«　WEEK 4　DAY 6　»

　　Phil. 1:19-21 ...For me this will turn out to salvation through your petition and the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, according to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I will be put to shame, but with all boldness, as always, even now Christ will be magnified in my body, whether through life or through death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.

　　At his conversion Paul was transferred from the law and his former religion into Christ and became "a man in Christ" (2 Cor. 12:2). Now he expected to be found in Christ by all who observed him—the Jews, the angels, and the demons. This indicates that he aspired to have his whole being immersed in and saturated with Christ that all who observed him might find him fully in Christ. Only when we are found in Christ will Christ be expressed and magnified (Phil. 1:20). (Phil. 3:9, footnote 1)

　　On the sea in the storm, the Lord had made the apostle not only the owner of his fellow voyagers (Acts 27:24) but also their life-guarantor and comforter (27:22, 25). Now, on the land in peace, the Lord made him furthermore not only a magical attraction in the eyes of the superstitious people (28:3-6) but also a healer and a joy to them (vv. 8-9). All during the apostle's long and unfortunate imprisonment-voyage, the Lord kept the apostle in His ascendancy and enabled him to live a life far beyond the realm of anxiety. This life was fully dignified, with the highest standard of human virtues expressing the most excellent divine attributes, a life that resembled the one that the Lord Himself had lived on the earth years before. This was Jesus living again on the earth in His divinely enriched humanity! This was the wonderful, excellent, and mysterious God-man, who lived in the Gospels, continuing to live in the Acts through one of His many members! This was a living witness of the incarnated, crucified, resurrected, and God-exalted Christ! Paul in his voyage lived and magnified Christ (Phil. 1:20-21). (Acts 28:9, footnote 1)

　　In his living and ministry [the apostle] expressed the very true God, who in Jesus Christ had gone through the processes of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection, and who, as the all-inclusive Spirit, was then living in him and through him. (Acts 28:6, footnote 1)

　　The warm welcome of the brothers from Rome and the loving care of those in Puteoli (Acts 28:13-14) show the beautiful Body life that existed in the early days among the churches and apostles. This life was a part of the heavenly kingdom life on the Satan-darkened and man-inhabited earth. Apparently, the apostle, as a prisoner in bonds, had entered the region of the dark capital of the Satan-usurped empire; actually, as the ambassador of Christ with His authority (Eph. 6:20; Matt. 28:18-19), he had come into another part of the participation in the Body life of Christ's church in the kingdom of God on earth. While he was suffering the persecution of religion in the empire of Satan, he was enjoying the church life in the kingdom of God. This was a comfort and an encouragement to him. (Acts 28:15, footnote 2)

　　In the four Gospels God was incarnated, passed through human living, died, and resurrected, thus completing Christ, the embodiment of the Triune God (Col. 2:9). In Acts this embodiment of God, as the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45), spreads Christ into His believers, that is, works the processed Triune God into His chosen, redeemed, and transformed people to make them the constituents of the church, through which God may be expressed. The ultimate issue of the church will be the New Jerusalem in eternity future as God's full and eternal expression, which will also be God's eternal kingdom as the sphere in which He reigns in His divine life in eternity forever and ever. This should be the reality and goal of all gospel preaching today. (Acts 28:31, footnote 2)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 4, "Incarnation, Inclusion, and Intensification," ch. 2; CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 5, "How to Be a Co-worker and an Elder and How to Fulfill Their Obligations," ch. 3; The All-inclusive Christ, ch. 5