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The book of Acts reveals a group of people who live in the divine history within human history as the acting God; they have become God in life, in nature, in expression, and in function (but not in the Godhead) for the spreading and building up of the church as the corporate manifestation of Christ (1:8, 14; 2:14a; 4:10-20, 31-32; 5:20, 38-39; 13:1-4; 26:16-19; 28:31):
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In Peter's first proclamation of the gospel in the book of Acts, he quoted from the book of Joel, which reveals the intrinsic, divine history within the outward, human history (Acts 2:17-21; Joel 1:1-4; 2:28-32).
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The divine history within the human history is Christ's "goings forth...from the days of eternity" (Micah 5:2) across the bridge of time into eternity future (Psa. 90:2) so that He might be dispensed into His chosen ones as the Desire of all the nations (Hag. 2:7) for His corporate manifestation and His full glorification.
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Joel speaks concerning the outpouring of the processed, consummated, compound Spirit, who was poured out on the day of Pentecost; this Spirit is the consummated Triune God and the realization of Christ for the manifestation of Christ (2:28-29; Acts 2:1-4, 16-21; 1 Tim. 3:15-16).
Morning Nourishment
Joel 2:28 And afterward I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy; your old men shall dream dreams; your young men shall see visions.32 And everyone who calls on the name of Jehovah shall be saved; for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem will be an escape, as Jehovah has said, even for the remnant whom Jehovah calls.
In Joel we see the history of God, of man, and of God's economy....We should not think that man has a history but that God does not have a history. In this universe there are two histories: the history of man, the human history, and the history of God, the divine history. We may liken the history of man to the shell of a walnut and the history of God to the kernel within the shell.
Although it is easy for us to see the shell, which is something outward and physical, we must have a kind of intrinsic insight in order to see the kernel within the shell, to know the divine history within the human history.
We need to have a clear view of these two histories—the physical human history and the mysterious divine history....The history of man, the history of the world, is outward. The divine history, the history of God in and with humanity, is inward. This history is a matter of the divine mystery of the Triune God in humanity. (Life-study of Joel, pp. 33-36)
Today's Reading
We all were born in the human history, but we have been reborn, regenerated, in the divine history....If our living is in the world, we are living in the human history. But if we are living in the church, we are living in the divine history. In the church life God's history is our history. (Life-study of Joel, p. 36)Regarding [the manifestation of Christ], Joel speaks...concerning the outpouring of the processed, consummated, compound Spirit, that is, the Spirit of God compounded with Christ's humanity, Christ's death and its effectiveness, and Christ's resur- rection with its power....This is the Holy Spirit, who was poured out on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-4, 16-21), and this Spirit is the consummated Triune God and the realization of Christ for the manifestation of Christ. This manifestation began with the incarnation of Christ and has been confirmed and strengthened by the outpouring of the Spirit, for through that outpouring the individual Christ became the corporate Christ (1 Cor. 12:12-13), the church as the great mystery of godliness, God manifested in the flesh (1 Tim. 3:15-16). The church as the manifestation of Christ will bring in the glorious day of restoration, the age of the millennial kingdom (Joel 3:16-21), in which Christ will be manifested in a fuller way. The restoration will consummate in the fullest manifestation of Christ in the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth (Rev. 21:1-2). (Joel 2:28, footnote 1)
Since the day of Pentecost there is now a group of persons on the earth who have the Triune God within them as their life and upon them as their authority....This group of people is the church, the Body of Christ. If we have this vision, it will be easy to have a living and prevailing faith. Whenever we need power, since we are in the Body and for the Body, we have the position to claim as our portion whatever the Head has accomplished for the Body. We may claim whatever we need for our experience. (CWWL, 1964, vol. 2, "A General Sketch of the New Testament in the Light of Christ and the Church, Part 1—the Gospels and Acts," pp. 195-196)
[In Acts 28:26-27] God the Spirit through the apostle repeated [the word in Isaiah 6:9-10] again to the hard-hearted people. This indicates that in all the moves of the Divine Trinity the children of Israel were disobedient to the God of grace. Then He turned to the Gentiles for the carrying out of His New Testament economy in the spreading of His kingdom for the building up of the churches through the propagation of the resurrected and ascended Christ (Acts 28:28). (Life-study of Acts, pp. 620-621)
Further Reading: Life-study of Acts, msgs. 70-71; CWWL, 1965, vol. 1, "The All-inclusive Spirit of Christ," pp. 563-565