On the evening of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead He appeared to all but Thomas of His remaining apostles (recall that Judas had hung himself). At that meeting fifty days before the Holy Spirit was poured out upon them in power at Pentecost, He breathed into them His Breath of eternal life. They had conceived of that life that first began to be sown by John the Baptist. But now, having passed through the travail of the past days (Joh 16:20-22), that conception of life had come forth as the first of a new creation, so that as God had breathed into the nostrils of the first man Adam to become a living soul, so did Jesus now breathe into these His breath of eternal, resurrection life. As all men have their breath of physical life through Adam, so they might now receive the breath of eternal life through these firstborn of the Firstborn from the dead.
According to the “doctrine of baptisms” (Heb 6:2 KJV), just as the baptism of John marked the conception of the new life of Jesus’ followers (cf. Act 1:22), so does the first turning of our heart in repentance toward God represent our own conception of Christ’s life. And just as this in-breathing of Christ’s Spirit to His apostles on the night of His resurrection marked the first breath of these firstborn of His Spirit, so does our baptism into the death and resurrection of Jesus mark our own new birth to breathe the spiritual airs of His life. But, as in the physical realm, this new birth is not the end-all of our salvation; it is only the beginning. As the birth of a baby anticipates the blessing the child will be to the world when it grows up, so does our baptism with water into Christ also foreshadow the baptism with the Holy Spirit in power for works of service. For as that new life within matures, it begins to bubble up like a river of living water from our innermost being (lit. womb, Joh 7:38) so that those who are born again into this new creation may in their spiritual adulthood be sent out even as Jesus was for the life of the world; Joh 6:33,51. Then, as we take up our cross to follow in the footsteps of Jesus and our own grain of wheat falls into the earth to die, through that final baptism of participation in Christ’s blood we bring forth much fruit, a hundred, sixty, or thirty-fold what was sown, so as to also become partakers of His glory. It is in this way that God’s kingdom in heaven came down to earth and even today continues to spread to its farthest, and often darkest corners.
Of all the things Jesus might have said and John might have remembered as the hallmark of the new creation and the new life His followers would now have through His resurrection life—peace, joy, love, lives transformed unto holiness, eternal life, the hope of glory—what has Scripture recorded for us that was a primary consequence of the new birth that would figure prominently in carrying forth the gospel message as He sent them forth, just as the Father sent Him, to establish His kingdom on earth as it is in heaven? See Joh 20:23; cf. Luk 4:18 (both the NAS release and set free translate the Greek word translated every other time as forgiveness), Luk 5:20, 7:48, Act 2:38, 5:31, 10:43, 13:38-39, 26:18. While salvation is much more than the forgiveness of sins, what does this remind us about the central importance of the forgiveness of sins to our salvation and the proclamation of the gospel? Cf. Psa 32:1. Luk 1:77, Eph 1:7, Col 1:14, 2:13. Why is that? Think: Of all the things hanging over our heads for our transgressions that militate against a life of peace and joy and love that culminates in eternal life, is any so great as the divine approbation of our Creator and Judge who sees all and knows all? As important as a father’s approval is to the well-being of his children, how much more important is that of our heavenly Father? Can such approval happen so long as we are at odds with Him? What is the one thing that must happen before there can be reconciliation, at-one-ment, with our heavenly Father? See Luk 24:47 and think: can God’s approval ever extend to those in rebellion against Him? Does that mean that a person must be perfect and without sin before God approves of him? Or like a human father who sees the imperfect steps of his toddler, does God see our heart that turns to Him regardless of how stained and imperfect we may actually be, and counts it as righteousness because of our heart attitude? Cf. Rom 4:1-8. Does that reckoning of righteousness then necessarily extend indefinitely, even if one’s heart attitude returns to rebellion or as one continues through life that initial faith is stillborn and never bears fruit? Cf. Jam 2:20-24.
Recall Jesus’ pronouncement of forgiveness of sins to the paralytic; Luk 5:18-20. Although the scribes and Pharisees interpreted his pronouncement as blasphemy for doing what they understood only God could do (Luk 5:21), did Jesus actually say, “I forgive your sins”? What did Jesus’ response to them make clear was actually behind His pronouncement, which helps us to better understand what He was now passing on to those born of His Spirit? See Luk 5:24 and think: in pronouncing that the man’s sins were forgiven, was Jesus acting on His own authority, or in accordance with the authority that was granted Him by the Father through the manifestation of His Spirit that was poured out upon Him at His baptism for such works of service? Similarly, is what Jesus bestows upon His disciples in Joh 20:23 any power within themselves to forgive or retain sins, or is it exactly what He Himself demonstrated, the ability through the Spirit with which they too would be baptized to recognize the faith God acknowledges by the forgiveness of sins, and pronounce it as so?