The Holy Spirit in verse 22 is the Spirit expected in 7:39 and promised in 14:16-17, 26; 15:26; and 16:7-8, 13. Thus, the Lord’s breathing of the Holy Spirit into the disciples was the fulfillment of His promise of the Holy Spirit as the Comforter. As we shall see, this fulfillment differs from the one in Acts 2:1-4. In chapter fourteen the Lord promised that He would ask the Father to send another Comforter. Here in chapter twenty He brings to His disciples the other Comforter, the Spirit of reality. Now the Spirit of reality has come into His disciples to be within them; now the disciples know that the Lord is in the Father and that the Father is in the Lord; and now they are in the Lord and the Lord is in them. They realize that they are now one with the Triune God. Therefore, all that the Lord had spoken to them in chapters fourteen, fifteen, and sixteen is fulfilled at this very moment. We must read those three chapters in order to understand what is happening here. The fulfillment here is just that the Lord went by death and resurrection and now comes to the disciples as the Spirit, coming as the second Comforter to be their reality that they might be one with the Triune God. At this time the disciples were happy and glad. The Lord had told them they would not see Him for a little while (16:16). Now, after a little while, the disciples saw the Lord again, fulfilling what He had spoken in chapters fourteen through sixteen.
The fulfillment in 20:22 is different from that in Acts 2:1-4. Most Christians, however, think that the promise made in John 14, 15, and 16 was fulfilled in Acts 2 on the day of Pentecost, thinking that the Comforter came on the day of Pentecost. The fulfillment in Acts 2:1-4 was the fulfillment of the promise of the Father given in Joel 2:28-32 and referred to by the Lord in Luke 24:49, which says, “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 Lord reminded the disciples of the Father’s promise after His resurrection, close to the time of His public ascension. Everybody agrees that this promise of the Father of being “clothed with power from on high” was fulfilled in Acts 2. The promise in John 14, 15, and 16, however, is not the Father’s promise of power but the Son’s promise of the Comforter. This promise of the Comforter was fulfilled on the day of the Lord’s resurrection. Before He reminded the disciples of the Father’s promise, the promise of the Comforter made in John had already been fulfilled. After His resurrection, close to the time of His public ascension, the Lord reminded the disciples to wait for the Father’s promise of power.
The fulfillment on the day of resurrection was the promise of the Holy Spirit as the life and the truth, the reality. The fulfillment on the day of Pentecost was the promise of the Holy Spirit as power. These are two aspects of the Holy Spirit. On the day of resurrection, the disciples got the Spirit of life as the reality of Christ, and fifty days later, on the day of Pentecost, they received the Spirit of power. Pentecost simply means fifty days. On the first eighth day (this signifies resurrection), the Holy Spirit was received as the life and reality of Christ; on the eighth eighth day (this signifies resurrection in resurrection), that is, on the first day of the eighth week, the Holy Spirit was received as the power and equipment for their work.
The Gospel of Luke and the Acts were both written by Luke. Luke’s line is the line of power for work, and John’s line is the line of life for life. If we read the Bible carefully, we shall see that the Spirit is firstly the Spirit of life and secondly the Spirit of power. In Luke’s line, the Spirit of power is likened to clothes which we put on. In John’s line, the Spirit is likened to water which we take in by drinking. Clothes are something outward to cover us, and drink is something inward to fill us. According to Luke’s line, when the Spirit comes, it comes upon us (Acts 1:8). In John’s line, on the contrary, the Spirit comes into us, for the Spirit of reality abides in us (14:17). Thus, John’s line is for life in us, and Luke’s line is for power upon us. Furthermore, if we read Acts 4 carefully, we shall see why power is likened to a cloak, a uniform. A policeman’s uniform gives him authority. Likewise, the Holy Spirit came upon Peter and the other disciples as power to be their uniform. But on the day of resurrection, the Spirit was breathed into them. This was not for outward clothing but for inward filling. In Luke’s line the Spirit of power is also likened to “a rushing violent wind” (Acts 2:2). The wind is for power. In John’s line, the Spirit of life is likened to breath. Breath is not for power; it is for life. 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 Lord imparted Himself as life and everything into them. Thus, all that He had spoken in chapters fourteen through sixteen was fulfilled.
As the falling into the ground to die and the growing out of the ground transforms the grain of wheat into another new and lively form, so the death and resurrection of the Lord transfigured Him from the flesh into the Spirit. As “the last Adam” in the flesh, through the process of death and resurrection, He “became a life-giving Spirit” (1 Cor. 15:45). As He is the embodiment of the Father, so the Spirit is the realization, the reality, of Him. It is as the Spirit that He was breathed into the disciples. It is as the Spirit that He was received into His believers and flowed out of them as “rivers of living water” (7:38-39). It is as the Spirit that through His death and resurrection He came back to the disciples, entered into them as their Comforter, and began to abide in them (14:16-17). It is as the Spirit that He can live in the disciples and they can live by and with Him (14:19). It is as the Spirit that He can abide in the disciples and they can abide in Him (14:20; 15:4-5). It is as the Spirit that He can come with the Father to His lover and “make an abode with him” (14:23). It is as the Spirit that He can make all that He is and has to be fully realized by the disciples (16:13-16). It is as the Spirit that He came to meet with His “brothers” as “the church” to declare the Father’s name to them and to praise Him in their midst (Heb. 2:11-12). It is as the Spirit that He can send His disciples with His commission, with Himself as life and everything to them, in the same way that the Father sent Him (20:21). Hence, the disciples are qualified to represent Him with His authority in the fellowship of His Body (20:23).