift is Christ's legacy of peace to His church and comfort in a trying hour that they would be under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. It gives all who accept Christ by living faith power to become sons of God as His students, who need not be troubled or anxious because He will ratify His word and fulfill all His promises.