In the Gospel of John, there are three wonderful words. In the first chapter, the first verse, we read, “In the beginning was the Word.” So we have the Word. Then in the same chapter there is another word, flesh. “And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us” (v. 14). Then at the end of the book, in chapter twenty, we have breath. Jesus, the resurrected One, breathed on the disciples and told them to receive the Holy Spirit (v. 22). “Spirit” in Greek means “breath.” So, here it can be rendered “breath.” He breathed upon the disciples and told them to receive the holy breath. So we have three words: the Word, the flesh, and the breath. The Word was God, the flesh is man, and the breath is the Spirit.
The Gospel of John is a wonderful book. In the beginning, in eternity, there was God who was the Word. But on the earth, in time, He became a man who was flesh. Then from chapter one to chapter twenty we see a man as the flesh who was the Lamb of God that took away the sin of the world (1:29). With Him there is incarnation, crucifixion (including redemption), resurrection, and ascension. Then eventually, He came back to the disciples to do simply one thing: to breathe on them and ask them to receive Him as the breath. This is the end of this book. In the beginning was the Word, and at the end is the breath. And in this breath everything is included.
Just consider again the whole Gospel of John. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was God, and the Word was made flesh to be the Lamb of God to take away the sin of the world. He accomplished redemption by crucifixion, and He was buried and resurrected. Did He become a great Lord to sit on the throne for man to bow down to worship Him? Is this in the Gospel of John? No! Jesus in the Gospel of John is not like this. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was made flesh, and eventually the flesh was resurrected to be the breath for us to breathe in.
Read the Gospel of John again. It is wonderful. In the beginning was the Word, the Word was made flesh, and the flesh was resurrected to become a breath. Then He came back to the disciples, not as a great giant asking everyone to bow down to worship Him, but in a very silent way. All of a sudden He was there, and nobody knew how He came in (20:19). He was just there. And He did not tell them to do this or to do that. He did something rather unusual. He breathed on them. He simply breathed on them and told them to receive the holy breath. That is all.
He did not tell the disciples, “I am the Son of God, and I have been resurrected; so you must do this to glorify Me, and you must do that to magnify Me.” He did not tell them to do anything. He just breathed on them and told them to receive the holy breath. That was good enough, because everything is included in that breath.
From that time He was never absent from them. He came, but He never left, because now He, as the holy breath, was within all the disciples. This is the Gospel of John. I am afraid most Christians know the beginning of John, but they are not clear about the ending of John.
The beginning of this book is something very high, very profound, and very great. “In the beginning was the Word and the Word...was God” (1:1). Everything that was made was made through Him, and in Him was life, and this life was the light of men (vv. 3-4). But at the end the disciples went fishing (21:3). And while they were fishing, this wonderful One also was there. Just compare the two ends of this book. The beginning is very high, but the ending seems very low.
But the secret, the mystery of Christ, is with these seemingly foolish ones. To them He was just like the breath. That is all. After all that He accomplished in this Gospel, He was just the breath. This is the third stage of Christ.
In the first stage He was God. In the second stage He was man as the Lamb of God to accomplish redemption. But in the third stage He is simply the breath. This is why it is rather hard for people to realize Him.
We all know Christ in the first and second stages, but we do not know Him properly and accurately in the third stage. You may say, “Well, I have heard that there is the Holy Spirit, and that Christ is in the Holy Spirit.” You have heard this, but we must know more adequately that Christ is not only in the Spirit, but Christ is the Spirit. “And the Lord is the Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:17). He is the Spirit, the breath, the air. He is the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45).
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