After receiving the believers as gifts and giving them to the church, Christ, in His heavenly ministry, sent forth the Holy Spirit, promised by the Father, upon the believers economically for His propagation to produce the church. In Luke 24:49 the Lord Jesus said, “Behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you; but you, stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.” The promise here is the promise of Joel 2:28 and 29, fulfilled on the day of Pentecost (Acts 1:4-5, 8; 2:1-4, 16-18), for the outpouring as the power from on high for the believers’ ministry economically. This is different from the Spirit of life, who was breathed into the believers (John 20:22) by the resurrected Christ on the day of His resurrection for His indwelling so that He might be life to them essentially.
In order to carry out the work of propagation for the producing of the church, Christ’s disciples needed to be equipped with the Spirit economically. Essentially, they had what they needed; economically, however, there was a lack. They were to wait in Jerusalem until the ascended Christ poured out upon them the promise of the Father, the promise of the economical Spirit. After His ascension and enthronement, Christ poured out the economical Spirit upon the believers, who had already become members of the Body of Christ essentially. What had been accomplished by Christ in His resurrection was something essential. But the sending forth of the Holy Spirit upon the believers, accomplished by the Lord in His heavenly ministry, was economical.
The Spirit in John 20:22 is the Spirit expected in John 7:39 and promised in John 14:16-17, 26; 15:26; 16:7-8, 13. Hence, the Lord’s breathing of the Holy Spirit into the disciples was the fulfillment of His promise of the Holy Spirit as the Comforter. This fulfillment differs from that in Acts 2:1-4. That was the fulfillment of the Father’s promise in Luke 24:49. In Acts the Spirit as “a rushing violent wind” came as power upon the disciples for their work. In John 20:22 the Spirit as the breath was breathed as life into the disciples for their life. By breathing the Spirit into the disciples, the resurrected Christ imparted Himself as life and everything to them essentially.
As for the Spirit of life, we need to breathe Him in as the breath. As for the Spirit of power, we need to put Him on as the uniform, typified by the mantle of Elijah (2 Kings 2:9, 13-15). The former as the water of life requires our drinking (John 7:37-39); the latter as the water for baptism requires our being immersed (Acts 1:5). These are the two aspects of the one Spirit for our experience (1 Cor. 12:13). The indwelling of the Spirit of life is essential for our life and living; the outpouring of the Spirit of power is economical for our ministry and work.
In receiving the Spirit essentially and economically the believers followed the pattern set up by the Lord Jesus. The Lord was born of the Holy Spirit essentially. This means that the Holy Spirit was the essence of His being. Then when He began His ministry at the age of thirty, the same Holy Spirit who was the essence of His being came upon Him economically. The same Spirit who was the element of Christ’s being essentially for His living came upon Him economically to empower Him, or anoint Him, for His work to carry out God’s economy.
The Lord’s believers followed the same pattern. In Christ’s resurrection we were born of the Holy Spirit as our spiritual essence. Then after Christ’s ascension the same Spirit was poured out upon us economically that we may work to carry out God’s economy. Now we have the Spirit within us essentially for our spiritual being and existence, and we also have the same Spirit upon us economically for our work and ministry. The sending forth of the Holy Spirit upon the believers economically was an important aspect of Christ’s work in His heavenly ministry.
In His heavenly ministry Christ is the Lord, exercising His sovereignty over all for the accomplishment of the divine economy (Acts 2:36). In Revelation, Christ, as the Lord in the heavens, is revealed as the Administrator in the divine government in the universe, carrying out God’s governmental activities over all things on this earth, with the view that all the situations on the earth may serve the purpose for the fulfilling of God’s plan and His promises that the divine economy might be accomplished.
In His heavenly ministry Christ, as God’s Anointed, is doing a work to carry out God’s commission to Him concerning the New Testament economy (Acts. 2:36). Christ in His ascension has not only been made the Lord of all, but also the Christ of God to work out the spreading of the gospel and the building up of the church that God’s chosen people may be saved and perfected for the constitution of the New Jerusalem to be God’s eternal habitation and manifestation, according to God’s New Testament economy, for God’s eternal satisfaction.
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