Through resurrection Christ became the life-giving Spirit; then He breathed Himself into those who believed in Him to make them His members. On the night of His resurrection He came to the disciples and breathed Himself, the resurrected Christ, the pneumatic Christ, as breath into them (John 20:22). This breath was the holy breath, the Holy Spirit, the life-giving Spirit, whom Christ had become in resurrection (1 Cor. 15:45b). He breathed Himself into the disciples to be the reality of their spiritual life for their spiritual existence and living. Such a Christ, who passed through death, entered into resurrection, and became the Spirit, is the ultimate consummation of the Triune God. Because He breathed Himself into the disciples, He is with them forever.
Through resurrection Christ became the life-giving Spirit. Moreover, His resurrection was His glorification. Through His resurrection, His divinity was released from the shell of His humanity, which concealed His glory, enabling Him to enter into the divine glory with His humanity (Luke 24:26; 1 Cor. 15:43); that is, He was glorified by God in resurrection (Acts 3:13, 15a).
This resurrected and glorified Christ appeared to the disciples for forty days. Afterwards, on Mount Olivet, outside of Jerusalem, He ascended into heaven in a cloud before the eyes of the disciples (Acts 1:9-11). In His ascension, through the surpassingly great power of God (Eph. 1:19), Christ ascended above all the heavens (Eph. 4:10) and sat down on the right hand of God, the Majesty on high (Psa. 110:1a; Heb. 1:3b). He was exalted by God to the throne of God’s dominion (Rev. 3:21) to rule over and administrate the universe for God and was crowned with glory and honor (Heb. 2:9). Furthermore, God made Him both Lord and Christ (Acts 2:33-36) that He might possess all and that He might carry out God’s commission and accomplish God’s plan. God also made Him a Leader and Savior (Acts 5:31) to give repentance and forgiveness of sins to man and to exercise His sovereign rule over the world, that the environment might be fit for God’s chosen people to receive Him as their Savior and enjoy His salvation. Thus, according to the eternal redemption which He accomplished, He is able to save those who repent and turn to God and who believe into Him, that they may enjoy His salvation.
Christ, who was resurrected to become the life-giving Spirit and was glorified, after His exaltation in ascension, poured Himself out as the consummated Spirit of the Triune God, baptizing all His believers, who became His members, into one Body in the Spirit (1 Cor. 12:13). First, on the day of Pentecost, He baptized the Jewish believers into Himself as the consummated Spirit (Acts 2:4); then, in the house of Cornelius, He baptized the Gentile believers also into Himself as the consummated Spirit (Acts 10:44-45). Thus, by these two steps He baptized all the believers in Christ once for all into Himself as the consummated Spirit and into His one Body as His fullness, enlargement, and continuation to express Him. This outpouring is economical, not essential; it is for power and administration, not for life and existence. Therefore, the ascended Christ as the consummated Spirit poured Himself out upon the believers to clothe them as their outward power and authority that they might testify of Him and spread forth the gospel to carry out God’s New Testament economy and accomplish God’s eternal plan.
The above seven items include mainly the Person and work of Christ, that is, what this living person, the God-man, is, what He does, and all that He has attained and obtained, all of which constitute the gospel. Therefore, this gospel is the gospel of the forgiveness of sins (Luke 24:47) because it brings forgiveness of sins to those who believe in Him. It is the gospel of grace (Acts 20:24) because it brings the Triune God as grace to man. It is the gospel of life (2 Tim. 1:10; 1 Cor. 4:15) because it manifests life and incorruption and regenerates man, imparting the divine life into man. And it is the gospel of the kingdom of the heavens (Matt. 4:23; 24:14) because it brings in the reality of the kingdom of the heavens. The early apostles and disciples preached to sinners this mysterious One as the multifaceted gospel, calling those who were chosen by God to believe into Him, to be saved, and to be regenerated.