John 20.22
And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.
Many that adhere to the Classical Pentecostal Tradition use this verse as one of various means in justifying their position on the baptism with the Holy Spirit (Which I used to believe in myself). For those of you that are unfamiliar with the baptism with the Holy Spirit, it is best explained by those who adhere to it. From the Assemblies of God doctrinal statement we learn this:
It is a special work of the Spirit beyond salvation…Though many non-Pentecostals teach a baptism in the Holy Spirit without speaking in tongues, the position of the Assemblies of God is clearly declared in Section 8 of its Statement of Fundamental Truths: “The baptism of believers in the Holy Spirit is witnessed by the initial sign of speaking with other tongues as the Spirit of God gives them utterance (Acts 2:4).” The evidence always occurred (and still does today) at the time believers were baptized in the Spirit, not at some indeterminate future time.
What does John 20.22 have to do with the baptism with the Holy Spirit?
To answer this question let’s consider the words of Ralph Riggs, from his now Classic Pentecostal book The Spirit Himself, who said of this passage:
We can now understand more clearly what happened to the disciples on the night of the resurrection when Jesus said, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost.” This Spirit of the resurrected, glorified Christ was now available for human hearts, and Jesus hastened to impart this life to His disciples. The Spirit of God’s Son, the Spirit of Christ, as the Spirit of conversion, came into their hearts on that occasion. He had died and become a glorified being in order that He might come into the lives of all believers…John 20.22 was the first step of the Spirit’s incoming. The final fulfillment of John 14.17 came on the day of Pentecost (pgs. 44-45)
From this passage can we reasonably deduce such a meaning? Can we say agree with Ralph Riggs that the disciples were converted at this moment?
Based upon the larger context of this passage I do not believe that we can. What I believe we can conclude is that this episode served as a foretaste of what was to come at Pentecost. For Jesus Christ had not yet been exalted which was the moment the Holy Spirit was to be mediated in a new way.
The Larger Context of the Gospel of John
In John 7.37-39 we observe that Jesus Christ is the mediator of the Spirit. As the mediator of the Spirit, the Spirit was not to be given through Christ until He was glorified. This is clearly enunciated in the 39th verse of this chapter, which reads:
Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified (Italics mine).
Not only do we see this here, we also observe that the Spirit was not to be poured out until the completion of Jesus’ work in John 16.7. We read here,
Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you (Italics mine).
What was implied by Jesus at this point by “going away” is the same as Him being glorified. It was not until this point in time that the Helper (i.e. the Spirit, cf. 14.16-17; 14.26) would come (Stanley Grenz, Theology for the Community of God, pg. 366)
The Larger Context of the Bible: The Book of Acts
Even though Ralph Riggs says that Jesus had already been glorified, I do not believe we can make such a conclusion. What we discover in the Book of Acts is that the Spirit was not poured out until the day of Pentecost (Acts 2.1-4) which occurred after Jesus’ ascension into Heaven (Acts 1.9-11).
We see this no clearer than in Acts 2.32-33, which reads:
This Jesus God raised up, and of that we are witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.
It is clear that Peter referenced the events of Pentecost as the pouring out of the Spirit that Jesus had promised upon His exaltation. Consequently, since Christ had not been exalted, the Holy Spirit had not bee given, which means that Jesus could not have breathed new life into the disciples as suggested by Mr. Riggs.
If this is the case, how then are we to understand this passage?
In the End…
We must understand the event in John 20.22 as a foretaste – a prolepsis – of what was to occur on Pentecost in fullness later.
In explaining this event as a foretaste, Stanley Grenz said,
In order to clarify the close link between the Spirit and Jesus, John reminded his readers of a proleptic event that occurred prior to Pentecost: Jesus breathed on them thereby symbolizing the future outpouring of the Spirit that he would soon effect as the exalted Lord (Ibid., pg. 369).
Besides, it is difficult to deduce from this passage two different impartations of the Spirit which would assume two different ascensions since the pouring out of the Spirit is directly tied into the glorification of Jesus Christ (cf. John 20.17).
What is more, there is no evidence indicating that the disciples entered into their service as Christians since they had not yet been endued with power by the Holy Spirit who was not yet given (Acts 1.8) (G.E. Ladd, A Theology of the New Testament, pg. 325). This is why we can comfortably conclude that John 20.22 does not indicate an initial indwelling of the Holy Spirit, or the first of two steps towards the baptism with the Holy Spirit within the Classical Pentecostal Tradition.
What we can conclude is that this incident was a foretaste of what was to come in fullness later.
Lesson Learned from John 20.22? Simple: Text without Context is Pretext.
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