Scripture Reading: John 8:12, 24, 28, 58; 1:1, 14, 29; 11:25; 14:6; 18:4-6; 20:22
Ⅰ
The Gospel of John reveals that Jesus is the great I Am—8:24, 28, 58:
A
I Am is the name of Jehovah—Exo. 3:14:
１
Jehovah means “I am who I am,” indicating that Jehovah is the self-existing and ever-existing One—the One who was in the past, who is in the present, and who will be in the future—Rev. 1:4.
２
Jehovah is the only One who is and who depends on nothing apart from Himself; He exists eternally, having neither beginning nor ending.
３
Apart from God, all else is nothing; He is the only One who is, the only One who has the reality of being (Isa. 40:12-13), and God requires that we believe that He is (Heb. 11:6).
B
Jesus is Jehovah—Exo. 3:14; John 18:4-6:
１
The Jehovah of the Old Testament is the Jesus in the New Testament—Matt. 1:23.
２
The name Jesus means “Jehovah the Savior,” or “the salvation of Jehovah”; hence, Jesus is not only a man but also Jehovah—v. 21.
３
The Lord Jesus is the I Am—the eternal, self-existing God, the One who is everything to us—John 8:24, 28, 58.
４
As the great I Am, the Lord Jesus is Jehovah, the eternal, ever-existing God who has a relationship with man; anyone who does not believe that Jesus is I Am will die in his sins—vv. 24, 28, 58.
５
As the I Am, the Lord Jesus Christ is the all-inclusive One, the reality of every positive thing and of whatever His people need—v. 12; 6:35; 10:14; 11:25; 14:6; Hymns, #78, stanza 1.
Ⅱ
Jesus as the great I Am is the all-inclusive Christ:
A
The all-inclusive Christ is the Word (John 1:1), God (v. 1), the true light (v. 9), the tabernacle (v. 14), grace (v. 17), reality (vv. 14, 17; 8:32, 36; 14:6), the only begotten Son (1:18), the Lamb of God (vv. 29, 36), the Son of Man (v. 51), the ladder (v. 51), the temple (2:20), the bronze serpent (3:14), the Bridegroom (v. 29), the heavenly well and the living water (4:14), the Christ (v. 25), the Savior (v. 42), the bread of life (6:48), Jesus glorified (7:39), the light of life (8:12), life (10:10), resurrection (11:25), a grain of wheat (12:24), the way (14:6), another Comforter (vv. 16-18), the true vine (15:1), the tree of life (v. 1; 11:25), the Spirit-giver (3:34), the door (10:7), the pasture (v. 9), the Shepherd (v. 11), the One who washes (13:4-5), the riven rock (Exo. 17:6; John 7:37-39), and the breath of life (20:22).
B
“O Lord, Thou art the great 'I AM,' / Who all our need doth furnish; / Enjoying Thee as all in all, / God's purpose we accomplish” (Hymns, #187, stanza 26).
Ⅲ
The consummated Spirit was breathed as the holy breath into the disciples by Christ in resurrection—John 7:39; 20:22:
A
Before the Lord Jesus was crucified and resurrected, the consummated Spirit was “not yet”—7:39:
１
The Spirit of God was there from the beginning (Gen. 1:2), but the Spirit as “the Spirit of Christ” (Rom. 8:9), “the Spirit of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1:19), was “not yet” at the time of John 7:39, because He was not yet glorified.
２
The Lord Jesus was glorified when He was resurrected, and through this glorification the Spirit of God became the Spirit of the incarnated, crucified, and resurrected Jesus Christ—Luke 24:26; Phil. 1:19.
３
The last Adam, who was Christ in the flesh, became the life-giving Spirit in resurrection; since then, the Spirit of Jesus Christ has both divine and human elements, including the reality of the incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection of Christ—1 Cor. 15:45b; Acts 16:7; Rom. 8:9.
B
The Gospel of John reveals that Christ became flesh to be the Lamb of God and that in resurrection He became the life-giving Spirit; thus, in His resurrection He breathed Himself as the consummated Spirit into the disciples—1:29; 20:22:
１
Through death and resurrection Christ was transfigured into the Spirit— 7:39; 20:22.
２
It is as the Spirit that He was breathed into His disciples, that He can live in the disciples and they can live by Him and with Him, and that He can abide in them and they can abide in Him—v. 22; 14:19-20; 15:4-5.
３
The Christ who breathed Himself into the disciples is the life-giving Spirit; by breathing the Spirit into the disciples, the Lord Jesus imparted Himself into them as life and everything—1 Cor. 15:45b.
４
The Holy Spirit in John 20:22 is actually the resurrected Christ Himself, because this Spirit is His breath; therefore, the Spirit is the breath of the Son.
C
The Lord is the Spirit who gives life, and this Spirit is our breath—2 Cor. 3:6, 17; John 20:22:
１
The Word, who was God, became flesh to be the Lamb of God, and in resur- rection He became the holy breath for us to breathe in—1:29; 20:22.
２
Christ is the Lamb-tree, for He is the Lamb for accomplishing redemption and the tree for imparting life; ultimately, the Lamb-tree is the holy breath—1:29; 11:25; 15:1; 20:22.
３
Now we have Christ as the Word, the Lamb, the tree, and the breath: the Word is for expression, the Lamb is for redemption, the tree is for the im- partation of life, and the breath is for our living—1:1, 29; 10:10b; 14:19.
４
The consummated Spirit as the breath is everything to us in living the Christian life; only the breath can be a Christian, and only the breath can be an overcomer—Gal. 3:2-3, 14; Phil. 1:19; Rev. 2:7.