In the light of the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, how do we understand the Lord’s action in John 20.22?
On the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2 the Holy Spirit descended upon and filled the assembled disciples. This was a fulfilment of the promise of the Lord Jesus to send the Spirit. Pentecost was an important and unique event, and will never be repeated. We may regard the Lord’s breathing upon the disciples and saying, "Receive ye the Holy Spirit" as both a prophetic and symbolical action anticipating what would happen on Pentecost, but it does not contradict it. The disciples did not receive the Spirit twice, and what happened in the upper room in John 20 was not a fulfilment of the promise of the Spirit. In the first place, what happened when the Lord breathed on, or rather into, them was not the disciples experiencing the indwelling of the Spirit. This could not be until later when Christ was glorified in heaven (Jn 7.39). The Holy Spirit’s coming was dependent on the Lord’s going to heaven. The Lord had risen in John 20, but had not yet ascended to heaven.
Second, it is worth noting that the article does not precede "Holy Spirit". It is not "the Holy Spirit", but "Holy Spirit". It is more the character of the Lord’s action, and hence it is expressed without the Greek article. It was not yet the Holy Spirit given personally, the baptism of the Spirit, as at Pentecost. It was rather His help and provision in communicating the energy of the blessing of the Lord’s own risen life, to keep them in the interim period (cp 1 Cor 15.22). It shows the Lord’s care for them. In its symbolical meaning, I have no doubt it would teach the disciples that in going forth to serve their Lord they needed the power of the Spirit. This reference, only found in John’s Gospel, is another evidence of the deity of the Lord Jesus. It links us back with Genesis 2.7 where we read that God breathed into the first man’s nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul. God intended that man should not only have natural life, but spiritual life. The breathing of John 20.22 was a divine action.
John J Stubbs
Do you think that the centurion who glorified God and said, "Truly this man was the Son of God" (Mk 15.39), was saved and is in paradise today?
It should be noted that the reference to the centurion glorifying God appears in Luke’s account: "Now when the centurion saw what was done, he glorified God [an expression that occurs nine times in this gospel written by the beloved physician], saying, Certainly this was a righteous man" (Lk 23.47). To glorify God means to bring into display all the qualities and attributes that exalt Him. However, in Mark’s Gospel we read that it was when "the centurion, which stood over against him, saw that he so cried out, and gave up the ghost, he said, Truly this man was the Son of God" (Mk 15.39).
According to the record given by Matthew, there were four immediate effects of Christ’s death:
We are told that the centurion and they that were with him "feared greatly" when they "saw the earthquake and those things that were done," saying, "Truly this was the Son of God". Whilst there is no definite article in the Greek before "Son of God", the present writer is given to understand that the word order in the original makes it definite.
Whether this was a confession that led to salvation is not clear from the passage. It does, however, indicate a sense of awe and a realisation that the disturbances of nature were somehow connected with the death of this man named Jesus.
If this centurion were saved on the basis of the confession, we would have to include "those that were with him" and yet we are told that subsequently "one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his (Christ’s) side" (Jn 19.34); this was certainly not the action one who was saved and bound for paradise.
David E West
