This Spirit is also the Spirit of Jesus, the Spirit of Christ, and the Spirit of Jesus Christ. The Spirit of Jesus mainly refers to the Spirit of the Lord as a man living on earth and passing through all the human sufferings for the accomplishment of our redemption (Acts 16:7). The Spirit of Christ mainly refers to the Spirit of the Lord resurrected as the divine Person with the uplifted humanity who dwells in our spirit as our life (Rom. 8:9). The Spirit of Jesus Christ indicates that the Spirit today is the all-inclusive Spirit of the Lord as God and as man, including His divinity, His humanity, His human living, His crucifixion, His resurrection, and His ascension with all His divine attributes, human virtues, and attainments in His achievements. Hence, this all-inclusive Spirit has “the bountiful supply” (Phil. 1:19). Regardless of what situation we are in and what need we may have, this all-inclusive Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus Christ, can render the proper supply to meet our need. While the apostle Paul wrote Philippians 1:19, he was suffering imprisonment. Under that kind of situation, he experienced the bountiful supply of the all-inclusive Spirit of the suffering Jesus and the resurrected Christ.
As we have seen, 1 Corinthians 15:45 says that the “last Adam” became the “life-giving Spirit.” His first form was the flesh (1:14), and His second form is the Spirit. Therefore, now the Lord is the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17). The Lord has taken two steps in order to become our experience. In the first step of incarnation, He took the form of the flesh with the blood for accomplishing redemption for us. In the second step of resurrection, He was transfigured into the form of the Spirit for imparting Himself into us as our life. Through all these, we have been redeemed and regenerated to partake of Him as our life and our everything.
Romans 8:2 says that the Spirit is the Spirit of life. The Spirit of life is the breath of life breathed into and abiding in the disciples (14:16-17). This is for the life in John’s line. For the power in Luke’s line, the Spirit is likened to a mighty wind (Acts 2:2-4) blowing upon the disciples. In John’s line, the Spirit is likened to the breath of life breathed into the disciples (20:22) and abiding in them as their life. This Spirit of life is nothing less than the resurrected Christ who is now the life-giving Spirit.
After breathing on His disciples, the Lord said to them, “Whosever sins you forgive, their sins have been forgiven them; and whosever sins you retain, they have been retained” (20:23). Here we see that the Lord gave His disciples the authority to represent Him in forgiving people, granting them the authority to bind and loose. This is the authority to forgive people or to keep them under condemnation. Although the disciples had this authority, it was not to be exercised in themselves, but in the Holy Spirit. When we are in the Holy Spirit and filled with the Holy Spirit, we have the authority to decide whether or not a person is forgiven by God. If we say that he has been forgiven, it must be so. But this authority can only be exercised when we are in the Holy Spirit and filled with the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, this authority must be in the fellowship of the Body and for the fellowship of the Body. It is in the fellowship of the Body that we have this authority to represent the Lord in forgiving people. This is also for the Body, that we, representing the Lord, may receive the God-forgiven people into the church, His Body.