Chapter 14 is the turning point of the Gospel of John. At the beginning of this chapter the Lord surprised the disciples by telling them that He was about to leave them. The disciples were greatly disappointed at the thought of losing the Lord. Then the Lord told them the truth, the fact, that His going would be not a loss to them but a gain. His going was not His leaving but His coming back; His going was His coming. About sixteen years ago, after we first came to Taiwan, all our children were very young. One day I brought home a big watermelon. Previously, in mainland China we did not have watermelons in the winter time, so a melon at that time seemed like something to treasure. When I placed the watermelon on the dining table, the children were very excited, but when I took it to the kitchen, some of the little ones began to weep. I told them, “Do not be sorrowful. For me to take away the melon is to bring it closer to you.” Then I brought the melon to the kitchen where I cut it into slices. When I brought it back, all the children were happy again. I said to them, “Do you see? Taking it to the kitchen was not to take it away; it was to bring it closer to you.” Without taking it away and cutting it into slices, it would have been too difficult to receive. We could have only appreciated and admired it. The watermelon needed to be cut in order to be transformed into something that we could receive. This is an illustration of the Lord’s word in John 14.
Verses 16 through 20 say, “And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter, that He may be with you forever, 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. I will not leave you as orphans; I am coming to you. Yet a little while and the world beholds Me no longer, but you behold Me; because I live, you also shall live. In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.” In verse 17 the Lord Jesus said that the Spirit of reality would be with the disciples, and then in verse 18 he said, “I am coming to you.” While He was speaking, He was already coming. His going was His coming. The day of His coming would be the day of resurrection (v. 20). It is as if the Lord were saying, “There is no need for you to worry. You should be happy. I am leaving, but I am coming. Moreover, My coming is to come into you. Now I am in the flesh; for that reason, I can only be among you. As long as I am in the flesh, I can never be in you. Therefore, I need to be transfigured from the flesh into the Spirit. I need to have a change in form. Through death and resurrection I will be transfigured, changed in form from the flesh into the Spirit.” It was in this way, by death and resurrection, that Christ became the life-giving Spirit.
After speaking to His disciples, He delivered Himself to the people to be put on the cross where He was crucified to accomplish redemption. The work of redemption was finished (19:30), and He was put into the grave to rest there. Then on the third day He was resurrected from the dead, and on the day of resurrection He came back to the disciples in a very mysterious way. On that evening the doors were shut in the house where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, but suddenly Christ was among them. Even though no one opened the door, He came into the room and told His disciples to touch His resurrected body. He came back in this mysterious way in order to do one thing, that is, to breathe Himself into the disciples. He breathed into the disciples and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” Spirit in Greek is pneuma, which also means “breath.” At that time He was the Holy Breath for His disciples to breathe. It was in this way that Christ came into the disciples. In the Gospel of John there is no record of Christ’s ascension to the heavens. From that time on He was continually in the disciples as the Spirit, the Holy Breath.
The four Gospels tell us that Christ was God as Spirit who became a man as flesh. He lived on this earth for thirty-three and a half years, and at the end of His earthly life He was put on the cross to accomplish redemption. After accomplishing redemption, He was resurrected, and in His resurrection He became the life-giving Spirit. This is not merely my word. It is the word of the Scriptures: “The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit” (1 Cor. 15:45b). Christ became flesh to accomplish redemption, and then He took another step to become the Spirit to impart life into us. We can confirm this by another verse. Second Corinthians 3:17 says, “The Lord is the Spirit.” The Lord here is the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Spirit is the One mentioned in verse 6, which says, “The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” The Lord Christ is the Spirit who gives life.