Thus far, we have seen that the Triune God became a man who lived on this earth for thirty-three and a half years. This God-man then died a wonderful, all-inclusive death on the cross to solve all the negative problems and to release the divine life. Then He overcame death by coming out of death in resurrection. In resurrection He was born as the Firstborn of God (Acts 13:33; Rom. 8:29), and at the same time He brought forth many sons of God who are His many brothers (1 Pet. 1:3; Rom. 8:29; Heb. 2:11-12). Also, through His resurrection a new child was born (John 16:20-22), and He became the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45) to apply Himself and all that He had accomplished, attained, and obtained to this new child. Therefore, on the day of His resurrection He came back to the disciples as the pneumatic Christ and breathed Himself into them as the Spirit of life.
This Holy Breath is all-inclusive. In this breath are all the elements of the person of Christ and all the elements of what He has accomplished, attained, and obtained. This breath is the compound, all-inclusive Spirit, which actually is the Lord Himself as the all-inclusive Christ breathed into His disciples. On the evening of the day of resurrection the Lord exhaled Himself as the breath, and the disciples inhaled Him as the breath. By this exhaling and inhaling, this wonderful One got into the disciples. He entered into them to be their life, to be the essence of their new being. Their receiving of this breath was altogether a matter of life essentially. They received Him as their life, as the very intrinsic essence of their being. This is a most marvelous, excellent, and wonderful fact. We must thank the Lord that in these last days He has taken away the veil to disclose to us all these things in such a detailed way.
This wonderful One, who is the Triune God mingled with humanity, became wrapped up with human living and entered into an all-inclusive death that dealt with sin and sins, that destroyed Satan and his satanic system, the world, and that annulled all the religious ordinances, terminated the old creation, and released His divine life. All these aspects of His death became elements of His compounded being. He has overcome Satan and death, and He has entered into resurrection. He became the Firstborn of God, and He produced many brothers to bring forth a new child. After all this, such a wonderful person became the all-inclusive, compound, life-giving Spirit to be breathed into His disciples as their very breath. This breath is not a small matter, but it is all-inclusive, life-giving, and indwelling. This breath, which is His indwelling presence, is life to us; it is our essential being. Now we are one with Him in the essential way of life. The believers in Christ are new beings, new persons, even divinely human persons.
Before the Lord’s ascension He spent forty days with the disciples (Acts 1:3). The number forty indicates a time of testing (Deut. 9:9, 18; 1 Kings 19:8; Heb. 3:9; Matt. 4:2). In these forty days before His ascension, He tested His disciples. He trained them to know their new being, to know that His essence had become their essence. He trained them to know that He had become them, that He had entered into them, and that He had brought them into Him. He also trained them to realize that He was in the Father, that they were in Him, and that He was in them (John 14:20). Ultimately, this kind of training was to help the disciples realize that they were mingled with the Triune God, that they were no longer merely human but divinely human, even “Jesusly human.” They were no longer separate from the Triune God, but they could now live a life in which they were one with the processed Triune God. They were no longer merely men but God-men, divine men, with the Triune God as their intrinsic essence to become their divine being.
The invisible presence of the processed Triune God was now within them. They had to be trained to practice this presence, to live and behave in this life, and to be persons in this life. The Lord was training them to be the divine persons on this earth. This is wonderful! The Lord created the entire universe in six days, but He spent forty days to train His disciples. The training of the disciples was a much bigger task than the creation of the universe. He appeared to two disciples on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35), He appeared to the disciples twice in a closed room (John 20:19, 26), and He also appeared to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias (21:1). His appearing and disappearing trained His disciples to know His invisible presence.
It was hard for the Lord Jesus to train the disciples to trust Him for their living. Due to the trial of the need of their living, Peter returned to his old occupation, backsliding from the Lord’s call (v. 3; Matt. 4:19-20; Luke 5:3-11), and Thomas, Nathanael, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples followed him to go fishing (John 21:2-3). Peter was tested, but he could not pass the test. They all went down to the sea to return to their old profession, but they did not realize that they brought the Lord Jesus there with them because the Lord Jesus was within them all the time. No matter where they were, where they went, or what they did, they could not be separated from Him, because He was mingled with them. Because they did not realize this, He needed forty days to train them.
At the Sea of Tiberias, the Lord did something miraculous. Peter and the sons of Zebedee (John and James) were professional fishers, the Sea of Tiberias was large and full of fish, and night was the right time for fishing, but through the entire night they caught nothing (v. 3). It must have been that the Lord bade all the fish to stay away from their net. Then in the morning (v. 4), which was not the right time for fishing, they caught an abundance of fish when they did it at the Lord’s word (v. 6). Surely this was a miracle! It must have been that the Lord bade the fish to come into their net. But without these fish, even on the land where the fish were not, the Lord prepared fish and even bread for them (v. 9). This was again a miracle! By this, the Lord trained them to realize that without His leading, though they went to the sea where the fish were and in the night, the right time for fishing, they could catch nothing; but with the Lord’s leading, even on the land where the fish were not, the Lord could provide fish for them. Though they caught many fish according to the Lord’s word, the Lord would not use those to feed them. This was a real lesson to Peter. For his living, he should believe and trust in the Lord who “calls the things not being as being” (Rom. 4:17). The disciples learned that the all-inclusive Lord was with them, was in them, and was taking care of them. They did not need to go fishing. They just needed to stay with the Lord to enjoy His indwelling, blessed presence.
From the day of His resurrection He appeared again and again to His disciples for forty days to train them how to realize His invisible presence. When He was with the disciples for three and a half years, the disciples experienced His visible presence, but that presence was terminated by His death. After His resurrection, by His coming back as the Spirit, another kind of presence began. This was His invisible presence, and this presence was intrinsic to His disciples. His visible presence in those three and a half years was altogether outward, not intrinsic. It was not life to them but merely a presence among them. After the resurrection, however, as the pneumatic Christ and as the life-giving Spirit, He came back to the disciples and entered into them. This entering in became an invisible presence, and this presence was life to the disciples. This presence was very inward and intrinsic, not outward, and it brought His element into the disciples’ being.
Through such an invisible presence, this invisible Christ became His disciples’ element and intrinsic essence. He was one with His disciples intrinsically and essentially, but the disciples were not used to such an invisible presence. They were used to visible things. Because of their weakness, He appeared to them and disappeared in order to train them to realize His invisible presence. He wanted them to know that even though they did not see Him or feel His presence, He was still there with them all the time (Matt. 28:20). His presence was always there inside their being; it even became their intrinsic essence and their thought. In Galatians 2:20 the apostle Paul says, “It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.” This is the invisible presence of the pneumatic Christ. The end of the four Gospels and the beginning of Acts show how the Lord Jesus spent forty days with the disciples in order to train them to get used to His invisible presence.
The Lord had been with the disciples for three and a half years before His death, and after His resurrection He was with them in a very mysterious way for forty days. He would appear to them suddenly without their realization (Luke 24:15-16; John 20:14; 21:4). When they realized that He was there, He disappeared from them (Luke 24:31). The disciples just could not trace whether He was absent or present. Eventually, however, they all were trained. Their doubts vanished, their fear was taken away, and they were fully calmed down and satisfied. They were trained to fully realize that this wonderful person was so real and that He was with them, even within them. Whether He appeared or disappeared, He was still living within them. He was there when He appeared, and He was there when He disappeared. They did not need to be troubled by His disappearing, and they did not need to be excited by His appearing. Whether He appeared or disappeared, He was still there caring for the disciples.
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