Excerpts from the CNT:

After the resurrected Lord finished the forty-day training, He had the peace to leave the disciples. Thus, He brought them all to the Mount of Olives where He was carried up into [2976] heaven (vv. 11-12). His ascension brought Him into a new stage—the stage of a resurrected man living in the heavens to execute the things God determined on this earth. This resurrected One is now sitting in the heavens to execute God’s administration (2:36; Heb. 12:2).

After the resurrected Christ breathed the life-giving Spirit into the disciples as life, life supply, and everything related to their inner man, they all became God-men, men who had been mingled with God. They were filled with the divine life essentially, but they were not yet qualified to carry out God’s economy. Therefore, the resurrected Christ had to ascend to the heavens to be exalted by God and to be given the kingship, the lordship, and the headship over all things. He also obtained the throne, the glory, and all the authority in the universe. While the one hundred twenty were praying on the earth for ten days, God was making the exalted Christ to be the King, the Lord, and the Head of all things. God was giving the authority, the throne, and glory to His exalted One—Christ as the One in ascension.

a. Pouring Out the Holy Spirit

As the One in ascension, Christ poured out the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:33) upon all flesh (2:17a) to baptize all His believers into one Body (1:5; 1 Cor. 12:13). In Acts 2:33 Peter declared, “Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God and having received the promise of the Holy Spirit from the Father, He has poured out this which you both see and hear.” The exalted Christ’s receiving of the promise of the Holy Spirit was actually the receiving of the Holy Spirit Himself. Christ was conceived of the Spirit essentially for His being in humanity, and He was anointed with the Spirit economically for His ministry among men. After His resurrection and ascension, He still needed to receive the Spirit economically again so that He might pour out this Spirit upon His Body to carry out on earth His heavenly ministry for the accomplishment of God’s New Testament economy. The same Spirit who was breathed into the believers essentially as life in Christ’s resurrection was poured out upon them economically by Christ in His ascension. In and after His ascension Christ received the [2977] all-inclusive Spirit from the Father economically and poured Him out upon the believers for their ministry and work.

Christ poured out the Holy Spirit upon all flesh, that is, all fallen human beings, without distinction of sex, age, or status, in order to baptize all His believers into one Body (2:17a; 1:5). It was through the Spirit that Christ as the Head of the Body baptized all His believers into His Body (Matt. 3:11; Acts 1:5; 11:15-16; 1 Cor. 12:13). The New Testament reveals that Christ is the One who baptizes in the Holy Spirit (Matt. 3:11; Mark 1:8; Luke 3:16; John 1:33). Concerning the baptism in the Holy Spirit, the Lord Jesus said in Acts 1:5, “John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized in the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” This was accomplished in two steps, in two instances. First, on the day of Pentecost, Christ, the Head of the Body, having received the Spirit economically once again in ascension, baptized the Jewish believers into the Spirit. That was the first step, the first instance, of Christ baptizing the Body into the Spirit. Then in the house of Cornelius, Christ, the Head, baptized all the Gentile believers into the Spirit (10:44-47; 11:15-17). That was the second step, the second instance. By these two steps, these two instances, Christ the Head of the Body, baptized His entire Body into the Spirit once for all.

Because Christ has baptized all His believers into His Body by means of the Spirit, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12:13, “In one Spirit we were all baptized into one Body.” The Spirit is the sphere and element of our spiritual baptism, and in such a Spirit we were all baptized into one organic entity, the Body of Christ. Therefore, we should all, regardless of our races, nationalities, and social ranks, be this one Body. Christ is the life and constituent of this Body, and the Spirit is the reality of Christ. In this one Spirit we were all baptized by Christ into this one living Body to express Christ.

In this way the baptism in the Holy Spirit was accomplished once for all. Now what we need is not to be baptized in the Holy Spirit again, but simply to experience the baptism already accomplished in the Holy Spirit. Even as we need not be crucified again because of the finished work of Christ on the cross, so also we need not be baptized in the Holy Spirit [2978] again. Christ the Head has already baptized the whole Body in the Holy Spirit. We need only experience what the Head has already done to the Body.

If we would experience the baptism in the Holy Spirit, we must first realize that the Lord has ascended, establishing His lordship and His headship (Acts 2:36). Because Christ was established as the Lord and Head, He poured down the Holy Spirit upon His Body (v. 33). Second, we must have a right relationship with the Body. Thus, we may tell the Lord as the Head that we know His Body, that we are regenerated members of His Body and are rightly related to it, and that on this standing we claim the baptism in the Holy Spirit already accomplished upon His Body. Then we will indeed experience the wonderful baptism in the Holy Spirit. If we do not understand the ascension of Christ or do not have a right standing with the Body, no matter how much we pray and tarry, it will be difficult to have the experience. Therefore, if we would experience the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, we must realize that Christ today is ascended and is the Lord and Head of all to the church, and we must stand in a right position in respect to the Body.

b. Made Lord and Christ

As the One in ascension, He was made Lord—the Lord of all to possess all (10:36)—and Christ—God’s Anointed to carry out God’s commission (Heb. 1:9). In fact, the pouring out of the Holy Spirit is a proof that God has exalted the Lord Jesus and has made Him both Lord and Christ.

(1) Lord, as the Lord of All to Possess All

Acts 2:36 says, “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you have crucified.” As God, the Lord was the Lord all the time (Luke 1:43; John 11:21; 20:28). But as man, He was made the Lord in His ascension after He brought His humanity into God in His resurrection. God has always been the Lord, but now a man is on the throne as the Lord. After Jesus was crucified and buried, God resurrected Him and set Him at His right hand, making this Jesus, a Nazarene, the [2979] Lord of all the universe. For God to be the Lord, there is no need of any kind of inauguration. But for a small man from a lowly town in a despised country to be made the Lord requires a real inauguration. Now this man from Nazareth was inaugurated to be the Lord of all. By the ascension Peter realized that the very man Jesus, whom he had been following for three and a half years, was inaugurated to be Lord of all. Now the Lord of the universe, the Lord of heaven and of earth, is a real man whose name is Jesus. This is why we declare, “Jesus is Lord,” and why we call, “O Lord Jesus.”

Christ in His ascension was inaugurated as Lord of all, not only of all men, but also of all things (Acts 10:36). As the Lord, Christ now possesses the whole universe, God’s chosen people, and all positive things, matters, and persons. Christ is the Lord not only of God’s chosen people, but also of the angels and of all those who will be in the millennium and in the new heaven and the new earth. Therefore, He is the Lord of the heavens, the earth, and everything and everyone He has redeemed. In ascension He is the Lord of all to possess all.

The lordship of Christ is one of the most important aspects of what He has obtained in His ascension. Since the lordship of Christ was fully established in His ascension, we—the members of His Body identified with Christ the Head—only need to realize this heavenly fact (Eph. 1:20-23). Once we realize that Christ has obtained the lordship, we, the church as His Body, have to apply it. We may exercise His lordship through our prayer for believers and sinners who are in a poor condition (Matt. 16:18-19; 28:18-19). In our prayer for them, we should take the ground of His ascension, proclaim His lordship, and tell Him that His lordship must be exercised over them. In this kind of bold and extraordinary prayer, we claim what the Lord has obtained in His ascension—His lordship. Instead of begging the Lord to do something for us, we need to learn to pray by claiming what the Lord has obtained in His ascension.

(2) Christ, as God’s Anointed to Carry out God’s Commission

Christ in His ascension has not only been made the Lord of all but also the Christ of God to work out the spreading of [2980] the gospel and the building up of the church that God’s chosen people may be saved and perfected for the constitution of the New Jerusalem to be God’s eternal habitation and manifestation according to God’s New Testament economy for God’s eternal satisfaction. As God’s sent and anointed One, He was Christ in eternity and from the time that He was born (Dan. 9:26; John 1:41; Luke 2:11; Matt. 1:16). He was called Christ from His birth, was anointed at His baptism (3:13-17), and was called the Christ by Peter: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (16:16). This was for Him to accomplish the first part of God’s economy for the accomplishment of God’s redemption and the release of the divine life by His earthly ministry. But in His ascension He was officially inaugurated into the position of God’s Christ, God’s appointed One, to carry out the second part of God’s economy for the producing and the building up of the church by His heavenly ministry.

Although He was anointed in His divinity in eternity and was anointed at His baptism, He was not officially inaugurated as the Christ until His ascension. When Jesus ascended on high, God made the appointment official. Christ has been not only chosen, appointed, and anointed by God, but also inaugurated by God into His office. In this way God declared to the whole universe that this is the very One whom He appointed to accomplish His eternal plan, which is to build up His temple, the New Jerusalem. Therefore, as the One in ascension, Christ was made both Lord and Christ (Acts 2:36) that He might possess all and that He might carry out God’s commission through His heavenly ministry to accomplish God’s plan (10:36; Heb. 1:9).