The coming
of greater blessings on Jesus and on his followers is apparent in John 14:12: “Truly,
truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do
also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the
Father.” What work did Jesus not do while on earth? He did not send out his
Spirit to fill his people with gifts during his earthly ministry, and, related to
this, he did not himself spread the gospel to the gentiles. The whole book of
Acts is about this aspect of “the greater works” Jesus did after his ascension:
through the Spirit the gospel was spread throughout the world, although it
should be recalled that at the very end of Jesus’s earthly postresurrection
ministry he did command his followers to “make disciples of all the nations”
because already “all authority [had] been given to [him] in heaven and on earth”
(Matt. 28:18-19). (G. K. Beale, Union with the Resurrected Christ: Eschatological
New Creation and New Testament Biblical Theology [Grand Rapids, Mich.:
Baker Academic, 2023], 11)
